The Blackstar Legacy
Copyright© 2026 by Lumpy
Chapter 2
A month was a long time, and they had settled into the safe and amazing world of Avendell in that month. Not quite put down roots but spread them out. Gotten comfortable. He had enjoyed his time, putting off the thought of what would happen when the Sage finished translating the document. Now that it was done, they had to abandon the safety they had known and go back out into a world that had tried very hard to kill them the last time.
It was worth the danger, of course, but he was feeling bittersweet about it. His life in Eldham had been a happy one, but living amid the magic here had been ... amazing. Something he didn’t think he’d ever get to experience again.
Everyone else was quiet as they packed up their things, preparing to leave this place behind, perhaps forever, and Osric couldn’t help but wonder if they were feeling the same things.
It didn’t take him long to learn the answer to that, at least personally, as Grace said, “I’m not going.”
She had been quiet since leaving the Sage’s hut, but Osric had thought it was the same introspection as everyone else. He was, frankly, shocked at her revelation.
“What do you mean, you’re not going? We need you,” Talia said, sounding as much offended that she would abandon them as surprised.
Grace shrugged. “I’ve stayed too long already. I’m not here to save the world. I need to get back to what I do best.”
“If the world burns, Grace, you burn with it,” Jasper said. “It won’t matter how much you steal if you’re dead.”
Grace let out a short laugh, though there was no humor in it. “Then I’ll wish you all good luck. Besides, if I stay with you lot, I’ll probably wind up dead anyway. You’ve got your mission. I’ve got mine.”
“Don’t you want to be part of something bigger?” Osric asked. “This ... this is more than any of us. You know that.”
“That’s not going to work on me. The only thing you get from joining something bigger is getting used and tossed aside when you’re no longer useful. That’s the way the world works.”
“That’s a terrible way to go through life,” Talia said, shaking her head.
Grace rolled her eyes, picked up her pack, and put it on her back. “It’s what life gives us. Letting people in only gives them the chance to take advantage of you. I’m no one’s chump.”
“I know we can’t make you come with us, but you’ve become important to us, Grace. We’ll need every bit of help we can get, and I don’t think we would have gotten this far without you. If you want to go, though ... I wish you good luck,” Osric said, and then paused, looking directly into her eyes. “You know, though, the Brethren won’t forget you. They’ll come looking.”
“Why would they care at all about me?”
“They know you were with us, at least for a while. They’re angry about the document, and if they didn’t want us to have it, they certainly don’t want us to get this Blackstar thing. They’re not going to just let you walk away. At the very least, they’ll want information from you so they can find us, and they’re not known for asking politely.”
“I can handle myself,” she said confidently, but it was clear to Osric that his words had hit home.
The ‘I don’t care’ attitude was an act. She definitely cared about the Brethren tracking her down. Not that she would admit she was afraid. Grace had a chip on her shoulder that was larger than she was.
“I’m sure you can.”
The two of them looked at each other for a long moment.
Finally, she said, “Well ... Bye.”
As she walked out of the hollowed-out tree the group had been using for shelter since they arrived back in the forest, Jasper said, “Grace, there’s greatness inside of you if you give yourself a chance. You could be better than you are.”
Grace froze in place, not looking back at them, but for a moment, Osric thought she was going to change her mind. Turn around.
Instead, she said, “Whatever,” and was gone.
“Think she’ll come around?” Talia asked quietly.
Osric shook his head. “I don’t know.”
He watched the exit out of the tree, half expecting her to suddenly turn around and come back. Except she didn’t. He sighed, looking at the others. Everyone had resumed packing their things, the atmosphere heavier than before. Grace leaving had been a sobering dose of reality. They’d been a band of adventurers bound together by a quest.
A quest that was now over.
He shouldn’t have been surprised. None of them had planned on being on a quest together, it had just kind of happened. There was no reason to stay together, go on this new quest together. It was only a matter of time before more of them started to drift away, just like Grace.
Osric turned to Talia, who was quietly stuffing her belongings into her satchel.
“Do you think more will leave?” he asked quietly, so only she could hear him. “We all just kind of ended up together. Is this going to fall apart?”
Talia paused in her packing and looked up at him, her eyes soft. “Cinder and I won’t leave. We’re in this for the long haul. You’re stuck with us.”
The wolf raised his head at the sound of his name, tail thumping against the ground. A faint smile tugged at the corner of Osric’s lips. It was comforting to know that not everyone had one foot out the door.
“Jasper probably won’t either,” she continued. “He’s too invested now. He was a member of the group and is clearly harboring anger toward them. And he’s spent years ... decades, trying to learn about the veil. He won’t give up an opportunity like this.”
“Well, that’s four.”
“Don’t be so negative,” Talia chided, giving him a playful nudge. “People can surprise you, you know?”
“I hope you’re right,” he muttered to himself, as much as to anyone else, before standing up and hefting his pack onto his back. “Is everyone ready?”
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Jasper said.
They filed out of the hollow tree and started down the forest path behind Valen, who would lead them to the pond and the weak point in the veil. There was a lot of day left and it would only take them a few hours to get there. After that, who knew where they’d end up?
They’d walked for a few minutes when there was the sound of someone running through foliage behind them. Hands went to weapons as they turned around. There shouldn’t be any danger, not in Avendell, but after the journey they’d been on, none of them were prepared to take a chance.
