“How did you do it?” asked Gabbro Basalt, spice merchant by day and by night, the finest smuggler in Ivalice.

Gavriel the Prophet took a long sip of his mead before placing his mug down on the wooden table. He smiled at Gabbro, his one and only friend.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

Gabbro scratched his beard and waved his other hand. “You know what I mean. A month ago you were the lowest ranked assassin in Astraeus and then one night you single-handedly wiped out the whole guild. On top of all that, you’ve become so wealthy that the nobles are scared shitless of you. Dammit, every merchant this side of the Iron sea would sell their newborn baby to have a shred of your good luck.”

“Maybe it's just that,” said Gavriel. “Luck. The twin goddesses have to smile on someone, why not me?”

Gabbro snorted and took a long swig of his pale ale. “We both know that the goddesses don't give a rat’s hairy nipple about people like us. Where were they when we were begging for scraps in the merchant district or getting beaten in the town square for stealing a loaf of bread.”

Gavriel laughed, “You haven't done too bad for yourself either, old friend. You’re the finest smuggler this side of the Iron sea.”

Gabbro scratched his beard again, “You don't need to butter me up, Gav. What do you want?”

Gavriel feigned ignorance, “I’ve heard there’s been problems with the merchants?”

Gabbro shrugged, "Ain't no ships coming from K'rith Vatali anymore. Heard rumors the city was burnt to the ground."

Gavriel took a long gulp of the lukewarm ale. It tasted like piss.

"Just rumors," he said.

He'd heard the talk in the marketplace. K'rith Vatali, the shining jewel of Ivalice, burnt to the ground in a single night and not one witness was left alive. It sounded too crazy to be true.

Gavriel tapped his finger on the table and then smiled at his friend. “I heard you had an unusual shipment come in the other day.”

Gabbro’s eyebrows rose, “How did you hear about that?”

“Not much gets past me these days. I inherited the guild’s spy network when Aras Fetar met her unfortunate end.”

“You mean when you slit the Guild Master’s throat whilst she bathed.”

“I heard it was a shaving accident,” Gavriel said with a smile.

Gabbro snorted. “I'm surprised your spies don't know what was inside the crates?”

Gavriel shrugged and took another sip of his drink.

“Bodies,” said Gabbro. “Crates full of them. My men picked them clean of all their jewelry and valuables, but that kind of thing gets to you.” He shook his head. “There are some sick people in this world.”

“Who paid you to smuggle the crates into Astraeus?”

“I don't ask questions, it's not good for business. Why do you care? I thought you’d gone straight,” He snorted. “Gavriel Talos the law-abiding citizen. Who’d have thought it?”

A cold wind blew into the tavern as the door opened, and a woman dressed in a green evening dress entered.

Gavriel glanced at the prostitute, admiring her curves and taking note of the dagger strapped to her inner thigh.

He turned back to Gabbro and said, “There's a war coming, my old friend, you should get out of town while you can.”

Gabbro drained his drink, banged the mug down and stood up, “War is good for business.”

Gavriel watched the burly silhouette of his friend leaving the tavern. He knew Gabbro would never leave Astraeus, but he had to try.

He’d read the future of every person he could find, and he’d seen the same thing over and over. The Prophet had been right, unless he did something, they would all die the grizzliest of deaths on the eve of the Beltane festival. The pieces were already in motion. He knew what was coming, but had no idea how to stop it.

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The inn’s doors swung open, letting in a cool breeze. A man dressed in rags peered inside the building. His eyes met Gavriel’s, and he placed three fingers on his chest.

Gavriel nodded at the sign, and the man slipped back out of the inn.

Gavriel finished his drink and waved his hand to the barmaid. The busty serving girl strode over and took the empty mug from him.

Gavriel smiled as he eyed the woman's figure. She was a beauty and from seeing her future, he knew exactly what words to say to get her in bed.

He slid a gold coin onto the table, and the serving girl’s eyes widened when she saw the coin.

“Buy yourself something nice,” he said, standing up.

The barmaid cleared her throat, "My shift ends in a few hours," she said in a husky voice. "If you are around, maybe we could go for a quiet drink back at your place or mine."

Gavriel smiled. There was a possible future where he'd sleep with this girl tonight. He’d love every minute of it, and he'd wake up the next morning and find his coin purse missing.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The future was a strange thing. People's lives had many webs of possibility, but they were powerless to change their own future. Their decisions were locked in.

Only he could see the future and therefore change it. If Astraeus was to be saved, he was the only one that could do it.

He winked at the barmaid, "See you later," he said as he exited the Salty Tusk Inn. A missing coin purse was a small price to pay for a night of pleasure before hell poured in to destroy it all.

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The air was crisp, and the moon was hidden by clouds. It was the perfect night for a job. Gavriel pulled his cloak around his ears and looked for the beggar.

“Psst over here,” called the man.

Gavriel rested his hand on his dagger and headed down the dark alleyway where the voice had called from.

Two men were waiting for him there. A burly beggar named Pitt and the small man named Rem.

“What do you have?” Gavriel asked.

“It's her,” said Pitt. “She looked just the way you described her. Blonde hair, skin as pale as mother’s milk, and wearing a black dress. There were two others with her, big men, they looked like they knew how to handle themselves.”

Gavriel nodded. “Which gate?”

