The boy sat wrapped in a warm towel, hands curled around a chai latte Faye brewed without asking. "Spicy for conflict," she murmured. "Because yours is coming whether you want it or not."
Jace sat opposite him, pulse still shaky from the vision."What's your name?" he asked gently.
"Caleb."
Faye placed a hand on Jace's shoulder—an unspoken warning not to dive into another vision. The first already left him pale.
Caleb swallowed. "I didn't mean to come here. I just… ended up outside. Like something yanked me."
"That's what Seekers experience," Ren said. "The café summons those at a breaking point."
Caleb's lip trembled. "I don't want to die."
Jace froze.The words were soft, but the weight behind them slammed like a hammer.
Faye knelt beside Caleb. "You won't," she said firmly. "Not as long as you're here."
Caleb looked at Jace. "When you touched me… it felt like you knew."
Jace didn't deny it."I saw pieces," he said. "Enough to know you're carrying something alone."
Caleb squeezed the cup tighter. "My mom and I had this fight. She said I was being dramatic. I wasn't. I just… I feel like I ruin everything. Like every future I choose hurts someone."
Jace's chest tightened.Faye shot him a quick look—don't absorb this, not again—but he couldn't help leaning forward.
"Caleb," Jace said softly, "listen to me. Futures aren't fixed. They're probabilities."
Caleb shook his head. "Not mine. Whenever I try to do something right, everything falls apart."
The café lights dimmed—responding to his despair.
Ren exhaled. "He's fracturing. Jace, talk to him."
Jace steadied himself. "Caleb, the vision I saw? It wasn't your destiny. It was one possible path."
"But I saw it too," Caleb whispered. "On the bridge."
Jace blinked."You… saw it?"
Faye stepped back, stunned. "Seekers shouldn't see their own futures. Only baristas can—"
"Unless," Ren interrupted, "something's changed."
They all turned to Jace.
He felt cold."You think… I triggered it?"
"You touched his fate directly," Faye said. "When a barista does that, it can create a feedback loop. He felt what you saw."
Caleb looked terrified. "So the future where I die—that was real?"
"No," Jace said firmly. "It was possible. But not anymore. Because now we know. And knowing changes everything."
Caleb's breathing slowed, just a little.
Jace continued, "Tell me what you're afraid will happen. Not the vision—you."
Caleb hesitated. Then:"I'm afraid of choosing wrong. Of hurting people I care about. Of not being enough."
Jace's voice softened. "Everyone fears that. But you showed up here because you want to keep living. That means you already chose right."
The café lights brightened—approval.
Ren whispered, "He stabilized."
But Faye's gaze was fixed on Jace."You're rewriting fates just by talking," she said."That's not supposed to be possible."
Jace didn't know what that meant.But he knew one thing:
Caleb wasn't leaving alone.