Finding My Lich by Christina Winds

Author:Christina Winds [Winds, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733679626
Published: 2019-03-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

“At first, of course, we all tried to go around being the Good Samaritan type. Well, at least we did after we figured out that the Maker was looking for us to do more than just refrain from killing anyone.”

A long while later, Tamara’s initial shock was over, and her natural curiosity had kicked in. She had decided to give up on processing her feelings for the moment and had instead determined to focus on collecting as many facts as she could. She knew from experience that her brain was still dealing with the hysteria in the background. But as long as she kept the conscious part occupied in learning as much as possible, then she could stave off the incipient mental breakdown until, hopefully, she was better able to deal with it.

Eric obliged her. She had a feeling that he knew exactly what she was doing. But to his credit, he unhesitatingly answered any question she posed him.

Just now, he continued. “Giving to charities, helping out the neighbors, that sort of thing. The sands trickled out somewhat steadily and we thought we were doing okay; we’d give to charities until the Old Man finally decided we’d given enough. So, we started giving higher and higher amounts. But the sand never flowed any faster - in fact, it started to slow down. And eventually, we realized the message was that charity giving was good…but it wasn’t all we had to do.

“So, what did you do then?”

“Floundered,” Eric admitted. “Finally, we hit upon volunteering - basically donating our time instead of our money. That worked even better—the sands flowed faster. But then that, too, tapered off. We even went so far as to spend a whole decade or so doing nothing but volunteer work, but again, we were eventually told it wasn’t enough. Until as it is now, regardless of how much charity we give or volunteering we do, the sands haven’t dropped a grain in 60 years.”

Tamara had to ask. “Then why do you still give so much? I mean…if it’s no longer helping you?”

Eric smiled ruefully. “But it is helping us. The hourglass is meant as a learning tool, not a scorekeeper. Just because the Old Man is no longer patting us on the back for each step, he made it pretty plain at the beginning of the kinds of behavior he is expecting from us. To change our behavior for the worse now wouldn’t help our cause at all. Besides,” Eric admitted, “you know better than most how helping others makes you feel good. That’s the lesson he wanted to teach us, of course. In Abaddon, helping others is…well, it’s not exactly frowned upon, but it’s certainly not traditionally encouraged. I instigated some changes when I took the crown that got the races working together in some cases. But actually helping someone out altruistically, just because? It’s truly a cultural abnormality when it happens—if it happens. My people don’t know how it feels to help someone and expect nothing in return.

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