Sixty
S IXTY
ESTRELLA
We continued on in a hurry, moving in silence as I tried to escape the wailing in my ears. We walked until we reached our next destination, the next place where we would find safety to rest for the night.
Even if the trials were behind me, Tartarus still wasn’t safe for me.
The village before us was enormous, a city the likes of which I’d never seen in its prime. But whereas I imagined the cities in Nothrek had once been filled with towering structures and vertical buildings meant to optimize the limitations of the space to house its people, this village was filled with single-story dwellings.
The Temple of the Fates was carved into the cliffside, a gleaming thing of white marble. The structure was too large for the village surrounding it, the doorway alone feeling tall enough that I could stand on top of Caldris’s shoulders five times over and still never even touch the top of the doorway. Interspersed with the more permanent homes that had been crafted out of any manner of natural objects that could be found in the surrounding landscape: wood, straw, mud, clay, there were tents made from rough fabric, linens swaying in the wind that tore through the encampment.
In some cases, the tents appeared larger than the homes themselves, entire households crammed into them to sleep together. A child ran through the settlement, her hair blowing behind her as she raced through the space. The giggle she emitted was one of pure joy in spite of the temporary housing that surrounded us, and she met a friend on the other side of the path before they raced off together.
“Who are these people?” I asked, turning to Medusa. The woman I logically knew was my mother, but had not yet quite managed to reconcile that way in my head, smiled at me wistfully.
“They’re waiting for the Fates to call them into the temple,” she said, nodding her head forward. I followed her gaze to the way they worked together in the center of the settlement, a miniature temple emerging from behind the tents and homes as we approached. “Some of them have been waiting for longer than you have existed, Estrella. Some of them will never leave this place or feel the grace of the Fates upon them. They would tell you to be thankful for their favor, that they’ve deigned to shine their golden light upon you and guide you through your destiny.”
We approached the smaller temple, the words scrawled above the door making my steps falter. I tripped over my own feet, as I stared up at the language written in the Old Tongue. They were a reminder of the wolves at my back, of everything my bond with Fenrir symbolized and reminded me of what I had always been destined to be. The choice that had been torn from me before I’d even been born, staring me straight in the face as I studied the temple that these people had clearly built their village around.
But they’d been here longer than I’d existed…
Teampal a’le Tempestrua Moirai.
Temple of the Child of Fate.
“How long has this been here? Who came before me that would lay claim to those words?” I asked, taking the first step up to the temple doors. There were only a dozen of them compared to the never-ending cascade of steps on the temple of the Fates themselves, but Medusa did not move to follow. Instead, Caldris and I stood alone on the white marble, all those who had traveled with us remaining behind. The message was clear, this place, this temple, was for me and me alone. But my bond with my mate pulsed brighter than ever, the magic seeming to recognize that he belonged with me in this.
I was grateful for it, knowing that the other temple would not welcome him. I wanted to cling to him for every moment I could, wanted to remember what it was to have him beside me when the time so quickly approached where I would have to say goodbye once again. Even if for just a while, being separated from him at all was almost too much for me to bear.
“The temple has stood in the shadow of the Fates since the dawn of time,” Medusa said, looking to the temple at her back where it was carved into the mountain. “They have known of your existence since they drew their first breath. They have seen your destiny since the first thread was spun. They created your father from the darkness, not so that he might be born, but so that one day, you would be.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, shaking my head as I tried to wrap my mind around the reality of that. The implications of what it meant would never be something I could understand, not with the idea that spanned centuries and time. Not with the understanding that this had all been written in a time that I could not even begin to fathom.
There was a distinct, burning question in my gut. One that I needed the answer to but didn’t think anyone but the Fates could give me, and whether or not they would offer the answer was another question.
“Ask it, Estrella. Whatever question you have, ask it of me, and I will do my best to answer,” Medusa said, holding my weighted stare.
Caldris stepped up behind me, pressing his chest into my spine and offering me his strength. I knew my breathing was ragged, the words feeling torn from the depths of my soul. Like some part of me knew the answer already, knew that it would forever change me and my outlook on what I would do with my life.
“Why?” I asked, the single word sitting between our group so heavily. It was such a simple question, open and closed all at once, and yet…
The answer would change everything.
