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CLEARSIGHT

Listener sat with Clearsight during lunch and apologized for getting worked up the other day.

"I just caught Bighorns flirting with Vision," she said miserably, picking at the potatoes on her plate. Clearsight realized that she had never actually caught the name of Listener's boyfriend until now — not even in her visions of the future. "He dumped me before I could even call him out on it," her friend went on. "You were right all along."

It may have sounded cruel, but Clearsight was incredibly pleased to hear this. She wanted to tell Listener that this was probably the best possible outcome, all things considered. She would have handled their inevitable breakup much worse if they'd kept dating for another month or two, which was a very likely possibility. But she refrained, knowing that her friend would have preferred not to hear it. "I owe you an apology too," she said instead. "I wasn't very respectful to you when I said the things I did yesterday. It was just hard to keep quiet when I knew what could have happened."

"I know," Listener said. "It's okay. You can't really help but see some of those futures, can you?"

"Yes, but I can try harder to keep you from learning about them. You're doing your part by staying out of my thoughts: I should be doing my part too."

Listener radiated a bit of happiness. By the end of lunch, they were best friends once again, all sins were forgotten, and Clearsight was happy.


After school, Clearsight followed Darkstalker back to his house. This time, his mother was there to greet them. Clearsight had been a little bit antsy about meeting her, and she still felt butterflies in her stomach when she saw Foeslayer for the first time. But she looked happy to see them when they showed up: her head was poking eagerly out of the front window, above a bed of marigolds whose orange blossoms broke the monotonous gray of the front porch and the overcast night sky. "Welcome home, Darkstalker," she said as the two of them touched down in front of the door. "Is this Clearsight?"

"That's right," Clearsight answered, bowing her head a little. "I'm Darkstalker's friend."

"My mother has been looking forward to meeting you," Darkstalker said, standing proudly beside her. "She knows that we're a little bit more than friends, by the way," he added quietly.

Clearsight blinked. Her ears nervously folded back. "You do?" she asked. "And you're okay with it?"

Foeslayer's eyes softened, but she had a smile on her face that refused to retreat. "Well, I'm nervous, as you could imagine," she admitted. "You're both going to learn that love is complicated, I'm sure. But I'm hopeful that you two will make each other happy."

Foeslayer looked down and paused for a long moment before circling around to open the door and let them in. Clearsight could almost hear the words she was keeping herself from saying in that moment. Love had brought a whole slurry of bittersweet consequences to Foeslayer's life, and she didn't want Clearsight to repeat those consequences. Leave the worrying to me, Foeslayer, Clearsight said back to her silently. I've been preparing for this my entire life.

She caught the smell of smoked salmon when she stepped inside, and her stomach growled. Foeslayer was already making her way to the kitchen, organizing some utensils on the countertops and gathering a few ceramic plates from a stack in a low cabinet. "Are you hungry?" she asked the two of them. "I brought back some leftover fish from the palace. I figured I'd roast them up and we could have them as a snack to have before dinner. They should be ready now."

"Oh, thank you, ma'am," Clearsight said, shedding a tiny smile at her. She wondered if Foeslayer knew that salmon was one of her favorite foods.

Darkstalker sat down at the dinner table and Clearsight sat beside him. She noticed how smooth and finished the table was. She could almost see her reflection in its glossy coating, and she was afraid to draw her talons over it in fear of making a scratch. Her own dinner table more closely resembled a picnic bench made from pieces of repurposed firewood.

When she looked back up, Foeslayer had placed two plates of pink salmon filets in front of them, each with a charred lemon slice resting on top of it. She sat down across from them with her own plate, and took her first bite.

"Darkstalker says you're quite a talented seer," Foeslayer said, licking her nose with her forked tongue. "Is that true?"

"She's even better than I am!" Darkstalker answered for her. "She could probably tell you your future right now."

"Oh, really?" Foeslayer said, leaning in curiously. "Is there anything you see that I should know about?"

Clearsight shot a disapproving glance at Darkstalker for a short moment. He knew that she had been trying to keep the extent of her powers a secret, at least for now. She wasn't exactly comfortable with Darkstalker talking so freely about them, even with his mother.

