what's up.

Y'want like, the first working chapter of what I'm working on right now? Because I can't be fucked to come up with new content at the moment. So... whatever, here.

The first time I changed the future, I was seven years old. I didn’t even realize I’d done it. I vaguely understood that I was supposed to let the child on my right cry. Atlas and I were never meant to be friends. He was to be a tertiary royal, ascend to command the Royal Fleet, and live his entire life in New York. For whatever reason, I couldn’t let him sob next to me, and I dried his tears, telling him I was sorry. That was the first time I ruined everything.

And I paid for it. The headache the next day debilitated me so severely that I couldn’t see. It was like my brain had to readjust to the future I had created, and it hurt. Not even my mother’s healing magic could touch the pain. It was worse than silver immunity training, Taverbian fever, and getting kicked in the balls rolled into one, centralized to my head. I lay in that bed, with the curtains drawn, an ice pack over my eyes for the better part of the day, quietly wishing the throbbing would either stop or kill me. 

No surprise I didn’t hear my sister come in.

“You changed it, didn’t you?” she asked, slightly louder than a whisper. 

“Uh huh. He was crying. I hate crying.” 

“Atlas?”

“Yuh.”

“Why not call for his mother?” Jara was a year younger than me, but she had always spoken like a grown woman. Our parents called her wise beyond her years, but I thought she was just showing off. 

“I was already there.”

“Recurring theme with you, brother.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Hmm. Well. Granny Prudence says you’ll be in here another day or so. So… get comfy, I guess.” Jara hopped over to the door to leave, but stopped when I made a whiny groan sound. “What?”

“She’s here?”

“Turns out, when one of her great-grandchildren breaks the rules, she’s not happy. Who knew?”

“I didn’t tell anyone, I just… chose a different outcome,” I argued.

“Good luck, Royce.”

“I make my own luck,” I grumbled, pulling the blanket over my head.

“Yes, I can see that. And look what it got you.”

As quickly as she had invaded my space, my sister was gone, back to our four other siblings, our parents, and apparently, our great-grandmother. Part of me remained hopeful that my mother’s parents were there as well. Bean and Nan always brought the best snacks, and they were expert interpreters for Prudence’s riddlespeak. But I was sure my mother would have been much more boisterous if her mother were in the house. Those two together could wake the dead. 

Once again, I had the sensation of someone stabbing an ice pick into my eyeball, and I whimpered into my pillow, willing myself not to cry. I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand what the point of having a gift as valuable as seeing the future was if I couldn’t do anything to change it. It’s not like I’d prevented a necessary war; I merely offered a crying child kindness. I didn’t see the advantage to being rude to my cousin. This family, while a smidge dysfunctional, has always prided itself on being close to one another. I was just upholding tradition. Keeping up appearances. Even at seven years old, I could never get anything right. 

I could sense another intruder before I heard them, and I shot straight up in bed, whining, “What? Can’t you guys leave me al—”

Prudence put one finger over my lips and shook her head. “What have we learned, little prince?”

“Oh.” I settled back down and pulled the blanket up to my chin. “That misuse of magic has consequences.”

My mother’s grandmother tucked me up tightly and nodded. “To truly master your gift, you have to know when the punishment is acceptable.”

“Granny, can I ask you something?” I took her silence as a sign to continue. “Why was I supposed to let Atlas cry? He seems… nice.”

She moved her bright blonde hair away from her face and shrugged. “That is not my gift. If that is what was demanded of you, that is what you should have done. Fate is very rarely wrong.”

“But it is sometimes, is what you’re saying?”

“Mmm. Indeed. Nothing is infallible.”

“You distribute fate, though. Shouldn’t you, I don’t know, understand what you’re doing to people?”

“I have never given anything to someone who couldn’t handle it. You have changed the trajectory of yours. Everything from this point forward falls on you, little prince.”

“So you do know the future!”

“I know what is intended. The future is all yours, Royce.”