As they finished their conversation, a knock rapped on the door. Atropos walked towards the door and created a wall between the other four occupants and the doorway, the living room being open as it was. A conversation with a deep-voiced man was heard, and then the door closed. Atropos reopened the wall, sighing as she read the scroll she was now holding.

“It’s a summons,” she explained, “for Martha and I, to the High Court of the Fae, on the matter of causing general chaos and having troubling dreams.”

“So I take it we can’t just not show up?” Martha asked.

Atropos shook her head. “Not showing up would be subjecting yourself to more questioning, or worse.”

“Then we have to,” Martha said, “we have to go.”

Atropos glumly nodded, turning to her sisters and Tim. At that moment, she got an idea. “Tim, dear, you were chosen because you’re needed to solve this situation, would you mind coming with us?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do,” they replied.

Atropos brought the other two with her, and began to whisper all sorts of devious plans to them, only to be revealed. The other two sisters, pretending like they were not witness to conspiracy, chose to ignore them, opting to make conversation about the weather, which as they could teleport, was a good deal more interesting than mere small talk. Eventually, the conversation wrapped up, and the other two gave a nod of understanding, before the conversation adjourned.

The odd trio found themselves suddenly in a courtroom, looking rather like the ones on Earth, if not a bit more regally designed. A magistrate of some sort said some gibberish, and a rather rotund and small man suddenly appeared in the room, decorated with all sort of frills, and topped off with a rather nasty scowl on his face.

He took his seat at the head of the gallery, and began to read. “You, Martha and Atropos, cutters of the thread, have been charged with illegal obtaining of a dream, and consultation of an oracle,” he spoke, “how do you plead?”

“Innocent!” Atropos spoke, “we did no such thing.”

“The court has eyewitness testimony from a special investigator,” he spoke, “why should we believe you over her warnings?”

“Because we have someone who has served under her here,” Martha spoke up, “we know which investigator this was, and there is good reason to believe she has misspoken in front of this court.”

Tim stepped forward, flitting their eyes side to side. Atropos had explained that truth serum was banned unless significant cause for worry was present, being normally locked behind such pervasive bureaucracy that it was difficult to obtain. Since truth serum had not been administered at the beginning, it was unlikely any would be administered now.

“Witness, you have been called to the stand, from what district do you hail?” the judge bellowed.

Tim timidly spoke up, “I hail from The Ocean of Blood, sir, or did until it was destroyed recently.”

“I have not heard of this destruction,” the Judge replied, “what has occurred?”

“My former master, the very investigator this court has employed, no doubt, has destroyed it for cause of destroying all the evidence of their deception,” they replied.

“This is unbelievable! You accuse a court witness of the destruction of a sacred site?” the Judge sneered.

“You may look for yourself, and see it to be true!” Atropos replied.

The Judge snorted. “You are lucky that the empire is so merciful, otherwise I would have you dragged away for speaking out of turn, Lady Atropos. Nevertheless, a quick check will demonstrate…eh?”

The lesser magistrate from earlier, who had disappeared from view momentarily and now reappeared, with a shaken look on his face, had whispered into the judge’s ear. The judge’s eyes widened and he stared in disgust at the wall for a moment, before sighing.

“The story checks out,” he announced, “on the behalf of the High Court, my apologies, we will be having very strong words with our investigator. Expect to hear from us in a few months, or years as the case may be. We are looking into that matter urgently.”

The trio then found themselves back in the living room, all three bewildered. Atropos shrugged and explained, “He just sent us back where we came from, pretty standard reverse summons spell.”

“So we did it?” Martha asked, “we beat them?”

“No,” Atropos corrected, “we have now perjured ourselves in court. The person who committed mass murder of everyone on the Ocean of Blood is still out there, and still employed for however long the court takes to investigate her.”

“I’m mostly surprised how quickly the judge believed us,” Tim spoke up, fidgeting with their hands nervously, “a nobody like me and the two of you over their investigator, when her account could still have been true, and was.”

“It is rather convenient that occurred,” Atropos replied, scrunching her face in thought.

“It’s just the good luck we were looking for!” Martha exclaimed as she picked up Tim and hugged them.