“Burrow's Way,” said Rem. He cleared his throat and stretched out his grubby hands. “About our payment?”

Gavriel flicked a gold coin, and the tall man snatched it out of the air and grinned at it greedily.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Master.”

Gavriel waited for the men to leave, and then he leapt onto a crate and pulled himself onto the rooftop of the nearest building.

He felt at home in the solitude high above the city. Golden light illuminated the streets for a second as a crowd of drunks spilled out of the tavern singing a song about a mermaid and a kraken that fell in love.

Gavriel took a run-up and leapt from one roof to another. He landed lightly and waited for a few seconds as a patrol of Night watch passed down below. He didn't want to involve anybody in this job. He didn't know who the girl was, but the prophecies had shown him that she was powerful and dangerous.

The Night watch called out into the dark, and a moment later the signal was echoed by a second patrol. The group turned around and headed back down Farrell's lane. Gavriel counted to five and then he continued on.

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As he got closer to Burrows Way, he noticed that the guards were missing from their post. He didn't bother checking on them. He knew he’d find them with their throats slit.

Gavriel scratched his chin as he considered his options. He’d seen the girl in many of the city folks' futures. She was a ghost, a silent wanderer and wherever she walked, destruction followed in her wake.

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Movement stirred down below. A cat crossing the road. It passed and licked its paw and then meowed as if startled and ducked behind a building.

Something was definitely amiss, where were the people. It was still early enough that the streets should have been filled with street vendors plying their trade.

Gavriel used a broken shingle as a foothold and dropped to street level. The area was deserted apart from an old woman sitting in a doorway with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She was smoking a pipe and breathing out hazy silver clouds.

When she saw him, she tapped her pipe on the floor, sending out a shower of sparks.

Gavriel recognized the signal. He'd spent the last month setting up a network of spies amongst the beggars and the whores. They had eyes everywhere and were the first people to notice any newcomers into the city.

The woman’s signal meant that strangers had passed by recently.

Gavriel pulled the cloak around his face more tightly and moved forward through the shadows down the road in the direction the old woman had pointed.

As he rounded the corner, he heard the clip-clop of horse's hooves on stone.

He hid behind the low wall in the fletcher's yard. Two armored riders appeared down the road. Their horses breathing out jets of steam as they drew steadily nearer.

At the sight of them, dread descended upon him like a tidal wave. He felt like all the light in the world had suddenly faded, and the void was sucking him in. His hands balled into fists and his muscles tensed in anticipation.

“Impressive aren't they,” a feminine voice whispered in his ear.

Gavriel spun around, his dagger streaking out of his belt, ready to deliver death. An invisible hand stopped his arm in midair, and he found himself looking into the cold blue eyes of the girl he'd seen in prophecies so many times before.

The girl was beautiful in the same way that a sword was beautiful. Sharp lines, perfect balance, deadly as hell and made to kill.

Her skin was flawless porcelain that glowed like the moon on a cloudless night. Her hair was long and silky, falling down her back as though it had been woven from threads of purest gold. Her dress was cut low at the neckline to display the swell of her breasts, and flared slightly over her hips to show off every curve of her form, leaving the eye to dwell on the perfection of what lay beneath.

She reached out and touched his cheek gently with the back of her fingers. "The last assassin left in Astraeus." She smiled, her teeth were white and perfect.

Gavriel swallowed hard as he willed his hand to move again, but it was frozen in place.

She stepped closer to him and ran her hands along his chest. Her lips brushed across his and he tasted blood. She laughed softly, her breath caressing his face.

"My name is Hope," she whispered. "I am in need of a blade, sharp and precise, one that can pierce the hardest heart in the most hidden of places.”

With each word she spoke, Gavriel felt his resolve breaking. In the corner of his eye, he caught the faintest glimmer of a translucent form drifting behind the girl. It looked like a jellyfish with its tendrils wrapped around the girl’s throat. He blinked and a second later the creature was gone.

The girl moved in close and kissed him again. He opened his mouth to her. He felt like he was drowning in her sweet taste.

“Will you be my sword?” she asked.

She’s the enemy.

He pushed the intoxicating desire out of his head and forced his mind to focus. He peered in her eyes and opened himself to let her future in.

Pathways appeared before him like spider webs spread across the sky.

In one path, she stood beside a girl and boy. The three were clearly siblings. Kings and nobles bowed before them.

In another path, her sister and a man wielding a two-handed swordsman stood over her lifeless body.

In a third path she walked in a foreign world with buildings reaching up to the sky all about her.

The visions continued one after another, each more confusing than the last. It was clear that Hope's path fractured into thousands of possibilities based on the next words to come out of his mouth.

Gavriel let go of the visions, and the future vanished like a door slammed shut on his mind.

He stared at the girl in shock as his mind raced to come up with the right words to say.

"What do you want from me?" he asked.

She smiled. “A small thing.” She kissed his cheek and said, “I want you to kill the six Archons of the Talamasca.”

She turned away from him, and he watched her walk away. She moved as if the wind gently pushed her along, her thin dress billowing seductively around her as the darkness swallowed her whole.

His dagger fell from his hand and clattered to the ground. He looked down at it and realized it was covered in blood. He opened his hands and saw that his nails had dug into his skin, drawing blood.

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