Rose, Rumor, Wave, Weave VII

Temerity looked around the barren landscape searching for something. Her eyes eventually fixed on a forest in the distance. She took a step toward it, then another, and another. Soon she was running. She focused harder and three steps later, she found herself in front of the trees. She looked up, studied them, took a deep breath, and walked into the forest.
Exploring the old world was important to grasping it, Chishira had told her. She wasn't sure exactly where she was. The forest wasn't anywhere in Silene, that much she knew.
"Temerity."
She spun toward the sudden voice and saw a talk, looming man, a heavy cloak around his shoulders.
"Alphosces," she said. "What are you doing here?"
"I am always here. It is you whose presence should be questioned."
"Chishira is teaching me how to teleport."
"Chishira," Alphosces snarled. "Half Veretta, half Goldspirit, all traitor. You would do well to leave her."
"And learn from who? You?"
"I could teach you, yes."
Temerity laughed scornfully. "No thanks. You've done plenty." She turned and started to leave the forest.
"Don't you want to know why?"
She stopped, but didn't look back.
"It was necessary," he said. "For your future. For our future. For you to fulfill your destiny."
"I don't believe in destiny."
"And yet it holds you tighter than anyone. You cannot escape it."
Temerity crossed her arms and looked over her shoulder. "And what is my destiny, in your oh-so-humble opinion?"
"To rewrite an unjust ending." Alphosces gestures to the landscape around them. "What do you see?"
Temerity looked around. "A lot of dead trees."
"Exactly." He pressed his hand to the bark of one of the trees. "This is what they left us when they took our world. Death and emptiness. The world they claim now belongs to us. But you already knew that, didn't you?"
"My parents told me," she said. "They wanted me to take it back for them."
"I want you to take it back for you," Alphosces said.
Temerity looked away. "That's not what I want anymore."
"Why not? Do you feel as though you've already lost?" Alphosces stepped toward her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Losing one thing does not mean you should give up on another."
Temerity was silent for a long time, then she turned fully to Alphosces.
"Then show me how."