Soon, Connor was back home, and even sooner, he was on his desk with the Book of Fate in his hands. Naturally, there was quite a ruckus when he stormed in, waking the Book of Fate up.
"What the—!! Boy! You damn nincompoop! What in heaven's name are you doing stomping around the room so wildly?! Not even my most brazen owners were this careless!"
"Whatever! More importantly, look what I have here! Is this thing good enough to even slightly disguise my soul?"
"I'll have you know politeness does matter!" he heard the Book of Fate contest; it still asked for the brush nonetheless, no doubt curious of what he had to offer, "...Bring the damn thing closer; my eyes aren't what it used to be..."
Connor scoffed— books have eyes? Since when? But he obeyed, putting the brush directly on the Book's blank pages.
Connor waited excitedly; what if the brush was some secret ancient brush? Or it was used by some famous person long ago? Or maybe... made out of legendary materials! All these thoughts and more filled his head, amping up his already large expectations.
"Hmm... No, this will not do at all," Sadly, when he heard of its... slightly less than soul-crushing evaluation, Connor instantly deflated, beginning to pout like a petulant child...
"Now now, although not that great, this brush is certainly a step up! It's just the materials have no soul before its creation, meaning it can't really be used to disguise your soul," Having noticed his glum mood, the Book of Fate tried soothing the depressed Connor to no avail.
So in a last-ditch effort to cheer him up, the Book of Fate suggested another way of strengthening his brush: "Hai... How about this, if you find me some the materials, I can upgrade this thing, something like feathers, fur or the like,"
"Really!?" To its shock and surprise, Connor cheered up in an instant.
"Yes... But there is a certain chance of... well, breaking the brush," Again, Connor returned to his previous mood.
"B-But with a brush of this level, there's no problem at all! I'm just warning you for the future!" Only when he heard this did Connor recover, but this begets another question: does he even have anything like that?
'Well... there is one...' With only that option in mind, he shyly brought it up, afraid it wouldn't be enough, and he'd be back to square one all over again...
"Do you... Do you think a thunder-thrush would do?" He asked hesitantly; there was a brief moment of silence before he finally heard back:
"Why, it's more than enough! Bring me its feathers, and I'll enhance the brush for you!" Even before it finished speaking, Connor had already left for his mother, who had kept the thrush after Cretass returned.
"Mom!" He called for his mother.
"What do you need, honey?" She shouted back.
"You know the thunder-thrush we got? Can I have its feathers?"
"Sure! But I haven't de-feathered it yet, so if you want its feathers, you'll have to wait after supper!"
"Kay!" He turned to book, gave it an apologetic smile(It probably didn't notice, on account of its bad "eyes"), and left for the dinner table.
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After the meal, he finally got the feathers, though he did suffer through an interrogation from his mother.
'I wonder if they're any good,' He thought to himself as he entered his room.
Closing the door, Connor walked up to the desk; placing the feathers next to it, he asked the Book of Fate:
"Here they are! Good enough for you?" After a few seconds of silence, the book answered passionately.
"Heh! Like I said, they're more than enough!" The Book of fate immediately got to work, absorbing both the brush and the feathers before closing itself off from the world, making Connor wait in silence.
As Connor sat there, waiting for the Book of Fate to finish, he began to drift off into his own thoughts; All manner of ponderings passed through his brain: the party, his family and most importantly: what fate has in store for him...
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
'The Book of Fate said I had to prepare for Fate's attack... What would that even mean?' He mused to himself. Would Fate send evil monsters? Or maybe powerful people looking to take the book... What If his family was involved? He imagined all of this, and maybe a lot more... Nevertheless, they were just thoughts, something useless unless it was acted upon... With that in the back of his head, he slowly drifted off to dreamland...
"Oi, Earth to Connor" Slapping Connor out of his stupor was the Book of Fate.
"Ah! Sorry, I was taking a nap," Connor stared at the book, "Is it done? The brush, I mean,"
"Yeah, here it is,"
-Flip!-
When Connor opened the Book of Fate, it filled the entirety of the room with a soft, white light before the brush was slowly revealed to Connor.
