Things weren't working the way they were supposed to. He needed a vision, he wasn't sure why, but he knew he did. He had gone through ritual after ritual and could not see beyond the violent maelstrom of emerald. Tradition was failing. He didn't know what he needed to see, needed to look for. The sands could not show unknown questions. It wasn't a pressure or insistence that came before visions he couldn't stop. It was a whisper on the wind caressing his ear like the softness of a man's final breath. It wasn't a demand. It was a question. It was a request to be seen. It was a call from afar and it was almost hypnotic in nature.

He had to know but the sands could not show him.

He gritted his teeth and launched the blank tablet at the wall, shattering it beside the others. He pulled at his hair and screamed in frustration. His visions were the only times where he felt he had any form of confidence. So, he could scream, he could yell, and for once he was in charge. Sure people could ask and he could give them what they wanted but, during the process, they did what he told them to do. His vision cave made him feel powerful and confident enough to display his levels of rage, confusion, and desperation. His breath sounded more akin to the growling of a great black beast than the exhausted panting of a human being.

"What do you want?!" He bellowed, voice echoing through his cave and bouncing off of the stone hallway.

"Wow, okay. I just wanted to know if you wanted to go swimming." Julieta's astounded voice sounded out behind him.

He covered his quickly reddening face, muffling his embarrassed response.

"Lo siento, not-not you." He sucked in a breath and pulled his sweaty hair out of his face before turning around to look at his hermana and hoping that all of those emotions did not show.

That behavior was not allowed outside of his room. People might be trying to convince him otherwise, but he was still Bad Luck Bruno and he knew it. How would people react to seeing him get so angry, or horrified, or sad? How would it look if the man who could predict the future displayed a sense of confusion or helplessness. He always tried to hold his head high when giving a prophecy but he was still ready to run. There were two types of Bruno. There was the Bruno that everyone knew and saw. That trembling and shy mess of a man that kept his head down and stayed quiet. Then there was the other Bruno. The Bruno that dominated the moment and knew exactly what to do. The Bruno that made demands and stopped people in their tracks. The Bruno that laid down rules that would not, could not, be broken.

The first Bruno was a man and nothing more. The second Bruno was the scar in the inferno of his marked temple of the temporal hereafter.

"Are you okay?" Julieta asked, seeing the shattered tablets behind him as she peered into the room through the doorway.

"Y-yeah I'm f-fine. Just ahm...keep not getting good answers."

"Has someone asked you for a prophecy?"

Demanding a prophecy from Bruno had become something almost forbidden. It was exactly Alma's intentions as well. People only asked him really important questions and it was Bruno who made the decision on yes or no. That was and odd change to adjust to. He could look someone in the eye and say no, no he wouldn't give them a prophecy. He'd never been allowed to do that and was still very much a pushover about these things. His family had actually taken to following him around sometimes for the sheer purpose of saying no on Bruno's behalf if it looked like the seer was going to give in.

The first time that happened Bruno had been unbelievably shocked when Pepa came stomping her way out of nowhere and very firmly told this person that no Bruno would not be giving them a prophecy about whatever stupid thing they had asked for. He couldn't even remember what it had been now. He'd gotten asked so many different stupid questions over the years and the first time since he'd come back someone heard him angrily ranting to his rats about it had been, even he could admit, funny.

He'd just been in his room, creating some fancier constructs for his rats to play in, along with shelves and paths along the walls to make it easier for them to get around. He'd been molding the stone into dust, digging out a tunnel, and had just been...talking. Well, more like yelling.

"How stupid is that? I mean just..ugh!" His voice rose to a high mocking tone. "Bruno I have to know what I should have for breakfast tomorrow? I wanna know so I don't choke on something." He huffed and rolled his eyes. "Just...what? How is that important?"

He opened the back of this throat and purposefully deepened his voice.

"Uh...I dunno. Have an avocado."

His voice rose high and mocking again.

"But I hate avocados." He whined before launching into a rant, gesturing wildly with his arms. "Then don't have a freaking avocado! That's how food works. You don't like something? Oh, simple fix there. DON'T EAT IT! You could choke on literally anything at literally any point in time!" He turned to look at the rat on a newly constructed shelf, arms still flying through the air. "Next time, I swear Marco, I'm going to tell them that they need to drink a glass of tea made from the bark of a two-hundred year old boojum tree! Just, go. Go now and stop asking me all these stupid questions."

He huffed and went back to his molding.

"Where could they possibly find a two-hundred year old boojum tree you ask?. That's the best part because I don't even know! I don't even know what an boojum tree looks like and I don't think they even grow here! I don't really know much about verdure but I'm pretty sure that desert trees do not grow in the Encanto."

Then he heard a small squeak behind him that definitely did not some from any of his rats. He turned, and Dolores was standing in the doorway, biting her lip and staring at him. Her eyes were almost always wide like she was surprised but he felt like this was probably genuine as she couldn't hear inside any of their rooms.

