War Of Men

Arcane

A/N: Okay, so I know the music is modern and has lyrics but I found a fair amount of it made ship scenes really atmospheric. Though I was listening to another playlist while writing the first half of the chapter and have to say, Across the Stars is a nicely dramatic song for the forest scene.

She would never walk again.

She'd known it for days now, but it still didn't feel real. She told the doctors as much and insisted they must be wrong. They said if so, it would be a blessing. They claimed that because the spirits had saved her, maybe they'd fix her spine too. Arcane knew better. The spirits hadn't cared. She owed her life to Sabrina.

When Sabrina took over from Emilee, Arcane reassured her that she didn't have to. The Rindea had already done enough for her. But Sabrina had refused to leave on the first day and afterwards Emilee was in no state to nurse her. Arcane hadn't seen her at all, but she'd sent her sympathies. Emilee had sent hers too.

To Merari's disappointment, Lavia hadn't turned out to be the person behind the murders of the Eseterrian. Once guards and the prince had got involved, she'd begrudgingly given a few names. All of them gave a statement confirming her alibi. She had been sent off to her private estate for house arrest until her trial in a few weeks.

As time passed, Medea's headaches subsided, so the Voire gave Arcane a visit. She seated herself on the chair and smiled discontently.

'I wish I could have stopped it.'

'But if it's what the future required, you wouldn't have,' stated Arcane.

Medea raised an eyebrow. 'Arcane, this completely screwed up the future. De— The spirits are pissing each other off.'

They'd done a good job of agitating her too, but Arcane didn't say it.

'Why didn't you warn Emilee? Surely that wasn't part of the sacred timeline.'

Medea massaged her temples. 'I think that's the third time I've been asked that this week. Nope, the fourth, Tiresias asked me too, though he was the most understanding. Emilee needed to learn that lesson herself. Had I gone up to her and said, "Lavia's going to murder your sister," she would have trusted the next Lavia that came along.'

'I don't think you're giving her enough credit. I mean, I know she's gullible but... I think there must be something nice about being gullible. It means you haven't been lied to.'

'No, it means you aren't aware of the fact that you've been lied to,' Medea replied. 'Trust me, I wanted to tell her, but that future didn't work out well. I needed to say just enough so that they caught it in time. Unfortunately, this new future doesn't give her enough time to heal.'

Arcane crossed her arms. 'If you know everything, shouldn't you be sharing them with people? At least with Sutoku or the Chèr?'

'Tiresias knows a fair amount, but sharing this kind of information is dangerous. A timeline is only fixed until somebody sees the future. If that person changes how they act, they can completely alter timelines. Spirits sometimes too, they have a different degree of free will. If a timeline is altered by, say Gadeden, then a temporary timeline is created. Until it has settled, spirits can go against this timeline, causing a new one to replace it. This goes on and on, until they chill out. Hence if the timeline is stable and satisfactory, then I want to stick to it as much as possible.'

'And are you a fair judge of that? You're just a teenager, why should you be trusted to dictate everyone's lives?' snarled Arcane.

'Because I've been preparing for this all my life.' Medea got up and left. Arcane couldn't help but think it was rather childish. She needed to learn how to take some criticism if she was going to ruin people's lives like that. Then again, perhaps Medea didn't want to ruin lives.