Medusa raised her chin, her green eyes shining bright. It wasn’t tears that made them seem to sparkle, but the hidden sheen of gold within the green. Serpentine, they slithered through the grass of that stare as she watched me.
“All cycles have an end,” she said, her bottom lip trembling slightly as she moved to approach the steps. She stopped just before them, reaching out with a hand to touch her palm to the center of my chest. Even in the armor I wore that covered my skin, I felt something move within me in response, a golden thread writhing over her skin in response. I yanked at the collar of my armor, tugging it away from my chest as Caldris fought to untie it to give me the space I needed to maneuver. Something played beneath my skin, a thin line of gold that was so like the threads I’d touched on so many occasions. But where those had all been straight and smooth, this was a knotted bundle at the center of my chest just above my heart. It was not connected to the thread of my life that I could see swaying in the wind if I focused, but something else entirely. “All things must die, Estrella. All lives must end.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, my voice a deep rasp. Caldris pressed tighter, and I knew that he’d understood the words I couldn’t seem to grasp. I wasn’t sure if it was because I didn’t want to understand yet, or if I was missing information that would somehow prove to be vital.
“You will in time. It is your destiny to end the cycle that has existed since the dawn of creation. It is your destiny to remake the world as you see fit and begin anew. It is your destiny to destroy us all, so that we can be reborn from the ashes of your wrath,” she said, making me furrow my brow. She made me sound like a monster, like a villain meant to do the very thing I wanted to condemn. Her earlier words repeated in the back of my mind, the comfort she’d given me in my moments where I’d feared how the world would see me.
Every hero is a villain of someone else’s story.
“You, my love, are the Tempest of the Fates. You were born to shift the balance of power, for you carry a piece of the Fates inside you that can never be carved out,” she said, pulling her hand away from that knot all over again. I felt the tangle inside me now, felt the well of power brighten now that it had been recognized. Now that I saw it, I could not imagine how I’d ever missed it before.
“How?” I asked, touching my hand to my chest to soothe the ache it left behind.
“They told me it was the only way I would ever have the child I so desperately wanted. It was the only way to fortify you and I so that you could survive pregnancy. They placed the knot within my womb and sent your father and I into that very temple,” she said, nodding her head to the place where I knew Caldris and I had to go. “The place that was your beginning and when the time comes, this will be your end as well.”
She turned her back on us finally, running her hand through Ylfa’s fur as the wolves sat on guard at the bottom of the steps, watching over the entrance to the place that I knew I needed to go. I didn’t want to, didn’t want to face whatever waited for me within, yet Caldris tied my armor and took my hand, guiding me toward the temple at last.
No more hiding.
No more secrets.
These were the days where I uncovered the truth of my creation, where my destiny laid itself bare at last, and I couldn’t have been more fucking terrified.
His hand was heavy in mine as he guided me up the steps, pausing at the top to look down at me from his place beside me. “You can do this alone, if that is what you wish,” he said. Even though I knew it pained him to make such an offer when all he wanted was to remain at my side, his love pouring down the bond in such deep waves I thought I might choke.
I wasn’t ready for this. Wasn’t ready to know the truth. The thought of facing that alone was too great a burden, so I tightened my grip on his hand and took the first step.
My palm touched the heavy doors crafted from molten rock, a circle at the center glowing with gold at the moment of contact. They spread open before me, creaking with their weight as I stared into the darkened temple. There was no light to be found within, no sun to be had as night descended on the village at my back. It came with a swift, heavy darkness that seemed impossible, and I took in a deep breath of air that I held in my lungs until they burned. With a sigh, I took the first step and crested the threshold of the temple, dragging Caldris behind me.
It was a darkness without stars within, a night so true I couldn’t see anything.
Then my viniculum pulsed with golden light, traveling from my hand and to my arm and shoulder in a wave that then flowed into Caldris. There was a thud somewhere in front of us, a noise that made me believe we were not alone in this strange place. A creak of something that seemed to be everywhere at once, the noise permeating the darkness as I spun in place.
Another thud from somewhere behind me, the click of a locking mechanism snapping into position as the doors sealed shut.
Trapping us inside.