Just a Bystander

No one had moved after Kevan's request. He continued looking steadily at Devon, who stared right back, with a frostiness in his gaze that Caden did not feel comfortable seeing in those usually gentle eyes. A heavy silence blanketed the room.

"... you can give me the shitty ones," Kevan muttered, breaking eye contact first.

Caden was so surprised that he let out a snort of laughter, then tried to rein it in. Devon was trying to maintain a stern look, but he happened to glance at Jerric just as he cracked a smile, and the facade fell apart. Devon turned away to hide the grin that was forming involuntarily, and when he failed to properly compose himself, he left the room, muttering, "I'll be back with the damn eclairs!"

"How are you feeling?" Emilia asked Kevan.

"I need a word with him first, alone," Lynus interrupted.

Emilia shot him a warning look as he made to stand up and drag his brother away. Lynus stopped in his tracks but did not back away. He glared at her, clearly unwilling to allow anything to get between him and the opportunity to exchange notes with his twin.

"How are you feeling?" Emilia repeated, directing it at Kevan even as she stared Lynus down.

"Kev, we have to talk," Lynus said a little more loudly, the hint of a threat in his voice.

"Ly, back off," Kevan said wearily, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We can talk later."

The twins' eyes met, and Caden thought he felt something stir in the arcana – some sort of subvocal communication. Lynus tensed, but it became clear that he knew he wasn't going to win this argument. He sat back down heavily, crossing his arms and throwing looks of worry mingled with anger at Kevan and Emilia.

"I've been better," Kevan continued, addressing Emilia with a wry smile. "But I think I'm still in one piece."

"I'm not talking about your physical condition," Emilia said seriously. "Do you remember what happened?"

He looked over at where Lynus was sitting, watching the conversation warily. "I remember we fought in some arcanic space. It wasn't real, but the pain... it felt real. And then you... he..."

He stopped, swallowed hard, and looked away, taking his head into his hands. Jerric shifted uncomfortably in his seat and opened his mouth to say something, but Kevan started talking again.

"I felt it happening. The tangling. And after that, you were going to cut and tear. But Devon stopped you, didn't he?" Kevan asked, looking up at Jerric.

He nodded slowly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about that."

Kevan gave a joyless laugh and buried his head in his hands again. "Well, I came at you first and got my ass handed back to me. That's on me, for being so weak, to begin with. I guess I should be grateful that Devon stopped you before you finished the job."

At that precise moment, Devon came in with a tray loaded with eclairs. He ferried it over to the nearest table and set it down, trying to convey some anger by doing so brusquely, but also failing to be sufficiently forceful because he was actually being as careful as he could to ensure the eclairs didn't fall off.

"Devon... thank you," Kevan said, not quite meeting his eyes. "For stopping Jerric, despite everything. Even after I... you know."

"Yeah, well, don't make me regret it," Devon muttered, crossing his arms. "You can start by explaining yourself. You and Lynus."

Kevan sighed and glanced at Jerric. "You remember what I showed you?"

"I do," Jerric replied. "I'm still not convinced the two of you are right about all this, but let's have it all out in the open."

"Kev, we really need to talk first," Lynus said once more.

"You really think we have a chance at this point, Ly?" Kevan asked in a deadpan voice. "We're not even on the backfoot here. We're down on the floor. We're beaten."

"But Kant said–"

"We're beaten," Kevan repeated, turning to face his brother, some of the fire returning to his voice. "But that doesn't mean there isn't another way around this. We tried it one way and it didn't work. Let's not be stupid about this."

"You know, it's stuff like that which makes me think that maybe I did the wrong thing in stopping Jerric," Devon said uneasily.

Kevan turned back to the others and shook his head. "I'm done fighting you guys. I think it's out of our hands at this point."

"Alright, then please explain this," Caden said, producing the knife from his pocket. He sent it drifting across the room, coming to rest above the table where the eclairs had been placed, where it rotated slowly.

Kevan glanced at it, then turned to Caden. "The Academy augera taught Ly and I those glyphs. Or rather, it imprinted them on our minds, and we know how to carve it onto something, even if we don't really understand it. We only realised it had given us this knowledge much later. When we first made contact with it, it told us that one of the anchors of the Prophecy was loose, and it wanted us to protect the new anchor. Later on, it became obvious that you were the loose anchor, and Emilia is the new one. It told us that the old anchor would 'be fixed', and we assumed that meant that the Prophecy was going to somehow make sure you weren't a threat to it. And the augera also said that the fate of the old anchor would be our choice."

Caden was listening intently, but at this point, he raised an eyebrow. "So you're actually free, in a limited sense. And you chose to use this knife. Do you know what it's supposed to do?"

"Well, the augera said the old anchor would 'be fixed', and we assumed that it meant that the glyphs were some way to stop, or undo, or mend any breaks in Prophecy that are a result of your actions." Kevan got up and started pacing in little circles. "It feels a little like a key to us, so we believe it seals your influence away somehow. And even though we don't know exactly what it does, the glyphs seem to intuitively fit on things that can be used as weapons. All in all, we think it's supposed to kill you and somehow stop your influence from spreading even after you're dead."

