Flames of Fate

Deadline

[Author's Note: So, I won't always post multiple chapters together - in fact, I almost never will, as I'm only currently four chapters into this story. I just figure, since the prequel is so short, I should post another one tonight. I'll probably post the rest of what I've got written in the next day or two, and hopefully by then I'll be well on the way to finishing my next chapter. As always, I hope  you enjoy it - and as always, feel free to leave me comments! I always appreciate the critiques!]

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              Being a fate is a huge responsibility, and it is one that I do not take as lightly as my sisters do. It also isn’t exactly how mythology portrays it. The world is far too large for merely three of us to exist; instead, there are hundreds of us…we simply work in trios.

                I come from a prestigious family that boasts a long line of grims, fates, and guardians. As a result, my so-called “management” has put me on the fast-track to the upper echelon of our proverbial organization. Normally, our kind begins training as grims at the age of sixteen – I was no exception to that rule. It typically takes five to ten years to advance to the positions of fate. The average is eight.

                I, however, was promoted to fate in just over two years. The trio of fates that I was assigned to consists of myself and my two older sisters, Vierolin and Rachana. Vierolin was promoted to fate in just under five years, while it took Rachana seven.

             My sisters are what you could call…indifferent…to our job. We are the black ops of fates. There is only ever one trio of us at a time, and we handle the most sensitive of the missions assigned to the various death squads. We are responsible for causing and recording the deaths of the most beloved and most notorious individuals; those who already have and those who would have made a large impact on humanity.

                Unlike my sisters, I do not take this lightly. Perhaps I am soft and they are not…more than likely, though, I am just not as jaded as they have become. Regardless, I have established a ritual in the few months that I’ve spent as a fate, and Vierolin and Rachana humor me…partially because I am their youngest sister, and partially because they don’t want to anger our higher ups by denying their new prodigy anything she wants – within reason.

                Because of this, I am allowed my ritual. Each time we are given a new target’s name, we are also given an overview of what important things they have done, as well as what they may do in the future were we not to intervene. This is not enough for me, however…because while my employers believe in full-disclosure, we do not always see eye to eye about what is and is not important.

                I choose to believe in both accountability and having all the facts. Because of this, I decided that I would not take a life without knowing, first-hand, exactly what life I was taking. Since I came to this conclusion, I spend a couple weeks on reconnaissance. I watch my targets live their lives, learning what there is to know. Sometimes I actively become involved in their lives to glean information or participate in worthy causes that they are involved with. To my knowledge, I am the only active fate that believes such actions are necessary…however, I plan to change that if I ever do reach the top of our command structure.

                The mortals whose lives I take have a saying that I find profoundly pessimistic. They say that death and taxes are life’s only certainties. My kind, however, understands that fate is life’s only true certainty, for not all people are fated to die and not all people pay taxes.

                It has always bewildered me that we who seal people’s lives have a more optimistic outlook than those who have such seemingly limitless potential. As far as they know, they are free to choose whatever they see fit…my kind, however, are condemned to bear the burden of our knowledge.  I, for instance, know exactly when and how I will die. The same can be said for all of my kind, and quite frankly, I believe humanity should be grateful they are not subjected to the same knowledge we are.

                What people fail to understand, however, is that fate is a semi-fluid state. It is not a single fixed point; decisions that we make can either fractionally or – occasionally – monumentally shift our fates. Sometimes, things that happen half way around the world can change your fate. I suppose that you can consider fate similar to chaos theory and its butterfly effect.

                My fate was once the pride and joy of my prestigious family. In an unprecedented fifteen years, I was to become my family’s first fate weaver. There are very few fate weavers, and it often takes a century or more to be named one. The day that I made the decision to observe my targets before effectively signing their death warrants was the day that my fate changed. My family begged me to change my mind, hoping that if I stuck to the status quo my fate would return to the fast-track.

                Rachana, always trying to compensate for her “slow” start ran and told our parents when my fate changed. Luckily, I am currently the only one who knows just how drastically it changed. With one decision, I managed to go from prodigal early promotion to disgraced early death.

                Now, most would ask why I didn’t just return to the status quo in light of how disastrous my new fate turned out to be. Why risk it? My answer is this: if such a decision could have so huge an effect on my fate, it must become a very significant decision in spite of the fact that it shouldn’t. Therefore, there must be something worth finding out attached to it…and if I were to return to the status quo, I would never know what that something was.

                The thing about fate that is hard for a layperson to understand is that, up until the very moment you die, it is ever evolving. Therefore, while I can tell you that my next target will cause me to turn traitor on my own race and go on the run with them, resulting in my death exactly three weeks, two days, and twenty-seven minutes from now…I cannot actually tell you any details. I cannot tell you their name, their gender, or why I chose them over my own people. I cannot even tell you if my fate will change again.

                All I can tell you is that, if it doesn’t, exactly three weeks, two days, and twenty-six minutes from now I will die a traitor at the hands of my sister, Rachana.