Song of the Day | Cause and Effect by RVG | Spotify | YouTube

Chapter Twenty-three: Fate Herself, narrated by Blair Gilbert

0:00

/1380.408

1×

Some time later, Soda woke abruptly. Her heart was pounding with sudden adrenaline, her body rattling with tremors as life flooded through her. She was dead! Well, that seemed unlikely. She’d been having a nightmare… a battle… Evangeline. Evangeline. She looked around wildly, sitting up at the same time and making herself dizzy. She was clean, and her skin was smooth. No blood. No gashes, no burns, no feeling like her head was being split down the middle to let all the magic out. She was in a narrow, heavy wooden bed, in a small room. It had minty-coloured floral wallpaper, a small old-fashioned washstand with a bowl and a threadbare-looking towel.

In fact, the whole room looked gently shabby, like it had been exactly like this for a long time, but was well-loved all the same. It made Soda feel nostalgic for a grandmother she’d never had. She wondered why she wasn’t panicking any more. Golden afternoon sunlight streamed through a cracked curtain. She cautiously got up and peered out.

The window looked out onto the most lush, verdant garden Soda had ever seen. A stone pathway wound away from the house and disappeared around a bend made of tall grasses, surrounded by a cacophony of wildflowers. Everywhere she looked, ferns burst forth, white sprays of tiny flowers carpeted the ground, tall magnificent trees stretched off in the distance. The garden seemed wild and unkempt at first, but the longer Soda looked, the more she could see how it had been carefully arranged to lead her eye towards the forest in the distance. It called to her, inviting her down to lose herself amongst wandering paths and cool emerald grottos under the trees. She wondered if she was dead after all. But her heart was beating firmly, and her belly grumbled to tell her that if she was dead, she still had a body, which didn’t sound right. There was a delicious smell wafting under the door.

Slowly, she crept towards it and gave the handle a gentle turn. It opened, unlocked. Hunger and curiosity drove her out into a narrow hallway lined with landscape paintings and hangings made of woven wool. She didn’t feel afraid. Wherever she was radiated comfort and welcome.

“Come on, bread’s ready. Don’t be shy,” a voice called to her from down the other end of the hall. An old woman’s voice, a bit cracked but still rich and full of warmth. She crept towards the voice and the smell of freshly baked bread.

At the end of the hall was a large kitchen, filled with morning light. Like the bedroom, it had floral wallpaper, and what looked like hand-painted floral tiles. Shelves lined the walls, stacked high with crockery and cups, jars of whole dried herbs and flowers, as well as fresh plants growing in haphazard pots, various stacks of books and an old, chunky television. Startled, she saw the chest and the Book piled in a corner next to some old boots and a walking stick. It took Soda a moment to register the lady standing behind an island bench, slicing into what looked like dense fruit bread. It smelled incredible, like nothing else, and Soda’s mouth watered.

The lady herself seemed unremarkable at first. Maybe in her mid-seventies, plump, with golden brown Mediterranean skin and short, loose grey curls. She was wearing a baggy linen button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Then she looked up, and smiled.

The room rushed away from Soda as she fell, endlessly, into a deep sea of gold.

All of time and space opened up, and she saw layers and webs and felt the interconnectedness of all things. This, she somehow understood, was magic. Everywhere and nowhere, creating life, holding together all things that were and could be. She understood that to have an intention now would be to change the shape of reality itself. However, in this space, she had no intentions. She was complete, whole and without desire. For an eternity she floated, feeling trees grow and stars spinning and people! So many people. Rushing about so quickly, their lives like silvery ephemeral traces. Occasionally, she’d see a silver spot blossom up, and gold would spill and ripple around it. Time was meaningless.

Then, just as suddenly as she’d fallen, Soda rushed back to herself and the kitchen and the smell of fruit bread. She had been looking into the old woman’s eyes. They contained small pools of that golden universe inside the universe, a reminder that what Soda had just seen and felt had been true, even if its detail was already beyond her dull senses now. The old lady was still smiling.

