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The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode, click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

After Zack and Gina accidentally scattered the mysterious Objects throughout Ismara, their Aunt Aloysia told them they must return and locate the Revealer, key to finding the other Objects.

“How come you know so much about this?” asked Gina, “I mean—and I know this is a bizarre question, because the Courier was a guy, but—you’re not… I mean…?”

Aloysia grasped her squarely by the shoulders: “I am and have always been a woman.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that…it’s just—”

“I was the Courier’s only friend.”

“So, the Courier is—”

“Dead? Yes. And I promised to find the ones whose destiny it was to return the Objects to Ismara.”

“But why is it so—”

“Important? Because if they fall into the wrong hands—”

“The Dark Tinkurs!” said Zack.

Aloysia stared at him for a moment, and then at Gina.

“Yes, and if that happens, ‘the worlds will become enslaved.’”

“’Worlds,'” Gina echoed. “Does that mean our world too?”

“I don’t know.” Aloysia’s voice was steady, but her expression grave.

“And the choices we have to make—” asked Zack, “are they part of the prophecies, too? What if we choose wrong?”

Silence.

“I hate this!” blurted Gina. “I want to go back so bad I dream about it every night, but why do I have to make ‘choices?’ Rhema said we’re making choices even when we don’t know it, and that they’re the ones that count the most!”

“Rhema…” Aloysia sighed.

“So what if we choose not to choose? Asked Zack.

“From now on we’re going to make our own destinies!” Gina proclaimed.

“Who told you that you could make your own destiny?”

“What?”

“What cereal box did you get that from?”

“What?”

“You can’t control your fate by refusing to make choices! I didn’t discover my destiny until I faced my circumstances — and I made terrible mistakes. But that was when I discovered who I was. Fate is about making hard choices, choices you don’t want to make. That’s what decides your destiny!” She touched her hand to her heart, and then her forehead, and then raised it toward the ceiling, tears flowing from her eyes. With great effort, she continued: “It may indeed be that the Revealer will unveil your destinies. The dreams you are having–”

“You know about our dreams?” asked Gina.

“Nightmares!” Zack clarified.

Aloysia’s coffee brown eyes glistened. To Gina she said, “Help him!” And to Zack, “Stop them!”

A sickening shiver ran through the Dore siblings. Suddenly they didn’t want to know their destinies; they wanted the familiar, the predictable—they wanted Middleton. But that was impossible, because if “the worlds” included Middleton, then no place was predictable, no place was safe.

“So, here we are,” said Aloysia, as if their entire lives had been leading up to this moment. “I have loved you since you were born, and will protect you with my last breath. If I could take your place, I would, but I cannot. This is your destiny, not mine.”

The three sat in silence until Mom called, “Dad’s home with ice cream!”

And then they went down the stairs together.

φ

Thoughts: Has there ever been a task you desperately wanted out of, a reminder that you did not have complete control over your fate?

To read the next episode, click here.