Nonetheless, she obliged and looked ahead, trying to see anything in her future worth noting. She explored a number of likely threads shallowly, and found nothing particularly noteworthy. Foeslayer was on friendly terms with Queen Vigilance, and she had Darkstalker to protect her if anyone tried to hurt her. Not to mention she had an earring on that kept her protected from farm: as long as she kept it on, she'd be okay.

She opened her eyes and shrugged modestly. "I'm afraid there's not too much I can tell you," she said. "I can only see the future from my own eyes, and it's not very often that we're in the same room together. So I didn't learn much — but you should be relieved to hear that. It probably means you're going to have a peaceful next few months."

"That's good," Foeslayer said, sounding relieved indeed. "No terrible prophecies of my inevitable demise?"

"None that I can see," Clearsight assured. Well, except for that one where Queen Diamond abducts you … and those ones where you mysteriously vanish and nobody knows what happened to you. But everyone was doomed in some timelines. Some dragons were more likely to be doomed than others, and Foeslayer was quite low in the pecking order. If that ever changed, Clearsight would let Foeslayer worry about it then.

"Well, I hope all the same for your future as well," Foeslayer said, smiling brightly. "Have you thought about what you might want to do when you finish school? I know that Queen Vigilance is always interested in having more seers advise her during this war."

"Being an adviser to the Queen would be a dream job," Clearsight answered. "I'd probably have to get kind of lucky to catch her attention, though."

"She's hard to make an impression on, I'm afraid," Foeslayer agreed. "But I'd be happy to throw a positive word your way if she ever brings up the subject."

"Really?" Clearsight asked, pausing just before taking her last bite of salmon. "Thank you!"

This positive reception came as a genuine surprise to her. Not a lot of the potential introductions to Foeslayer were nearly this positive. Behind her cheerful outward demeanor was a genuine fear that she had of her son falling in love, and in a lot of futures she'd seen, that fear manifested itself in the form of disapproval. But this path brought Clearsight a warm, welcoming, and cooperative Foeslayer who went so far as to feed her a plate of her favorite food and promise her a good word with the Queen. She couldn't have anticipated this going any better.

By the time they were done eating, Foeslayer had officially announced her approval of Darkstalker's new girlfriend. She congratulated Darkstalker for meeting such a good dragon, and Clearsight was happy.


"We'll be in my room if you need us," Darkstalker called to his mother as he bounded down the hallway.

"And I'll be right outside," Foeslayer called from the kitchen. "Clearsight, please don't let him use any of his magic, alright? I know his powers are exciting, but they're very dangerous."

"Yes, ma'am," Clearsight said, smiling at Darkstalker as he passed a knowing grin back to her.

Darkstalker closed the door behind Clearsight and threw open the curtains in front of his window, letting the moonlight pool in. He took his scroll out from the cubby hole in his wall and unrolled it on the floor before gathering his blanket from his bed. Clearsight walked over curled up next to him, and he threw the blanket over them both and brushed his wing up against hers as he lay down. He used the tip of his talon to locate the enchantment he'd put on the watch. It was a long paragraph that, in Darkstalker's sloppy clawwriting, took up an entire length of scroll:

Enchant this watch to forbid all future enchantments on it from having an impact on any seer's powers. Enchant this watch to keep ticking continuously once it is set. Enchant this watch's ticking noise to not be so incessantly annoying. Enchant the crown on this watch to turn into a button after it is used to set the watch, and to stay a button afterwards: when this button is pressed, enchant the watch to take Clearsight back in time to the moment when it was first set, such that when she returns to this moment, all of her memories, morals, and beliefs will preserved during her transfer back in time. Enchant this watch to be unbreakable to everyone except Clearsight. Enchant this watch so that when Clearsight shatters the glass, all previous enchantments are cleared.

Darkstalker hadn't been lying when he admitted to going through a lot of prototypes to get this enchantment right. There were a dozen or two test enchantments before it, and a dozen more lines of 'Clear this watch of all enchantments' between them.

She appreciated the thoughtfulness that went into the final spell, but that last part worried her. What was it for? What reason would she ever have to destroy that watch? If she'd accidentally broke it in the middle of a terrible future, she'd have no way of undoing things. And if she really ever decided that she wouldn't ever want to use it again, she could just hide it somewhere remote — like at the bottom of the ocean. And then someone will find it a thousand years after I die, and then they'll press the button on it, and they'll bring me back to life, and they'll undo everything I did.