“You’re her, aren’t you,” Soda said in a voice that came out as a croak. She cleared it and tried again. “You’re her. Fate. You’ve been… communicating with me. Via the Stone.”

“That’s right,” she said matter of factly, and went back to slicing and plating up the bread. “You did good! I chose well. Sit down, we’ll all have some breakfast shortly.” She gestured to a stool opposite her at the bench.

“All? What happened? Am I dead?” The battle… but it didn’t trouble her for too long.

“This is a place for you to do a bit of healing. I’ll send you back to your friends in a little while.” She gestured to Soda with the bread knife, matter-of-factly. “Now this is about healing your spirit, so you’ll have to wake up all scratched up again I’m afraid. But don’t worry about that now. Coffee or tea?”

“Uhhh, coffee please.”

The old lady pottered about her kitchen, brewing coffee on the stove in a large Moka pot, taking out a big slab of butter from the pantry, as well as a big pot of honey. Soda looked around, fascinated. It wasn’t at all what she was expecting. But what had she been expecting? A grand hall, maybe? Robes? Columns?

The back door had some bells on it, and they jingled as it opened. Soda caught a glimpse of the glorious gardens again before she was distracted by the breathtakingly beautiful woman walking through the door. Her skin was dark brown, and she had bouncy masses of big curly hair and round, full lips. She was simply the most gorgeous person Soda had ever seen in her life. Her jaw fell open.

“That’s enough, you’ll give her brain damage,” laughed Fate, flapping her hands as though shoeing a fly. Soda felt the tension in the room dissipate a little. She no longer wanted to throw herself at the feet of the woman and worship her. She was still lovely, just in a more regular fashion, and she was wearing overalls with grass-stained knees. She chuckled.

“You know I don’t get to make a grand entrance very often any more, let me have my drama,” she said. Then, she turned to Soda.

“Hello, welcome. You made it. I’m glad. My name’s Ahti.” She was kicking off old boots, and she turned as she did so. “Come in for breakfast now,” she called out the door behind her.

Soda blinked in confusion, but the old lady placed a cup of coffee, a cold juice, and a plate with two big slabs of still-warm bread dripping with butter and honey in front of her.

“Smells good Auntie!” Ahti breathed appreciatively, taking up a seat further down the bench. After a moment, Soda was surprised again by a little girl, about seven or so, wearing an old-fashioned nightie and too-big gumboots. She had very pale skin, and long, heavy, straight black hair. There was something familiar about her… Soda watched her step out of the boots and come inside much more hesitantly than Ahti had. She looked at Soda warily, but Ahti gestured to her.

“Don’t worry love, nobody’s fighting any more. We’re going to eat. Do you drink tea?”

“Oh, um, yes please…” said the girl in a small voice. Soda was too hungry to wait, and stuffed a chunk of bread into her mouth. It was fantastic, chewy and cinnamony, with bits of walnut and dried fig. The butter was salty and creamy, and tasted fresh and tangy in a way she couldn’t describe. For a moment she was just lost in how good the bread was, and how nice it was to sip coffee and eat something at a breakfast table without someone trying to kill her. The little girl sat down opposite her, as did the old lady, and for a moment everyone ate in companionable silence. The girl seemed to perk up a bit, and she smiled shyly at Soda.

“Hello,” said Soda softly. “What’s your name?”

“Angie,” she said.

Soda choked on her orange juice, coughing. Ahti whacked her on the back heartily, but she gave Soda a warning look she couldn’t miss.

“Goodness,” managed Soda weakly. “I think my orange juice had bones in it.”

“That’s a funny thing to say,” replied tiny Evangeline, destroyer of worlds. “I saw a lizard in the garden! It looked like a little dragon, with no wings.”

“Did you now?” Fate asked indulgently. “What makes you think it wasn’t a dragon?”

“Dragons aren’t real,” she huffed.

Soda took another sip of orange juice to disguise the fact that she was still reeling.

