Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(25)
The construct cast a nervous look at the sky. In the end, though, he lowered his hand, motioning for the watching dragons to step forward. Marci was there in an instant. The dragons approached far more slowly, but eventually they gathered, forming a semicircle facing Julius and Bob. Even Svena and Katya came forward. Svena still looked ready to murder the seer of the Heartstrikers, but her curiosity at finally hearing what this was all about must have been stronger than her need for vengeance, because she stood with her arms crossed and her magic pulled in, waiting for him to speak.
“You really were my best decision, Julius,” Bob whispered, letting out a tense breath.
“Just keep it short,” the Black Reach warned. “If you can.”
It was a sign of how serious this was that Bob didn’t even have a comeback for that. He just turned to his new audience and began talking in a quick, intense voice.
“You’re all veterans of the seer game now. You know how we manipulate individuals into choices that nudge future events in our favor, but what you might not know is just how limited we are when it comes to seeing and manipulating futures not directly related to ourselves. That’s why Estella had to resort to using chains when she tried to meddle in Heartstrikers’ affairs. She was attempting to control pawns that were not within her purview.”
No one seemed to like being called a pawn, but Bob was clearly on a timer, so they didn’t interrupt.
“For this particular problem, I found myself in the same boat,” he went on. “It wasn’t enough to merely discover a future that didn’t end with the Leviathan eating us. I also needed the means to secure it, which were far beyond what I had available as a mere Seer of the Heartstrikers.” He glanced down at Julius. “Since it happened on another plane, I never saw exactly what Dragon Sees the Beginning told you, but I’m sure he explained that the exchange rate on buying futures is terrible.”
“He did more than explain,” Julius said. “He showed us firsthand. When Marci and I were in the dragons’ old plane, I had to buy a future where Estella didn’t kill us. It was just five minutes, but it cost a lot.”
“Certainty always does,” Bob said, nodding. “It takes an absolutely enormous amount of potential futures to buy even one guaranteed outcome. But Dragon Sees the Beginning didn’t actually sell you anything. He’s only a construct, a tool. He can’t actually trade futures. He merely used the knowledge of past seers to act as a broker for the one who could.” He nodded at the pigeon on his shoulder. “Her.”
“Wait,” Julius said, voice shaking. “So you mean when we were in the dragons’ old world, when I made the trade for a chain of guaranteed events to defeat Estella, I was actually dealing with a Nameless End?”
“There’s no one else who could have done it,” Bob said with a shrug. “That’s her End. She’s what remains when every choice is made, the point all the streams of the future eventually flow to, the end of time itself. And before you ask how the end of time can be here now, know that our way of seeing time is very much limited by our perception. We experience time as a line because that’s how we live it, but Nameless Ends aren’t bound by such strict measures.” He smiled proudly at his pigeon. “My lady exists simultaneously in all times at once. That’s how she’s able to trade one future for another, because from her point of view, all possible futures are already done. If we want one instead of another—say, survival instead of death—she can find that possibility, pluck it out of whatever hole it was languishing in, and shove it in front of us so that—from our limited perspective—that future becomes the only path. But this sort of heavy lifting requires an enormous amount of energy. Energy that she creates by consuming other timelines in bulk, until—”
“Until there’s nothing left,” Julius said angrily. “That’s what happened to our old world. The ancient seers were so bent on securing the timelines they needed to beat each other, they let her consume all of their futures.”
Bob nodded. “Ironically shortsighted, wasn’t it?”
“If you understand that, why are you repeating their mistake?” the Black Reach growled.
“Because it’s better than the alternative,” Bob replied, his head snapping up to glare at the construct. “There are futures where I don’t use the Nameless End, and you don’t kill me, but in every single one of them—every single one—I die. Sometimes I make it an hour, sometimes I make it four, but every one of them is fatal, and not just for me. Everything in this world dies when the Leviathan wins, which he does in every future I can see where you don’t kill me. That means if there is a way we get out of this, it can only happen if I ask the Nameless End for help, because I’ve seen every path where I don’t, and they all lead to the end of the world.” He cupped his hand gently over the pigeon’s wings. “Given those odds, I’ll take my chances with her.”
“And do what?” Marci asked, stepping forward. “What future are you buying?”
“The best there could be,” Bob promised. “I’ve been studying the events leading up to this day for nearly all my life. I knew that if there was a future where we lived, I’d have to buy it, but I couldn’t see past my death, which meant I’d have to make my purchase sight unseen. But unlike us born seers, my lady isn’t limited by chance. I can only nudge the events back and forth between likely possible futures, but she sees everything. Any event that could happen, she can make happen, so since I was going to be bringing the Death of Seers down on my head anyway, I figured I might as well go for broke and buy the best future I could possibly imagine. One where everyone lived happily ever after, including me.”