A Fight and Fate

I couldn’t leave it alone. I had to take care of it. I wasn’t going to wander around and wait for the men at the tavern to shank me.

I held the aether in my grasp. Its energy could bend the fabric of reality. I concentrated and tried to navigate it, seeing all channel of string that connected each being an object in space. The men were approaching from behind me as I made my way to an alley. My mind wandered, and I sought the sheriff’s mind. I had to deal with these thugs but I didn’t want to be painted a murderer in our village. My power was a novice with the seeking, and instead, I flailed out at everyone, drawing their mind and focus into my position like a siren’s call.

The thugs approached.

“How d'you do that kid?”

“Do what?” I said innocently.

“You know what! Cheat back there!”

“Oh, I thought we were playing an honest game of chance. Maybe the god of fortune smiled on me,” I said. “They were your dice gentlemen, not mine.”

“So then how d'you do it?” Another asked flashing his long knife at me.

“Let’s just cut this cunt up and get our money back.”

They charged me with their knives out. I displaced their knives with my power and will and turned their iron into putty. They put their knives violently into me. Their knives blades became as soft as butter and flimsy as feathers but their blows with their fist into my chest and body still made me grimace and wail in pain.

I concentrated my will and try to dodge, my athletic body built from farm work was able to block and dodge some of it. I concentrated, despite all this, on my aether on one of the thug’s knife and turned it back to sharp iron. I **** my will onto his hand and he rammed into another of the thug’s stomach ripping open his insides. He shrieked in the pain and writhed on the floor holding it inside.

And then other thug cried out, grabbing at an arrow in the back of his shoulder. A shout came out. “Throw your weapons to the ground!”

The two thugs turned around, a gathering of the village had appeared at the end of the alleyway. The sheriff and deputy were aiming crossbows at the two thugs who dropped their now knives to the ground with the village folk gathered behind them.

After the whole ordeal, the sheriff questioned me and examined the scene at the alley. Rupp, the Baroness’ son, came to verify the incident at the tavern. The sheriff left with the thugs in shackles. Apparently, they were deserters and would hang the next morning.

Rupp looked at me as I examined my bruises.

“You have the gift, don’t you?” He said.

I nodded.

“Yes, I figure you were manipulating the dice with it.”

“That’s strange since you had no clue they were playing with loaded dice.”

“As the son of a noble, it’s our responsibility to spot the work of channeling. The war effort need skilled Guardians.“ He then examined one of the floppy knives on the ground. “This must have taken a great deal of talent in the gift Cell! You should go to the academy.”

“I have obligations, for now, my farm and home are ash and I can’t just leave my family. I don’t think I want to gamble with seedy types anymore for my coin. That was a close call despite how it turned out.” I said looking at my bruises.

“You should meet my mother. She’ll be glad to sponsor you as a patron once she learns how powerful you are in the gift.”

I remember seeing the widow Baroness Kira once on a visit to her village, her demesne, thinking how lovely she was. A type of women that peasants like me pleasured ourselves thinking about being with, but with an air of unattainability and grace that was unapproachable to lowly commoners. The lust energy broiled inside of me, making the fog now a stone-like wall around the aether. I turned away from Rupp to hide my wicked smile. “It would be most kind of you to introduce us.”

Sometimes fate can be a wonderful thing.