On the way to pray

Mina anxiously paced back and forth in her room, checking the watch in her hand every few steps. Ever since the sun went down and everyone had turned in for the night, she’d been impatiently waiting for 11 o’clock when Jordan said he’d be there. After the exhausting day, she was sorely tempted to just go to sleep and skip out on going with Jordan, but she didn’t. It was far too important.

‘Plus, everyone’s going to expect me to be tired tomorrow, they won’t notice if I’m a bit more tired than I should be.’ She reasoned.

Finally, the clock struck 11. Having already prepared herself long ago, Mina all but sprinted out of her room. Though this time she intentionally did so as quietly as possible, not wanting to be seen by anyone.

Once she was outside, she slipped over to the back of the main hall building, only for Jordan to not be there yet.

‘Right, he said 11:20, not 11 sharp. Also, he probably doesn’t know the time seeing as he gave me hi-’

“You’re here a bit early Mina.”

“EE-” Mina squeaked before slapping her hands over her mouth. She then turned towards the voice to see Jordan’s head peeking over the edge of the roof.

“You’re hiding on the roof?” Mina asked.

“Yeah, figured I’d wait for you up here, out of sight and out of mind of the rest.” Jordan answered. “Now come on up here.”

‘How do I… oh right, that wind boost trick.’

Taking a moment to remember how to use the move she’d came up with basically accidentally, Mina wind blasted herself up onto the roof beside Jordan.

“Alright, are you ready to go?” He asked, and Mina nodded.

So, Jordan hopped up onto the fiterolta he’d brought and helped her up on behind him. Then with a crack of the reigns, they were off.

For the first little bit of the flight, Mina was able to enjoy the sight off the kingdom at night. All the white stone practically glowed in the moonlight, and the bottom of the islands literally glowed from whatever magic was making them float.

It truly was a beautiful sight, but it couldn’t hold her attention for long. Questions from the day soon filled her mind, anxiousness for what she was about to do frayed her nerves, and over all she just could not relax and enjoy the view. She wasn’t confident she could voice her thoughts to anyone in Anaktites though. But Jordan, he was different, had a different outlook. So, she decided to ask him a question.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” She started. Jordan hummed, wordlessly asking her to elaborate. “What do you think of what Anaktites is doing?”

“Oof, going for the heavy questions right away.” Jordan replied, not actually answering.

“Yeah, well, I’d assumed you heard about the mission we had earlier, and I was wondering what you thought.” Mina explained.

“I see. Well, they’re trying to fight against the new king because they assume he killed the old one, right?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah, they’re trying to fight against the evil organization that has control of the palace and put in their own king. Or something like that.” Mina confirmed.

“I see. Well, I believe at least most of them have good intentions, but they’re working with false information.” Jordan replied.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Mina asked.

“I mean they might have made false connections, false assumption, with some given facts.” Jordan answered. “I don’t really care much for politics, nor am I around the kingdom enough to hear whispers of some secret evil organization. But I do know that the transfer of power from one king to the next can be messy, and results in a lit of mistakes being made and things falling through the cracks.”

Mina let out a curious noise, interested in where Jordan was going with this.

“I’m assuming quite a few members of Anaktites lost things as a result of the new king, and I won’t completely dismissed the possibility of foul play. But, is it not more likely that whatever happened to them was just an unfortunate consequence of things getting messy in the transition?” Jordan questioned.

“Maybe, but-”

“Also, they claim they’re fighting against some secret organization, but do they even have a name for this group?” He continued.

“Well, no.” Mina admitted.

“I’m not surprised. As I said, they have good intentions, they’re just going about it in the wrong way.” He finished.

Mina was silent after this. Jordan made some good points, but she didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t believe it! If what he was saying was true, then that meant she’d been brought to this world for effectively no reason! She tried to come up with a counter argument, but Jordan spoke up again before she could.

“Now, would it be ok if I asked you a question?” He said.

“Yeah, sure.” Mina replied, curious about what he might want to know.

“If your conversation with Uraina does tell you how to get home, what do you plan to do?” He asked.

“… What do you mean by that?” Mina asked in response.

“It’s just, you do have the potential to do a lot of good around here, even if the people that summoned you here are mistaken about things. But, at the same time, you shouldn’t feel obligated to help just because you have the power.” Jordan explained. “Even if there are issues around here, the people here should fix it themselves, not call people from another world to fix it for them. At least, that’s how I feel.”

“Jordan…” Mina said softly.

“I won’t take issue with you if you do decide to stay and help these people even after learning how to return home. Honestly it would say a lot about your kindness if you did, and I would be willing to help you figure things out if you did. But I also feel you have a right to return to your old life if you want to.” He finished.

“Oh… I see… I’m going to be honest, I hadn’t really thought of that. I just wanted to know if there was a way I could get home, I wasn’t really thinking about what would happen after.” Mina admitted.

“And that’s perfectly fair.” Jordan said with a nod. “I just want you to keep in mind that you don’t have any obligation to these people, to this kingdom, unless you choose to.”

Jordan then fell silent once again, and Mina didn’t feel like saying anything either. She’d hoped that talking to him would help calm her mind, but now she had even more to think about.