Countdown
I own nothing but my own ideas
2103798 minutes
"Being a seer, does not make you much of a people person. Oftener than not, it means you zone out in the middle of conversations you should be paying attention to, and people get fairly annoyed at that."
Be it a result of this, or a personality trait inherited from his father, Thom is not a people person. He is, however, quite bookish. Books are something he can pursue at leisure, and don't care if he is interrupted by visions. His lack of attention to the current world may also explain how Alanna always manages to get them into trouble.
He has frequent visions around his sister. Looking back on it, it may have been because she was god-touched, a person of destiny. It's equally likely that it is because she is one of the few people he cares about.
His latest vision had happened not long after her duel. The man she had killed-Roger- would come back. At the time he had dismissed it as Paranoia, not every vision came true. This one, however, stuck around like a nightmare; it became increasingly frequent and disturbing, with each one becoming worse than the last. It could happen any day at any time of day, and simple tasks like eating in public became impossible.
After about a month of them, he went to examine Rogers crypt. He made his way back to the castle swearing. Of course it hadn't been that simple. Sorcerers Sleep.
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He held out as long as he could against the visions (nightmares), perhaps hoping that some other mage would come by and deal with this problem. He reads countless library books, looking for some way to avert this. He has heavy bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, nights spent avoiding the vivid dream future, trying to lose himself in his readings. In his heart, he knows there is no escaping it. Roger had always his family's problem to deal with. Alanna started it, and he has every intention of helping her finish it. He's buying time.
Until he can't. He hates to cut Alannas travels short, but the results will become worse if he puts this off any longer, and All Hallows Eve really is the best time for this kind of magic.
He pauses before he continues. From now on, his days are numbered.
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The closer his day comes, the odder he feels about it. In some ways it can't come fast enough. Roger is draining him, and they both know it. The worse Thom looks, the healthier Roger is. Some days he wants to grin like a maniac and tell him He has no idea what is coming for him.
That would put him on guard, unfortunately, and no matter how satisfying it would be to watch the man get super paranoid, he needs to keep the advantage of surprise.
He is looking forward to coronation day.
Its the last thing he can look forward to, regardless of outcome.
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Its a strange thing, to know of your death.
He once had a vision of it in the past. Of course, back then he hadn't thought it would be a vision of his death. Or anything meaningful, in fact. Not every vision comes true, and without knowing the circumstances around it, there is little one can do to prevent or influence an outcome. Of course, he had dismissed that outcome as crazy. Why would he try to bring bad a man who wanted to kill his sister?
His sister was one of the few people he cared about in life.
He had reasoned it as some crazy alternate timeline, or a very unlikely future that would likely never come into play.
So in some ways he had known about his own death since age eleven, without realizing it would be his death. And yet, in an indirect way he had chosen it. If he had been the knight, Roger would have been after him to eliminate the competition. Or something of the like.
Alanna was ironically safer as a knight. She had the blessing of a god, the loyalty of her friends, and a love of her job. When he had seen her kill Roger, he had thought he was safe from the 'bad future' he had seen, if only for a little while, before he had been made to eat his words.
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Some days, it makes him sad that she will never know he achieved his dream. When they were younger, his sister had wanted to be known as a heroic knight, and he a magical hero. They would have been quite a duo, and become famous throughout the lands. That's a future he will only have in the better dreams now. He's still going to become a hero of sorts, and it hurts more than he will admit that no one will think of him as such.
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He's oddly comforted now that Alanna's back. He's 'revived' her worst enemy, and she's trying to save him from his 'mistakes'.
She doesn't hate him.
That's enough.
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The future is bright, even as his life fades.
Of course, it won't be that simple. His visions of coronation day have been getting rather inconsistent. Coronation day is a defining day, one that determines the direction of the future. Thousands of possible outcomes will become open, and just as many will die. No gods to dictate, the living will determine the direction, and that will be that.
Power plays are a rocky transition, with thousands of people making a play. It will be, in a way, a day without fate. That doesn't matter to him, however, because he's not trusting fate with this one.
He's trusting his sister to break free. She has never liked being told what to do. And when it comes down to it, he thinks she will remember that. He would bet on it, if he had anything worthwhile to bet.
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He's glad she was the last one he saw.
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Times up.
Thank you for your help with this story TrisanaChandler13.
I decided to go with seconds in the end, although if you prefer a different unit, feel free to tell me.
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