“I’ve known you nearly all my life. In all those centuries, I’ve learned that the thing you hate the most isn’t seers who break your rule. It’sus.” Bob pressed his hands against his chest. “Dragons. You’ve been guarding us since we first fled to this plane ten thousand years ago, watching helplessly as we made the same mistakes over and over andoveragain. You used to complain to me about the endless clan wars filling the future with death everywhere you looked. It got so bad that you moved to China.China!Withhim!” He pointed at the Qilin, who looked insulted. “You loved to travel, but you sequestered yourself in rural China for centuries because the Qilin’s luck kept it relatively peaceful.That’show much you hated dragons. You would rather constantly unpick the knots the Golden Wrecking Ball’s luck put in your plans than deal with the pointless violence of the normal clans anymore. But I’m changing that.”
Bob put his hand on Julius’s shoulder. “I found a dragon who didn’t think like the others, and I put my entire clan under his care. I built Heartstriker into an empire bigger than any dragon clan this world has ever seen, and then I gave it all to him. But the best part—thebest part—was that after I put Julius on top, he kept it without my help. He was able to stay in command because he understood what you lost faith in long ago: that dragons are not always defined by our lowest common denominator. That we are all different, and that we are just as capable of compassion, reason, and understanding as any other intelligent species. I didn’t manipulate him into being that way, either. Quite the opposite. Julius is Juliusdespitehis environment. He’s living proof of his own concept,yourconcept, and the moment I realized that, I knew I’d found the lynchpin that would let me break the cycle you’ve always hated.”
“Break the cycle,” Dragon Sees Eternity repeated skeptically. “Brohomir, you just put him in power. He hasn’t even done anything yet.”
“Au contraire,” Bob said. “Julius has changed our clan more in these last two weeks than Bethesda managed in a thousand years. I may have set up the board, but he’s the one who played through. He changed our clan from a dictatorship to an elected Council structure in a matter of days, and he did it without killing. He reconciled our war with the Qilin without bloodshed as well, and repaired our relationship with the Daughters of the Three Sisters. His human also just became the first Merlin, which means we have a real shot at peace with the native species of this plane for the first time since we arrived and started eating them.Andit was through his great and selfless service to the Qilin that my sister Amelia received the stroke of magical luck she needed to become the Spirit of Dragons, solving our greatest magical problem on this plane and giving us a new home.”
He pulled Julius closer. “It’s true I pointed him at each of these events, but my brother was the one who actually made them happen. Together, our efforts have reordered the world into a more peaceful, more cooperative,nicerplace where the old draconic ideas of might-makes-right, take-what-you-want, step-on-everyone-else are finally seen for the barbarism they always were.Thatis the future Julius and I have built, and even after I sell everything else to buy the one timeline where we aren’t devoured by the Nameless End,that’sthe future that will remain. It can be yours too, Black Reach. All you have to do is make your own decision not to kill the key players, and you can finally have what you’ve always wanted: a better dragonkind.”
By the time he finished, Julius’s head was spinning. He hadn’t realized just how much they’d changed until Bob had spelled it out. But while he was feeling awestruck by everything they’d achieved, the Black Reach looked more furious than ever.
“So that’s your final play?” he spat. “Bribery? I deny my purpose and spare your life, and you’ll give me a future I won’t hate?”
“It’s notbribery,” Bob said, insulted. “It’s incentive. And I’m not asking you to defy your purpose. Why do you think you were tasked with making sure no seer ever sold a future again? It wasn’t because selling possible futures is inherently bad. Let’s not forget that seers were doing it for eons before the end. The only reason it was forbidden is because dragons got irresponsible and soldeverything. That’s where we messed up.Thatis the mistake you were made to prevent, but I’m not doing that. I’m not selling timelines to gain an advantage over another clan or make myself a king. I’m trading millions of futures where wediefor the one where we get tolive. That’s all it is. Not a horrible crime, not a sellout, but a carefully planned shot at survival with a good dragon at the helm.”
He put his hands on Julius’s shoulders. “That’s the choiceImade, Black Reach. Now, I’m giving it to you. You can enforce the letter of the law and kill me simply for the act of trading a future. Or you can honor theactualreason you were made and help me save our species before fear of one End dooms us to another.”