“Aren’t they?” The old lady chortled. “Maybe if you go try to find it again, you can ask it directly. If it answers, it’s a dragon. If it doesn’t, it’s just a lizard.”

The little girl’s eyes lit up and she leapt up from the table.

“Clean up your plate first please,” called Ahti, causing a flurry of snatched plate and glass, dash to sink, quick rinse, then dash to door, put on boots, and run out. The whole time Soda watched her in astonishment.

“What happened?” She finally asked.

“Do you know, I’m really not sure why that happens,” said Fate, sipping her coffee. “But they always come through like that - little children, all tore up and scared. They go back to when they got hurt and the seed of poison was first planted in them. And it’s never adults. That wound always happens early.”

Soda felt realisation finally hit her. “So… wait. You brought Evangeline here… on-on purpose?”

Ahti began to clear away the breakfast things. Fate leaned her elbows on the counter and rested her chin on her wrinkly fist.

“Now. I’m sorry to have used you without your permission. Largely I leave people to go about their lives, but occasionally, I need to give things a little nudge. Everything is more connected than you can know, fine spider web strands layered and shivering with shared purpose. But just like a spider’s web, little tears and holes can form. We try to repair them.”

“And, if we’re good, catch them before they happen,” added Ahti from the sink.

“Well, Evangeline wanted to blow a pretty damn big hole,” Soda said drily.

“She succeeded,” Fate responded, looking tired. “Very occasionally, an individual comes barrelling along and tears through the web like an angry hornet. Big egos. Even bigger messes. What to do with them? It seemed a shame to me to waste so much raw power, and I need the help. Maintaining the cosmic balance is hard work!” She took a long sip of coffee, and sighed in contentment.

“The darker blend is better Ahti, I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

Ahti smirked. “Uh huh, you know I live for these moments when you admit you were wrong.”

“Always such a sore winner,” tutted Fate, but she was smiling.

“Wow,” said Soda finally. “So you just like, lure them here and they revert to their child selves before they turned evil? Then what?”

“Then they help me. There’s usually three of us. We’ve been one down for a while, so this is a relief.”

“And what about the shadow? What was that all about? Is it really gone?”

“Seems to be,” mused Fate, her eyes turning out the window towards the forest in the distance. “What did you see?”

Soda described the scene with the toad in House Orleans. Fate nodded thoughtfully.

“Yes, I thought this might be the case,” she mused. “We reside here in the House in the Centre, but all around us is the Dark Forest.”

Soda shuddered, her skin prickling. She almost couldn’t bring herself to ask the question, but she needed to. “Why? Why does such a place exist?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” said Fate lightly. “I didn’t make it, that’s certain. It seems to be part of the system though, and it protects us from intrusions.”

“And keeps us in…” added Ahti.

“You can’t leave?” Soda felt more lost than ever.

“Probably for the best,” was all Ahti would say.

“At any rate,” continued Fate, “sometimes the creatures from the Dark Forest escape. One must have reached Evangeline. She told us when she got here she’d been alone for a long time. I think perhaps she was orphaned in a forest near a place where the walls between worlds are naturally thin. Out crept the toad, and befriended her.”

“Goodness,” Soda murmured. “We… Rowan and the others thought the possession had happened when she used the Book. But it was there all along!”

Soda’s heart ached for the tiny pale girl. She must’ve been so frightened… and that was far too young to do anything about the kind of influence the toad would’ve had.

“Will she remember what happened?” Soda asked, staring thoughtfully out to the garden where she could catch glimpses of the child running about looking for lizards to bother.

“Eventually,” said Fate. “She’ll have to reckon with herself, as both Ahti and I did.”

“That trick with my chest was clever,” commented Ahti suddenly. Soda’s brain felt slow, so her first thought was…. I haven’t done any tricks with your chest lady, though maybe I’d like to… Then she spotted the Stone, hanging around her neck. Her jaw dropped.

“Ohhhhh shit!” She exclaimed. “You’re the First Sorceress!”

