No Future

I climbed up to Missol’s room to find her putting on her signature cloak and sword belt before storming out into the castle. Taking this as my chance, I punched the window in to give me room and jumped inside. Like Taresa only a half an hour ago, I began rifling through all her belongings, but unlike her, I made no effort to be subtle. My impatience was rewarded with the object of my desires: My Control Wand.

It was strange how this simple piece of wood onto which numerous runes were carved controlled my very existence. Curious as to what would happen if I used it on myself, I held the stick and said ‘Clean.’

I felt my body taken over once more, and I began working to clean up the mess I’d made. However, unlike before, I could break free of the overriding directive and regain control of my body. Uncertain as to what would happen if I broke it, I wrapped it in a cloth, bound it in string and gently set it into my satchel.

My freedom now secured, I snuck through the keep proper, expecting to find it empty with all attention focused on catching the spies out in the forest. I heard no footsteps and encountered no one as I descended to the first level kitchen and found a backpack, which I filled with as much preserved food as I could carry. Loaded for bear, I ascended back to the second level and departed through one of the side doors.

Emerging into the shadow cast by moonlight, I found Javier standing there. Barefoot and breathing hard, still in his sleeping clothes, his blindfold drenched in sweat he yelled “Loiel, don’t go!”

“Good to see you this fine evening, Javier.” I said, bowing. “I am going, and you cannot stop me.”

“Please, wait, reconsider.” He said, “I saw clearly, so clearly tonight. This moment, it’s a fulcrum point! Things will change, the future will change so much. If you leave, I don’t know what will happen! I saw so many different things where you died, where we all died.”

“Do we still die if I stay?” I asked, scanning our surroundings. There was nobody else here, and no one seemed to notice. I caught sight of the stables and saw a whole host of mounted soldiers sally out and through one of the side gates, the one closest to the forest where the intruders had fled.

“Yes, but there are fewer variables there, it will be easier to change! There won’t be so much uncertainty! You have a higher chance of living, we all do, I’m certain of it.”

“How miserable am I in that future?” I asked, “In any of the futures where I stay?”

He remained silent for a long time, long enough that I had to command him again, “How miserable am I in those futures!”

“Miserable. Terribly miserable in all of them.” He said, shaking his head. “You are never happy.”

“I am curious. I will reveal a secret to you, and I want to know if you will know what it is before I reveal it.”

“In all the futures I see, you never say anything.”

“Then it’s something God doesn’t want you to know. I’m not from this world, Javier.”

“What?” He asked, pausing to think, “Nothing. There’s no future where you’ve said that. There’s no future that branches out from that moment.”

“Good, then we are on a path that you cannot see, and what God doesn’t want you to see.” I said, “Or maybe it’s something God cannot see.”

“What do you mean ‘not from this world’? I don’t understand.”

“I’m from another world, a place called earth. I died there from a plague. And I know where this path leads. It won’t lead anywhere. Say you strip everyone of class and allow people to make their own social order. You know what will happen? People will make class all over again, with nobles, commoners and slaves. They’ll monopolize wealth, knowledge and property and use that to differentiate class. They’ll dress it up in different ways, but that structure never changes.”

“Then you’ve seen the future too?”

“Not this place’s future, but another world’s future. Another humanity’s future. Better to say that you are trying to contact the one True God to discover the ultimate truth or some other metaphysical reason, than to claim that you are going to make people equal under the sun. Sure, there are people like you and I who really do believe in equality, but there are just as many who don’t, no matter what you do. They’ll be the ones to enforce castes on others.”

“I cannot believe that Loiel. We’re different, we must be different, I’ve seen it, a future where we are all happy and equal under the sun.”

“And what path did that take?”

“You had to leave to make that happen. That path relied on so many things outside of my vision, so many variables that it may as well have been a fantasy.”

“God doesn’t really show you the future, does It? No, you’re extrapolating the most likely future based on all the variables you’re aware of. It’s not prophecy, but prescience.”

“Prescience? How is that different?”

“It’s not coming from someone else, it’s coming from you.” I said, tapping him on the forehead. “I’m going now, and be safe. Do what you can to make sure the good ending happens. I will go, be free, and one day come back to have my revenge.”

“Revenge?”

“Of course. I still hate all of you for what you’ve done. The ends do not justify the means, even if the end is paradise. You of all people should know what little power we have over the outcome.”

Sprinting into the darkness, I left Javier there, weeping.