“How did you fall for such an obvious lie?” the Nameless One asked, shaking their head with annoyance.

“But, err, we heard that the Champion had--” the pixie said, only to be quickly cut off.

“And you believed that, if he did have a child, she’d just be there? Waiting?” the Nameless One asked.

“It was his home,” the fae said nervously, poking his fingers together.

“You believed I didn’t know? Or, had I known, I would not have told you?” the Nameless One asked.

“Errrrr…”

“Leave,” the Nameless One said before reaching a hand up to their face and rubbing their forehead. They then glanced to Elise. “You do realize you’re going to die, don’t you?”

Elise didn’t move aside from nodding, sitting with her knees hugged to her chest.

“Of course,” the Nameless One said before flicking their hand. The world around the pair disappeared, revealing a veritable map of threads. The Threads of Fate. “Hmmm…”

“Why?” Elise asked softly.

“What?” the Nameless One asked.

“Why are you doing this?” Elise asked. “Why are you hurting us? Destroying our world?”

“I’m hardly destroying your world,” the Nameless One said. “You’re just… unable to see what exactly it is I’m doing. Hm. Your thread does intersect with the Champion’s even now. Perhaps you will be useful after all.”

“You killed my family, my friends, you killed--”

“They’ll be back,” the Nameless One said.

“They’re not dead?” Elise asked.

“Oh, no, they’re dead,” the Nameless One said. “But that’s what you mortals do. You live, you die, you’re reborn. A thread that comes, gets cut, only to re-enter the tapestry later. It’s all quite circular. All quite predictable.”

“I don’t understand…” Elise said.

The Nameless One gave a sigh. “Right. Mortals. This is probably too complex for your mind, isn’t it? I suppose I’ll keep it simple. They’re dead, you will be as well. Perhaps in a future life, you’ll meet them again. Perhaps not. I can only predict so much.”

Elise just stared at him, confusion on her face.

The Nameless One gave another sigh. “A mortal too stupid to comprehend the words I speak or a fae that can only speak in double meanings when spoken to. There truly is no rest for the wicked, is there?”

“Why… are you doing this?” Elise asked. “I just want to go home, I just want to be safe...”

The Nameless One shook their head. “There is no such thing as safe, child. There is just a temporary, albeit false, belief that you are.”

“The Champion is going to come for me…” Elise said softly. “He’ll save me.”

“No,” the Nameless One said. “He’ll come for you and find your body. It will just be another thread. Who knows? Perhaps it will be enough to finally break this blasted web.”

“What is that web? Why do you want to break it?” Elise asked. Joan mentally sighed. She guessed asking questions of everyone was just something that radiated out from her soul. It wasn’t her fault nobody gave her a straight answer about anything. She just wanted to understand, that was all.

“Everything,” the fate said. Joan wasn’t sure, but she swore she heard some sarcasm in her tone. “You did.” She really hated when the fate did that. “Too bad.”

“You’ll be dead soon, it hardly matters,” the Nameless One said. “But very well. I suppose you’ll at least be better than talking to a rock. These are the Threads of Fate.”

“Ohhhhhh,” Elise said, her voice filled with awe.

“You have no idea what that is, do you?” the Nameless One asked.

“… Sorry,” Elise said.

The Nameless One gave her what was almost an amused look. “You have spent too much time around the Chosen. You shouldn’t apologize to your killer.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

The Nameless One rolled their eyes. “These threads are from your world. Every life, every soul, is woven into this tapestry. Every action, every connection. All woven together to create this.”

“It doesn’t look that complex,” Elise said softly. “It’s pretty, like one of the ones in my room.”

“Because if your mind was able to comprehend what you are seeing it would shatter like glass,” the Nameless One said.

“Are you calling me stupid?” Elise asked.

“No, I’m calling you simple,” the Nameless One said. “I said you were stupid earlier.”

“Well you’re the one having a talk with a stupid child, so nyeh,” Elise said.

Joan gave another mental sigh. Good to know that even in past lives she was a pain in the ass.

The Nameless One merely chuckled though. “Ah, reckless, stupid and too young to fully realize the danger you’re in. Death is a mercy, young one. One I needn’t offer you.”

“What could be worse than dying?” Elise asked.

Ohhhh, that sent a spike of fear through Joan’s body. She knew far, far too well there were too many answers to that question. Many of which the Nameless One could easily demonstrate.

“Perhaps I was wrong,” the Nameless One said. “Maybe you are the Champion’s child. The threads are merely how you see them. Most mortals see them as this way. Perceiving what they truly are is hopeless except for a fate. Of course, there are… issues with that.”