"You're going to tell everyone aren't you?"

She just told him it was time for lunch and scampered off. Oh dear. Lunch went exactly the way someone might expect after having one of the world's worst gossips stumble upon that little scene. At least it dissolved some tension between family members from frustrating encounters. It was after that reveal that his mamá tried to really lay down the law on the town as to what was an acceptable question for a prophecy.

No one had asked for a prophecy though, so the sands showed him nothing.

"Ah, well. No actually. I'm just….practicing?" He scrambled for some answer other than the truth.

Julieta just squinted at him.

"Swimming?" He asked, changing the subject back to the original.

"Yeah, just a kind of family outing."

"We do family outings now?" He whispered conspiratorially and she laughed at his joke.

He decided to tag along. It was better than continuing to do what he'd been doing all day. Besides, if he didn't then Mirabel would drag him out by his hair, he was certain of it. Of course, the moment he reached the lake he wound up making a scene because a great deal of his rats decided that they wanted to go swimming too. Even he could admit that it was hard not to stare when a collection of nearly twenty rats scampered out from beneath someone's clothing to splash around in the water. He wasn't comfortable taking off much of his clothing to go swimming, he knew he was skinny enough to turn some heads, so he'd spent his time on the shoreline, walking or sitting in the shallows with his rats.

He had wound up showing off a bit when Felix, Agustin, Camilo, and Mirabel had gotten into a stone skipping contest. When he'd noticed, he bit his lip and tried to decide if he really wanted to do what he was thinking about doing. Some quiet little thing in the back of his head urged him forward and, for the pure purposes of procrastination, he spent time gathering a few of the stones around him and carefully molding them into smooth ovals, dust and sand falling between his fingers as he did so. The group had been arguing about exactly how many skips Agustin had really gotten or if he'd miscounted. Bruno had just slid in between Felix and Agustin, who were the ones who were really having the argument, wound his arm back, and slung the stone out over the water. The group watched in silence, all four counting, and Bruno had swiftly ended the argument with a total of eighteen skips.

He'd just nodded, turned, and gave a smirk that kind of matched the rumors spread about him.

"I did actually leave sometimes. There really isn't much to do."

"Soooo." Mirabel twiddled her fingers. "You spent a decade learning how to skip stones?"

"Among other things." He shrugged.

He was actually really glad he'd tagged along because the stone skipping brought out a revelation and he nearly smacked himself. One they got home he went straight up to his tower and started working on something he'd never thought of.

He was going to make a new vision cave. After all, over the past decade, he'd learned that there were many different ways to see the future and now he knew which kind of magic called to him. This was going to take a while though. He grit his teeth in frustration but took a breath. He was just going to have to deal with the niggling feeling in his gut for a while longer. It made it hard to eat sometimes though but "fake it 'till you make it" had become somewhat of a motto for him. Not that his family seemed too happy about it once they'd realized that. It was actually Camilo who called him out on that. One actor to another, Camilo could spot a show when she saw one and he was exactly the kind of person to immediately ruin that show with some commentary.

What a little brat and far too much like his father, who kept interrupting his construction. Of course, he didn't actually know he was interrupting anything important because Bruno would rather swallow a hot coal than talk about the other things he'd learned he could do. He was still discovering new things that he could do and he was trying his best not to completely freak out every time he found something new. So far he hadn't succeeded. Whatever it was that he'd discovered usually ended up being smashed in some way or another. Eventually he'd get over the shock of things and start playing around with it.

Manipulating sand into stone or stone into sand was taxing to say the least so, his work was slow going. The first thing he'd noticed when he'd gone back to his tower was the open ceiling. That hadn't been there before and Bruno thought to himself that perhaps, the room changed to accommodate a new level of his gift once he was ready for it. It was him who had to make the effort though. He was willing to do that even if the process had taken a month and he was going crazy from that little feeling that whispered into his ear on a soft breeze.

By the time he'd finished creating a ledge, hidden amongst the cliffs, he'd collapsed from exhaustion and, when he woke, there was small puddle of blood that had streamed from his nose onto the ground. He'd hurriedly scrubbed the blood off of his face when he heard someone calling him from below. His eyes grew wide. It was the middle of the night, what was Pepa doing in here? He rolled over and laid flat on his back. He hadn't closed the door to the stairs he'd made. He swallowed and prayed to whatever god might be out there that Pepa would not find it. Out of everyone, if someone were to discover the new levels of his gift, the last person he wanted it to be was Pepa.

