Prologue

Jon the seer lay atop a royal transport and contemplated the act of murder. The royal transport was taking two Silvers to the arena to fight on First Friday. Jon disliked this tradition. These two people had been granted amazing powers to save lives by some force and they were going to waste this power by attempting to kill each other. Not only would they try to commit the highest possible sin, they were also doing this to intimidate Reds into being subservient.

Jon found it ironic that this transport was carrying two would-be killers in the main compartment and did not even know that it carried a third killer on the roof.

Jon had always had a rule that no matter how he manipulated the future that he would never kill. He had gone to extreme measures to follow this. Sometimes, he would be forced to allow a few to die in order to follow this rule. He knew that sometimes this would do more harm than good but he followed it anyways. As a seer, a man capable of looking far into the future, he could have risen to power and ruled the world by now. But instead Jon never broke the rule that he would not kill. It was what separates him from the people he fought against.

However, today Jon was going to break that rule. Jon had seen millions of possible futures. Jon had seen a thousand different people rule Norta. Jon had seen a hundred different factions come to power. He had seen at least ten conflicting ideologies. But he had seen four different people who dominated all of the scenarios.

Most of these scenarios were dominated by Queen Elara of Norta. She would take control of Norta in less than a year. That was inevitable. She would then lead a bloody war against the Scarlet Guard and Montfort. It would kill millions of Reds. She would wipe out entire rebellious cities. It would cut the Red population to about three quarters of what it was. Seeing how weak Norta became, the Lakelands would then attempt to conquer Norta. Desperate, Queen Elara would then throw everything she had at the Lakelands which would cut the remaining Red population in half.

Some of these scenarios were dominated by Colonel Farley of the Scarlet Guard. He would raise a massive Red army that would then be massacred in several battles. However he would continue to push and would end up killing about one tenth of the Red population until he finally succeeded and declared himself king. He would then kill all the Silvers and Newbloods in Norta as a vendetta for his daughter who had died in battle. After that, he would lose control of Norta to the Lakelands due to the fact that he had no Newbloods or Silvers fighting on his side.

A few of these scenarios were dominated by Jon. With just a small band of followers he would easily conquer Norta. Jon would then rule for a generation. However, whoever ruled after him would then be a terrible ruler that would crush Norta. This would then lead to a Silver led all blood rebellion that would then put Silvers back in charge. Reds would not rule for thousands of years after and Silvers would continue their genocidal ways.

One scenario would be dominated by Mare Barrow. She would cause the start of a coalition to take over Norta that would have bloodshed, but not on any scale close to what would happen in the other scenarios. Also, she would establish blood equality that would last for millenniums, as far as Jon could see. However, in order for this scenario to happen, Jon will need to kill a man.

The transport lurched to a stop and jerked Jon out of his thoughts. Jon casually looked briefly into the future like he had done many times before. Jon saw that everyone in the transport would all get out on one side. He sat up, and pushed himself off of the other side. He saw that hearing the noise one of the guards would come around the back to look and the others would stay on the other side. Jon casually sauntered over to the front. He then saw that the man would go back around the back in 10 seconds. 9… 8… 7… 6 … 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Jon strolled back to his original side. From there Jon saw that he was in the clear and walked away from the transport.

Jon entered the Stilts. He walked through the Stilts, occasionally ducking under one of the stilted houses to avoid security. It was better not to be seen. He would pass the occasional person but they stayed away from him. He had been told that he looked like death.

Jon walked into the market. He strolled past vendors selling food and other necessities. You would rarely find anything fancy here. Jon doubted any non-governing Silvers even lived here. Jon passed fish stand after fish stand. The whole place smelled like rotting food, although that might have just been fish.

Jon saw a fruit stand up ahead. He saw a clearly well fed grouchy old Red who was selling exotic fruit that cost more than a year's pay for some. Of course that's pocket change for Silvers. This particular stand was well protected with a guard and had all the fruit far behind the counter. Unfortunately for the vendor, Jon wanted a plum.

Jon waited for a couple minutes then calmly walked up to someone's water bucket that had been briefly discarded and grabbed it. A brief look told him that no one was inside the house above the fruit stand. Jon walked up the steps and calmly poured the water on the cloth roof of the fruit stand. While the guard went inside to see what had happened Jon walked down the house's steps. Just as the guard was leaving out one entryway, Jon went in the other. Jon then walked up and grabbed a plum and took a bite. He then threw the bucket at the door he wasn't exiting from to distract the guard. Then Jon left.

Jon looked into the future and realized that he only had an hour left. He quickened his pace heading towards the waterfront.

Jon stood hiding behind a tree trunk and waited for his perfect opening that would happen in exactly 6 minutes and 34 seconds.

