Jaden was cursed.
It wasn’t his fault; a wish from his fairy godmother had gone dreadfully awry. She was still a first-year apprentice, woefully undertrained, and she’d waved her wand nonchalantly and said something that would have made any competent fairy godmother slap her in the tiara.
She’d said, “Let Jaden be capable of anything!”
Well, you know how that works out.
Jaden grew into a man of many talents and interests and passions and careers; he’d proven handy at everything from deep-sea diving to chartered accountancy. (The only things he hadn’t tried were the French Foreign Legion and ant farming.)
He enjoyed most of the work he’d tried, which is easy to do when you’re very good at it. But he still felt unfulfilled.
It was a subtle thing, and took some time for Jaden to notice. But even though he was good at the work, it still felt like something important was missing.
One day, a lawyer from the Fairy Godmother Co-operative (Eastern Sector) arrived with a sparkly briefcase and a wand of paperwork. She said, “Okay, sorry about the delay, but there was a rain of frog princes I had to process first. I understand you received a VYJ-56D, a fairy godmother wish with unforseen side-effects?”
“Uh, yes. I’m capable of anything.”
The legal fairy gave forth a long flat whistle. “Wow, that’s a kick in the teeth. Nasty. Good job on not becoming a serial killer or anything, kid.”
Jaden went pale. “I never even thought of that!”
“Yeah well, it happens. Oh-kay, let’s get this sorted out. Now, due to regulations we can’t just undo the wish, so we’ll have to add in a FGO-23I, a Supplemental Repair Wish.”
“Oh, right. So how do you fix this? What kind of wish is it?”
“Easy-peasy, son. We’ll just wish for you to know what your best work is.”
“Umm… what?”
“Look, you can do almost anything, right? Work with anyone, do a good job anywhere, get results… there is no limit on what you can accomplish.”
Jaden blushed. “Yep.”
“So the limiting factor isn’t possibility. You need a filter for greatness.”
“Oooh. That sounds good. How does that work?”
“Well, instead of focusing on work you could do, you’ll be paying attention to the work you should do. You’re able to do a lot of things, but there are still some things you shine at. ”
“Are there?”
“Yeah, the Philosophical and Philological Practitioners (Eastern) unit did a lecture on this last week. They were really sure: everyone has some talents that are more powerful. Your baseline is higher than most, but you still have skills that have more potential and power than others. And the more you focus your time on those ones, the happier you’ll be.”
“Wow. Awesome. Sign me up!”
The wand waved, and a new understanding of his greatest work flooded in. Finally, Jaden knew which specific talents were his greatest ones.
The Curse of Possibility had been removed.
Have you been cursed by your potential and can’t figure out what your greatest work is? I’m your Goddamn Radiant fairy godmother!