“Ohhhhhh,” Elise said, slowly nodding along.

“You don’t understand anything I just said, do you?” the Nameless One asked.

“Sorry,” Elise said.

The Nameless One snapped their fingers and the vines wrapped around Elise suddenly released her. “Come here,” they said.

Elise didn’t move.

The Nameless One snapped their fingers again and long, thick spikes sprouted out from the vines. “Come here or they will drag you to me.”

Elise gave a small whimper, but began to slowly crawl towards them. Making herself as small as she could.

“If I wanted to kill you at this moment, I would,” the Nameless One said. “But it is oddly relaxing to have something to talk to that isn’t constantly scheming to take my place. I wouldn’t even mind as much, if they weren’t so obvious about it. Perhaps that is just due to my fate side, though.”

Elise gave a nod, but didn’t say a word.

The Nameless One motioned to the threads. “Each soul is here, woven into this tapestry. Everything they have done and will do adding to it.”

“It’s all there?” Elise asked.

“Everything,” the Nameless One said. “It makes everything so simple, once you understand how to read it.”

“Then, ummm… why do you want to break it?” Elise asked.

“I can see all the threads except my own,” the Nameless One said. “There are rules. For everything I gain as being part of fate, the more I am bound by forces I can neither see nor touch. The more I give into these rules, the more restricted my movements become, but the more I can see.”

“That sounds, ummmm…” Elise said softly.

The Nameless One gave another sigh. “It is like trying to measure the waves of the sea, when you cannot see the water and can only see the boats.”

“Ohhhhhh,” Elise said. “That sounds hard.”

“You have no idea,” the Nameless One said. “Here is your thread,” the Nameless One said before motioning to a golden one. “The Peacock and Phoenix. Here is where you are now.” The Nameless One said before motioning towards the end of the thread. “There is where you were.” They then motioned back, down the thread. Tightly woven with hundreds of others. “There is where you will go.” Finally, they motioned past the threads, where millions of other threads seemed to be appearing and disappearing.

“You can see what I’ll do? Where I’ll go?” Elise asked softly. “You can see everything?”

“Yes,” the Nameless One said.

“So it doesn’t matter?” Elise asked softly. “It’s all… going to happen regardless of what I want?”

“Hm?” the Nameless One asked.

“I mean, if these threads show everything I am going to do,” Elise said softly. “Then it’s all going to happen, right? Regardless? My parents were always going to die, I was always going to--”

“Ahhhh,” the Nameless One said. “No, mortal. That’s not how this operates. The threads show where you can go, but therein lies the, as you may say, fun of mortality.” They motioned to the threads. “I can see where you will go not because it has already been chosen, but because you have made your choices.”

“What?” Elise asked.

“Mortals are predictable,” the Nameless One said. “Many speak of free will, their desires. But, in the end? Most of you are just simple animals who follow your own base instincts.”

“So… nothing you do… changes it then?” Elise asked.

“I can cause reactions in it,” the Nameless One said. “Affect it. But even that is limited. For every alteration I do, the Champion makes another. In the end…” They motioned further down the threads, where a large bundle of them had formed a massive knot. “That appears to be the extent of what I can do. The more I understand, the less I can alter the tapestry myself. The more I am forced to act through mortals or the fae.”

“Oh…” Elise said. Joan was pretty sure the kid didn’t really understand it. Heck, she didn’t really understand it.

“The more one knows of their fate, the harder it becomes to fight it,” the Nameless One said. “It’s almost poetic. One must know their destiny to tamper with it, but the more of it they know the more impossible it becomes to fight it.”

“Then why?” Elise asked.

“Why what?” the Nameless One asked.

“Why fight it?” Elise asked.

“Because it is my reason for existing,” the Nameless One said.

“But aren’t you fighting it now?” Elise asked. “And isn’t that just making you lose?”

The Nameless One gave a soft sigh before shaking their head again. “Mortals. Very well, allow me to give you a demonstration.” They pushed a finger against her forehead. “How about… we play a game.”

Then the world shifted and Elise was surrounded on all sides by flaming rats. She screamed and tried to pull away, but they surrounded her on all sides.

“A boon,” the Nameless One said, even as the rats came closer and closer. “If you could have anything you desire, anything in existence, what would it be? What is it you wish?”

“OUT!” Elise screamed, her entire body shaking with fear. “I want out I WANT OUT I WANT OUT OF HERE!”

A moment later the rats were all gone and she was sitting besides the throne of the Nameless One again. “Therein lies the issue,” they said. “In that moment, you could have asked for anything. But all you could see was what was ahead of you and failed to make a different choice. No matter how I shift things, no matter what I do, everything stays the same.”