Jon stared at Mark. Mark was quietly fishing. Jon could see him not thinking about much, just sitting on the ledge and waiting for a fish to bite. Mark had no idea that he was the domino that needed to fall to set off a cascading of events that would eventually lead to the liberation of so many. He just sat there.

4 minutes and 12 seconds.

Jon started to doubt his own actions. Why was he choosing now to break his rule? Since he deciding not committing murder is not the most important thing than does that make what he did all those times when he let others die wrong? Was he just as guilty of abusing his power as the Silvers who would soon fight in First Friday?

1 minute 3 seconds.

Jon got incredibly nervous. Was he sure if he was ready? No, he was sure that he wasn't ready. But in his heart he knew that the world wouldn't wait for him to be ready.

14 seconds.

Jon knew what he had to do. Committing this murder was the only way to stop so many others. Although what he was doing wasn't moral, it was just. He hoped those who knew him could forgive him. He hoped that the world could forgive him. He hoped that Mark could forgive him. But most importantly, he hoped that he could forgive himself.

0 seconds.

It was the perfect crime. Right now, a fish would bite on Mark's hook. It would be a huge fish, and Mark would then stand up and struggle with it. When Mark was off balance and distracted by the fish, ignorant to the world around him, Jon would walk up and push him off. Jon could see all the factors falling into place. However, there was one factor that Jon hadn't accommodated for. Sympathy.

When Jon reached Mark he paused behind him. Mark finished reeling in the fish and paused.

"Can I help you?" he asked

Jon's sympathy was quickly overrun by reason. He went to push Mark.

Mark dodged.

"What are you doing?" Mark exclaimed.

Jon pulled out a knife and looked into the future. Uh-oh.

"Look man," Mark said "I am a former elite in the War of the Lakelands. You do not want to fight me. So just put the knife down and we can talk this out."

Jon looked into the future and swung. He saw Mark easily dodging to the right of his swing so he brought his shoulder to collide with Mark for when he did. This caused Mark to move his head out of the way of Jon's knife right into Jon's shoulder. Mark stumbled back and fell over. He tried to get up but Jon brought his knife right to the spot where Mark's head was about to be. Mark managed to dodge but just ended up falling back over.

Mark got a terrified look on his face, clearly terrified at Jon's ability to anticipate his every move. "What are you?" he asked.

"Death."

Mark was clearly petrified. So he chose a new tactic. He ran.

Jon cursed and started to follow. He looked into the future and saw that Mark was going to loop around and then go back to his house when he thought that he had lost Jon. Jon followed, taking a shortcut through the houses. Jon passed house after house, always careful to make sure that no one saw him. The lower profile he kept the better. Jon sped up because when he looked into the future he could see that Mark would be getting back to his house soon.

It was so sad that Jon would pass these massively impoverished families and never be able to do anything about it. Jon knew what it was like, the loneliness, the constant cowering away from Silvers, knowing that any one of them could kill you without a second thought. Never knowing where your next meal was coming from and never knowing who would betray or steal from you next. That is, never knowing that before Jon had realized his powers.

Jon crouched under a house and waited for Mark to round the bend. When Mark did Jon tried to grab him but accidentally stepped on a twig, alerting Mark of his presence.

Mark went to punch Jon. Jon easily dodged but that knocked him off balance. Mark went to kick Jon's legs out from under him but this time Jon was prepared. He caught Mark's leg and flipped him backwards, further under the house. It was sad that there were people on the street who could see this fight but no one even cared. This was just a normal day in Red life.

Jon advanced on Mark who had stood back up and put his fists up. Mark went in for a punch but Jon caught it, and twisted in to Mark almost like they were dancing. Jon used his momentum to elbow Mark in the stomach, causing him to be forced back onto his back.

Mark was clearly very winded and when he tried to get up Jon kicked him several times.

"I'm sorry" Jon said between tears.

He then kicked Mark in the head, knocking him unconscious.

Jon dragged Mark out from under the house. He dragged him through the streets, and when he occasionally would pass someone they would just look down and keep walking. No one cared about Mark, everyone was just trying to survive. Mark murmured, semi-conscious, and Jon wept.

Jon wept for this crime that he had to commit. He wept for Mark and the fact that he had to kill him. Jon wept for all the others that would have to die before this conflict was over. He wept for all the people who didn't even give a dying man a second glance. He wept for no reason at all. He wept for every reason. He wept for the future and wept for the past. He wept for what progress would bring and what old ways would too. Jon wept because what else could he possibly do.

Jon reached the cliff and looked at Mark. He saw that Mark was beginning to stir. In Mark's eyes he could see that he had accepted death. "Do you have a dying wish?" Jon asked, forcing himself to look Mark in the eye.

"Tell my family I love them." Mark said.

With those words in his ears Jon tossed Mark off the cliff. He wept because he couldn't dare risk notifying Mark's family that his death hadn't been an accident. He couldn't jeopardize his gift and his curse. The future.