“No,” Lachesis spoke from the other room, knitting a scarf mindlessly while sitting on the sofa, “Nothing is ever chance. Until you learn that, Martha, you are not ready to take on Atropos’ duties.”

“But, Atropos, you said that my search was a search for what we needed,” Martha said, turning back to the original speaker.

“And I was right, but even that wasn’t just a random event, there was some cosmic force pushing it,” Atropos replied, “you will get a feel for how and when this happens with time.”

At last, Martha and Atropos said their goodbyes to Lachesis and Clotho, who were no doubt busy with their own jobs. As their sisters stepped out the door, they breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Tim sat in the living room, pacing as quietly as possible. It had been decided that they would stay in Atropos’ house until further notice, especially with the mystery investigator no doubt still out to get them.

Atropos clamped her hands together, then turned around to face Martha and the meandering Tim. “Well then,” she exclaimed, “I suppose it’s time to lay down some ground rules for our guest. One, no going in the upstairs hallway, two, no onions, can’t stand ‘em and they make me cry!”

Tim nodded and whispered a quiet ‘thank you’. With that, Martha decided to change into comfier clothes, and conjured some up for Tim as well, who, as they noted, was still wearing their street clothes. As Martha turned to walk into her room, she felt a touch on her elbow.

“Hey, Martha,” Tim asked, “if you don’t mind, could I sit a while with you?”

“Of course,” she replied, smiling, “I don’t mind at all.”

They mostly sat, a few times giving a ‘do you want anything’ to the other when they went to the kitchen. Eventually, they slipped into small talk, which led, eventually to the heavy questions, as these things sometimes do during especially long nights.

“What’s the point of it all anyways?” Tim asked, sipping gently on some coffee.

“I don’t know, to be happy, I guess,” Martha replied, “I’m in control of when the mortals die, and I suppose that makes me something special now, but if I wasn’t happy, I’m sure it wouldn’t have much meaning.”

“That’s pretty good,” they trailed off, “I suppose I’m not really the type that expects to find that fulfillment, though.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” Martha replied, “I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t know many of the people on the island. But I also don’t really know where I come from,” Tim said in return, “So in a way, they were the closest to friends I had. I did what I could, surviving, eventually started working for Master, and eventually, that’s just what your life means, you know, working enough to get out of there.”

“Well, you’re out now,” Martha replied, “you get to be safe, to find that new purpose.”

“No,” Tim said, “I appreciated it when you spoke up for me earlier, I really do, and I saw you did it because you’ve got a good heart. But I’m not safe here. I just stood up for you folks, and it might cost me my life.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Martha replied, “I’m sorry for assuming.”

“You’ve got to realize, sometimes,” Tim replied, “not everything turns out good in the end, not even for the people who did nothing wrong. There were plenty of good people on the island, as good as you or me, and they died because some maniac wanted to bury the evidence.”

Martha sat for a while, staring at the floor between her feet. Eventually, she softly spoke a reply, almost as a whisper, “I know that now. That it’s impossible for everything to turn out right, but I so desperately want that, I have to try anyway. Isn’t that all we can do?”

“Maybe,” Tim spoke, “but as for me, I feel like I’m about out of that sort of will. We’ll see how this whole thing turns out, but I’m expecting a painful death.”

“Well,” Martha said, smiling weakly, “guess it’s my part to play the optimist then.”

Tim looked at her and grinned, giggling a little, until the two of them were laughing up a storm. Eventually, their giggles returned to wheezes and then the two of them found themselves sitting in silence together.

“Look at us, laughing at something so morbid,” Martha mused.

“It’s a way of dealing with it, don’t sweat it too much,” Tim replied.

Martha nodded as she yawned, flopping over sideways onto the couch. She curled up, rubbing her eyes and changing instantly into a nightgown. “I’m sorry, I’m so tired,” she spoke, blushing a little.

“It’s alright, I don’t mind,” Tim spoke softly.

“I might nap for a few minutes,” Martha said sleepily.

“Goodnight, princess,” Tim whispered, blushing as they realized what they said. If Martha heard, she didn’t respond. Tim slid over and began to pet her leg, hoping it helped her sleep, and soon found themselves drifting off to the rhythm of the goddess’ shallow breathing.