Ahti laughed, and winked. “You got there in the end."

“So you tried to take over the world then found yourself here?”

Ahti nodded.

“Wow,” Soda finally said after a long pause. Some faraway part of her was raging, but it didn’t feel right in this cosy, comfortable space. So she spoke softly instead of yelling. “You know, I don’t really like the idea that I nearly died trying to prevent this from happening, and you were just leading her here this whole time. Why didn’t you just like, go get her?” And the thing that had been creeping up to the surface made its way out in a rush. “Why did my father have to die?”

Fate sighed. “Everybody has to die Soda, and magic users just steal extra time. It catches up eventually. Nearly all those who use magic die by it, did you know that?”

Soda felt like a grumpy, defensive child. “There’s a lot I still don’t know, obviously. And I accept that Frank had to die sometime. But some of those walking skeletons in the Enclave are eight hundred years old! How’s that right? You could’ve chosen him, I understand that at least. You chose me, but not him. You let him die.” She couldn’t keep the accusatory tone out of her voice.

Fate made a sucking noise through her teeth.

“We cursed those objects for a good reason-" began Ahti, hotly, but Fate held up her hand.

“And who exactly told you that he wasn’t chosen?”

Soda stared blankly. “Lady, look. You’ve fucked with my head a lot already, I hope you’re not doing it some more right now because that would be really shitty,” she blurted out, a tremor rolling through her hands at the audacity.

But Fate just arched an eyebrow. “Soda, I want you to know that I care about you and want you to be happy. But I also am trying to stop all of space and time from being torn open and sucked into an endless void. Your understanding of death is a limited one. We try to recruit people to help where we can. Your father is helping us. He is also dead. This was a particularly tricky one, because Evangeline is very powerful. It seemed best to get the Stone into the hands of a novice, to limit the potential damage. I can only influence things, I can’t change the whole of reality at my will, no matter what the stories say.” 

She did look very old, just for a moment. Then she reached over and patted Soda’s hand affectionately. “Sorry for not having this conversation sooner, but all in all I think you did a very good job and I made a good choice. Aren’t you pleased about saving the world?”

Soda thought about it. “Yeah,” she said.

“Good, then that’s settled,” said Fate, clapping her hands together decisively.

“Hey!” Soda realised something. “What about the Covenant? Surely that’s destroyed.”

“The Covenant is old, and battered, but it holds. Maybe not for much longer. Change is coming,” replied Ahti, looking thoughtful.

Fate stood up. “Better get you back to your body, dear. Now! You’ll hear from me from time to time. When I need your help with something. Look for my sign: the symbol of the hand. Only other chosen can see it."

She clasped a wrinkled, knotty hand around Soda’s forearm for just a moment, and when she lifted it, a crude hieroglyph of a hand with a circle underneath wrote itself in shining gold. Then it sank into her skin and disappeared.

Soda frowned, flexing her arm. She found she could make it appear again by concentrating. She thought about the weird loaded glances from Rowan, the jaw block preventing them from speaking.

“Did you have Rowan here? After she touched the Stone?”

“It wasn’t clear which of the two between them it would be,” said Ahti. “Rowan came to us first, but it wasn’t her. She’s been helping us.”

“Then how come she tried to kill me?”

“We don’t tell people how to do their jobs,” the goddess gave a little shrug. “We can only broadly aim for outcomes.”

“Wow, that sure sounds like some management bullshit,” Soda muttered. Then: “Hey so is this like a paid gig or what? I’m still unemployed you know.”

Fate’s golden eyes shone dangerously, but she smirked a little. “I can’t exactly pay you a salary, but I can give you gifts sometimes. Besides, I expect you’ll be plenty busy when you wake up. Go back to your house and rest. A lot of important people are going to make demands of you, but they can wait.”

“Goodbye Soda Jones. We’ll talk soon.” Ahti gave her a smile and a wink.

“Wait! I want to see my dad again!” But before she could do or say anything else, everything went black.