Journal of Nelson Kent (Patreon)

Well, well, well... it seems the universe still has a few tricks up its sleeve, even for an old codger like me.

You know, I've spent the better part of a century peering into the depths of existence, unraveling cosmic mysteries that would make most folks' heads spin. But sometimes, the most astonishing revelations are right under our noses, aren't they?

I discovered I have a great-nephew. Can you believe it? My father's brother - a man I scarcely gave a thought to, being so consumed by my duties as Fate for all these years - apparently had several children. And among them, a boy. A boy he named after me, of all things.

Kent Victor Nelson.

The irony isn't lost on me, I assure you. Here I've been, gallivanting across dimensions, and all the while, my own family tree was sprouting new branches without my notice.

I caught a glimpse of the lad on the television, during my usual constitutional. (Yes, even mystical beings need their exercise, though these old bones protest more than they used to.)

He's a doctor, if you can fathom it. Not the magical kind, mind you - a head-shrinker. How delightfully mundane and yet... intriguing.You know, the boy looks just like me. Well, a scrawnier version, I'll grant you, with hair far scruffier than I ever allowed atop my own noggin. But the resemblance... it's like peering through a looking glass into my own past.

Even through the flickering screen of that confounded contraption, I could sense it. The Nelson bloodline runs strong in him, the gift of magic pulsing through his veins as vibrantly as it did in me during my salad days. Nearly as potent as I was in my prime, I'd wager.

But here's the rub, He couldn't be Fate. No, no, no. This power... he's not worthy of it. Not yet, at least. It would corrupt him... truly.

And Fate... well, Nabu wouldn't mind too terribly what the boy did when not perched atop his head. That old Lord of Order never did quite grasp the nuances of human morality.

I can't have that. I won't.

The boy has such a... spark. A glimmer of something truly special. It would be a crying shame to see it snuffed out by the weight of cosmic responsibility.

No, for now, I'll watch. I'll wait. Perhaps, in time, when he's weathered a few more of life's storms...