I was at the breakfast table in my mother's mansion. I was playing with the cube—and well, playing was an understatement.
"519 quintillion arrangements. One twelfth solved in seconds, because it is only solvable in that amount. Only possible because I can perceive from a higher plane. I'm totally bored, Edmund-sensei. What is my purpose?"
"To pass the butter."
"..."
"What?"
"Oh, sorry. I was playing with you. You remind me of your father. You perceived it mechanically, and thus it was boring. You're just like him."
Yeah, well. I never came into this world looking for perfection. I came looking to run away.
"It only took me a few weeks to get it down to this speed from this amount. I presume you're going to give me two cubes to solve at once now?"
"Young Thales…" He coughed—not because he needed to, but as a gesture.
"This may be a strange question to you, but I ask because you're so extraordinary in many ways. Some could be dismissed as potential, like your cube ability. But your piano playing—you had no prior knowledge and yet you were intimately aware. You also read without being taught, so this old man can't even read to you."
He laughed heartily.
"What I'm trying to say is—have you potentially reincarnated?"
"Hmm, no. This is my first life."
He squinted his eyes at me. He seemed to believe me—which was the correct thing to do. Because I was telling the truth. I have never lived before this.
"I suppose that makes sense. If you didn't remember your past life, you wouldn't possess the knowledge of prior experience anyway. I suppose you're just a simple absurdity. It seems that prophecy may have some weight to it."
"I really thought the chaos magick heretics might have pulled something, but they're banned from this world—it has been divined. There are races: the Feys, the Naledi Nymphs, or that other one… they could have pulled it off. But it wouldn't have gone unnoticed. You truly are a mystery—but some of it can be explained away by providence."
For once, he said a lot of unusual things to me. I had some questions.
"What providence, Edmund-Sensei?"
"It has been reported by our House's representatives in the Court of the Elohim that a new Sage will be created from House Miray. Potentially now—it is the era."
"Really? I don't really know what that stuff means. Like… what is a Sage?"
"The Sage is the ultimate of this world—or at least our part of it. We are cultivators. And we cultivate chaos. That is our divine right. There is no need to ask what the meaning of life is in this world. For chaos is raw potential—and life is the endless realization of such potential."
"How do I do that?"
"That is not for me to answer. You will find out after your Trial. On your first birthday."
"What do you mean first? I was born three years ago, based on the clocks."
"First because we only count the cycles as moments of birth every five years. Those born in this world are given Trials until they're fifteen—when they come of age."
"It seems circumstances will change when you're ten, though. We'll see. I don't know your path. But when you're fifteen, you might face the competition of a Sage's Succession. This is when—"
"No, now isn't the time. You must complete your Trial."
"I see. Thanks for the information, Edmund-Sensei."
—
Later, I was walking around my mother's mansion. It was connected to a door…
And then I saw her—from a relatively far distance.
She was... well, she was strange.
She had fiery red hair, blood-stained.
But she had an alluring eye. It was like a glassy blue sky. Yet strangely, her eyelashes were white, despite her red hair—which didn't seem dyed. And weirdest of all… she wore an eye-patch.
She tilted her head.
Wait—could she see me?
Who was this fairy?