Clearsight suppressed the urge to shake her head. Of course that enchantment needed to be there. It made sure that once she got the future she wanted, she could finalize it and make sure it couldn't be undone.

Darkstalker looked up at Clearsight and bowed his head observantly, as if he were trying to read her face. "Does it seem alright?" he asked her. "I could make some revisions if you want."

"No, everything's fine! I'm just admiring the thought you put into it," Clearsight clarified. "For something you don't ever want me to use, you made it really usable."

Darkstalker let out a chuckle. "I guess I got a little obsessed with it the other day," he said. "I wanted to make sure it was perfect."

"And it is perfect," Clearsight said, pushing her head up against Darkstalker's neck. "Everything is perfect."

For just one breath, Darkstalker let out a low purr, and he curled the tip of his tail around Clearsight's. And she was happy.

"Do you think you'll activate it soon, then?" Darkstalker asked.

"Yes," Clearsight answered, without any hesitation. "I've made up my mind. I'm going to do it tonight."

"Are you sure?" Darkstalker asked straightening up. "I only just gave it to you today."

"And today has been one of the best days of my life." Clearsight pulled Darkstalker's blanket closer to her, its enchantment making her feel just as warm as she wanted to be. "I couldn't imagine a better day to return to. "

Darkstalker's tail tightened around Clearsight. When she turned to face him, his ears were pinned back, as if he were afraid of something — even though he had a cheery smile and bright eyes.

"What?" she said. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Darkstalker looked away for a second. "Um — it's nothing," he answered. "Just … no matter what ends up happening, please remember that I love you with all my heart. Because that's never going to change."

Clearsight cocked her head worriedly. Where did that come from? He wasn't going to do something dangerous or evil, was he? No, she'd be able to see it if he were.

With his wing, Darkstalker pulled Clearsight in closer and squeezed her, leaning in to brush his horns against hers. "Okay!" Clearsight said, giggling affectionately. "You're the loviest, doviest Darkstalker in all of the timelines. You've made your point. I won't forget it." She wiggled herself free of Darkstalker's hold and rose to her feet, using her wings to get the blanket off of her.

"You can't stay?" Darkstalker said, rising with her. "It hasn't even been an hour."

"My parents are on the verge of growing suspicious that I'm seeing someone," Clearsight said apologetically. "I know they're going to find out eventually, but I don't want them to find out tonight."

Darkstalker nodded sadly. "I understand," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

When she opened the door to go, Darkstalker jolted. "Wait!" he quickly said, before reaching towards his desk and grabbing a used black candle. He shuffled over to Clearsight on three legs and handed it to her. "For you. It's the one that I'd enchanted a couple days ago."

"Oh." Clearsight took the candle. A half-dozen visions flashed before her eyes of sleepless mornings where this would be by her side as she studied. She gazed back at Darkstalker and smiled warmly at him. "Thank you."

Darkstalker placed a hand on her shoulder. His talons dug into her scales tightly. "Now, fly safe on your way back. I'll see you at school first thing in the morning."

"Darkstalker, you're shaking," Clearsight said, stepping back for a moment. "What's the matter?"

Darkstalker dropped his arm and started fidgeting with it. "It's nothing — I just …." He looked at her, and she saw a great well of concern in his eyes. She looked sadly back at him, and lifted a rear leg to step forward a bit. He sighed, and sat down. His tail swished forward and twisted around his wrist. "I'm a little afraid of the Clearsight I'm going to see tomorrow, I guess," he admitted, looking down at the corner of his room. "I don't know if she's going to be you, or … someone who just came back from a terrible future."

Clearsight felt a wave of understanding wash over her. If Clearsight ended up rewriting time, then this would be the last moment of innocence that they'd get to have together — for Darkstalker, at least. If she ended up rewriting time, then Darkstalker would never witness the things she did, or experience the future she ended up living. "Oh, Darkstalker," she said, taking him in her arms and hugging him. "I know I can't promise that I'll be exactly the same dragon tomorrow as I am today. But you don't have to be afraid of whoever that dragon ends up being. I'm always going to be Clearsight. I love you. I always will."

She let go of Darkstalker and he looked into her eyes. He looked relieved, but he didn't say anything.


