Microstory 1115: Aquila Bellamy

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Most choosing ones are born of two parents without time powers. There appears to be some possible genetic/hereditary component, but this proves that it is not required. A chooser is a person with an innate connection to the fabric of reality, in some way. Their brains are wired just so, and that has more to do with (very) early development than it does conception. Samson Bellamy and Lauren Gardner were not choosers. They were salmon, which meant a hidden group of people called the powers that be were controlling them. Since this control was virtually inescapable, they only procreated because they were allowed to. It would appear that two salmon always produce a child who will turn out to be a choosing one. They are not necessarily any different than any other chooser; nor more powerful, nor rarer on their own. They are, however, treated much differently. They will be removed from their parents’ care at the age of three, and raised by another. This is the only time the powers that be will directly interfere with a choosing one’s affairs. Aquila Bellamy was this kind of choosing one. She was adopted by a couple who had no idea who she was. They weren’t even given her real name, and decided to call her Frida. She spent most of her life oblivious to her origins, and in fact, died before ever discovering what her powers were. When she was in her thirties, she came across a compass she would later be told was the Compass of Disturbance. She followed its needle all the way to the woods in the middle of nowhere, where two strangers were fighting over what she thought to be a simple tool. But it was not simple at all. The Artist’s chisel was capable of altering people on a temporal level, even going so far as to imbue them with powers they did not have before. An accident caused Frida to be struck by this tool, and she suffered for near-eternity because of it. She started jumping aimlessly throughout time and space, never staying in one spot for long enough to utter but one thought to anyone who happened to be close enough to hear it. She saw her family and friends at different points in their lives, and in different realities. She gained huge perspective, but could not help, but in a very limited capacity. Finally, the man responsible for her affliction was killed, and she was able to transfer that affliction to the body he had been occupying. This immediately killed her, but at least she was free from the endless torture.