-As written in the Tome of the Outcast by the Prophet-
As I projected my image beyond the veil, to a place the inhabitants called the Nexus, a blind prophet asked me, “If you did not believe the mythos of this Blackbird what then would be the path of your life?”
If I were to go back, and everything were different…
Had I not put on the Armor of the Spectres that day, the path of my life would have been cut very short. The Ministry would have slaughtered us all. I would not have been spared that fate. It was by the will of the Blackbird that any of us survived.
Had Kuro not found me in the desert as a child, the path of my life would have been cut even shorter. I don’t remember it clearly. I had been alone in the wilds and very sick. The Hawk and the Hare, I’ve been told, were arguing over whether it would be a mercy killing. But the fact that, with his medicine and the will of the Blackbird, I even lived through the night is what earned the Mystic his name.
Had my family not been in the southern outpost during the outbreak, though? Had we not left before the Divine used her magic to cure disease in the well? That change would have made all the difference to the path my life would take.
I would be healthy, hearty, still singing and dancing in the various outpost taverns along with my family. By this point, I may even have had children of my own, probably too young to play but old enough to clap their hands or clack wooden spoons, as I remember doing for my mother and father. I don’t know if I would have mastered any of the traditional instruments, though. My voice, even when I was seven, could earn quite its fair share in silver. I remember my mother often saying I had a gift that could rival a siren. She wasn’t wrong.
But the path my life took cannot be changed. And where that path ultimately ends - regardless of what the blind prophet says - will remain the will of the Blackbird. There is no going back, and I have accepted that. If it’s the end, then I am not afraid to die.
Going Back and Finding it All Different
As I projected my image beyond the veil, to a place the inhabitants called the Nexus, a blind prophet asked me, “If you did not believe the mythos of this Blackbird what then would be the path of your life?”
If I were to go back, and everything were different…
Had I not put on the Armor of the Spectres that day, the path of my life would have been cut very short. The Ministry would have slaughtered us all. I would not have been spared that fate. It was by the will of the Blackbird that any of us survived.
Had Kuro not found me in the desert as a child, the path of my life would have been cut even shorter. I don’t remember it clearly. I had been alone in the wilds and very sick. The Hawk and the Hare, I’ve been told, were arguing over whether it would be a mercy killing. But the fact that, with his medicine and the will of the Blackbird, I even lived through the night is what earned the Mystic his name.
Had my family not been in the southern outpost during the outbreak, though? Had we not left before the Divine used her magic to cure disease in the well? That change would have made all the difference to the path my life would take.
I would be healthy, hearty, still singing and dancing in the various outpost taverns along with my family. By this point, I may even have had children of my own, probably too young to play but old enough to clap their hands or clack wooden spoons, as I remember doing for my mother and father. I don’t know if I would have mastered any of the traditional instruments, though. My voice, even when I was seven, could earn quite its fair share in silver. I remember my mother often saying I had a gift that could rival a siren. She wasn’t wrong.
But the path my life took cannot be changed. And where that path ultimately ends - regardless of what the blind prophet says - will remain the will of the Blackbird. There is no going back, and I have accepted that. If it’s the end, then I am not afraid to die.