She'd get angry about him keeping secrets. What could he say? He was a man of mystery. Alright, no he wasn't he was just a guy who enjoyed his privacy and was scrambling for some sense of control in his life. This was his power, his secret, and it was only he who had control here. He knew he couldn't close the door from here and hide the stairs so, all he could do was cling to a hope and try to forget exactly how often hope failed him in the past. He couldn't throw salt over his shoulder, he'd have to stand to do that. He settled for crossing his fingers as it was the best that he could do with no wood to knock on.

He heard her yelling and he heard her start to thunder. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes. He couldn't look. He was sure he'd jinx the situation if he looked. After a few minutes he heard his door slam shut, she seemed to be in a bad mood, and he went boneless while giving out a sigh of relief. He'd wait a bit, go down the stairs, close the door and hide the room before leaving to see what she had wanted.

As it turned out his rat, Marco, had found his way into her dresser drawer and, honestly, with the way Marco could get Bruno wasn't surprised. That little brown devil loved to get himself into trouble. He'd muscled his way through the rest of the day and, come sunrise, he crept his way out of Casita and discreetly bought a single quartz crystal before scampering back to the house before anyone saw him. That night he'd snuck out again, carrying a bucket down to his lake, and filled it with water. Lugging the pail up the stairs had not been fun but the results were spectacular.

He'd formed a large divot in the stone floor on the ledge and firmly jammed the crystal into the rock, rooting it firmly. He poured most of the water in, stepped back, held out his hands, and concentrated. He wasn't even sure if this was going to work. It was different this time, it looked different, the magic flowing from his hands and he almost stopped at the sight of it. It was that same liquid emerald that entwined his fingers but now, from those small bands grew a symbol that hovered above the water filled divot. A simple thing. A green triangle within a circle that spun 'round and 'round and the harder he focused the faster it spun. Right before his eyes that one small crystal began to drink in the water from his lake and grew. It formed more crystals that all grew higher and higher. He could see individual crystals growing within and forming new levels at the structure's core. It rose until it stood, tall as his waist. He didn't stop there though. He leveled it out and brought forth a new kind of focus. He laid his hands flat atop the crystal table and began to mold it into a small bowl at the top. The symbol broke apart and fell into his palms, spinning opposite now as he wiped away fine white dust that crumbled beneath his palms and swept it into a bag.

This time, he hit the floor hard and found himself dizzy and sick when he tried to sit up. Oh, he was going to need some of Julieta's food. Once he could start crawling his way down the stairs that is and crawl he did. He found barely enough strength to seal the door and hide the stairway before he passed out again. He awoke to a pounding in his head and a ferocious knocking at the door. That was probably Pepa again. She had an odd level of very aggressive protectiveness. He'd forgotten that about her.

One thing that bloomed within him was a marvel at the fact that he could create something as beautiful as that crystal table.

Oh the day seemed to crawl by. This wasn't something he could do during the day though. So, he had to wait. He'd secretly bought a glass vial, instinctively knowing what he would need. When the time came and his family was asleep he opened the hidden doors and made the ascent to his newly formed vision cave. He'd never made one himself. He was pretty proud of it actually. He stepped out onto the ledge, exposed to the sky and stared into the stars. He looked up at those flickering orbs of cold light and could almost feel himself ascend into the heavens with them. He felt a soft caress from them, a whisper in his ear, and he felt calm. He felt beyond calm. He was at peace with everything, with the world, with himself, with his family. Everything. He stood there with not a care in the world, a soft smile blooming on his face. He stepped forward with the absolute certainty that he could do this.

His room was black as night aside from that cold and distant light and it was exactly what he needed.

He looked into the water and that niggling little feeling faded away as the stars began to dance, whisper, and show him what they wanted to tell him. In those moments, hidden away in the twilight hours, Bruno really could touch the heavens themselves as they came down to greet him. He could see shapes, hear voices, coming from the water, illuminated by starlight and crystal. He gripped the edges of the basin and let himself drift away.

He could see it. See it like he was watching through a window. He could see Dolores, she was yelling and she never yelled. He could see that man, whatever his name was. Mariano? Looking angry as well which was a strange expression to see on his face. Bruno squinted, he couldn't hear the argument as the stars decided it was unimportant. By instinct he grabbed the powdered crystal and sprinkled it into the water watching how the ripples changed how the stars whispered. Through his dazed state, he grinned. As the water stilled he saw a wedding. He saw their wedding. He tapped his finger on the surface of the water, knowing he had more to be shown, and heard the cry of a babe before seeing Mariano cradling an infant and looking down at the child with as much care and love than anyone could ever hope for.

Still in his trance he grabbed the glass vial and filled it to the brim with the stars' message as they grew silent. The liquid inside was like opal that rippled and drifted inside the glass. He turned to another shelf he had made just inside the hall that led to the cliff's edge and set it down gently.

"Thank you." He said, staring back up at the twinkling lights before descending the stairs and collapsing into bed, fully relaxed, and completely at peace. He couldn't remember having fallen asleep so fast in his entire life.