time burns in every part of him, and he sees more than he ever could have dreamed. the past, the future, and the present reveal themselves to him in horrifying, perfect accuracy.

n.

1. you are a seer. past and future, present and abyssal possibility swirls around you, tearing your mind further and further out of your grasp. the walls of the alley where you huddle age around you, dragged back and forth in time while you fold further inside yourself. you are like an ill-wound clock, always a fraction of a second behind. your memories have abandoned you, or been sundered from you. you are not sure which possibility is worse. the ebb and flow of time weaves all around you, tugging you in directions you cannot fathom for purposes you do not understand. the metered, unending pulse of the universe fills your waking hours. tik. tok. tik. tok. you do not know how to silence it.

2. you are chosen. a man comes, golden-eyed and leering. he's been looking for you, he wants to take you home. what is home? you do not know. you have been here a year, a moment, a millennia. time has lost it's meaning. he pulls you to your feet, and you can see laughter in his face; sudden, burbling anger bursts out of you, black smoke curling around your hand. it takes you a moment to see the card as sharp as obsidian buried in the wall beside him. his laughter has faded. if you go with him, he says, he will make you his knight, and you will never be left like this again. you do not know home, but you remember duty.

3. you are fallen. you have found two goddesses to champion, and neither will brook the other's hand on your shoulder. you must choose. you choose right. you choose wrong. your eyes now glimmer like the rolling waves, and you have seen your own death creeping towards you. fate's favor wavers and she will not allow you to escape this time. children crowned by light flicker around the castle you reside in, and in their eyes you see a reflection of your deaths. you are kind regardless; the secrets time whispers belong only to you, and you are not so unfair as to punish them for what they may yet do.

4. you are a devil. broken men, lost and in pain, barter with you; they wager their very souls against the potential promise of happiness. it rots in their hands without fail, and you steal away their hearts, sending them up to join the glittering moon above your home. the sea salt ocean laps at your ankles, and in it you hear the murmuring of your blessed mother. her last favorite sits high on the list of those you wish to rend from their heart, for you view him as a threat, undeserving of her attention. you have earned her love with careful devotion; he does not even know her true name. the pale sliver of your regrowing heart festers with poison, turning you ever back to darkness.

3. you are alone. in a castle with three kings, a silent war is raging. what yours has failed to see is that he is not yours any longer. too long has he held you at bay, too long lied and schemed, and let his plans wither on the vine. you realize, watching his ears grow pointed, and his hair silver, that they always will. you wonder what might have come of the death knight's treachery if you had gone with him. it seems that you remain only to see your companions for the last ten years sent, one by one, to their deaths. soon enough your time comes, and you go, the soft pulse in your mind quieting for the first time. the child before you has starlight in his eyes, and though you know his heart, he does not know you. it is a mockery of battle you make, a necessary pretense. this was always how it would be, fate whispers.