Not what fate had in store

The next few minutes involved an oppressive amount of questions from the wizard occasionally interrupted by her party catching her up on the situation. Her fascination only grew with their recounting of events, mostly by the healing of Oliver's arm.

"WHAT!" She shouted so loud even the gods must have heard it.

"'Agh, me ears," The dwarf grumbled in response. "Can yee please take it down a wee couple decibels?"

"Sorry, sorry... Sorry..." She gave an apologetic glance to everyone around the table, all of whom but me had covered their ears and still acted in pain. "It's just... I didn't think it was possible! He's been searching for a way to fix his arm for over a year now, and the answer just happens to waltz into town?" She looked at me in awe. "What kind of powers does your god give you?"

I smirked to them all, "Is there a good place you know where I can show you?"

The wizard looked at the dwarf expectantly, the elf looked at him with a form of glare. He considered for awhile before letting out a heavy sigh. "Follow me." His tone was defeated, and the elf did not seem pleased with this answer. The dwarf walked up to the barkeep, whispered something, and then walked past him down the hall. I looked to the other two, the elf rolling her eyes before following and the wizard grabbing my arm to pull me along.

The group led me through to a form of courtyard behind the tavern, with the door accessing it being somewhat hidden. The dwarf took a resting position by the wall, the elf grabbed a target from near one of the walls and started shooting, and the wizard led me to the center and started shaking with excitement. "Well? what are you waiting for?"

I chuckled to myself before deciding on exactly what to do. 'I suppose I can just use Incur Growth again, it's quite showy and gets the job done. I do need to check up on all of these messages, but I don't have time.' I raised my hands above my head and chanted a bit of gobbledygook, before focusing on a small patch of weeds nearby. I was not expecting the level of results I got, to say the least. I spent but one mana, and in that time the weed grew into a large collection of vines and leaves that covered a good 25 square feet of the ground. The wizard jumped back in shock at first before running up and examining it. The dwarf raised his eyebrows in relaxed surprise, and the elf pretended to not notice, but seemed slightly frustrated.

I stared at it and blinked a few times, pondering the level of power I possessed. The wizard then piped up, "What spell was that? I haven't heard of a spell that just makes something bigger like that, at least not permanently."

"My lord has told me the spell is 'Incur Growth', one belonging to his domain." I replied in a friendly yet neutral manner. Then I had a thought, 'these guys are friends of Oliver, meaning that if I look into their fates with my new skill, I may gain insight into what was supposed to happen to him.' "I do have more spells, though they are more typical of a priest, aside from one." I phrased it as a hook, knowing the inquisitive wizard would take the bait.

As I predicted, she immediately ran towards me and started jumping in anticipation. "What is it? Show me! Show me~!"

I chuckled before reaching out my hands towards her. "I haven't used this one before, so I don't know if you would be able to tell if anything happens, but it should allow me to see a possible future for you."

At that, the dwarf jolted up, and even the elf stopped pretending to not pay attention. "Oooo~, that sounds cool! I imagine the whole 'possible future' part means that it's not guaranteed, and me knowing it might make it not happen, but still, awesome!" I chuckled as she gripped my hands tightly and I began using the skill; Gaze into Fate.

#####

I was immediately somewhere very different. There was no sunlight here, it was clearly underground or inside of some immense structure. I could tell it was immensely dark, though I could see around fine. Looking around, I saw that the structure I seemed to be within felt insectoid in construction, which was confirmed as I saw a gigantic hornet fly past me.

It was then that the noises hit me. A cacophony of moans and pleas. Some pleading for it to stop, though they were drowned out by the **** pleas for more. The sounds of people broken and breaking, pleasure and pain.

Though this noise, I finally noticed the structure itself I was in. I was clearly a breeding chamber. Insects were laying eggs inside and fertilizing women throughout the entire room, all of them locked against the wall, the ends of their limbs sealed into it. Among them, I most certainly recognized both the wizard and the elf. The elf held strong, trying to fight though she clearly could not. The wizard, however, appeared to have broken a long time ago. She begged for more, being quickly silenced as a hornet took place in her mouth, using it as another hole for pleasure and production of young. She spasmed in pleasure as she was filled, while the elf spasmed in pain and effort. It was such a strange sight, those two clear opposites sealed into the wall next to each other.

#####

The vision ended abruptly, going from me staring at them being bred to me staring back at the wizard in the courtyard. I released her hands and pulled them back calmly, as not to portray what I had seen.

"That was weird to watch, your eyes glowed for a second." She said while tilting her head inquisitively. "Well, what did you see? Do I become the worlds greatest mage like I was always destined to be?" She gave me an innocent smile, which felt almost wrong after what I had seen. It's not that I'm some goody goody who felt what I had seen was a horrid atrocity, it’s simply that it felt dirty to see her smile like that after that image.

I considered what to say for a moment, all members of the party were focused on me. "Well, you seemed happy, though I would hope that is not the fate that is decided for you." She looked very confused, but before she could ask a question, I continued. "The ranger who has been ignoring us the whole time was there, but she seemed to be suffering in the circumstance. I don't know what led to the scene, but I would assume it was an adventure gone wrong." She considered what I said for a moment, before I once again cut her off with a question towards the dwarf. "Tell me, are there any hornet like monsters that you may come into contact with that you are aware of?"

The elf stiffened, and the dwarf gained a glum expression. "Aye, there be a big one." He paused to gather himself, which just added to my great suspense. "Just on the other side of them woods, there be a beastie known as the Hornet Empress."