Belladonna

hope the Eater of the World does not find you again. "Come. I will escort you to the bridge that, I believe, will still be able to take you back to your landscapes."
    Glorianna kept her eyes fixed on the koi pond. She wanted to go back to the Island in the Mist and wrap herself in the comfort of solitude. But she sat on the bench and watched the koi while waiting for Lee to find her.
    Except it was Yoshani who sat down on the bench and watched the golden fish.
    "Where is Lee?" Glorianna asked, her voice husky from the storm of tears that had broken inside her after she'd run from the guest house.
    "He has gone to spend a little time with Sebastian," Yoshani replied.
    "But..." She pushed down the feeling of disappointment. Lee had to be upset about that meeting. He was entitled to venting in whatever way he chose.
    "I suggested he leave for a little while," Yoshani said. "As close as you are to your brother, I think there are some things that you cannot say to him."
    Glorianna didn't answer, so they sat together and watched the koi.
    "Heart wishes are the most powerful magic that exists in our world," she finally said. "They can reshape the world, cause a cascade of events."
    "Is it not true that any heart wish, no matter how powerful, can be thwarted by another heart wish that alters or disrupts that cascade of events?" Yoshani asked. When she didn't respond, he added, "What is it you fear, Glorianna Dark and Wise?"
    Fear. Yes, there were things she couldn't discuss with a brother — or a mother. But here, now ...
    "I've known for sixteen years that I was different," she said softly. "I've known I wasn't like the other Landscapers, even before I was declared rogue. But I've wanted to be one of them. I've wanted to belong and have friends and people who would understand the challenges and frustrations of being a caretaker of the world." She hesitated, then pushed on to the thing that had to be said. "Did I cause this, Yoshani? Did my own yearning to belong ripple through the currents of the world and set all this in motion, freeing the Eater and destroying the school so that the survivors would need to see me as one of them?" Tears welled up, stinging her eyes before they flowed down her cheeks. "Did I do this?"
    "Glorianna, I say this with honesty and with the love of a friend." Yoshani took her hand in both of his and leaned toward her. "You are being a conceited ass."
    She blinked at him, trying to see him clearly through the tears.
    "Did you free the Eater of the World?" he asked.
    "Maybe I —"
    "Did you go to the school and set that evil free?"
    "No, but —"
    "Did you deliberately, and with malice, use your influence over Ephemera to cause whatever was done to set the Eater free?"
    "No." Using her free hand, she wiped the tears off her face.
    "Let me tell you a story about the world."
    "I don't think there's time for a story," Glorianna said, feeling surly. He had called her a conceited ass. What kind of help was that?
    "There is time for this one." Yoshani released her hand, braced a foot on the bench, and wrapped his arms around the upraised knee. "I wasn't a bad man, more of a youth whose wildness could have led him down a dark road. If there had been a place like the Den of Iniquity in those days, I might have chosen a very different life."
    Glorianna studied him. "Teaser still gets hysterical when your name is mentioned."
    Teaser was an incubus who lived in the Den and was Sebastian's closest friend. When she had gone to Wizard City to trap the Dark Guides, Yoshani had returned to the Den with Teaser to help that landscape remain balanced. The incubus was still having trouble accepting the fact that a man who lived in a Place of Light had been comfortable — had enjoyed — visiting the Den of Iniquity.
    Yoshani smiled. "As I told him many times during my visit, I was not always a holy man."
    "So why did you become a holy man?"
    "Because of you."
    Glorianna didn't know what to say, didn't know what to think, what to feel.
    "My wildness was making things difficult for my family. At the core of that wildness was anger. Within my extended family there were several professions I could have chosen, several trades I could have apprenticed in. But none of them touched my heart, and in my own way I fought against being yoked into a life I wasn't meant to live.
    "Finally my grandfather took me aside and told me I had a choice: I could go up the mountain and live in the community that served the Light and remain a