Surviving in Eclipsia isn't about strength.
Or luck.
It's about not standing out too much while quietly destroying the system from within.
I learned that fast.
---
After the "inflated hero" incident, the camp's atmosphere shifted.
The Merchant doubled the guard shifts.
The acolytes began tattooing us with obedience runes.
And the extras… started looking at me with a mix of fear and respect.
A couple even offered me their soup ration.
(I declined. I suspected it was made from the guy who snored too loud.)
But the most important thing was this:
The moons blinked again.
And this time, I didn't just see a future… I saw a pattern.
---
At night, when everyone slept, I'd crawl out of the makeshift tents and stare at the sky.
The three moons were never in the same place.
But when they aligned —red, white, and black— the shadows danced.
And then it happened: a second of brutal clarity. Like the world stripped bare before me.
I saw flaws in the Merchant's routines.
Moments when a guard dozed off.
Magic traps with blind spots.
And, strangest of all… a small cave hidden beneath the kitchen, sealed with a symbol no one else seemed to notice.
And best of all: every time I acted based on those visions… the world didn't correct me.
The system didn't punish me.
As if I was invisible to the rules.
---
The first time I tested it was with a sleepy guard named Glurm.
An ogre with half his skull exposed and a passion for sad songs.
In one future, I saw him hand me a key.
In another, he broke my jaw for looking at him wrong.
So I nudged him gently.
—"Nice singing voice, Glurm. Almost makes me forget the corpse-flavored soup."
I waited.
Silence.
Then a low chuckle.
—"Heh. No one compliments my songs. Take this, insect."
The key dropped into my hand.
Exactly like the vision.
My first forced choice of the future.
---
From then on, I started experimenting more.
Changing my words. My posture.
Tweaking little things to reach specific outcomes.
It was like navigating an invisible current. Like cheating at a game that didn't yet know it was being cheated.
I couldn't use magic.
But I didn't need to.
Because the moons' power didn't just show me futures…
It taught me which one was right for survival.
And that made me dangerous.
Even if no one realized it yet.
---
That night, I went down into the hidden cave.
I opened the seal with Glurm's key.
Inside, there was only a mirror.
Cracked. Old. Covered in inscriptions that whispered in dead languages.
And for a moment, my reflection looked back at me with eyes that weren't mine.
Three moons glowed in their pupils.
And a phrase emerged in my mind:
> "When you look at yourself from outside the script, the world trembles."
---
I shut the door.
Went back to camp.
And that night, I dreamed of a future where the Merchant screamed my name…
right before burning alive on his own throne.