He finished with a smile, but Julius was close enough to feel the truth. Bob looked confident, but his heart was pounding so hard Julius could feel it through his coat. He didn’t even breathe while the ancient construct considered what he’d said, which was a problem, because Dragon Sees Eternity thought for a long, long time. Then, finally, the Black Reach lowered his arm, his impossibly giant claw shifting back to a normal hand as it fell to his side.
The moment it was clear he wasn’t going to raise it again, Bob collapsed on the ground.
“Bob!” Julius yelled, dropping down beside him. “Are you okay?”
The seer burst out laughing, grabbing his brother in an enormous, joyful hug. “Julius!” he cried, rolling back and forth. “We did it!”
“Did what?” Julius croaked, because he hadn’t heard the Black Reach say anything.
“Welived!” Bob yelled, letting him go at last so he could grin wildly into his face. “Don’t you see? This was my death. I was supposed to die just now, but I didn’t! I’m alive!” The grin fell off his face, replaced by a look of dumbstruck wonder. “I’m the only seer who’s ever beaten the Black Reach.”
“Don’t get cocky,” the construct growled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Just because I’ve decided to give you a chance doesn’t mean I won’t change my mind later.”
“No, no, no,” Bob said quickly, waving his hands. “I am theepitomeof humility. But…”
He trailed off, fighting so hard to hide his grin, Julius was surprised he didn’t pull a muscle. “I knew it would work! Iknewit. Every seer tries to avoid their death. We all have the vision, and then we all drive ourselves crazy trying to beat the Black Reach at his own game. I spent a good century making the same mistake before I finally figured it out: you can’t beat him. He’s a construct, a magical supercomputer. No born dragon can ever hope to match that. For a while, I was convinced the whole situation was hopeless, but then I realized that didn’t matter. I didn’t need to beat him at his own game. I just had to make sure that, when the time came, my solution would besogood,so in line with his own desires, the Black Reach wouldn’t be able to bring himself to kill me. I knew I couldn’t stop his sword, so I focused on removing his will to swing instead, and it worked! Itworked, Julius! I’m still alive, and it’s all because ofyou!”
He hugged Julius again, his chest heaving with what could have been laughter or sobs or both. “IknewI was right to choose you,” he said, his voice rough. “I knew you’d pull it all together in the end!”
It certainly had come together, but Julius still wasn’t entirely sure what he’d done.
“Wait,” he said, pushing his brother back to arm’s length. “So all that stuff you set up—overthrowing our mother, changing the Heartstriker clan, making Amelia a spirit, freeing Chelsie and F-clutch—wasn’t actually to help the clan or make a better world. It was soyouwouldn’t die to the Black Reach?”
Bob snorted. “Is there a nobler cause? He was going to kill me. Of course I did everything I could to prevent it! All those other things were just positive externalities… which I’d always planned from the start,” he added quickly at the Black Reach’s cutting look. “I’m sure a better dragon would have put the world peace stuff first, but as I keep telling you, Julius, I’m not a better dragon. You’re the nice one, which is whyyou—not me—had to be the lynchpin. No one else would do, because no one else would be foolish enough to spare Bethesda, or to form a council when he could have taken the Heartstriker clan for himself. No one else in our family would have worked with Katya instead of bringing her in, or won the trust of a human mage dedicated enough to become the First Merlin.”
He reached out to pinch Julius’s cheeks. “That was all you, you darling boy, which is why I never told you to be anything but yourself. You were already the Nice Dragon I needed you to be. The only problem was you weretoonice to use your power. If I hadn’t been constantly applying pressure, you would’ve happily run a magical pest control company in the DFZ until Algonquin’s purge caught you. But I knew you had the potential to be a lever large enough to move the world. Once I’d tested your conviction to be sure you wouldn’t break, I got you into position and used you exactly as you needed to be used, and just look how marvelously it all turned out!” He hugged Julius again, almost crushing his ribs. “I am agenius!”
“So much for the epitome of humility,” Chelsie said, reaching down to save Julius from Bob’s stranglehold.
“I’m the epitome of many things,” the seer replied, releasing Julius reluctantly. “So,” he said, sitting back on his heels. “What do we do now?”
Everyone gaped at him.
“You mean you don’t know?” Julius cried.
Bob shrugged. “I am unquestionably brilliant, but no seer can see past their own death. All my visions of the future ended thirty seconds ago.”
“What about your plan to keep us alive?” Svena demanded. “You owe me my survival at least after I so benevolently spared you.”
Amelia snorted at her. “Benevolent my tail. You couldn’t bring yourself to kill Julius any more than the rest of us.”
