My mouth widened at the sight of a single eye hazing over into a dark orb.

No … it was more than dark. 

It was deeper. Emptier. Hollower. 

A shade blacker than a night sky devoid of stars. It was the abyss itself. And it didn’t wait to be stared at.

Even lacking pupils, I could sense as the eye watched me with a focus more intent than a circle of servants as they slowly drowned in their perspiration, waiting for the moment I snapped my fingers and doled out their tasks, even though I’d rung the bell several hours ago. 

Here was a gaze even keener. 

One which not only peered at me, but judged me. 

A feeling so unsettling that I felt as though my own reflection was assessing me. Naturally, I passed with distinction. But were I anyone else, it would be a gaze capable of sending even the most stoic of knights reeling backwards until they reemerged as a hapless squire.

I was appalled.

Just … why did everyone have such wondrous abilities but me?!

I was only beautiful and wealthy! What could that do for me apart from everything? What I truly needed was the ability to change the colour of my eyes on demand!

Total, unrepentant blackness! 

Why, a single glance with such an ominous appearance would mean quelling peasants without even the need to dent my brows!

With such power … I could even reduce my daily scowling training! 

The efficiency savings was unimaginable!

“Excuse me, but how do you do that?” I asked plainly, seeing little need to hide my curiosity.

The barbarian grinned. Though her regular eye blinked, the black one remained lidless and open.

It was … so wonderfully unnerving! 

The nightmares I could induce in nobility and their children with this! 

I … I had to know!

“This is the Raven’s Eye,” she said, her roguish smile in contrast to the bleakness seeping from the lidless eye. “And it’s what allows even someone who’s never cast a [Light Sphere] to graduate with full honours from the Royal Institute of Mages.”

I nodded as I peered into the lidless eye. 

I saw something peering back. And I wasn’t altogether certain it was her.

“How mildly interesting. Very well. It has piqued the very corner of my curiosity. What is this … Raven’s Eye, exactly? A curse? A punishment for some sacred oath unfulfilled?”

“A curse? No, adventurer. This is a blessing. A gift from my homeland.”

“Oh, I see … a blessing … that’s unfortunate. Rather, I hear many come with unintended side effects … if so, then perhaps you may be open to transferring yours? Perhaps for a modest sum … ?”

Suddenly, a bellowing laugh filled the air, so riotous that even innkeepers would throw a frown.

“A modest sum? I think not. Many have paid the highest price seeking my Raven’s Eye. And still it wasn’t enough. You may think me a simple wanderer from the north. But I’m far more than that. I travel roads already seen, yet my feet have never walked. I fight battles already won, though my axe remains by my side. I see past the shimmer and fade, beyond the veil of the horizon. I see fate in all its forms. And I do more than foretell it. I defy it.”

The large woman grinned, her only eye to boast a pupil glancing down to my hip.

“And right now, I see your sword still foolishly by your side.”

She stood tall, her great axe casually held in her grip as she watched me with the certainty of one who could peer into a future unwritten. Or so she claimed.

After all–

I was still waiting to know if tomorrow was going to rain.

“Please, if a black eye could impress me, I’d be marvelling at half the drunkards staining the streets.”

“This is no black eye. It’s the blessing of the Raven Mother. A gift to pierce the veil.”

“A novelty item significantly more impressive in appearance than function, no different to the baubles found in the curio cupboards of alchemists and con artists. After all, if you could truly see the future, you’d understand that even if this Raven Mother gifted you the blessing of wings, there is still no escape from taxes.”

The barbarian gave another chuckle.

“Always the doubters. But I’m as generous with my time as I am with my flexible financing arrangements. Would you like to test my claim with a question? … Or perhaps against my–”

“Me, me, me, me, me!” Coppelia raised an arm, hopping up and down excitedly. “Me first, me first! Alrighty, what am I about to do?”

Suddenly, the darkness within the barbarian’s eye … pulsed.

The gaze of an invisible pupil fell across us both like a cold shadow, brought about by no creature fit to reside in this world. 

A moment later, the woman confidently smiled.

“A pair of bunny ears behind your head.”

“Oooooh~” Coppelia clapped her hands together, nodding profusely. “What about … now?”

“Star jumps. No … twisting star jumps, alternating directions.”

“... And now?”

“Handstand, one arm.”

“What aboooout … now?”

The barbarian paused. As did her eye.

“That is very inappropriate,” she said brusquely. “And probably illegal.”

Coppelia turned to me in excitement.

“Hey! I think she’s the real deal! That’s an actual eye that can look into the future!”

I rightfully met her with a look of outrage at whatever public faux pas she almost did in the future, before regarding the lidless eye once more.

Indeed, a most curious ability.

But I was no commoner witnessing a troll merchant’s box of magical sundries for the first time. 

It would require more than guessing the highly concerning actions of my loyal handmaiden to impress me. An infallible method was needed to distinguish her power from the host of other magical eyeballs which were dumped in the vault beneath my tower and which I also chose never to think about.

Thus, without hesitation–

I threw out my hand in the shape of a pair of scissors … only to find a fist clenched into a rock waiting for me.

I gasped, hands covering my mouth.

A-Amazing!! 

With such power, I could defeat Coppelia in rock, paper, scissors!!

“O-Oho … ohoho! How curious! To think your precognition allows you to see through even my cunning sleight of hand, through which neither mortals nor gods can ascertain!”

“No, you’re just bad.”

“... Hm?”

“I wasn’t even using my eye.”

“Excuse me?” 

