Chapter 214 - Inevitable

'Welcome to the Bumfuck Region, Middle of Nowhere. Population: mosquitoes, deer, lemmings,' I thought, wearily treadling down the rocks and lichen in the dim light of pre-dawn. My jacked didn't give me as much of a protection against the chilly wind that came from the sea as I'd like, and I kept huddling on myself for warmth.

After a day of travel first on the plane, then on a cab, I was on my last track, one that I had to walk on my feet. And not get lost in the process. If I got lost… I was afraid to think about that scenario. I had some supplies with me, but not enough to set camp in this place. There wasn't even any wood for fire! It was just grey tundra all around, with just as grey sea visible by my left hand.

It was my best landmark. My logic was simple: if JJ was by the sea, then knowing his approximate location, I would meet him eventually as long as I went by the shore.

It wasn't as easy as that, of course. He could've left since the time I asked for another divination, just in case. The path itself wasn't simple to traverse, with many ups and downs. After two hours of walking, my legs, unused to such torture, screamed for me to stop.

Then, I spotted him. Just a speck in a distance that could've been a funny-shaped rock. Without thinking, I opened my well and reached out towards it, looking, felling—and I knew that aura way too well to mistake it with a rock. It was JJ, there was no doubt about it.

A surge of elation wiped out my exhaustion. With second breath in my lungs, I kept on walking. With every step, the shape of him grew closer and more clear. He sat, with his face to the sea, on the very edge of one of the many tall cliffs that sprouted from it. His favourite umbrella, brightly green like fresh grass and his eyes, stood out like a breath of spring in this bleary autumn scenery.

JJ still didn't react to my approach by the time I grew so close that I could see separate strands of his golden hair tussled by the wind. He didn't turn towards me; he didn't speak; he didn't move at all—if I didn't know better, I could've thought he was a very lifelike statue.

I stopped several steps away from him and quietly waited, unwilling to break the strange state JJ was in. He couldn't have not heard me trampling over the rocks. Maybe he didn't want to talk to me, and that was his way of showing so, or maybe he was so deep in thought that he just didn't notice.

Either way, for now, I didn't interrupt him. It was enough to just see him again, and know that he was alright, at least physically. My questions and worries could wait.

I didn't know for how long my patience would've lasted, if not for the native fauna of this place. When I the monotone sounds of waves crashing on the rocks below and the wind howling among cliffs were intruded by a buzzing of a mosquito next to my ear, I slapped at the sound and at my cheek without thinking. It took me another moment to realise the possible consequences of my actions.

JJ turned towards me so swiftly I didn't see the movement itself. His eyes were wide with surprise, and red flashed in them as soon as he saw me, but only for a moment before he chased it away with a forcible blink. But not all of it.

He looked even paler than usual. Gaunt, I'd say—not at all as much as he was when I first met him, but I didn't like his sunken eyes and cheeks.

"Diana? What are you doing here?" JJ frowned. "How did you even find me?"

"Long story short, magic and plenty of walking." I made a step towards him. "Haven't you eaten, I mean, drank, since the time you left the city? You look awful."

He took a deep breath through his nostrils and raised a hand in a warning gesture. "Please, don't come closer. Your observations were, as usual, correct." He gave me a wry smile. "I've had so much on my mind that I didn't even notice the thirst until now. Despite that… I suppose you found me at a fortunate moment. A moment of conclusion, one might say."

I paused, but the four steps dividing us seemed to stand between us like a wall. It took a lot of willpower to force myself to not break it by just going forward.

"What kind of thought makes you go that far to think it, JJ? It was so unlike you to leave this way… I worried someone kidnapped you or something."

"It's more than a single thought. An amalgamation of thoughts, the same way our relationships with other people are amalgamations of opinions, shared memories, and emotions. But the conclusion? It was such a simple thing in comparison." JJ's tone was melancholic.

He paused, raising his eyes to the sky, before continuing. "Some things are just inevitable, no matter how much one guards himself from them. We are only as much masters of our fates as the blind luck. Some things could be changed, but some we can only go through and make the best of them. Enjoy the good parts with which they begin, and the bad parts with which they end."

Even without understanding what this was all about, I couldn't stop myself from speaking out. "Should things necessary end badly? What about things that don't end at all?"

"Ah, Diana, ma très chèrie…" JJ shook his head. "What you speak about, it hope. And hope… Hope is just the thing that makes the inevitable such.. Without it, you can resist and reason, but when it's light falls in your eyes, you are doomed… Because there's no more alluring thing in the entire world."