Ezekiel shrugged. "It's not bad, but quite humane as it goes. At least the seers aren't killed outright."
"That's a low bar," Lillian said.
Christopher laughed derisively. "Yeah, and maybe it's because the Fates can't kill them outright. The so-called mercy certainly was not done out of the goodness of their hearts."
He turned to Lillian.
"The magic that escaped from the Stone worked against the Fates," he explained. "The magic rendered its chosen host invisible to the Fates, meaning the Fates could no longer see the seers nor determine what seers do or whether they live or die."
"But if seers make the Fates useless," Lillian asked, "then why do the Fates even matter?"
Maybe she shouldn't be worried about some omnipotent being controlling her every move, but some random slightly unstable thirteen year old instead.
Ezekiel raised his finger. "But what if the seers do everything according to the Fates' plans?" he suggested.
"When a seer is still a child, the Fates seek them out," Cheyenne started.
"How? You say the Fates can't see them."
"A seer is still a human. They belong wholly in this world. It is the magical ability that they have that hides them from the Fates. Eventually, the Fates would notice a blank space in their design. And a young child with the ability to see the future can always be trusted to ruin what the Fates had originally planned."
Lillian nodded. "I guess that makes sense."
"As I was saying," Cheyenne continued. "The Fates would seek the child out and make them swear an Oath."
"The Destiny Oath."
"Precisely."
"An Oath," Christopher interjected, "saying that seers must live as if they have never had a vision in their entire life or they would die on the spot."
Lillian was taken aback. These were some trigger happy Fates. She thought back to Ezekiel's gun. And some trigger happy prophets. "Seriously?"
Cheyenne winced. "As harsh as Christopher's words may be, he is correct. Shall the Fates discover that the actions of a seer under the Oath led to the unraveling of the Fates' plans, then the seer may very well spontaneously combust on the spot."
"Very few seers live past their teenage years," Christopher quipped.
Lillian abruptly turned to Ezekiel but his gaze was down, no words of defense for the Fates.
"It all makes sense now," she said. "Why you insisted that Ameria would die before. You were worried that she was breaking some sort of rule by being here."
Ezekiel lifted his head. "Had she been working with those two —" he pointed at Cheyenne and Christopher "—she would have changed whatever the Fates have intended them two to do when they allowed the Stone to be stolen. But I highly doubt that the Fates would have allowed anything of sorts."
"It was stolen once before," Lillian pointed out.
"And the only thing that achieved was the creation of the seers," Christopher retorted. He got up from his seat with an angry exhale and stood, examining one of the rings from the ceiling of the tent.
"And from the fact they actively try to murder the seers," he continued, "I don't think their existence was intended by the Fates at all."
"Whatever plans the Fates has the first time," Cheyenne said, "it clearly failed. Whatever game the Fates are playing now, it's a risky one."
YOU ARE READING
The Makers of Destiny: Monarchy
FantasyLillian had always been intrigued by the strange girl who yells at her while walking to school - a girl who Lillian had taken upon herself to call ghost girl. It was only when she found herself forming a tenuous friendship with ghost girl, did she f...
