Gripping her chest as the pain began at her sternum and radiated outward to her shoulders, down her spine, and ending somewhere near her toes, Fate fell to her knees. The air was wrenched from her lungs, folding them in on themselves, leaving them thin and completely flattened. The flesh that remained on her thinning frame sunk in, stretching over each bone as though she held no muscle at all, leaving her to look as though she were nothing more than a skeleton with a light-colored bit of leather stretched tightly over it. The eruption of pain solidified the blood in her veins and fell from her mouth in a nearly imperceptible screech that echoed like the plagued sickness that it was, through the halls of their godly home. She stayed this way for mere moments, as she knew her sisters were in their respective existence, before crashing to the cold marble floor below her feet. Whether it was the force of the fall, which felt as though a great foot had come down to mash her into a jelly-like substance, or the bitter coldness of the stone she landed on, she did not know but, she found herself glad of the sudden intake of air all the same.
Fate lay on the floor, staring up at the remarkably beautiful ceiling letting the events of the past few moments run through her mind. The scream. That was all that she could get her mind to think about. It had been distant, as if it were worlds away, which it most likely was, but it still shattered her heart and every ounce of her inner peace. The pain that had seized her entire body could have only come from one thing. The stone was in danger. It was unbelievable but it had to be true. The stone itself would seem unimportant to those who did not know the power it held, just a beautiful and awkward creation, another marvel made by the earth. To those like her and her sisters, the ones who knew every secret the universe held, it was their existence. Pulling herself up, Fate straightened her gown and inhaled deeply.
Her gown skipped and dragged around her feet as she walked, bouncing off of the white marble floor as she went. She took the first turn on her left and continued along, slowly, trying to keep herself steady as the waves of light-headedness spun inside her skull. She knew that her sisters had to be feeling the same, anyone with power connected to the stone would be feeling this wave of power sickness. Her white gown was made up of a thin, flowy fabric that allowed fresh air to freely pass through it, wrapping around her legs to calm her. Her bodice clung to her ribs, the fabric creating a pure background to the thin but sturdy curling rose gold patterns that trickled down her skirts and disappeared into nothingness. The patterns were earthly yet elegant, stretching the length of the garment in beautiful vine and leaf shapes. The stretch that ran up her bodice and curled around her breasts was solid but still thin, avoiding the restriction of airflow, though it hardly ever became warm in their home. The absence of vines around her cupped breasts was filled by the long bony fingers. As the solid metal workings passed her hips, they spread out into a thin cage that followed the path of her thighs and ended in a dull but prominent point. Hanging just below her belly button and bouncing against her as she walked was a large, polished stone of amber with the delicate fossilized body of a blood butterfly tucked safely inside. This butterfly was the mark of her existence, representing life, death, and the afterlife. Being Fate, she saw the timeline of every mortal being, was able to influence that timeline, and nudge beings in the right direction should they stray.
Lost in her thoughts and panic, Fate barely noticed when the second set of footsteps joined hers, bouncing off the cold stone walls as they went along. "You felt it?" Her sister asked.
"I did," Fate answered, taking a couple of steps past her sister as they instinctively turned right and quickly walked down the hallway. Both of them gave their wings an anxious flutter as they went along. Fate's wings were a soft and silky feathered set, a soft lavender that ended in pearly white tips. Her sister, War, had wings that matched her purpose just as Fate's did. Leathery with pointed hooks at the end, much like the wings of a bat, they were quite large, so large that she could easily encase her entire body beneath them.
YOU ARE READING
Blood And Stone
FantasyLyric. There was nothing extraordinary about her, at least not in her mind. She was nothing but a young servant in a wealthy farmer's house, picking berries, cooking meals, and scrubbing floors. Until one fateful day when a nearby village was set ab...