Darkstalker's candle rested atop Clearsight's nightstand. The reflections of the fire against the metal base of the candlestick shed a warm orange light into the room, giving Clearsight just enough light to inspect the watch a bit more closely.

She didn't notice it at first, but the hourglass design carved in the gold shell was present on both sides, in slightly different forms. On the outside, when the shell was closed, the hourglass was shown with almost all of the sand on top, as if the hourglass had just been flipped. On the inside, when the shell was opened, the hourglass was about half-empty, and she could see traces of the mound in the lower bulb etched in, with subtle dots here and there right beneath the falling stream of sand that came from above. She thought it was a cute little symbol, if a little corny.

It was a little past morning. Clearsight really should have been sleeping right now, but she felt too elated to get to bed early. How could everything have gone so perfectly? How could Darkstalker and Foeslayer and Listener have all brightened her up so much in the course of a single day?

She touched the crown of the watch. She was ready to activate it now; she didn't have a doubt in her mind. But on her flight home; she'd realized the weight of responsibility that activating this watch had. She realized that she really didn't want to ever have to use it: she had to get things right the first time. She didn't want to undo years of reality. She didn't want to erase all of the fulfilling and wonderful lived experiences of everyone around her. She didn't want her life and her future to be reduced to nothing more than a single thread in the massive web of her visions.

Only if I have to, she said to herself, clutching the watch tightly with both hands. I still need to worry. I still need to make compromises. I still need to fight. Because I can only use this if I have no other choices left.

She took a deep breath and pulled the crown out. Then she spun the dial, and around and around the minute-hand went. When the hands pointed at the correct time — seven twenty-two in the morning, with the second hand pointed up top — she looked up at the hourglass looming over the watch, then down at the gears beneath the hands. Finally, she pushed the crown in.

Click.

Clearsight had to blink a couple of times in order to notice what had happened. She'd never actually used a watch like this before, and the effects were subtle. It was ticking now — a quiet, almost inaudible march of periodic tapping sounds as the second hand circled around. When she set her talon aside from the crown, it looked exactly the same as it did before. It didn't look like a button, but like the crown of a watch. Nothing changed.

Afraid that she'd done something wrong, Clearsight tried pulling the crown up and setting it again. But when she tried to pull on it, it wouldn't give. The crown was stuck. Perplexed, she tried to loosen it by fidgeting around in other directions. When she pushed it in, she felt a tiny click. Immediately, the second-hand jumped back. It had been pointing at the '6' before, and now it was pointing back up to the '12,' ticking back around the numbers it had just passed thirty seconds ago.

Clearsight shook her head for a second. She waited ten seconds, then pressed the crown in again. The second-hand jumped back up. She waited a full minute, pressed the crown in, and this time the minute hand pointed from the 23rd tick mark to the 22nd.

Was it working? A part of her had expected something a little bit flashier, like a beam of light engulfing her when she went back in time, or something mystical like that. To make sure the enchantment truly had activated, Clearsight hopped up onto her bed and lay down on it. Then, she pressed the crown in again —

— and immediately she was standing in her room facing the watch. Seven twenty-two in the morning.

By the moons, it's really working. She tried one last test. She ripped the blankets off of her bed and threw them to the floor, and then took her pillows and threw them out of her room and into the dark hallway just outside. And when she grabbed the watch and pressed in the crown — seven twenty-two. She looked over to find that her bed was neatly made as it had been before she messed it up.

She was convinced. Closing the watch one last time, she went to her desk and opened her drawer of personal belongings — which mostly consisted of notes she'd written of particularly happy memories and futures that she liked going back and revisiting. She put the watch into the drawer and shut it. And that's the last I'm ever going to see of it, she thought. From this point forward, that watch doesn't matter. From this point on, the future is going to go the way I want it to go.

She stepped into her bed and threw her covers around her. The candle went out.


A/N: Silly Clearsight: if your convictions ended up being fulfilled, then I wouldn't have a plot. :)

Thanks again to ShadowVulpi for beta-reading this chapter, and thank you for reading it. I'm always eager to hear your thoughts and impressions, so never be afraid to post a review — even if you're just telling me that you like (or hate) the story so far. Your feedback so far has been inspiring and constructive. There's always more for me to learn, and always new perspectives for me to hear.

See you in the next chapter!