“I understand the words you’re saying, Saki. I just can’t follow what you’re trying to tell me.”

  Saki freezes for a moment, then lays her hand on my wrist and signs to me. This is kind of our own language that we’ve developed. Since she can’t talk and I can’t see her hands or read what she writes, we found another method. What do you mean you can’t follow? she asks.

  “I mean exactly that. I know that you are telling me something in a logical and concise way. I just can’t follow your argument. It’s making no sense to me.”

  I think I understand, she signs. What is your Sacrifice Boon?

  “It’s called Pure Instinct, but I’m not sure what it does.”

  It means you can’t understand logic. You can only arrive at conclusions through intuition.

  “You seem pretty certain about that. How do you know?”

  I know because my Sacrifice Boon is called Pure Reason.

  “Which means you can’t understand intuition? You can only arrive at conclusions through logic?”

  Yes.

  “Well, that explains it, I guess. It’s a relief to know that my lack of understanding isn’t because I’m stupid or something.”

  Mmhmm. Or at least, not only because you’re stupid…

  “You are soooo lucky that I don’t hit girls.”

  You are soooo lucky that I’m not shoving this fireball I’m holding up your …

  I snatch my wrist out of her grasp before she can complete the thought. No need for logic to understand where she was going with that.

  “Ooops! Look at the time. Gotta go! See ya …” But I give her a little side hug before I go. Friends like Saki are hard to find.

  I finish tying off the blindfold and Nix folds my hands around the hilt of the practice rapier. He then picks up his jo and faces off against me on the other side of the salle. Keldon stands to the side as coach.

  The morning training sessions get a bit brutal but I'm impressed by Nix' determination and grit. After yesterday's session, Keldon came up to me and asked me about my affinities. I hedged a bit with my answer and he stopped me. I was shocked when he then went on to tell me about my affinities. Especially Fate.

  Whatever these people from Ronsun are doing here, they have frighteningly good intelligence data. No, worse; they know things they can’t know. They know things that we don’t know. I find that to be more than a little worrying.

  Setting that aside, he then offered to teach me a few things about using my predictive abilities in a fight. He then sets me up to spar blindfolded.

  "Okay then. Nix, you are going to be using your skills to sense his movements. Right now, we will keep things slow and simple. Rio, you will be using your short-term predictive abilities to make choices. That's why you're blindfolded, so your visual information won't get in the way of using your prediction information. Keep in mind that this fighting style is not reactive. It is proactive. You aren't responding to anything, you're taking actions based on probable futures you can see."

  "Now, let's begin."

  What follows is a thorough drubbing. We end up beating the crap out of each other. Slowly and mostly by accident. And we're only doing simple drills!

  I don't need any special skills to foresee a long and painful road ahead for us. But that's what you sign up for when you decide to live your life instead of letting it live you.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Excerpt from Saki's Journal

  I got the shock of my life when I went to the palace library after our team meeting. Penelope was sitting on a sofa in the back of the empty library, crying.

  I knelt down on the carpet in front of her and took her hands in mine. Looking up into her face, I asked the question with my eyes.

  She pulled her hands from my grasp and signed, "Don't leave me," mouthing the words at the same time. "None of you. I want to be with you."

  I wanted to cry then too. And tell her that we wouldn't go. But I couldn't.

  "Don't tell me you won't go," she signed. Wiping the tears off her face, she continued. "Because I know you will." Then she just started sobbing.

  I sat on the sofa beside her and took her in my arms. We sat there for a long time. Crying together about things we'd lost in the past and things we didn't want to lose in the future.

  I come back from a meeting with Faiella and take a seat in our common room. I'm a little surprised when Saki suddenly appears and doubly surprised when I realize that she has Penny with her. Then I get worried when I see that they've both been crying. Crying a lot.

  Penny starts talking to me in sign language. Very fast. Too fast for me to follow. Saki reaches over and gently takes her hands to stop her. Tells her to slow down.

  I want to join your Family, she states.

  I'm shocked, frozen in place.

  Please! she signs emphatically, looking like she's about to start crying again.

  "Do you really know what that means?" I sign back to her. "You would be Bound to us. It's no simple thing. A bond not easily broken."

  I know you’re a vampire, she signs, her hands hesitating over the unfamiliar word. I know it is a Binding.

  I sign for her to wait. To give me a moment to think. I need to try to separate my emotions from my decision-making process. To be honest, I have a pretty big crush on Penny. But I also know that she doesn't swing that way. Nix has a crush on her too. Honestly, I think we all have a crush on her. She's just that awesome. A few years older, more mature than us and drop dead gorgeous to boot.

  I take a deep breath. "Why do you want to join our Family?" I ask, keeping my tone a bit distant and trying to convey that distance in my signing as well.

  Because you already are my family. A simple statement.

  Looking at her face, I understand. I understand the crushing loneliness that she's been faced with her whole life. The isolation of her disability. And the ray of light we've been, coming into her life unexpectedly.

  While I’m thinking, Penny pulls a crystal orb out of her bag. Turns to Saki, signs, Cast a Blessing on me.

  Saki and I share a glance. I nod. Penny holds the crystal in both hands and Saki signs the spell. Writing appears on the crystal for all to see:

  Acolyte of Tremina, Goddess of Knowledge

  Curse [Unbreakable]: Crystal Heart

  Magic Energy Type: Spirit, Mana, Primal

  Affinities: Angel {Life, Soul, Light}, Kinetic, Time

  Skill Sets: Eternal Wayfarer (Curse Sacrifice), Undying (Curse Boon)

  Roles: Librarian (Acolyte Boon), Book Binder (Divinity Boon), Sand-Girl (Hidden Boon).

  I look up from the crystal, directly into her ice blue eyes. You see? I belong with you. I want to be with you. She's crying now. I need you.

  "Then with us you shall be." I hold my hands out to her and she takes them in a crushing grip before pulling me into a fierce embrace.

  Saki steps up and throws her arms around us as well. We all started crying.

  Kari and Rio show up. Kari joins the hug.

  Rio sits down on the floor after Kari slugs him for trying to join in. Not sorry. He gets hugged more times in a day than any of the rest of us have in our whole lives.

  Rio comes into our room in the evening and brings some good news. "Penelope is going to join our family! Turns out she’s Cursed just like us."

  "Well, she's really smart and a great person. I'm all for it," I say.

  Rio knows what I really want to say. "Yeah, I'm happy but a little sad, too," he says.

  I'm happy for Penny. She needs a Family. She needs to not be alone.

  I sigh. Unfortunately, with her becoming family, I have to throw a whole set of pleasant fantasies into the bin. Oh well. Story of my life.

  Dammit, another crush crushed. Some girls will do anything to keep me from loving them. Even becoming my sister isn't off the table, apparently.

  Wait! Maybe they will become forbidden fantasies! Or maybe not. Do I really want to cultivate that sort of frustration?