Retvik grunted to himself as he fiddled around with the strap on his knee pad. While he loved this particular set of red and gold armour, it was getting old and the buckles were getting a bit weird. As he looked up though, he saw a familiar face.
“Oh, hello, Helkas, are you alright?”
Helkas glanced around awkwardly. He rarely seemed to walk or stand, he floated most of the time, but today, he seemed particularly small and timid and was low to the ground.
“Not really…”
Retvik stood up straight and put a gentle hand on Helkas’s shoulder. “Do you want to talk?”
“I’m scared.”
“You are scared?” Retvik asked. “What are you scared of?”
“I… I saw a… not a dream… but not a memory either… Like a glance into the future, where I see you, Arkay and Litvir getting into trouble.”
“What sort of trouble?”
“You get… like… someone tries to stop you… you go too close to… whatever the place “next door” is… I don’t know. The vision is really blurry and I can’t really remember it any more. I just remember other ships and people getting close and angry and… I don’t know…”
Retvik thought for a moment, then patted Helkas on the shoulder. “I think I know what you saw.”
“It was bad. Felt like a premonition.”
“It somewhat was. I think maybe, what you saw was a potential future. But now it is getting blurry, it means we have done… something… to make that potential future less likely…”
“So… you are not in danger?”
Retvik smiled. “To be fair, it is hard for Litvir, Arkay and myself to be in genuine danger. We are terrifyingly powerful beings. But it turns out, Arkay had already picked up on what you saw. That is why we delayed our trip briefly.”
“Oh…” Helkas blinked. “I… I don’t get it.”
“You saw briefly into the future. Because you are a Synaisthyn, you can borrow time powers for a short amount of time and, because of that, you can occasionally catch glances of events that may happen in the future. Arkay calls them “future flashes”, but they are not always guaranteed. They are…” Retvik paused for a moment, thinking to himself. “Sorry, Arkay has explained these things before, and Elksia has as well, but I find it all a little complicated. Generally, these future flashes can happen, but because you can see them happening, you can act and then stop them from happening. In fact, sometimes, just talking about the future flash stops the future flash from happening. In this case? Arkay saw the future flash, so did Elksia and Thassalin, and they decided that we just delay our trip, so we would avoid the Justar ships which are patrolling where they should not be.”
“Oh…” Helkas sighed. “So… you already knew and dealt with the problem… And I’m worrying for no reason?”
“Your worries are not without reason!” Retvik perked up. “Please, do not think that your fears are unreasonable. You saw something scary, you are always free to come to us and talk about it.”
“Even if it’s silly?”
“Especially if you think your fears are silly. Everyone has fears and worries. But we do not overcome those fears and worries by burying them. We come together and talk about them, find the cause of our concerns and work together to fix them. Even if you think they are silly.”
Helkas settled down. “I guess that makes sense… But will I get a lot of these future flash thingies? I don’t like them. They’re like nightmares that won’t go away.”
Retvik shrugged. “Sadly, I cannot answer that question. I have no connection or experience with time powers. But considering how you saw this future flash and Elkay did not, it probably means you just need a little training on how to recognise them and get around them.”
“That… that sounds hard.”
“The opposite, in fact. Elkay learned how to not be bothered by time stuff quite quickly. Arkay does struggle a little bit, but that is because he is much older, and he was also forced to spend a lot of time with a very mean Time Drake, who would intentionally push time stuff onto him. As for you? I think a chat with both Thassalin and Elksia will help you work out what is going on, and they can then guide you on how to both understand when you need to act and when you can just ignore the time stuff.”
“Oh…” Helkas calmed down completely. He sighed to himself, then tried to wander off. “Sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Retvik asked.
“I troubled you.”
“You did no such thing!” Retvik smiled. “I know what you are thinking right now. You think you are being a burden. You are not a burden. You will never be a burden. You are a living being who occasionally has problems. Just like everyone else here. And there is nothing wrong with that.”
“I am not a burden?”
“Not at all.”
“Oh…” Helkas sighed again. “I’m sorry.”
“It is fine. Do you just want to sit for a bit?”
Helkas nodded. “I kinda want to just sit on the beach and eat ice cream. But I don’t want to do that on my own.”
Retvik glanced around, briefly checking for his partners, then went back to smiling. “That is fine. I shall come with you and sit with you for a bit. I could do with some ice cream myself.”
“But… what about Arkay and mister Litvir?”
“They are busy with other things. They are patient, they can wait. Arkay wants to wait a bit more anyway.”
“Why?”
“He wants more time to pass to avoid the future flash. Either way, it is more important right now that we get you settled down. So, tell me, Helkas, what ice cream do you want?”
Helkas smiled properly. “Can I get chocolate sprinkle ice cream?”
“Of course you can. If you ever need something, we will do our best to help. Understand?”
“Yeah, I get it. Thank you, Retvik.”
“No worries, kid!” Retvik smiled as he held out his hand. “Let us go and get some ice cream…”