I’m in the midst of reading a book where the protagonist has to view her own death in order to access her full suite of sorcery. A trial of sorts. In the interest of keeping this post spoiler free, I won’t name the story, but it made me wonder how I would react to knowing the details of my death. In this story, the protagonist doesn’t know the full details, not the when nor the entirety of where. She merely lives the few minutes up to her death as if time had folded inwards and for a brief spell she’d hitched a ride in the mind of her future self. Not a pleasant experience, and too disorienting to glean much aside from the stones thrown her way and the faces of those who threw them. Unsurprisingly the core responses are a deep frustration and anger. Another who had to undergo this trial saw their own death years in the future, a natural death as a content old woman. That seems almost a gift, knowing that future.
How would I respond if I saw my own death and it was a violent one? A peaceful one? In a few days, a few years, a few decades? What if it was an accidental, entirely avoidable one? It would not be a fun time learning that I die from something ridiculous like slipping in the shower.
This all leads into the question of fate, the question of whether, in this hypothetical, the prophesied future end is unavoidable. More often than not stories have the character fight their fate until they realize their struggles only pulled the strands tighter about them. It makes for a good story. Even so, from time to time, I like to see the strands of fate broken.
M. Weald
M. Weald 