"Okay... and knowing that, or rather, believing that, you chose to use it on me?" Caden asked.

"... Yes," Kevan answered with a heavy sigh. "Because after all this, we got into a conversation with Kant. We stumbled on him and Reeves in some sort of fight, and Kant won. And since he won, he was able to give us a warning. He says that the augera are happy to have an ex-anchor running around, because ex-anchors have the ability to upset Prophecies, and they're hoping that you'll use that power to free all of them. But he also said that if the augera are freed, the Empire will fall."

"Kant is on your side?" Caden asked in disbelief. "Why does freeing the augera mean the Empire will fall? He thinks they'll all turn and destroy everyone, and we won't be able to stop them?"

"No, that's not the main reason. He said it's because arcanophany itself relies on the augera, somehow. Our glyphs, artefacts... they're the foundation. So freeing them will bring it all down."

This pronouncement brought Caden's thoughts back to that moment of epiphany he had almost had earlier in the day when he was thinking things over while waiting for the agents to be released from their stasis. He had realised that glyphs were not created. At least, not all of them. Some were simply discovered because the augera had already invested them with meaning even before a mortal mind had conceived of their use.

"So the only reason that arcanophany works, according to Kant, is because the augera are chained?" Caden pointed out, feeling a little breathless from the weight of that statement.

"Pretty much," Kevan said heavily. "And he believes that if they're freed, not only will arcanophany itself stop working, the augera will probably also take the opportunity to destroy the Empire, for revenge for their captivity."

"Which brings us to your choice," Caden finished. "Because according to what Kant said... If I live, and I unravel the Prophecy, the augera go free, arcanophany disappears, and the Empire will be torn apart by vengeful augera."

"Does our choice make more sense, now?" Kevan asked dryly.

"And what I said to you back then is that we should all be discussing this," Jerric jumped in. "You and Lynus may be the ones who make the choice, but the rest of us can still help you make a better one."

"I get that now," Kevan nodded, raising a placating hand. He shot a glance at his brother, who grimaced. "We get that now. We tried what we thought was right, and it didn't work, so now we're forced to listen. No offence, Jerric, but if you could beat both of us, then I'm pretty sure we won't stand a chance against Caden. Or Ambrose, if he happens to take that side of things."

Jerric did not know whether to look insulted or pleased, so he took an eclair to occupy himself.

"What are you thinking, Caden?" Emilia asked.

Caden kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. "For someone who's supposed to be unchosen, I seem to have a lot of shit landing on me."

"Unchosen doesn't mean you won't be caught in the middle of great and terrible things," she pointed out. "It just means the Fateweavers did not account for your existence."

"Yes, that's becoming obvious," he replied testily, drawing in a deep breath to calm himself. "But it seems you're all missing something. I'm not the one deciding factor here. Just because I'm unshackled from Prophecy doesn't mean I have all the power. We all have the future of arcanophany and the Empire in our hands. From what we've gathered, in theory, I have the freedom to act against the Prophecy, but all of you are anchors. If you support me, you'll tip Ambrose to my side and weaken the Prophecy, making it easier for me to change or even unmake it. If you don't, you'll tip him against me, and strengthen the Prophecy, which will probably make it impossible for me to do anything about it."

He turned to the twins and continued. "As for the two of you... in some sense, you do have more power than the others. The Academy augera specifically said you have the choice to decide what happens to me. I believe it means that if the rest of the anchors agree to get rid of me, you'll be the only two that have the full backing of the Prophecy to put that plan into action. So you were wrong to discount Jerric, Devon, and Emilia. That's probably why you couldn't beat Jerric. That, and you've misinterpreted a little bit of the augera's will. It was bound by the Prophecy to build in this possibility of me being stopped... but it also used that opportunity to hand me a weapon."

"A weapon?" Kevan repeated, looking a little apprehensive.

"Well... maybe not a weapon." Caden gestured, calling the knife forward so that it drifted over his open palm. "This knife... I think it does what you think it does – it can kill me, and probably do so in some specific, unique way that stops my influence. But the augera also snuck in another sequence, and it's meant for me to learn. I don't know what it is yet... but it has something to do with a part of my auric-ambient-flare, the part that makes me so valuable to the augera. So... it used you two as a vehicle to deliver this knowledge to me, even while it was forced to give you two the means to stop me."

Caden snatched the knife out of the air and pocketed it again. He stood and paced around for a moment, while the others watched him, waiting for him. He tasted the threads of Prophecy in the air, but also the subtle, subversive will of the augera, striving against it and fighting to give him this important platform to win their hearts and minds.

"... so it comes down to this. Before Ambrose arrives, the five of you have to decide if you believe that I can find a way to steer Prophecy, and figure out how to broker peace with the augera."