Volume I: Forged

Chapter 26: Baby in the Woods

The girl wandered down the halls, footsteps light. She paid no attention to the luxury around her; the marble halls and silken tapestries, each more ornate than the last.

There was a different treasure she was after.

One much, much more precious.

The halls were quiet, empty at this time of night. They were eerie and calm, but the girl wasn't to be fooled.

She knew how many times these very halls had been destroyed and slicked with blood, thick and dark against the shattered marble.

She hummed to herself, finding her way to the bedchambers.

The nursery was quaint, but in an empty, distant way. All dry colors and varnished edges, as if the parents had decorated it for show, and not a child. The sun set through the window, giving what warmth it could to the dim little room.

The girl smiled at the sleeping figure in the gilded crib.

"Hello, little one," she cooed, scooping the child into her arms. The chubby baby didn't wake, but nuzzled closer to her warmth. He was cold, shivering in her arms.

"You weren't supposed to be, do you know that?" the girl whispered, wrapping the infant in a blanket. Absentmindedly, she tucked a ginger curl behind his ear. "The Angel doesn't know you exist. Quite a feat, if you ask me. He always seems to know everything. He doesn't know about me either though, cuz I'm Fate's best-kept secret."

She tapped the button nose, and the baby gurgled in his sleep. "What's say we get you somewhere you'll be loved?"

The baby didn't answer.

The girl held the child tight and bent the portal open.

...

The woods were quiet at this time of evening. The girl wandered through the forest, seemingly randomly, till she found the perfect tree. One with the roots spread wide and raised from the ground, almost as if to make a nest.

She settled the baby into the roots, tucking the blanket around him. She bopped his nose one last time, smiling as her heart ached a bit. She had had a little sibling once—

Not now, anyway.

She waved goodbye and turned to leave.

She walked smack into Fate.

The girl's heart nearly jumped out of her chest, jumping back a few steps and nearly tripping over a log. She spoke, voice barely above a rushed breath. "Fate—"

"You've interfered." Fate's words were the clang of a dungeon door, the slice of a sword through a chest as she followed the girl in her retreat.

Dooming. Lethal.

Eternal.

The girl quivered. "The baby—"

"Was meant to die."

"No!" The girl ignored the tears that began to flow at the mention of Death. "He deserves to live! He's just a baby!"

Fate snarled. "Who are you to decide?"

Every inch of the girl trembled, she could barely see through the tears in her eyes and the pumping of blood in her ears, but she straightened her back defiantly. "The only one strong enough to defy your cruelty."

Fate's hand was around the girl's throat in an instant.

"I allowed you to live," she hissed as the girl froze as if her spine had been replaced with glacier ice, too terrified to struggle. "I gave you grace. I thought you would be useful. And here you stand, in my way."