Just a Bystander

Challenging Fate

It was finally lunchtime. The Academy had a massive cafeteria that was capable of feeding the entire student population, but there were also two restaurants if someone fancied a quieter place, and the library also had a cafe. That was where we had decided to hunker down and trade notes about what had happened in our respective Advanced Glyph classes. 

'And then she told us that you actually can invent a glyph of ultimate power and effectively become a god, and that was just at the start of the lesson. I lost count of how many epic world-changing facts she dropped on us after that. I don't even know what else I don't know anymore.' I ran a hand through my hair in frustration.

'Hey, relax,' Kevan stopped shovelling food into his mouth long enough to look up at me. 'You're making me nervous.'

'But don't you get what this means?' My food was largely untouched. My hands refused to grip the utensils - they were too busy gesturing to signal my agitation. 'Some evil or crazy person can invent a glyph of ultimate power and--'

'Well, nobody's done it yet, right?' Jerric cut in. 'Think about it - if it were so easy, why hasn't someone like Reeves already gone ahead and made himself a god?'

'Who's to say he hasn't already done it?' Devon muttered darkly.

'I think if someone already invented this theoretical glyph of ultimate power, we wouldn't be sitting here eating lunch on a fine afternoon in the Academy,' Jerric insisted. 'I mean, really, if some guy had the secret to ultimate, god-like power, wouldn't he have literally taken over the world long before now?'

'If it were a guy, maybe. But what if it were a girl? A guy wouldn't be able to resist showing off, but a girl would be able to keep the secret,' Lynus said, grinning.

Kevan snorted at his brother. 'Please, a girl with ultimate power? She'd have all the men shackled and made into slaves.' 

I shook my head and half-heartedly spooned some food into my mouth. 'None of you are taking this seriously.'

'I get it,' Ambrose said. We all looked at him with a little surprise - so far he hadn't spoken up much, and this was probably his third or fourth time talking in front of everyone. He flushed a little with the sudden attention.

'It's serious,' he continued softly. He looked like he was going to say more, but then he shook his head and bent over his plate to continue eating. 

'Thus saith the Top Scorer's roommate,' Kevan deadpanned. Nobody laughed. 

After that awkward pause, we all lapsed into silence as we ate. Now that I was paying more attention, Ambrose did look quite bothered by something. Jerric seemed to catch the mood too - I saw him looking curiously at the quiet, black-haired boy. His eyes flicked over to me and he raised an eyebrow as if to ask me if I knew what was up with Ambrose, but all I could offer was a bemused shrug in response. Maybe I'd talk to Ambrose about it when we were alone - he seemed to be a little intimidated by the group setting.

Jerric cleared his throat and leaned in. 'So, anyway, I was thinking about what Reeves said on the first night. You know, about the Chosen One,' he murmured. 

I sat a little straighter, eager to hear someone else's thoughts on the matter. The others looked equally interested. Kevan's eyes swept over the place to make sure no one was listening in on us.

'Something doesn't add up. The Prophecy was made about two months back, right? And there was a positive identification of the Chosen One only last week. But Reeves said that he and his team have been working on that memory weaving for years.'

'I wondered about that too,' I said in a low voice. 'Either he's lying about how long it took, or the Prophecy and the Chosen One were made and identified long ago.'