Ruby didn’t know what to think of the encounter they had with Lady Delphine, but it was clearly something they shouldn’t talk about. Nina was a ball of nerves for a while and avoided the subject at all costs. What Ruby wanted to know was if there was some sort of subliminal message intended for her or if it was mere coincidence that they had connected eyes. “Maybe I’ll never know.”

What she did know, however, was that she wanted to avoid the woman in the future. She had this chilly vibe that she wasn’t a fan of and was clearly someone of great standing. The fact that she had even mentioned a ‘Coven’ didn’t slip her mind either. On the other hand, Ruby couldn’t help but feel proud that even a person like that was interested in what she could make, even if she was a witch of sorts.

“Maybe now I’m still tainted by this whole ‘future breaker’ business, but I’m sure Opal is wrong. I’m sure that once I get my Class I’ll start making item after item and get some good money out of it. If Lady Delphine got interested in my design, I’m sure I can grab fish of the same weight one day.” She couldn’t help but daydream as her hands were back to knitting.

Mrs. Opal had some trouble getting back to herself and was now quieter than before. A simple glance and you could tell she was thinking about something, the words the devil woman had said probably. She did, however, order both of them to never speak of what had happened to anyone else, not even their families. Her curiosity about the matter was intense, but she worried that asking about it would make her commit a serious faux pas and she was trying to be done with those.

“Welp, it doesn’t matter. It gives us more time to work by ourselves.” She thought, looking around the quiet workshop as Nina kept to herself, sewing a hem of an old tunic.

It was relaxing. Just the two of them working slowly on their own projects. She kind of missed the sound of her sewing machine though, the second-hand model being always noisy but useful, able to finish work like the one Nina was doing in just a second.

“Hey Nina?”

“Hm?”

“Are there any machines around these parts that can sew?”

“Machines that sew? Haha, Ruby, you have quite the imagination. … Although, now that I think about it, I wouldn’t put it past Icecastle having some of those. Shameful if they take away the jobs of the real Tailors and Seamstresses, but it wouldn’t be a big surprise for them I suppose.”

“Ice Castle?”

“What!? You’ve never heard of Icecastle?”

“Nope.”

Nina gave her a heavy sigh. “Well, I don’t blame you either. Icecastle is the southernmost country in our continent, but also the biggest one. The country is under permanent snowstorms, but the magic in the area is so strong that the snow is actually magical. I’ve heard they even have machines of all kinds powered by the magical snow, but that’s just tall tales I think. A couple of my moms used to tell me stories about Icecastle when I was little, but I’ve never been there so I don’t know for sure.”

“Wow, it sounds… magical.”

“It sounds fake, but I share the sentiment I suppose. I've always dreamed about it since I was little, you know? I really want to go there once I get my Class. Whether it’s fable or not, rumors have to come from somewhere, right?”

The sole thought of a country with more advanced technology sounded dreamy, but to her still Earth-bound mind it sounded even crazier when she imagined it combined with magic. Nina had a point though, while it did sound like tall tales, the rumors don't come out of nowhere.

Fascinated with the idea of Icecastle, she couldn't help but ask. “Other question, you think they’ll hire a Seamstress if they have machines that do the sewing for you?” Ruby was just teasing, but Nina went quiet, seeming thoughtfully frustrated all of a sudden. Ruby didn’t push it and let the conversation die down there, no point in pushing Nina with her words.

----------------------------------------

Nina had goals.

Her mother never actually thought she had any, asking Mrs. Opal for the mentorship mostly because she didn’t know what other Class Nina would want.

Since she was a child, she had shown some interest in sewing and clothes, but she never truly felt satisfied nor inspired. She wouldn’t dare call herself as someone who was indecisive, but for the specific occasion of having to choose something to dedicate her life to, she just went along with what everyone else told her she should do.

More than once, her mom had told her time and time again of all the benefits of becoming a Seamstress and how it could easily help her get by. She wasn’t wrong, but it still didn’t feel like it would fulfill her completely. It felt so… dull.

Then, the day she got her mentorship, she heard her mom talking with Mrs. Opal and the old elf’s plans for the future. Her future. From that moment, things started to feel wrong and she wasn’t sure how she was going to get out of this, but she knew she had to do something.

