Future

|Arthur|

Rinia's hut, though small and cramped, had an undeniable warmth to it that put me at ease. The soft glow of dim orbs hanging from the ceiling and walls provided just enough light for me to see the faint smile on Rinia's face as we entered.

I couldn't help but release a sigh of relief as Tessia squatted down to release her tension. The location of our hideout remained a mystery, but at this point, I didn't care. All that mattered was that we were safe, for now.

"Where are we?" I asked, taking in our surroundings.

"Somewhere in the elf kingdom," Rinia replied cryptically as she disappeared inside her hut.

The place was not unlike a dungeon where criminals would be held, but it was also not the first time I had seen an abode such as this. Rinia was an old friend of the royal family and had her reasons for living in such a place.

Merial furrowed her brow. "I'm sure you have your reasons, Aunt Rinia, but was it really necessary to shut yourself in a place like this?"

"Just an old lady being overly cautious. Don't mind me!" Rinia reassured us, peeking out from behind her sheet door. "It's actually quite cozy once you get used to it."

Tessia couldn't resist the temptation and asked to see inside the hut. Rinia welcomed us all in, and despite our initial hesitation, we followed her inside.

Virion shooed us in and proclaimed, "Come now, the place isn't going to eat you up. It's quite roomy inside, despite its appearance. Let's get something to drink! I'm quite famished."

As we settled into the sparsely furnished space, I felt myself drifting off. I leaned back into the couch, my head heavy on my hand. When I awoke, everyone else was fast asleep, their soft breathing filling the cozy hut.

I rubbed my eyes and rose to find only Rinia and Alistair still awake, with Rinia sipping on a fragrant herbal tonic.

"They won't be up for a while, Arthur, Alistair. Let's talk," Rinia said, gesturing for me to take a seat opposite her as she continued to sip her tea.

"Is this something only I should know, since you've probably drugged everyone except me?" I narrowed my eyes, though I trusted Rinia. Besides, if she wanted to kill us, her powers of foresight would have made it easy for her.

I sat down, leaned back, and waited for the ancient elf to speak.

"Despite the unforeseen circumstances, you're quite composed, Arthur, Alistair." Rinia's tone implied that she expected no less.

"I'm sure that if you wanted the worst to happen, it would have happened by now," I shrugged.

"Mm."

"..."

"A logical assumption," nodded Rinia. "Now, where do I begin?" she sighed. "Well, let's begin with a small lesson on my powers as a Diviner."

My ears perked up at this. I knew that this power came from aether, but I was still interested in how they managed to do so.

Noticing the interest on my face, Rinia continued. "As you may know, unlike regular mages who draw forth power from the mana particles in the atmosphere, deviants have to find their own source of power to fuel their magic."

I nodded in agreement.

"For example, your mother, an Emitter, has the ability to heal herself and others in a way elemental recovery spells can't compare to."

I nodded to this as well. There were various recovery spells that could be learned by water, wind, and plant attribute mages. Unfortunately, fire and earth didn't have any innate healing attributes, so it was impossible to create a recovery spell out of them. All in all, though, the recovery spells were still weak and couldn't compare to the healing that Emitters were capable of.

"Emitters have mana cores that naturally accumulate a special type of mana that is used to power their spells. Throughout my life, I've met quite a few deviants, each with unique properties in their magic. They all have one thing in common though, different from an elemental deviant such as yourself. Each of the deviants have their own pool of mana that they use to power their deviant magic." She looked a little absent-minded as she said this.

"It must be an inconvenience for them since they can't draw in mana from the atmosphere," I added.

"It sure is. After interviewing many deviants, they would all tell me how difficult it was to learn even basic elemental spells since they did not have mana cores that could harness the mana particles in the atmosphere. However, with their deviant powers, it made up for this handicap."

There was a moment of silence where I could only hear the soft snoring of Sylvie in Tess' arms before Rinia spoke again.

"As for Diviners, it's quite different. First of all, our powers can awaken at any point in our lives, which is quite different from conventional mages and other deviants. Our powers mostly come in erratic bursts where, quite often, blurred images and clips of the future simply flash through my mind. Sometimes they'd be useful, but most of the time, they were too vague and minute to make anything out of. These little flashes of the future don't expend any mana at all, actually."

I stayed silent, an eerie feeling creeping up on me.

"If you were to sense my mana core, I actually have quite a normal mana core, capable of harnessing and refining the mana particles in the atmosphere, which is why I'm quite adept at water attribute magic myself," Rinia exclaimed mockingly. "Doesn't seem like a very useful power if I can't control it, now does it?" she continued.

"Then what about the the spell that you used to allow me to locate my parents and even speak to them when I was little?" I questioned.

"Ah, that's a nifty little spell I made that involves my unique powers as a Diviner, but not really. You see, true divination is reading the future—knowing when and where something is going to happen."

We were getting lost. "Then if that is your true power as a Diviner and you said your mana core doesn't power that magic, how do you—"

"With my own lifespan," she cursed.

"We Diviners shorten our own lifespans each time we choose to consciously look into the future. That is the true power of a Diviner. Everything else are just useful little spells that can't be considered anything more than hat tricks."

The two of us sat there, wide-eyed, not knowing how to respond.

"What we talked about earlier, Virion's only love and wife, was another rare Diviner that was much more powerful than I was. Her unconscious divinations and prophecies would be much longer, much more detailed than mine, and much more frequent at that." Rinia's reminiscent smile faded as she continued speaking.

"Coupled with her physical beauty and graceful temperament, she was the envy of every female elf of our generation. She was the pride of our kingdom and an idol to the citizens.

"Things were looking perfect as she fell in love with Virion and the two got married in a beautiful ceremony. However, Fate wasn't as kind to her as everyone thought."

