Just a Bystander

On the Sidelines

'A life is a collection of moments, strung into years. Some loom larger in our minds than others, but even the least-remembered moment has its part in shaping our fate. One seemingly inconsequential moment can change a life, and one seemingly inconsequential life can alter the course of history.'
- Excerpt from a model essay, 'Fateweavers - Are Their Powers Real?'

Today was supposed to be a special day. My special day.

I worked hard to get here. The Aiestan Academy takes in only about a hundred candidates every year and on average the number of applicants is around two thousand. That's two thousand capable people who have already proven an exceptional aptitude for the Art, out of a population of about eighteen million. Anyone's grandmother can use a well-calibrated artefact with the barest fart of arcana, and the average person can probably only recognise the basic set of activation glyphs and doesn't even know how the read the others, let alone make them. Anyone who wants to even dream about entering the Academy needs to be functionally fluent with glyphs, and also put in the years of practice and dedication to build up the capacity to be able to do glyphless work.

So yeah, it's a big deal that I got in. My parents were happy, my sister was happy, I was happy.

And then the rumours started. There would be someone in my year who was the subject of a Prophecy.

These things supposedly roll around once every few generations. Small prophecies get made all the time and they skew the probabilities heavily in favour of the subjects of those prophecies, but they can sometimes just not come true too. But big Prophecies (the capital 'P' matters - my teachers hammered it into me) almost always come true unless a shitload of effort is put into thwarting them. It's the kind of stuff legends are made of. I only remember a couple of big Prophecies from history and the only one I remember that didn't get fulfilled basically failed because another nation poured everything they could into averting it and almost screwed the Empire over. But the Empire somehow managed to survive that mess even with the Chosen One dead, so apparently the Chosen One wasn't that important after all. It's a sore point for the pro-Prophecy people.

Anyway, as fate would have it, my entry into the Aiestan Academy would be overshadowed by the existence of a Chosen One.

Don't get me wrong - it is kind of exciting. Big Prophecies apparently come from the Fateweavers themselves. In the 4000-plus years of history of the Empire they've never come forward and proven they exist but somehow their Prophecies get spread about and people believe them, and believe they're real. If you ask me, it's just Empire propaganda to keep enemies at bay - people would think twice before they messed with anyone who has a group of arcanists who can twist the threads of fate.

It's just... I guess it's the kind of thing I'll feel excited about after awhile. But today, on my first day, I really just wanted to enjoy this win for myself.

'Do you know who it is? Are you gonna be able to tell? Will they have some sort of announcement?' my sister, Triss, asked breathlessly, her nose pressed against the car window as the Academy came into view behind a row of manicured trees.

'Did we really have to bring her?' I asked my father.

'What, and not let her see the big fancy Academy her brother's going to?' he replied, raising an eyebrow at me in the rear-view mirror. 'She'll hate me for a month.'

'Besides,' my mother said, turning to look at me from the passenger seat, 'we all want to celebrate and see you off. It's a big day for you, Caden.'

'It's not that big a deal,' I mumbled, trying to play it cool even though I felt a wave of self-satisfaction wash over me.

Mum smiled knowingly and joined my sister in excitedly pointing out the sights as we drew closer to the Academy. She expertly turned the topic away from the Chosen One and talked up a storm about the Academy itself. I felt a bit better, but also a little annoyed at myself for being so petty about it all. Maybe I'd make it up to her and send her an autograph from the Chosen One, if I managed to meet the person.