In this chapter we see that Train wants to accompany Meylyne on her dangerous journey. This is what best friends do, right? We stick by each other. Sometimes it’s as if we have one mind—we agree on everything.

Well, not really. But that’s what’s expected of us. So what happens if your best friend wants you to stick by her and you don’t agree with her? Most likely you feel pressured to support her anyway. I used to have a very sensitive best friend that was easily offended and she would get mad at people a lot. She always expected me to fight her battles with her—to shut people out if she was angry with them and so on. Given the perception that “best friends always agree” her expectation isn’t out of the ordinary. It is unrealistic. I didn’t always agree with her but did I say so?

No. I was afraid she would leave me if I did. (more…)

In Chapter Three, Meylyne visits the Well of M’Yhr to ask for advice, but when the Well tells her she must go to the Valley of Half-Light to cure Prince Piam, she thinks the Well is crazy—no way is she going to the home to the sinister, soul-eating Sphers! She runs home, determined to find another way out of her problem.

In the archetypal theme of the hero’s journey this is called the Refusal of the Call to Adventure. If the journey is to continue, the hero will have to change her or his mind and accept the call after all. In Meylyne’s case, she has no choice but to accept once she finds out what the alternative is.

For most of us, our Calls to Adventure are not as extreme. We get lots of them without even noticing. For example, I used to work for a wonderful recruiting agency. I loved my team and the women that ran the company, so when I heard that the owners were selling the agency to a bigger company, I was sad. Then a colleague approached me to ask me if I’d be interested in starting a company with her. My first reaction was, “what a crazy idea! Go out on our own? No thanks!” (more…)

In this chapter we learn that Meylyne has two best friends. Or, in her words, “her only friends.” For this she blames her “scary mother and even scarier father.” No one else in the Between-World has an outlaw Garlysle for a father and a brilliant sorceress for a mother so what chance does she have at fitting in?

Well actually, if everyone else knew alchemy, or if she had grown up with a bunch of mafia kids, her parents wouldn’t be a problem at all. She’d be the same as everyone else. The real problem is that her parents make her feel different from the other children.

Feeling different can be complicated. I don’t think anyone really wants to feel ordinary. At the same time, feeling very different from the norm can be alienating and embarrassing. When I was a child, I moved twice—once when I was 10 and once when I was 14. Both times I felt incredibly different from my new classmates … and not in a good way. Mind you, both times I survived, thanks to the small posse of friends I made (and by the way, having two friends, like Meylyne, is plenty). (more…)