The Witch Who Sold Tomorrow

In the market of Hollow Vale, there was a shop with no sign.

It appeared only after sunset.

Inside, an old witch sold impossible things.

A bottle of forgotten grief.

A feather from a bird that flew through dreams.

A candle that burned only for the guilty.

But her most expensive item was tomorrow.

For enough gold, she could let someone see one day into the future.

Kings bought victories.

Merchants bought fortunes.

Lovers bought happy endings.

Only one rule existed.

**You could never change what you saw.**

One stormy evening, a mercenary named Rowan entered the shop.

"I want to see tomorrow."

The witch nodded and poured black tea into a crystal cup.

"Drink."

The room dissolved.

Rowan found himself standing in a moonlit forest, his sword buried in the chest of a young woman dressed in white.

She smiled as she died.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Then darkness returned.

Rowan staggered backward.

"I've never met her."

"You will," the witch replied.

"I won't go."

"You can choose another road."

"I will."

"You can hide."

"I'll leave the kingdom."

The witch simply closed her eyes.

"Tomorrow has already happened."

Terrified, Rowan fled before dawn, riding north instead of south.

He crossed mountains.

He avoided every village.

By sunset, believing he had escaped fate, he rested beneath ancient trees.

A scream shattered the silence.

Bandits surrounded a young woman in white robes.

Without thinking, Rowan charged.

Steel clashed.

Arrows flew.

The last bandit raised a poisoned dagger behind the woman's back.

Rowan threw himself between them.

His sword slipped.

She stumbled.

The blade pierced her heart.

The vision unfolded exactly as he had seen.

The woman smiled through the pain.

"You came."

"You... knew me?"

"I dreamed of this day since I was a child."

She placed a small silver key into his trembling hand.

"My death opens the Gate of Dawn."

Before he could ask another question, she was gone.

The forest began to glow.

An ancient stone doorway emerged from the earth, locked for a thousand years.

The silver key fit perfectly.

As the gate opened, warm golden light spilled across the world.

The endless winter that had cursed the kingdom melted away.

Flowers bloomed through the snow.

Far behind him, hidden in the darkness, the witch smiled to herself.

She had never sold Rowan tomorrow.

She had sold him the courage to walk into it.