But what was she supposed to do? She had gotten a mentorship already and it would bring shame to her cluster of parents to refuse now. She did want to sew and do clothes, she liked them, but she also felt like joining Mrs. Opal’s workshop would end up sewing her to a destiny she didn’t want. What about her dreams of Icecastle the magic of it all?

But, what did she really want? A simple backwater Seamstress travelling all the way to Icecastle on her own? It would be a death sentence.

The answer only came to her once she saw a beautiful red scarf adorned by glinting golden stars and cute white snowflakes. It spoke to her. It was then that she realized there was something in those stars that made her heart stir. Sadly, she couldn’t put a name or a specific word to what she wanted, but a half-answer was better than no answer at all.

Finding out, then, that such an artistic treasure kept the cold away from none other than a Future Breaker? Her first reaction was to feel afraid, but then she came to her senses and knew that this was her perfect chance. Her perfect chance to become a Seamstress but at the same time not a Seamstress. Could Ruby actually be able to do that? Make her a Seamstress that wasn’t one?

Information on existing Classes was very poor and kept a secret most of the time, hence the whole reason for mentorships. Mrs. Opal would probably hang her if she ever asked about her wish to be something else that wasn’t a Seamstress, but she needed to do something.

Nina had goals. No. Not goals. In time she realized she didn’t have goals yet, she had dreams.

Nina had dreams and none of them would ever come true if she was just a Seamstress. She needed to be something else, but what? Could the neighborhood’s Future Breaker actually help her achieve that or ruin everything?

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She tried to bring the topic into a conversation, but as the days, weeks and months started to get by, she was having a harder time trying to make that happen. She knew Ruby felt tense whenever the topic was brought up, though she couldn’t blame her. The women in these parts of the town were always gossiping while using their skills to carry their daily labors.

In fact, four out of her six fathers wanted to take her out of the workshop once they knew, but her moms let her stay once she asked. Ruby was her only chance to get something that wasn’t a Seamstress. Nina hadn’t been able to be decisive and firm when her mom, the one who gave birth to her that is, chose the mentorship in her sake, but she could at least be firm to not let others take this opportunity away from her.

Then, came the whole Lady Delphine debacle, which gave her the chance to put things into perspective. They had been visited by a noble — A Coven member, but a noble nonetheless — who came for no other reason than being interested in the scarves that Ruby made. This was a sign that Ruby actually had, not only the talent, but also the brains to create things outside of the norm. Was this the reason why she was a Future Breaker? Because she was so strange and weird that couldn’t help but affect those who surrounded her?

That made her take the decision.

She had to do this. She had dreams and she wasn’t going to let them melt like snow.

It took her a month, after the workshop and the orphanage had already been covered with packed snow, to gather the courage and finally talk to Ruby about it.

“Ahm, Ruby?”

“Yes?”

“So I was thinking, you know, things.”

“Mhm.”

“And so I thought, I mean- I was thinking, haha, you know, sometimes I think so many things.”

“…right?”

“So yeah, I thought that I was thinking that you kind of thought that when you think about things and-”

“Nina,” Ruby cut her off. “What is it?”

Nina kept quiet for a second and then took a long breath, putting her needle and the dress back on the working table. She proceeded, then, to move her chair so she could be facing Ruby completely.

“I have a favor to ask.”

The decisiveness took Ruby aback. The other teenager’s demeanor had changed to a very serious one and, unlike other times, she talked straight and didn’t avoid her gaze. Ruby noticed, however, that the girl’s fists were tight and tense, but knowing that she was trying her hardest right now was enough to leave all traces of teasing aside. This was important.

“Okay, I’m all ears, what can I help you with?” She asked genuinely, though she couldn’t help but feel proud at how Nina was carrying herself right now.

“I-” Nina felt her fists going tighter than before. “I want you to break my future.”

Ruby closed her eyes for a second and then opened them again, trying to understand what Nina was saying.

“Excuse me, you want me to what?”

“Ruby, I-” Nina paused, though this time stared at the door, agitated thinking that Mrs. Opal was going to burst through at any minute. “I need you to break my future, Ruby! Please!”

After a long and winded explanation from Nina, Ruby realized the kid was desperate. She brought back the talk they had about Icecastle and how she really wanted to accomplish her dreams. She had thought that dreams were just that, dreams, but when Lady Delphine came to the store just to take a look at Ruby’s scarves, she knew that her dreams were possible. The only thing she needed to do was take action. If she didn’t do anything, nothing would ever happen and she was going to end up stuck in this cave of a workshop for six hundred years, like Mrs. Opal.

