Arc II, Chapter 46: Heart’s Desire

“One at a time,” Madam Celia said firmly from the doorway of her shop. She had been waiting for us. The elegant dress she had been wearing in the town square was gone. Instead, she was in a purple cloak and frock that looked absolutely pedestrian by comparison. Wrapping herself in her cloak, leaving only her skinny, bejeweled fingers exposed, she said, “Take a ticket and wait your turn. I will reveal the truth of your heart’s desire.”

Isaac was the first to enter the shop. “I was just saying this morning how I wished I knew the truth of my heart’s desire.”

Madam Celia and Cassie both rolled their eyes. “Sorry about him,” Cassie said.

“Ah, child,” Madam Celia said, “You have the gift. I know this.”

It would have been more impressive if Cassie’s Psychic Archetype hadn’t been on the red wallpaper for all to see.

We walked in one at a time. Something was different about the place from the last time we had gone. Her stock of items had been changed out, and none of them registered as Omens on the red wallpaper. The most significant change, however, was that the Silas, the Mechanical Showman machine she had against the back wall, was far from broken. It was turned on and moving around in short bursts like a similar machine might do in real life.

“Step right up and get your ticket for the marvelous Madam Celia!” Silas said. “Get a glimpse of your future while you still have one!”

Antoine was the first to make his way to the machine and press the red button.

Nothing happened.

“Ten dollars,” Madam Celia said as she moved past us to the back room where she did the readings.

Antoine looked taken aback. “I forgot we even had money,” he admitted. He looked at Kimberly expectantly. She was holding his money in her bag.

“Those are like theme park coins,” Isaac said. “Where did you get those?”

We hadn’t received any money for completing the Tutorial stories. In fact, we hadn’t needed money so far, not even for room service. We had forgotten to even explain it.

“If this costs money and players can’t get money in the Tutorial,” Bobby said, “That might mean we aren’t meant to come here yet.”

He had a point.

“There are other ways to make money,” Antoine said. I got the impression he didn’t want to hear that this plan wasn’t right. “This could be an incentive to sell any loot you walked out of a story with. Maybe that’s why Tar was in the cut scene from before, so that we would know about his pawn shop.”

I thought it was possible Carousel had made it impossible to complete the storyline entirely on the first time, so putting advancement behind a financial barrier made sense enough. Either way, I was excited to see that the game anticipated us coming here.

I fished into my hoodie pocket and withdrew twenty dollars. I had little left from the storylines before the reset.

I handed ten to Cassie.

Bobby and Dina chipped in to get Isaac a ticket as well.

We had never actually put money into one of the Silas machines before. Now it made sense why Carousel used all coins in their strange little economy.

I was the last to take my ticket from Silas. It was possibly the simplest ticket type we had seen. Just a plane rectangle of paper with perforated edges like you might win at an arcade. It listed our number. Antoine received 0038 and each one of us received one number higher than the last.

That meant he went first. He climbed into the booth with Madam Celia and her crystal ball and closed the curtain. I couldn’t hear anything they were saying, even though I should have been able to hear through the curtain.

Seven minutes later, Antoine pulled back the curtain and climbed out of the booth. He had a look on his face I only saw when he was at a low point—a profound sadness and confusion.

He didn’t talk to us when he left. He just got out and went out the front door. At first, I thought he was having a panic attack and needed some air, so he ignored us. He even ignored Kimberly.

That wasn’t the case.

Kimberly did the same thing. Then Bobby did. Then Dina, Cassie, and Isaac copied them exactly.

I got the feeling that we were being controlled by a trope that prevented us from talking to our teammates between readings.

That was the first indication that I should put my guard up.

The second was that when I pushed myself into the booth as the last person, I saw a message from Dina on the red wallpaper.

Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.

“Asked about son. Couldn’t help it. Sorry,” the message said.

Either Dina just dropped the ball or we didn’t have free will. The truth of our heart’s desire. That was what Celia had promised. Perhaps, we were being compelled to ask specific questions.

Was this a waste of money? Could this be beaten?

I closed the curtain behind me. It was time to find out.

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“Child,” Madam Celia said softly, moving her long, colorful fingernails over her crystal ball. “You have been through so much. I know the question in your heart. Ask it, and I will tell all.”

I had to fight it. Or could I?

If this was a trope, that meant Celia’s stats probably controlled its effectiveness, likely her Moxie. There was little chance I could beat her at that.

Still, as the many possible questions began to form in my mind, I realized that I did have some ability to fight them.

I expected to feel questions like, “Who’s the Insider?” or “How do we complete the Throughline as fast as possible?” but such questions never appeared in my mind. Either Celia didn’t really know my heart’s desire or the game was rigged to exclude certain topics. Of course, it was the second option. There were no doubts there.

The first question that popped into my head was, “Do we stand a chance of rescuing Anna and Camden?”

I was so tempted to just ask it. I could feel my willpower slipping. If I gave in, I knew I would lose track of everything we set out to do. I almost asked it, but by some miracle, I fought long enough, and the question faded from my mind.

What was my heart’s desire?

Surely that would have been it?

But then, something deeper welled up within me that shook me completely.

I almost asked the next question. I nearly lost control.

“Are they here?” I wanted to say. Which they? Not my grandparents. Carousel had teased me about my grandparents multiple times even when it was asleep. They wouldn’t be in a place like this.

They. An image flashed in my head.