“You give yourself away. I can already tell you’re awful at rock, paper, scissors.”

I blinked in the ensuing silence, broken only by Coppelia’s innocent whistling as she defended me through the language of stepping slowly away.

A moment later–

It was shattered by the sound of Starlight Grace leaving my side, its blade shining with fury and righteous indignation.

“Y-Y-You foul hoodlum! How dare you seek to ply your brazen falsehoods and clear libel across this fair realm! I … I will not stand for it!”

The barbarian rolled her broad shoulders, then audibly cracked her neck. 

Twice.

“Ahhh, that’s the feeling I missed,” she said with a broad smile. “Can see the dust falling off my bones already. I’ll give you my thanks, adventurer. To be allowed to wander as I please has its charms, but there are only so many bar louts I can toss over my shoulders before I start looking for something sharper to blunt.”

“Is that so? A shame. Disposing of the riffraff is the only public service you’ve performed.”

“That’s not public service. That’s my morning stretches.”

“I wasn’t aware that bars were open in the morning.”

“They’re not. Those louts are usually the staff trying to kick me out.”

I frowned, all the while the woman before me only widened her smile.

“Very well. I see your mischief goes beyond defrauding the peasantry. But of all the petty crimes you’ve committed, forcing me to delay my noble quest for even a minute is your greatest. I’ve neither the time nor the will to explain our laws to every vagrant upon the road. Lay down your weapon and peacefully offer all you have, including the sight of your forehead upon the dirt. Provide both these things and I’ll permit you to eject yourself from these lands.”

A non-committal hum met my generous offer. One considerably more time-limited than any of her own.

“Nice offer. Let me ask Betty.”

“Who is Betty?”

“This.” The greataxe rose like a lumberjack preparing to fell a tree. “My best friend. My business partner. And yes, my multipurpose staff.”

With more agileness than anyone of her size should allow, the woman stole a single step forwards.

It was all she took, and yet the length of her stride was such that her figure was already shadowing over me.

“Here is Betty’s counteroffer,” she said, plainly amused as her weapon slowly rose to block out the sun. “You run away screaming, or I drink to your memory as the only one in this kingdom with the backbone to raise a sword against me. Note this is the final offer. I suggest you take it. It took more starving direwolves than I had axes for this scar to reach my cheeks. You and that sword cannot harm me, even with both my eyes closed.”

The next moment, I bore witness to the sight of that gruesome weapon falling towards me. 

And still its wielder was oblivious to my look of horror.

Why … to be struck by something so barbaric was unforgivable!

I was a princess! I had standards! It was one thing to be murdered by an elven blade, a mage’s fireball or the razor edge of a custom ordered guillotine painstakingly assembled before a cheering mob of peasants!

… But this?!

For all I knew, her axe was multipurpose because she used it for cutlery as well as decapitating! She certainly didn’t use it for gardening!

The absolute indignity!

When I went, it would be with the same elegance as when I lived, gloating with my hand upon my lips as I cursed my betrayers to a thousand years of civil war and rashes upon their extremities!

Thus–I refused to meet my end to the world’s largest fork.

Without hesitation, I lifted Starlight Grace.

The dark eye of the barbarian pulsed as something hidden came to life at once. An invisible iris swivelled in all directions, round and round like a die spinning without end. And then its dark surface gleamed like a black mirror, revealing paths through webs and mists unseen, slipping through the fingers of future’s grasp and twisting them anew. 

The dark eye grew wider, its bleak gaze enveloping me to the sound of a raven cawing in the distance.

A heartbeat passed.

And then … I raised my brow in confusion.

The greataxe had ceased its fall, the weapon now as still as its wielder.

As the smile fell from the barbarian’s face, sweat began to pour down her cheeks. The dark eye continued to relentlessly spin, its shape twisting and turning, convulsing like a creature seeking violently to escape its shell. 

And then–

The barbarian brought her greataxe towards her. 

She hugged the shaft. 

And then she slowly sat down, raised her knees, and then hugged herself as well.

She rolled back and forth like an overgrown child as the dark eye became silent and listless, no longer filled with any glint of a raven’s blessing or any thirst for battle … but rather the beginnings of tears.

I stared.

All the while, the sweat began to intensify, running past the barbarian’s muscled cheeks and dripping onto her raised knees. 

After several moments, she quietly placed her greataxe down beside her, then proceeded to kneel, leaning forwards until her forehead met the dirt with the same vigour as a newly hired chef daring to query what I meant when I said I wanted to eat carrot cake without the carrots.

“Please accept my apologies.”

“Excuse me?”

“My apologies. Please accept it. I’ve seen the error of my ways and would like to offer any amends I can make for my misdeeds. If possible, I would like to accept your prior offer. All my earnings and my forehead on the ground, was it? I can do that. No problem. Just tell me when to stop.”

I blinked down at the huddled mass, even as she still almost reached my height.

Then, I leaned away as sweat began to seep through the woman’s fur cloak. 

I hardly saw why.

As a princess, I was a paragon of etiquette. And any opponent who wished to humiliatingly surrender their crowns, their possessions and their pride in the face of my regal aura would only be treated with the utmost respect.

Thus–

I left the laughter to Coppelia, who promptly began to roll around on the stack of hay previously reserved for the charlatan.

“Ahhaha ahaahhaha aahahahaaha hahaha~”

I nodded in satisfaction.

And then I lifted my hand to my lips … all five seconds of charitable respect having passed.

“Ohhohohohohohohhoohohoho!!”