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"Huh?" Ollie said, struggling to understand the sudden leap that the conversation had taken. This whole time, he’d never said no to work that would help, no matter how simple or menial the task, he never once thought himself to be someone who was too important to roll up his sleeves and help the villagers with whatever they needed.

.. so how had his behavior all the sudden become a demonstration of hubris?

"Ollie," the vision of Ashlynn said with a pained expression on her face.

"I’ve wondered if you were courageous or stubborn for pressing on even in the face of an impossible task, but I like to think that you truly have a heart filled with the ability to confront your fears and overcome them each in time. "

"But now, when you have achieved an outcome that saves the people you were charged to protect and the only people who fell in battle were men who agreed to shoulder the burden and the risk alongside you," she said.

"If you still can’t accept the outcome of the battle because you believe that somehow, if you just work harder or learn more or try just one more time, you could do better.

.. is that the humility of the Ollie I scrubbed pots with?

Or is it the hubris of a witch growing drunk on their own power?

" she asked, giving Ollie a piercing look that shook him to the depths of his being.

"I know this isn’t the ending that you want," Ashlynn said, reaching out to hold his hands as gently and tenderly as she could. "Anyone would prefer to survive to fight another day instead of dying a heroic death alongside their closest friends. It isn’t wrong to hope for better and to take what you’ve learned in this trial to fight for a better outcome in the real world. "

"But what you’ve achieved this time," Ashlynn said, looking directly into his eyes.

"Can you accept it as the very best outcome you can achieve with the skills you have developed so far? With everything you know and all that you’ve learned, can you accept this as the best outcome, not forever, but for right now? "

"What happens if I say that I can’t?" Ollie asked. "What happens if I want to try again? Every time I’ve tried, I’ve learned so much that I do better the next time.

So, if I take everything that I’ve learned from this time and I try again.

.. If I can achieve a better outcome, isn’t that even better? "

"Ollie," Ashlynn said softly as she stretched up to cup his cheek.

"I would love for you to have that, but there is only so much time left for you to face this trial. Already, it’s a precious gift from the world for you to experience months of time in mere days, learning and growing more in this period of transition and transformation than many people will ever learn over the course of years," she pointed out.

"If you want to try again, you can," she said, stepping back away from him.

"I can reset the trial and allow you to face it again as many times as you wish.

But Ollie," she added with a pained expression on her face.

"From now on, I can’t promise you that you will make it back from your trial, no matter the outcome.

It might be better, and you could come out of the trial even stronger than you would now.

It might be worse, and it would diminish your results, but you would still have a narrow window of escape. .."

"Or I might become stuck here," Ollie realized. "What... what happens to me if I can’t escape the trial?"

"Heila told you about Sister Holly, didn’t she?

" Ashlynn said, reminding the young witch of the member of Amahle’s coven who had failed her trial, transforming into a giant holly bush that only contained a trace of the spirit of the woman she’d once been.

"If you can’t escape your trial, then your mind would dwell within the trial endlessly, attempting it again and again and again until you could finally accept the outcome. Only, but the time that happens..."

"There would be nothing left of me but a giant cypress tree," Ollie whispered, shuddering in horror at the thought of losing himself within the trial.

"As I said," Ashlynn prompted him when he seemed to fall into his own thoughts. "The choice is yours. You’re right that you’ve done better every time, and you’ve learned more and grown stronger every time.

If you face the trial again, you may come out even stronger than you would if you stopped now. "

"Or I can accept this outcome," Ollie said. "Accept that the person I am right now could never protect everyone, but at the very least, I could protect the people who couldn’t fight back... And if I had to die, at least my death would accomplish something in the end."

"Exactly," Ashlynn said. "The choice is yours."

"Can you answer a question for me?" Ollie asked. The decision should have been obvious, especially after the vision of Ashlynn had spelled things out so clearly for him, and yet... "The way you’ve been speaking. I could have stopped at any time. If I’d stopped after the first time, or the second time, even though I felt like I failed, would I still have passed the trial to become the Cypress Witch?

Was all of this struggle pointless in the end? "

"Yes, and at the same time, no," Ashlynn said, refusing to give him a simple answer. "I told you that it’s a lesson and it’s a trial. You aren’t only earning my approval during this time, you’re also forming a bond with the seed of witchcraft within your chest,t and through it, you’re forging a bond with the energy of the world. "

"If you’d stopped at the first opportunity, your seed wouldn’t have grown as strong, and your connection to the power of the world would have been weaker," she explained. "You would have emerged as the Cypress Witch, but compared to Heila or Virve, you would have lagged far behind."

"And what about now?" Ollie asked. "Can I at least meet the standard of the rest of the coven? Or am I still lagging behind?"

"I can’t tell you," the vision of Ashlynn said. "Virve’s transformation has only just completed, but because she will bear an Ancient Seed, her strength would be greater than yours if you had stopped at the very beginning. Now, it’s impossible to say where you will stand with regards to your siblings. "

"You may have moved beyond both of them, or you may be somewhere behind, or roughly the same with differing aptitudes in different areas. It’s unlikely you will be a better healer than Heila, but just as unlikely that she’ll form a better shield than you will.

Each of you will have places where one may be stronger than the other," she explained.

"Right now, the only person who can decide whether you have gained enough strength from this trial is you," she said. "The only person who can decide whether the risks of going further are worth it or not... is you."

"Thank you for telling me," Ollie said, reaching out for the first time since the end of the horrific battle to take Ashlynn’s hand instead of her reaching out to him.

"Thank you for letting me make the decision, even if you’d prefer to shield me from the risks," he said, taking a deep breath as he made his decision.

"I need to be stronger in order to be your Cypress Knight as well as your Cypress Witch," Ollie said firmly. "The vision of Owain taught me just how far behind your enemies I am, and he’s only a well-trained human, without any of the terrifying powers of the Templars, the Inquisitors, or the other miracle workers of the Church. Compared to the people who threaten you, I’m far too lacking. "

"If that’s your decision," Ashlynn said softly, raising a hand as she prepared to reset the trial for what might be the final time.

As much as she wanted to forcefully pull him back to the real world, this was a decision that he had the right to make for himself and both she and Ollie would need to live with the consequences of his decision. "Then..."

"I need to become stronger," Ollie said, capturing her hand in his before she could make a move. "But I’ll need to grow stronger out there, in the real world, with my real friends and my siblings in the coven... even if I’m the weakest of them. If that’s the case, I’ll just have to grow stronger step by step alongside them.

Because too many people are counting on me," he said softly.

"And I can’t let my pride get in the way of my duty to return to them.

So, please," he said, holding tightly to Ashlynn’s hands.

"Let this trial end, and take me home," he said. "I’m sure everyone’s waiting for me to come back, and I shouldn’t let them worry anymore."