Jeremy had just turned thirteen. As every child was, he was ecstatic to go to sleep and see what the gods had in store for him.

When his mother turned 13, she had received three offers from the gods and she ended up going with Peace and getting a healing gift. She really could kiss a boo-boo away.

His father had only received one, but his offer had been from Propriety which allowed him to judge a person’s character by the color of their aura. The two powers in conjunction allowed his parents to run a small family clinic right on the outskirts of Vena Cava.

Neither of their powers had been particularly spectacular and Jeremy had always dreamed of becoming like the knights of legend. Jeremy had always loved the story of Poppy the flower knight.

Now, her name itself did not strike terror into the hearts of her enemies, however her ability to scatter tiny seeds into the air around her opponents and then make them explosively grow through their lungs certainly did. She and her motley crew galivanted around the countryside killing any minor inconvenience that came in their way.

Jeremy’s parents had never supported his love for the story, calling Poppy and her knights a “rag-tag bunch of losers who only knew how to kill things.” But Jeremy, as many thirteen-year-old boys did, envied their power and felt that if he was given that power he would be much more just and kind with it.

No matter Jeremy’s dreams though he was limited by his karma. His parents were not spectacular, so he would probably not be as well. The rational forward-thinking part of his brain expected he might get an offer from Health, or if he was lucky, Peace, like his mother. But, as always, there was a romantic part of his brain that hoped and dreamed that he would gain that power he so desperately dreamed of.

So, Jeremy closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Jeremy opened his eyes and immediately knew he was no longer in his room. The marble floor was not quite as comfortable as his nice bed and the walls were a lot uglier than he thought the walls of the gods should be. It seemed to be an ever-changing tapestry of color. Always shifting and never staying in one place.

The marble floor seemed to be doing the same thing, but instead of instilling Jeremy with the intended sense of awe, it just gave him intense vertigo. So, Jeremy closed his eyes and waited since that seemed like the proper thing to do, gods must be much busier than mere mortals.

After what felt to Jeremy like several hours, a voice echoed through the hall. It was filled with godlike power and resonance, “I am so sorry Jeremy. The other Gods were having a game of quack-diddly-oso and I totally forgot about you.”

Jeremy was perplexed, the hall vibrated with the power and dignity of the speaker, but whichever god was speaking sounded a lot like the bank teller his parents had dragged him to, since they didn’t want to leave him in the house alone.

But this was a god, and he didn’t want to be rude. So, Jeremy did the wise thing and kept his mouth shut.

The god continued, “I am Fate and I have seen your karma. It is vast and wide like an ocean; you will do many great things and change the world around you.” Jeremy had slowly opened his eyes during this part of the speech and had to forcibly stop himself from giggling from joy. This was it, now all the gods would offer him something and he would be like the knights from the stories, this was his destiny. But Fate was not done with their speech, “however, your fate is inexorably tied to the existence of one god in particular, thusly you will receive no other offers.”

Well, that was a little bit of a letdown to Jeremy. All the other kids liked to brag about how many offers they got, but his offer had to be incredible if his fate was as vast and wide as an ocean. Jeremy then mustered up some courage befitting someone with his incredible fate and asked, “Who - who is the god?”

“Luck. You have been gifted with a lucky coin that will make you the luckiest man to have ever lived or ever will live.” With that proclamation, Fate’s voice left the chamber and a single dirty coin clattered to the floor.

Jeremy woke up in his bed and could feel the coin inside of him. It was not an uncomfortable feeling; it was more of a square peg square hole type feel. He felt complete for the first time in his life.

But Luck? He guessed being lucky could help, but he wouldn’t be a great knight facing down the evils of the world with mere luck. At best he could win some pocket money from those traveling gambling dens.

Well, that wasn’t a bad idea, especially since there was one nearby right now. Jeremy sighed and summoned the coin out of his soul space. It was brown, but not the beautiful distinguished wooden brown. No, it was shit-stain brown. The coin was so faded that one side seemed almost completely smooth, while the other had a simple triangle.

He flipped the coin and let it drop across the room from him but was surprised to find it had ended up right back in his soul space. Jeremy then proceeded to play around with the coin, throwing it around the room and making it reappear in his soul space before it could hit anything. This may not be a weapon of legend, but Jeremy thought he could certainly have fun with it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jeremy then put on some clothes and went down to greet his family with the news. His father and mother were annoyed with his little coin throwing trick but were certainly happy for him and his newfound lucky coin.

He was a little embarrassed about the whole “fate as vast as an ocean” business and decided to leave that part out. Instead, he was just a normal kid with his normal blessing from Luck.

The celebrations had been quite exciting, and Jeremy was sure that his parents were excited to brag about his luck to the whole world. He thought they were never going to stop talking about him and his dingey coin. Maybe they had been worried he would get some awe-inspiring power and would immediately go out on some sort of quest for honor. Well, he certainly wouldn’t go on a quest now, but a little adventure couldn’t hurt anybody.

