The Butterfly Effect

She knew it wasn’t real—that it was all going to end eventually. But she didn’t care. For right now, there was nothing else she needed to do. This was her reality and she was going to stay in it until she was ready to leave.

The fragments of memories that never happened played first. Lydia stood on the edge of the fountain, completely ignoring her mother’s glare, as she recalled the epic to the crowd.

“There I was, completely on my own! It was a race against time to solve the puzzle and get out alive! Everything was against me, but do you think that stopped me? No! It didn’t even slow me down!” Perhaps she was treading into exaggerating, but she lived for the hush that fell over the kids and how excited they were to hear more. She dropped her tone and continued, “Using everything I could, I narrowed it down to two options: touching the red rune or the blue rune. I hit both of them. Then, boom! The path opened up as soon as all the traps started and I made my daring exit! All for this baby!”

She dug through her satchel and pulled out a cup. “I call it Usiu’s Lost Chalice!”

Henry eagerly waved his hand around. “Oh, Mom, Mom! What does it do?”

With no less extravagance and without a shred of doubt, she declared, “I have no idea! But I’ll figure it out eventually!” The kids, however, continued to stare in wonder.

“Can we help you?” Tim offered.

She hopped down from the fountain and walked over to ruffle his hair. “Maybe when you’re older.” He looked a little disappointed before she added, “The time’s coming for you to come along in one of these, you know. You’re almost old enough to go out on your first adventure.”

“Really?” Both of them perked up at the idea. They were being raised on these kinds of stories, after all—of the things their mother and grandfather had done.

“Definitely! I wasn’t a lot older than you when Dad took me for my first adventure, too.” She loved the look of wonder they had. “Now I think Mom’s reaching the end of her patience, so it might actually be time to stop sharing stories.”

“Can you tell us another when we get back home?” Henry asked, taking the lead back to Diana (who, surprisingly, had not simply gone on without them).

“Of course!”

When they came to Diana, Lydia chose to ignore her mother’s muttering. “You’re just like Andrew… and you know I don’t mean that in a good way. I can’t believe I ever thought this family could shape into a regular noble house…”

It faded and morphed into something else; something that, without really thinking, she knew to be two years later. She was drilling the boys one last time about everything they’d spent the past several months preparing for. It hadn’t been a decision she made alone, after all, now was just the time for them to see what came out of it.

She led the twins to the nursery and slowly pushed open the door. “Alright, remember to stay quiet. You don’t want to suddenly wake him up.” They nodded, patiently waiting for her to carefully take the baby out of the crib and walk back over to show them. “This is your new little brother, Tavin.”

His eyes fluttered open. He gave each of them a glance before smiling and holding his little hands out for Tim and Henry to hold.

Once again it changed, this time moving through the past and into the future. All of them were older and Tavin wasn’t the only new face among the Stones, although she recognized all of them still. Now they were all gathered together, including all the aunts and uncles and cousins she hadn’t seen since she was young.

There were two things the Stones were known for: their large parties (set apart from many others by the fact they were always much more casual than balls) and their adventurous spirit. In this moment, the two were combined as she recalled another daring tale to her family, this time with the help of Lewis and Elena.

Lydia started. “The three of us set out for Tramos. We had next to no idea where we were supposed to be going—“

“Mostly because she left the map at home,” Elena interjected.

“—but we knew our mission. The artifact had the power of repelling Skiá and we’d been commissioned by the king himself to get it.”

Lewis was much more willing to carry on the dramatic aspect of it. “We could only stay in the area for a week. Winter was quickly approaching and we had good reason to believe the artifact wouldn’t make it through the weather.”

“So we fought all odds and continued our search! Nearly out of time, we found the ruin it was supposed to be in. We went in and were immediately separated—as I looked for a way out, I read about the people behind the artifact.”

“I saw more about the event that led to its creation,” Lewis said.

“And I found the parts of the aftermath.” Slowly Elena was getting close to matching her siblings. “When we all came to the same room, we shared what we learned.”

“It was a much more recent development than we thought—something that happened only thirty-five years ago,” Lydia explained. “It had been a town of Seothians—except for a single goblin and a few others with magical potential. Skiá had attacked the village and left them hopeless; the goblin died defending them and successfully kept Skiá away for a while. When signs started appearing suggesting that it might happen again, the people with magical potential banded together. They used what little knowledge they had and enchanted a sculpture the goblin had made; the enchantment was to keep the Skiá away, something even the most skilled Qizarn alchemists can barely do.”

“The village was wiped out by the harsh winter a couple years before we came,” Lewis added. “There was no one there anymore and definitely no one who needed the artifact. We found it at the end of that ruin and took it back to the king.”

Edric, one of Elena’s adopted kids, was the first to ask a question. “Does the king still have it?”

Lydia shook her head. “He gave it to Raisul, who lost it like the magic and adventure hater that he is.”

“To be honest, we couldn’t even tell if it worked,” Elena remarked. “They’re unpredictable enough that there’s no way to tell when there should and shouldn’t be Skiá.”

Everyone seemed to share a mutual agreement on that part, at least. There was no way to foresee what they would do or what they would end up being capable of. In one way or another, they’d undoubtedly all seen that for themselves.

Lydia went on to tell a few more stories to anyone willing to listen. Lewis stayed to tell some of his own too, but Elena left when one of the kids needed something. Lydia was just as interested to share those stories as they were willing to listen; the first hour or so were just her stories until she ran out of ones that she could tell everyone.

She greeted everyone that she hadn’t seen before the stories then went to where a few of her cousins were. They asked Lustris for some wine and sat down to just talk.

“I was surprised at first to hear you had kids, Enn,” one of them mused. “Then I was dumb enough to think that they’d keep you in one place!”

“Have you gone anywhere with them yet?” another asked. “Anywhere big, I mean? I know Tavin’s only ten, but the twins are eighteen now, aren’t they?”

“I’ve been waiting for the perfect adventure,” Lydia replied thoughtfully. “I took Tim and Henry out a couple of times together, but Tavin’s young enough that it’s hard to find something that works. All I need is something that we can all do together when they’re a little older.”

“Well, I don’t think I have to tell you not to waste any opportunities. If you think you’ve found the one, you better step on that chance as soon as you can. You never know how much time you’re gonna have to do it.”

The rest of the party went on without any problems; something that she, oddly, found the most unnatural of all of it. She decided to ignore it, though, and told herself that this was her reality. This was the way things were supposed to be.

She knew the memories ended at this point; now she was into what she had really been waiting to do. She burst into the estate and, only seeing Elena, asked, “Where’s the boys?” Her excitement immediately said that it wasn’t anything serious, even if she would still consider it important.

“I’m pretty sure they’re all in the library. At least Henry and Tavin are, anyway, and I didn’t see Tim leave.”

Lydia nodded her thanks and went to find them. The three of them were in the library, having a rather quiet conversation before she made herself known. “I’ve got something to tell you!”

“Grandmom’s letting me touch the really powerful stuff?” Tim tried.

“We’re finally old enough for those stories you haven’t told us yet?” Henry guessed.

“You somehow convinced Father to let you go somewhere dangerous that interests you..?” Tavin offered, though he didn’t seem to believe it.

“It’s both all and none of those!” She pulled out a map from her satchel. “We’re going on a family adventure!”