He gasped, even a cursory glance told him magnitudes: the handle hadn't changed much, but that was to be expected. It was the tip, however, that had been significantly altered: the colour, down to the single strands, had changed from its tender white to more vibrant yellows.
"Although all of your feathers are good, I specifically made it from the down feathers; This makes it more tender, allowing for better-looking swipes in exchange for brush stability, but knowing you kid, I'd wager you already got the basics down pat!"
Unfortunately, he was too glued to the brush to pay any attention.
"..." The book was speechless, it was one thing to be ignored, but for this little shit to act like a total creep for an inanimate object is something else! In the end, its annoyance finally reached a boiling point, as it practically had steam shooting out of its (metaphorical) ears.
"Youuu... Are. You. Going to try the damn brush or not!!!" It raged, disrupting Connor's trance while also sending his ears to heaven in the process...
"Wha!? O-Oh, Yeah!"
"Huff, huff... Good! Now get writing! Or I'll personally ask fate to send you to the moon!"
"What's a moon? A-Anyways, I'll get to writing! Are you happy now? Sheesh..." Connor mumbled spitefully.
Sitting down, Connor began writing on the blank page. As his hands moved, he could feel a noticeable difference from the last time he used the brush! Faintly, he felt an unknown synergy between him and the brush he had never felt before!
'This! This is amazing!' He thought incredulously. Still, he never let go of his concentration on his brush, and after a few more swipes of his hand, he finally finished the sentence:
[I'd like free ice cream!]
"..." Naturally, the Book of Fate knew what he wrote and was absolutely flabbergasted. A sword? Fine. A bow? Sure, that's normal. Even a mace or whatever else, but using the practically infinite power of fate to get yourself free ice cream? The book felt like pulling its (non-existent) hair.
"What? I was hungry!" Connor explained righteously.
"Su—"
"Connor, I've bought some ice cream! Would you like some?" Interrupting the Book of Fate was Matilda.
"Hehe, I'll be back! Sure, mom!" Hearing her call, Connor smiled smugly and went down first, leaving the Book of Fate to ponder its life choices.
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"...Had your fill, eh boy?" When Connor went back into his room, the Book of Fate spoke to him.
"Yup!" He answered happily, rubbing his stomach in satisfaction. He continued, "So, can we resume our testing?"
"Hai... yeah sure," After an imaginary eye-roll, the Book of Fate relented and opened itself up. But even after a few seconds, it didn't feel the pressure from the brush.
"What? Did your balls suddenly shrivel up and die?" Connor blushed at the sudden vulgarity, though he managed to eke out a response:
"So... Can you explain what this upgrade improves?" Connor attempted to ask the Book of Fate for help.
"Oh? I thought lord fate-changer already knew the full extent of your abilities? I see no need to re-explain your majesty's power!" Sadly, the Book of Fate refused to budge and instead began to mock Connor.
"That isn't fair! I was just joking around before! I promise I'll be serious... Can't you please explain it to me?" Silence, it was still unwilling to help.
After a few more minutes of this, Connor finally had enough and gave up, saying:
"Fine, I'll do it myself..." but the Book of Fate was as silent as ever.
'Tch! I thought for sure that'd work... Whatever, I'll do this myself!' Psyching himself up, Connor began to test the limits of the brush manually:
[I want a diamond] He wrote
The moment he raised his brush, he heard a creaking noise. And when Connor turned to look, he was taken by surprise as right outside the window was an old man. And in his hands was a shiny ring.
"Is this yours? I saw it right under your window and figured you must've dropped it!" The man's rough tone sounded out. Connor nodded hesitantly before walking up to take the ring.
"T-Thank you," Connor barely manage to spit out thanks. The old man just smiled and said:
"No problem! But remember to be careful next time!" After this, he reclosed the window.
There was a moment of silence... Before Connor jumped up in glee.
"Woohoo!! I can't believe it actually worked!" He danced to himself, celebrating the fact that it had worked!
"Can't believe that actually worked! Let's see what else this thing can do!" Connor mumbled to himself before beginning to write more commands into the book, continuing all the way till dawn...