Alistair and I couldn't help but grimace at the tone of this tragedy-in-happening.

"At this time, the war between the Kingdom of Sapin and Elenoir had begun to die down, with the talk of a treaty in the air. However, the King of Sapin at the time made a last ditch effort to do as much damage to our kingdom as possible before the signing of the treaty. He carried out a plan to extinguish the future heir to the throne."

"You mean..."

"Yes, Virion was the sole target of an assassination mission carried out by the King himself," Rinia spoke in almost a whisper.

"..."

"Mockingly, his wife was repeatedly tormented by visions of Virion's death. Her unconscious prophecies told her little of how Virion would die and every time she did something to try and change the future, the outcome only led to a different cause of death. Virion knew the toll of his wife using her powers, but she did so anyway behind his back, out of desperation to keep him from his inevitable death."

"Every time I use my powers to look into the future, I can feel the days, weeks, sometimes even months being drained out of my body. I could only imagine how terrible it must've been for her to repeatedly use this cursed power for the one she loved."

I didn't know what to say, and even if I did, it would have been insensitive to say, coming from someone who didn't know what it felt like.

Rinia's eyes glistened from the tears that she had been holding back.

"In the end, she was able to keep Virion alive long enough for the peace treaty to be signed, but having burned up so much of her lifespan to protect the man she loved, she died a few months after in his arms with her youthful, beautiful appearance replaced with an aged, sickly elder."

"Do you know who that Diviner was, Arthur, Alistair?" She looked up with a stream of tears rolling down her right cheek.

"She was my sister."

Her words rang out in my ear like a giant gong that was rung at the beginning of every year. They say the people with the widest smiles hide the most pain in their hearts. I shifted my gaze over to the sleeping Virion and remembered the times that he joked around with his cheeky grin.

I had no idea the pain that he had gone through...

I felt like some pubescent teenager that thought the world hated him. I was ignorant of the fact that there were others who might've suffered from deeper pains than I had.

No words left my mouth after what Rinia said, only focusing on the ever so slight tremble of my fingers.

"The reason I bring this up isn't to elicit pity or sorrow from you. I tell you this so that you'll realise the gravity of what I'm about to inform you of next." There was a stern conviction in her voice that made me look back up.

Elder Rinia paused, as if readying her heart before she spoke. "I used my powers to intentionally look into your futures, Arthur, Alistair."

After all she told me, what she just said weighed on me all the more. "What? Wh-why?" was all I could stammer out before Sylvie sleepily walked towards me and hopped onto my lap, falling asleep again, leaving the both of us with a brow raised.

"Seems like your bond is immune to the herbs I gave her," she chuckled.

"Yeah, she probably just fell asleep naturally," I replied with a half grin.

As I sat there, listening to Rinia's words, I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. Her ability to see the future was something that always made me feel a little uncomfortable, but now it seemed like there was even more at stake.

"Well, continuing on, even before the day I first met you when you were a child, I had been getting glimpses of your future," Rinia began, her voice low and serious. "Never enough to make sense of it, but it was odd to have so many visions of a specific person. It has never happened before."

I leaned forward, my interest piqued. "What do you mean?"

"As you may already be aware, Arthur, Alistair, things are changing on this continent. Dicathen is going through a new era," Rinia explained. "The birth of the geniuses such as you and Alistair, the beginning of it with the unity of the three Kingdoms and the unveiling of the Six Lances, but that's just the beginning. Through all of these changes that are going to happen, you always seem to be in the center of them somehow, Alistair, Arthur."

I couldn't deny that what Rinia was saying made sense. Ever since I could remember, I had always felt like I was meant for something greater, but hearing it confirmed like this was both exhilarating and terrifying.

"Then moving to this remote hideout..." I trailed off, my mind racing with possibilities.

Rinia gave me a small nod, confirming my suspicions. "With the knowledge I gained from looking into the future... your futures, it seems like I've made some enemies."

Before I could even process this, Elder Virion stirred awake, causing me to jump.

"Don't worry, I was planning on letting him wake up for this part," Rinia said calmly, her eyes never leaving mine.

"Now, listen closely to the prophecy I am about to reveal," Rinia said, her voice ringing with authority. She spoke with such conviction that it sent shivers down my spine and I knew that what she was about to say was important.

Elder, I have seen the sun fall westward through the sky

And plunge below, kissing the world its last goodbye,

Before she rises again; from the bloodstained West

To burn up all - but for those who shall pass every test.

Hidden claws bloodied with sin

Slay a serpent, shed its skin.

Beneath the surface, red morning dew,

Noiseless wolf's maw sings anew.

Ravens bow to the headless crown

Blacker still: paths to walk and drown

In stars held by the mind in thrall

To light the future - a siren's call.

A dragon's might defends his hoard

Of golden grudges 'til a sword

Held by a traitor drives him to the coverless plains

And brings peace to the dragon robbed of his precious chains.

Verdant tower dwarfing Greengate Peak

Bleeds gladly for the one who will speak

For the beast and bird and sun on the leaves

And the path forward under wisdom's eaves.

A swan emerges in grace, feathers unmarred by the deeps.

Its wings now beat for glory and a lust that never sleeps

To soar above another, beak running red

For the swan's final victory - nothing left unsaid.

But lo! The sun above, at blessed noon, is poised to fall

If dawn-children risen from the dead heed the call

Of dusky Fate's last gift: gazing skywards with unshielded eyes;

Pass every test and tomorrow's sun again shall rise.

After the prophecy was delivered, we all sat in stunned silence, processing the gravity of what Rinia had just foretold. Alistair was the first to break the silence.

"Actually, I have something that I need to reveal as well," he said, his eyes flickering with a hint of uncertainty.