The only thing that had held her back, besides her personality of course, was the fact that she was nervous about not getting a good class, one that could take her to new heights from the start.

She knew that changing Class is possible, she could start with the Seamstress class and try to climb to something more specialized through the years, but how long would that take? What would it take? What kind of challenges would she have to go through without having the right Skills? Everyone knows that it’s easier to go from Warrior to Mage then from a Water Mage to an Ice Mage. But what if Ruby fucked it up? Was there something more common than Seamstress? With half a year of preparation, there was no chance she would get something like Tailor, but did that mean she was locked-in to Seamstress?

It was now the time to change things up and go for something else or it would be too late.

Ruby, on her part, couldn’t help but think, an idea slowly coming to her mind.

“Will you do it, Ruby? Please!?”

"Wait, calm down for a second, just... let me think for a minute..."

Ruby thought about the consequences of what it would mean for her if she tried, actively, to help Nina get another Class. Then, she realized that nothing would probably change. Aurelia had said it quite well some time ago. It’s not that they hated her less for being what she is, it’s just that they had been less vocal about it. Xanis was nowhere close to forgive her and Theo… Theo might understand with an explanation… probably.

After some more thinking, however, with a heavy heart she was about to say no.

She still wanted Theo’s relationship to get better and it wouldn’t help if word spread that she was breaking more futures. But… something didn’t feel right. She didn’t know if it was the pleading look on Nina’s face, or if it was something else, but she realized that most of her thoughts were not on what was right or wrong, but on what kind of design she could make for this new opportunity.

She was feeling inspired. She wanted to create something new. She wanted to stop knitting these bloody scarves already and just make something new and creative. How could she say no when she finally had a chance to work on something new? The opportunity was right here.

“Maybe I’m fucking crazy, maybe everyone will hate me even more, but I got Mrs. Sianna’s favor with my scarves and landed this mentorship with the pregnancy gown. It has always been risks. It’s always been risks and this is no different.” Ruby thought, her fists now as white as Nina’s, who was expectantly waiting for a reply.

“UGH, FINE! I’ll help you!”

“Really!?”

“Y-yes, but, there’s a single problem with me doing this.”

“And what’s that?”

“I don’t really know how to ‘break your future’”

“… What?”

----------------------------------------

Okay, Ruby did have a slight idea on what to do. She had changed Theo’s class from Guard to Detective, which was basically what Nina wanted, but the sewing version. If Theo was able to get something else by doing something in the same alignment yet still different, maybe it could work with Nina as well.

So, if this was going to work somehow, then Nina would have to start sewing something, but completely different from what they have been doing so far in the workshop. No more robes, no more tunics, no more smocks or simple coats. She had to do something that would cause enough repercussions to change the course of her life. She had to do something big, really big.

“Say, Nina, in how much trouble are we going to get ourselves into if we use Mrs. Opal’s fabrics without her permission?”

Nina’s eyes went wide, but after experiencing Ruby’s talent and level of skill for months, she knew that whatever they made, it was going to be mesmerizing.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well, I was thinking that, maybe the right step would be to find something more specific than Seamstress, yes? Like, it would make you special if you can make garments very few can, right?”

“Special!?” Her eyes started to glint, hope completely filled her tone.

“I’ll take that as a yes. So, if you want to make special clothes, shouldn’t we make you a special outfit for your awakening night?”

“For my awakening night…?”

“Yeah, unlike most people think, you don’t really need to take two days to make a dress, you can take months if that’s what you need. We can work on it together and then, by the time it’s time for you to get your Class, you’ll show everybody what your dreams are made of.” A smirk appeared on her face as she quickly went to get a stick of charcoal. "Sue me Hilary Duff, we're doing this."

“What my dreams are made of...?” Ruby could tell Nina’s mind was racing, her face exuding happiness as she daydreamed of what her future would be. Soon, Nina’s palms were already on the table, asking non-stop about what to do and where they were going to start. Sadly, Nina’s tail did not wag like that of Aurelia’s when she was excited about something.

“Tits up Nina, we're staying late tonight.” Said Ruby as her hand moved with agility over the old piece of parchment.