Osric wasn’t sure what he expected to burst through the trees, but it hadn’t been Grace, who skidded to a stop when she realized she’d caught up with them, slightly out of breath. Without a word she started walking down the path, as if she were waiting on them.
A smile spread across Osric’s face as they all fell in step with her.
“I’m really happy you decided to...”
“Shut up,” Grace cut him off, but there was no real bite to her words.
Osric’s smile widened. She might never admit it, but he knew they’d gotten through to her. Or at least Jasper had. She put up a front of never caring about anything, about being apathetic to the world. But Osric knew that was a lie. She cared.
She cared a lot.
They had walked a lot of places over the last two months, covering what felt like the entire Great Forest, but this might be the most amazing walk they’d taken yet. The deeper they got into Avendell, the more amazing the forest got. Osric was lagging a little behind the group, looking at the marvelous creatures that followed the procession led by Valen and several of his stag-folk brethren, through the strange, almost luminous trees around them.
It was a spectacular place.
As they walked, Talia and Jasper had engaged in something of a philosophical debate over the nature of magic versus worship of the gods. They’d been going at it for weeks, since a few days after they arrived back in Avendell. They were both stubborn, but Osric thought they kept going not in an effort to win, but because they each liked the test of their wills and minds. Rowan and Osric had always stayed out of it, both of them more interested in what they could see and feel, or so it seemed to Osric. Grace was ... well, Grace. She’d join them sometimes, but more to throw a pole into the spokes than to actually participate.
That girl thrived on chaos.
“But surely there must be some universal truth that underlies the nature of magic itself,” Jasper was saying. “After all, the gods created the world, taking all of the energies around us and making ... everything, including the veil. The very energies that you harness to cast your spells. So in a way, it is no different than asking the gods for favors.”
“Magic is just magic, Jasper. There is no universal truth, not in the way you mean. It’s ... a mechanical process, in its own way. I don’t ask anyone to cast spells and hope. I do specific things and get expected results when I do. It’s a craft, learned and practiced.”
“So you feel nothing when you’re casting your spells?” Rowan asked. “You don’t feel anything ... greater? Some presence or power beyond yourself?”
“Magic isn’t like that, Rowan. It’s learned and practiced, not some mysterious blessing.”
“So it all just ... comes from inside of you?”
“No. The way I understand it, we’re not pulling power from within ourselves, but rather shaping what’s already here. It’s a tool.”
“See, that’s exactly why I don’t bother with either gods or magic,” Grace said. “The moment you start depending on higher powers, or the universe, or whatever it is at the moment, you lose your edge.”
“There’s nothing wrong with having faith,” Jasper said quietly. “The gods provide guidance and purpose.”
“And rules. So many rules.”
“Structure creates order. Without it...”
“ ... we’d all be free to make our own choices,” Grace interrupted. “How terrible.”
Osric was only half listening. He didn’t really know anything about all this. Yes, he had some kind of connection to the gods, or at least the ones that made up the Veilguard, but he didn’t pretend to understand any of it. He just ... did his best to deal with each problem in front of him. It was all so much; he was still grappling with his role in all of this. Who needed to think about the nature of the universe when they’d been tasked with saving the world?
The debate continued and settled into familiar patterns, both of them confident in their own beliefs, with Grace occasionally mocking one or both of them. They seemed to enjoy it, so who was he to tell them to stop?
Rowan must have felt the same, because he slowed his pace, falling back to walk beside him.
For a moment, they just walked in silence next to each other, before Rowan finally asked, “So the Sage seems to think you’ve got a special connection with the gods, Osric. Or at least with the Veilguard. Do you ... feel it?”
“I was just thinking about that and I don’t really know. I mean, I’ve never spoken to the gods, never had some grand vision. It’s more like ... I’ve been guided at times by Cinder or their message to the Sage that I was coming, but that was kind of external. Not directly connected to me.”
“But you can heal, like Jasper does. You put your hands on someone and—” he made a vague gesture with his hands, “—and they’re mended. Not everyone can do that.”
“Yeah, but I don’t even know what I’m really doing when that happens. With Jasper, it’s different. He asks Heathus directly. Me? I’m praying to all of the Veilguard, hoping something works.”
Rowan clapped him on the shoulder and said, “You’re selling yourself short, Osric. Maybe you’re praying to all of them because you matter to all of them. Maybe they’re listening, all of them. That’s something even Jasper can’t say.”
“I guess what I really wanted to know is if you feel anything from Wyndra, when you heal someone? Or ... anything at all?”
There was something in Rowan’s voice. A sincerity, or maybe a desperation, that suggested this wasn’t just a theoretical debate, something to pass the time the way Talia and Jasper argued. He was looking for a specific answer. There was something bothering him.
“Honestly, I don’t know. There’s something, yes. An energy that passes through me when I try to heal, but it doesn’t feel directed. Like, I don’t sense a guiding hand or voice, if that makes sense. I can’t tell you which god is behind it, or even what they think of me. It’s not something that happens to me, it happens through me. It’s like I’m a weathervane being struck by lightning.”
“Oh,” he said, disappointed.
“I’m sorry, Rowan. I wish I could give you more. I mean, I’ve seen the power work, but ... if there’s a greater meaning to it, I haven’t felt it.”
Rowan nodded, looking down at the forest floor as they walked.
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