From the darkness of the rest of the apartment, her mother walked into Ross’s bedroom on the night that he had disappeared. She approached the bed and leaned down close to the figure sleeping peacefully there. “Rosamer,” their mother hissed, “wake up.”

From the bed, his body jolted up. Ross clutched the blanket at his chest in one hand and rubbed his bleary eyes with the other. “Mom? What are you doing in my room?” The light of his phone bathed the room as he checked the time. “You woke me up in the middle of the night,” he stated with some offense.

“I came to talk to you.”

“Why? What’s going on?” The tone of confused worry in Ross’s voice made it quite clear that he had no idea what was about to happen—particularly notable since his power let him be privy to the general happenings of the future.

Val ached with guilt for her previous hostility. All of this time, she had felt mad at Ross for leaving without a word. Perhaps, her anger should have been directed at someone more responsible for his disappearance. In this case, that person was her very own mother. In a physical form, Val’s teeth would have ground together.

Presently, their mother sat at Ross’s bedside. Her fingers drew through his hair, arranging it this way and that. “Rosamer, my son, you happen to be most like me. As such, we shall do things our way, with our eyes set to the future.”

“What are you talking about?” Ross narrowed his eyes up to their mother. His head jerked away from his mother’s fussing fingers. Then, he deliberately messed up his hair with a ruffle from his own hand. “My eyes are set to the future, yet I have no idea what you are talking about. I had not expected any kind of conversation like this to happen.”

Saying that his eyes were set to the future was a reference to his Future Sight. Why had her mother said that both of them had their eyes set to the future? Maybe her mother liked to fancy herself a forward-thinker. Beyond that, a mortal woman comparing herself to the capabilities of her immortal son made zero sense.

“I have something to share with you that I think will be of interest to you,” their mother said. “There is one condition to me sharing this information with you, however. You mustn’t tell Val even the slightest hint of it—”

“Mom,” Ross cut her off. “If you want to keep Val from knowing something, it must be left unsaid. She has been developing an ability to see the past. Even if you try writing what you want to say on a piece of paper and immediately burn it afterward, she could still watch you as you write it sometime in the future.”

“That would require her to have access to this moment in the past, now wouldn’t it?”

“Well, yes,” Ross stammered. Then, he closed his eyes and slumped over for a minute.

Anyone else might have thought him to be too tired to engage in conversation, this being a late hour in the middle of the night and all. Val knew him to be activating his ability Future Sight to see into the future. Once he sat upright again, some new knowledge must have been uncovered by his mind alone.

Ross looked around the room, as if searching for something along the walls. His eyes settled upon the spot in which Val’s invisible presence embodied. He seemed to blink at her, eyes continuing to set on her in the corner of the room. “I think that what you are about to tell me will be very much in Val’s interest to uncover one day, but perhaps she will be delayed enough.”

Val’s pulse raced away. Ross had known that she would be here with him, about to hear whatever their mother had to say, albeit in the future. Now, Val shared this moment with him in the past. Across time, they happened to find this small connection with each other.

“You are kind in giving me so much honesty,” their mother said to Ross with a smile. “I will be able to ensure that Val does not glean anything that she should not know from our little conversation tonight.”

“I have no idea how you would be able to do that, though,” he said with skepticism.

Her mother smiled kindly and all too knowingly. “Just leave that to me. Your father had left me with the knowledge of a few… tricks.” Their family never mentioned their father, but now her mother plainly spoke of him in this conversation.

She continued on like the casual mention had not been a big deal. “The only thing that I require of you, Rosamer, is your cooperation. I cannot have you going to Val and telling her all of the information that I am about to make available to you.”

After a long pause, Ross tilted his head to one side. “What kind of information will you tell me?”

The fact that he even considered her deal made Val want to shout out in objection. Whatever information their mother might have, it would not be worth abandoning her like he had, leaving her all alone in the mortal world.

Val could not entirely blame him, though. If she had been in his place, she would have been intrigued and might have just ended up taking the offer too.

Their mother said, “I will inform you of the way to the Summit of Ascension, and so much more.”

If Val had eyes, she would have drawn them wide. Instead, she watched Ross have that very same reaction for her.

“All this time, you have known where the Summit of Ascension is hidden?” Ross sputtered but tried to keep his wits about. “Furthermore, you wish to tell me the way to the Summit, but I am not allowed to tell Val? Why not?” His voice nearly raised into a shout that would have woken her up if he had been a decibel louder.

“Hush,” her mother said. “I have no doubt that Val will find her own way there in due time.”

“Why keep this information from her, though?” Ross asked again. “There has to be a reason.”

A cunning smirk curled onto their mother’s lips. “Trust me, there is a good reason. You know this as well as I do, since you should be able to sense that with your ability.”

Ross hung his head in the usage of Future Sight again. “Yes. Val lacks the finesse to handle the complexity of the challenges before her. She will do better if she does not have to face them yet, but rather, she should gather her strength first.” Again, he looked straight to the spot in which Val occupied as if to talk to her.

As it turned out, her mother had been more or less honest when she had informed her about Ross’s whereabouts. He had indeed left for the Summit of Ascension, and he thought the she needed to get stronger.

“I must warn you, though,” her mother said, “trifling with destiny can be a dangerous thing. I shall trust that you will keep my information with the same care as your own.”

Ross bowed his head. “Yes, Mom, I will.”

“Then, I shall make everything known to you.” Her eyes pinched up in a smile, showing the beginnings of crow’s feet from her age. Their mother moved closer to begin brushing about Ross’s hair once more,

This time, Ross did not jerk away from their mother’s pruning.

Val strained her sense of hearing, but they did not speak to one another. Whatever her mother was doing, she communicated to Ross in a manner that was beyond her perception. Right when the conversation had started with all of the answers that she needed, why did Val find herself excluded from the transfer of information?

After he had his hair played with, Ross slumped over to use Future Sight one last thing. His eyes glimmered when he reopened them. “I think that I understand everything now.”

“Good.” With that, her mother left his room so that Ross could make his preparations to leave.

That had been enough for Val to see for one session. She let the aspect of her vision fade.

When awareness returned to her physical body, the pain became know to her. Val doubled over screaming because this had to be the most agonizing pain that she had ever incurred from Past Insight.

Val clutched at her splitting head, scraping her fingers all along her scalp, almost expecting to feel a bloody crevice where her skull had cracked open. As more rational thinking would expect, her head remained intact. The horrendous headache continued to split through her mind. Val stayed curled up here in bed, moaning, even as her mother entered her own room in the real timeline.