Alice Edgley woke up in a strange place she'd never been to before. A cozy living room of an old country cottage where a fire burned and crackled. In an armchair, by the hearth, a beautiful young woman cloaked in elegant, silvery shawls sat. The embers reflected off her skin like a golden glow and as Alice neared her she realized that the fire was not causing the glow at all, but it was the aura of The Enchantress.
"How...how did I get here?" Alice frowned.
"You are both here and not here." The Enchantress answered vaguely with a slight smile.
"So, I'm dreaming?" Alice realized with the sinking feeling of disappointment that she had not been rescued from Hansard's castle.
"Indeed. I've come to give you another gift. You used the last one wisely and your reward shall be another." The smooth, rich voice said calmly.
"What is it?" Alice frowned questioningly. The Enchantress nodded to a small table next to the armchair she was seated in and Alice walked over and picked it up. She rolled the cold, metal cylindrical instrument over in her hands. "I still have no clue what this is."
"When the time is right you will understand what you need to do with it." The Enchantress replied vaguely. "It is a cloaking device of sorts. Attach it to the object you wish to transform and will it to appear as something else. It will do so."
"Does it work on people?" Alice asked.
"It will not work on anything living." Came her reply. "Are you going to ask me the question that's been itching your mind?"
"Why me? What's so special about me that I'm the Fated one?"
"You are not the Fated. Merely one part. The other half is not as mentally stable as you and so both the Unnamed and I have chosen you to be the mind we invade. There is something else, however, that you must know. Alessia Malum said something in that room the day that your sister locked her away." the Enchantress tilted her head. "Would you like to see?"
The Enchantress gestured to the flames where a hazy scene formed as figures rose from the embers and the echoes of voices filled the room.
Skulduggery nodded to the guard who came to sweep her away to her cell.
"Back at the mansion, when your sister showed her wings, Cain, Elder Wildfire asked me if I've never seen a bird before. A bird maybe, but never a harbinger of death. But not just that. No, there's more to Alice. There's more inside her than just Alice. She isn't alone in her head. There's more than one entity battling for control over her body. And you don't have the slightest idea of what's happened. You see, when people die, their body is just a vessel, waiting for a host. When her soul was drawn back in after you killed her, more than just her soul came back to this earth. There are two more, very, very powerful entities battling for dominance. I felt it when I probed her mind. Alice Edgley is not who you all think she is. The Gods inside her have fooled even herself." Alessia shouted as she was hauled away.
Skulduggery, Dexter, and Valkyrie all stared between each other in shock at what they'd heard. "Do you think she's telling the truth?" Valkyrie whispered.
"She has no reason to lie." Evania pointed out.
"I'll take care of this. If nothing has reared its head yet, I don't see why it would any time soon. Not a word of this to anyone. We keep this between the four of us. Is that understood?" Skulduggery instructed. Valkyrie and Dexter exchanged grave expressions but gave slight nods.
Alice stared at the scene as it burnt away, leaving an otherwise normal fire in its wake.
"Well, you see part of Alessia's gift is she can see inside a person's head. She saw into your mind, Alice. She saw what dwells in there. She was right. Your mind is still under constant siege. I know you hear his voice inside you at night. Hear detailed monologues of how he is going to kill the ones you love. The part you will play in it all. I've tried to help in every way I can but until the Unnamed is dead, both of our entities will live inside you. That is why you are part Fated. When your sister killed you, there was a void waiting to be filled. Two souls grappled for it at that moment. That is what made you Fated. By dying and having beings of such power take up residence in your mind, it made you into what you are now. You, Alice Edgley, are part harbinger of death. There will always be that void inside you and after The Unnamed and I vacate it, it will be open for other creatures to inhabit. You must learn to control the next creature that comes for you. Be prepared for it and when it comes, consume its energy, absorb its essence, and become it. You will have your consciousness in control of its abilities. This is the advice I give to you.
"What about the other Fated. If I'm not the only one, then who is it and why were they split with me?"
"There was only ever meant to be one, you see. But not all of us could inhabit you. One of us was not fast enough and you were brought back before he could join. Our other brother, after being summoned into this world by the space in the head of one with our blood, then found one of his own blood. A daughter of a woman and a man possessed by a Faceless One. He found her and forced a void into her mind, twisting her forever. The child clawed it's way out of its mother's wound and grew up hearing the evil voice of the third and final founder in her mind, causing her to go slightly insane. A child you were drawn to. Blood calls to blood, after all. That is what drove you to find and adopt Viviana Vixen." The beautiful deity sighed, and Alice looked at her in alarm. Vivi. She and Vivi were the fated.
"So Vivi and I have to get rid of him. We have to kill the Unnamed together." Alice registered. "But how?"
"You've been gifted many special powers. One which will be vital in destroying a powerful being like my brother. You must use your mind, Alice. Think. Everything has its laws and restrictions. Not even time and space itself can bend the laws of the universe." The Enchantress said and with that Alice was sitting upright in her bed, waking in a cold sweat.
Have you missed me, Oriel?
The voice in her head laughed and she broke into sobs.
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