Jeremy grinned and pulled out his coin, “Blank face to test my luck at the traveling gamblers, triangle to test my luck by asking out Brandon.” Then he flipped the coin. He let it bounce on the ground waiting for it to stop spinning, but it didn’t stop spinning and he had to start running like mad to keep up with the speedy little demon.

Every time he felt there was no way that the coin could pick up any more momentum, it found a divot to roll into and shoot out of. Finally, the coin seemed like it had to stop when it was nearing a big patch of freshly turned dirt.

The coin then circled around the patch of dirt and inexplicably sunk into it until Jeremy could no longer see it. Jeremy was not worried though, he had spent all morning practicing pulling it back into his soul space, so he tried tugging it back.

Nothing happened.

That was when an intense fear set into Jeremy, and he ran to the dirt clawing his way through, hoping he hadn’t lost the coin. He started muttering to himself as a he tore through the dirt with gusto, “Lucky my ass, where is the luck in a coin rolling this far for no…” His coin lay on a small chest with the blank side facing up.

Inside the chest were hundreds of gold coins. Jeremy’s family was not wealthy, but they got by. This was more money than he had ever seen in his life. It was probably even more money than his entire family had ever seen in their lives added together. It was an incomprehensible amount of wealth. Each coin had a heart on one side, and a bearded face on the other, the king Renoir Hearth.

Jeremy chuckled a little, which grew and grew until it was a full-blown guffaw. It was time to test his luck and make his family wealthy.

The Gambling Lamb was a small establishment that had been started and run solely by its proprietor Jeff. Nobody made trouble in the Gambling Lamb for one simple reason, Jeff had been given his blessing by Housing. He called his gift the power of private property; anything building that he built completely on his own, he could control absolutely. The Gambling Lamb was a moving establishment since it frequently grew legs and walked from place to place. The chairs would bite the ass of anyone who said a curse word. And it was impossible to cheat under Jeff’s watchful eye.

The only reason nobody immediately robbed the kid who walked into the gambling den with a treasure chest full of gold coins was because Jeff would have disapproved of such actions. However, this did not stop them all from trying to rob him blind by gambling with him.

The gamblers were mortified when he started robbing them blind. The kid’s pile of gold kept seeming to get higher and higher. Soon it was almost as big as he was, and Jeff sighed since he knew he was either going to have to protect the kid himself or keep everyone in his establishment until the kid was far, far away. There was just too much money on the table.

Jeremy was having the time of his life, the cards and dice just seemed to do whatever he wanted them to. One guy had even tried to cheat by somehow moving the dice with his mind. But someone nearby tripped and spilled a glass of water all over the man’s crotch, making him lose focus and making the dice roll to the double sixes that Jeremy needed.

This whole time he had been flipping his lucky coin and taking it back into his soul space before it landed in his hand. It had become a meditative movement for him since the coin would never let him down.

His thoughts were interrupted by a new man sitting down across the table from him. Everyone else had seemed to learn their lesson, but Jeremy was not one to complain about more free money. The man cleared his throat then spoke, “I see that pile of gold there has been getting quite large I hope you don’t mind if I take it off your hands.”

“What game do you have in mind?” Jeremy replied with a smirk, this guy had no idea what he was talking about, nobody could take this away from him in here.

“How about we flip a coin for it?”

If Jeremy had been drinking anything at that moment, he would have spit it out in incredulity. “You want to bet at least 800 gold coins on a coin toss? Are you crazy?”

“Yeah, and we can even use that coin of yours that you’ve been flipping like crazy. And don’t worry, I’m good for the money too. If you win, I’ll match whatever you got in that pile right there.” Jeremy stared at the man; he couldn’t be more than nineteen. Where would he have gotten money like that? And why would he be so confident that he thinks he can win 800 gold off a coin flip?

But as always, greed and confidence won out. If it was a matter of luck, there was no way Jeremy was going to lose.

“I call the blank face. That means you’re the triangle side.” Jeremy said as he flipped the coin.

It flipped and flipped in the air nearly hitting the ceiling with its trajectory, then it fell neatly landing with the triangle side up. Jeremy stared in shock at his pile of gold then at his lucky coin that had just betrayed him.

The man stared at it to then with a little chuckle said, “Bad luck. You’ll get it next time; you seem like quite the gambler.” Then he got Jeff to give him a massive bag and loaded all of Jeremy’s coins into it and left The Gambling Lamb. Three men surreptitiously got up to follow him.

Jeremy stared at the empty space where all his gold used to be, then he stared at the traitorous coin on the floor. He didn’t know what to think. Was this what the luckiest man alive was supposed to look like? Losing a mere coin toss? Jeremy decided at that moment that if luck was so fickle that he didn’t need it.

Jeremy stormed home leaving the coin on the floor. The coin did vanish back into his soul space, but he felt there was a certain amount of drama in not picking it up.

As the boy left his little den, Jeff gave a chuckle. He felt a bit sorry for the boy, but not as sorry as he felt for the three men who had decided to follow Joy.