Fate Breakers

Chapter 21

Four Years Ago

Ageleia Addison was named after her Goddess. She was Athena's first guardian, her first choice. It is through her that Athena's Godly power found its way to earth. Athena chose an Addison. She always chooses an Addison.

Inessa wanted it to be her. More than anything, she wanted the Goddess to see her, to choose her as her vessel, her guardian. Inessa studied every Old World text she could find. She learned from blurring words of Old Athens on musty pages. Inessa knew how to prepare for the day she would first hear the Goddess speak, for the day she'd feel that rush of power. She didn't allow herself to prepare for the day that didn't happen.

Athena always chooses an Addison. Watching her cousin in the ring, Inessa's heart sank with realization. She wasn't picked, and she knew why.

There's been discourse between the mercenary and assassin rings since Ageleia's time well over a thousand years ago. Inessa never quite understood the difference. She knew her mother's name incites fear, but that's the case of every well known Addison. Inessa's mother is known. Inessa is well known. May Addison was a fucking nobody until she waltzed into her mother's guild under the name Medusa.

As Medusa, May had begun to target heavy hitters in both rings. Inessa's mother had always served as the peacekeeper, so when her assassins discovered May traveling with a band of seven more nobodies, she came up with a plan. May wanted to pick fights, so she would fight her way out of the mess she made, only using a shield.

A dull, unassuming, stupid, fucking shield... and she killed five men with it. At sixteen, she took on men more than twice her size. With that final opponent, there was nothing in May's eyes as she launched that shield from her hand, and sliced that male's head clean from his shoulders. The cut was so clean, so precise. Her form was perfect, her composure. She was perfect.

The world learned to fear Medusa that day, and Inessa? She learned that her entire life up until that point was useless. She'd spent her entire life, chasing something that could never have been hers to begin with.

In humiliation, she raced through the cheering crowd, leaving the ring far before the celebration was over. In rage, she tore through the halls of Guild Caldera, headed straight to her bedroom. In grief, her hands unsteady on her quill, she filled out the form that had been sitting on her desk for the past two years.

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"You... registered with the Balor?" Thiana Addison stared at her daughter. For the first time in three decades, she found her voice had gone quiet. She stared at Inessa, her daughter's head hanging low. Knowing the answer, dreading the admission, she asked, "...why?"

Inessa didn't look at her mother, she couldn't stand to. She didn't deserve this. Both of them knew it. "There's nothing for me here, Mama."

Thiana's heart ached. She knew what her daughter said was true. She knew this day would come, and she cursed herself for how it came to be. "I failed you..."

"Yes," Inessa said coldly, "you did."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry you had me instead of May? Yeah, I bet you are."

"Inessa."

The daughter's eyes met her mother's. There was a moment, a single moment. Too many words, too many emotions, passed between them then. It was there, and then gone. Some things were understood. Not everything was. It never would be.

Thiana crossed over to her daughter. She took her little girl's face in her hand for the last time. She brushed a thumb along her cheek, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Thiana nodded, eyes glassy with tears as her heart sunk lower and lower. "Go," she nodded.