“But what if--”

The Nameless One paused, looking up. “Ah. And it seems our time has run out.”

“Huh?” Elise asked.

“Goodbye, little mortal,” the Nameless One said before a vine wrapped around her neck and choked the life from her. It was, mercifully, quick.

Joan stared at all that happened, her jaw would have hit the ground if it could have. That was it? How did that lead to the Hero?

“That didn’t,” the fate said. “It was merely the first step. The first of many.”

------

“OUT!” Elise screamed, staring at the flaming rats.

------

“OUT!” Elise screamed again, for the hundredth time.

------

“I-I want… I want…” Elise said, only to stop. The child huddled up, as small as she could make herself. Staring at the rats. But something about his words hit her in a way they hadn’t before. She could have anything? As terrible as the rats were, fire or not, wasn’t there something even more important to her? “I want you to n-never hurt the Champion or anyone back home ever again!”

The rats froze in place, even their flames going still. A moment later, the Nameless One’s voice started. “What did you say?”

“Y-you said you were giving me a boon? Anything? I want you… t-to never hurt the Champion or anyone there again!”

“Even if it means you are burned and devoured by rats?” the Nameless One asked.

“It… it doesn’t matter what happens to me, it just… it just matters that everyone is okay,” Elise said, though she had her face buried in her knees. “T-that’s my boon. That’s what I ask for. Please.”

The rats faded away, though the child didn’t notice. She merely sat there, her head buried in her knees.

The Nameless One, however, was scrutinizing her thread.

Slowly, Elise lifted her head. “W-what happened? Where are they?”

“You shouldn’t have chosen that answer,” the Nameless One said. “That isn’t… how? Why? What happened to… oh. I see. Fascinating…”

“What?” Elise asked.

“You are quite the interesting little ship, aren’t you?” the Nameless One asked. “There has already been some tampering on your thread, right there. To think I missed that wave.”

“I don’t see anything,” Elise said.

“Of course not,” the Nameless One said with a soft sigh. “But you, child, should be dead. You should--” They paused and looked up. “It seems our time is at an end. Goodbye, child.”

However, rather than ending her life, the Nameless One merely disappeared. Leaving Elise alone.

Safe.

How did that fix anything?

“Unpredictability,” the fate said. “It is a strange thing. A valuable thing. It was just another step in many. Do you want to go further? Or shall we stop?”

Of course she wanted to go further. She had to know. What led to this? How did she come to be here? What happened? How did she become the Hero?

“Then let us keep going…” the fate said.

------

Elise blocked the path for Arta, Penthe and the Chosen. Her arms out, shielding someone behind her. She was older, now. Far older. Older than Joan, even.

More importantly, she was shielding the Nameless One.

“Elise, move,” Arta said.

“No,” Elise said.

“MOVE! That thing needs to die,” Arta said.

“I won’t,” Elise said. “They’ve changed. They’re trying!”

“They killed your parents,” Penthe said, her voice cold. “They’ve killed countless others. How can you defend them?”

“Because I have to!” Elise said firmly. “Because nobody else will! Because that’s what you taught me, Arta. You can’t just leave the defenseless to die. They’ve done so many terrible things, but they’ve tried to make them better. They’ve tried to be better. Please. Give them this chance.”

“Elise, move or I will cut you both down,” Arta said, his voice cold and vicious. He lifted his sword overhead. “Damn it. Move! Why are you fighting me now of all times? Why are you--” He froze, however, when he looked at Elise once more. The girl hadn’t moved from her position, though she had cringed back slightly, closing her eyes tightly. Terrified, but still impeding him. Slowly, he lowered his sword. “Elise…”

“Arta, you can’t be serious,” Penthe said. “This is all another ploy.”

“And if it isn’t?” Arta asked.

“We don’t have time to figure that out,” Penthe said. “If we let them go now, we won’t have another chance. You’re running out of time.”

“I know,” Arta said before giving a small smile to Elise. “But I can’t just say no, can I? Especially when she gets like this.”

“No,” Penthe said before turning towards Elise, reaching out a hand.

“Stop,” Arta said. “How do you know we’ve ever tried this?”

“This is stupid,” Penthe said.

“So what if it is?” Arta asked. “Sometimes we need to do what’s stupid in order to save the world. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here, now would we?”

Penthe gave a frustrated growl before turning towards the Nameless One. “Don’t think, even for a second, that your plan is going to work. Whatever it is.”

Though, despite the guide’s words, Joan suspected this hadn’t been part of his plan, of any plan.

If anything, he looked more surprised than any of them.

MelodyAvant

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