The blank white space in front of me was filled in as quickly as my quill would allow. I drafted the letter with such incredible speed that it almost looked like the ink was magically appearing upon the page. In reality, it was a careful performance—I had to precisely gate my speed to prevent the friction from burning the paper to bits—but over my many long years in office, I had honed the art to perfection. Scribble after scribble, I filled the pages. I went through a dozen pieces of paper at once before inspecting my handiwork, grabbing my stamp, and sealing the letter with a wad of wax.

My lips were twisted into a frown throughout. Though certainly a pain—the document was one that entailed the proposed damming and diverting of a major river—it was not the contents of the letter that had driven the expression, but rather the sheer number of such papers sitting atop my desk. I couldn’t tell exactly how many there were, courtesy of the mess that was the scattered pile, but I would’ve been shocked had a count turned up shy of three digits.

It had been four hours since I had risen from my bed, and I had been hard at work ever since. I’d only stopped once for breakfast, and otherwise worked throughout the day. Even with the prior knowledge that had accompanied my visions, I was shocked by the sheer amount of work that plagued me. There was more of it than I could have ever imagined and far more of it than I had thought myself willing to handle.

Ironically, most of it still had to do with the army. Though we had fought nothing but skirmishes in the past few hundred years, I was still responsible for maintaining our standing force. I didn’t like it, but our military prowess was key to keeping the peace. It was only because we were such a major threat, because we could fight unchallenged on three fronts, that we were able to maintain the status quo. Needless to say, it wasn’t a perfect solution, but considering the alternatives, I found it worked well enough that I wasn’t about to complain.

A smile appeared on my lips as I got up from my desk, stretched my back, and pushed open the doors that led out onto the veranda. Stepping outside, I immediately found my usual frown painted right over with a massive grin.

The view was gorgeous. From my place above the clouds, atop my floating fortress, I could see Valencia, Cadria’s capital, in all its shimmering glory. The city extended so far in every direction that it likely would have eaten the horizon had we been any lower. But up as high as we were, the most distant views were replaced by the sweeping, golden fields beyond the city’s outskirts. Wheat and hay extended as far as the eye could see, but it was not the bountiful harvest that had inspired the uncontrollable smile.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Violet was sitting in the garden, reading a book out loud beneath the gazebo’s shadow. She said each sentence slowly, her finger moving across the page to show the letters’ positions. In her lap, our daughter followed along, repeating each word with an adorable lisp. Most other moose her age likely would have rejected the education in favour of physical activity, but Claire sucked it all up with her eyes alight. One day, she would likely become a great scholar. I just knew she would.

Every time I looked at her, at them, I found my face beyond my control.

Every time I looked at them, I couldn’t help but feel like I had made a difference.

She was indisputable proof.

I had changed the future.

Sometimes, I still thought back on the visions that Vella had shown me, on the son that I might have had in her stead. And though my affection for him still lingered, in spite of his non-existence, I couldn’t help but feel like I preferred my daughter. The conflicting conclusion had echoed through my mind since the day she hatched. It wasn’t like I had really hoped for a son per se and having a daughter instead certainly put my mind at ease, but it just felt so strange to have my expectations defied.

I had proudly and confidently proclaimed to Violet for nearly ten full centuries that our child would be a boy. Needless to say, she had laughed my ear off when my predictions proved totally off base. I could only grumble as I recalled all the teasing that followed. I was made a victim of her bullying for a few weeks at least.

Even just recalling it led me to bury my face in my hands. I could feel my face flushing beneath the weight of the shame. Still, I couldn’t help but smile. It was better for me to be wrong.

Looking down at their smiling faces again, I puffed up my chest with pride.

It had been a long, long road. Many long days and nights had been invested into my fantasy’s fulfillment—a full thousand years of effort. But in the end, it was all worth it.

I saved my wife and child from the fates that Vella had written; I set everything right and fought back the goddess’ future.

I would have loved nothing more than to watch over them some more, but my battle was far from over. There was much to be done and no time to do it; to preserve the peace and keep myself from the battlefield, I would have to work my pen as hard as I had worked my spear.

With that thought in mind, I wandered back indoors, sat down at my desk, and grabbed a fresh page of parchment.

I had to take a few moments to focus. It was almost impossible to return to work with my daughter’s smile drawn all over my mental canvas. But eventually, reluctantly, I was able to dye my mind in white.