“Reckoning, and its Badb Catha. It seems this being is similar.”
“I thought the Fates were supposed to be old hags over a cauldron,” I said, looking at the woman. “I’m not getting the crone vibe here.”
“Our mythos has been twisted many times over millennia,” Fate said. “Please sit, Simon.”
“Have we met?” I asked, taking a chair at the opposite end of the table. “Did Monty tell you my—”
“I know all names,” she said. “I’m Fa—”
“Yes, I get that, you’re Fate and all that,” I said. “Why are you here?”
“We need to talk.”
“I don’t have anything to say.”
“That would be a first,” Monty said, sitting to my right. “This goes back to what I said earlier about your level of attraction.”
“I could stand to be a little less attractive right now,” I said. “Why can’t I attract low-level beings, like Caffeina, goddess of javambrosia. She could threaten me with a mug of delicious coffee. I’d even settle for Hops, the demigod of beer drinking and carousing?”
“I don’t think either of those exist,” Monty said.
“O, ye of little faith,” I said. “We just need to believe.”
“I believe those are made up figments of your imagination,” Monty said, and then turned to look at Fate. “Why are you here?”
“You know why, mage. The same reason you spent three days finding out what you knew to be true from the onset.”
“Three days?” I asked. “What do you mean, three days?”
“You have been absent from this plane for three days,” Fate said. “Discovering the obvious.”
“She is definitely sounding like your crowd, clear as dirt,” I said, glancing at Monty. “Can you elaborate?”
“We experienced time dilation and constriction simultaneously,” Monty answered, still looking at Fate. “Time flowed faster here than at the Keep.”
“I got that part,” I said. “The other part, the ‘what you knew to be true from the onset’ part. Can you explain that?”
“Do you recall when I mentioned those beings that would think nothing of erasing you?”
“Vividly,” I said. “Is that what this is? A disintegration?”
“You are impacting reality,” Monty said. “Hence our guest.”
“No shit,” I snapped. “I impact reality every day. It’s what I—what we—do. Since when does that concern Fate?”
“My working theory is that it’s having negative effects.”
“It is,” Fate said. “Tell me, Simon, do you know what fate is?”
This brought back Karma’s question to me while I had been in the midst of the torture test.
“I can tell you what I understand fate to be,” I said. “A scary looking being currently sitting in my conference room. How’s that?”
“Fate is that which is destined to be,” Fate said. “You have violated the laws of causality, and balance must be restored.”
“What? I’ve done no such thing,” I said, confused. “I don’t recall violating any laws of anything, but if you insist, just write me a ticket and I’ll take care of it.”
“You mask your fear with humor,” Fate answered. “Has anyone told you how irritating that can be?”
“Repeatedly,” I said, glancing at Monty. “Write your ticket, I’ll pay your fate fine and we can a call it a day.”
“Who are we speaking with?” Monty asked. “Which of the three are you?”
“It’s Fate, Monty,” I said. “She already said who she was.”
“I am Lachesis the Alloter, and you, Simon Strong, have been a royal pain in my ass.”
“I don’t even know you,” I said. “I usually know who I’m aggravating. You, I don’t know.”
“You weren’t born immortal,” Lachesis said. “Once you became one, your transition disrupted everything.”
“Hey,” I said, suddenly offended, “it’s not like I woke up one day and said: ‘You know what? Today I’m going to become immortal’. If you have an issue with my immortality, take it up with Kali.”
“I don’t have to,” Lachesis said. “I’m here to offer you a choice, Chosen of Kali.”
“A choice? What choice?”
“Restore balance or be erased.”
THIRTEEN
“Restore balance or be erased?” I asked. “How exactly am I supposed to restore balance?”
“I think she means lose your immortality,” Monty said. “Become mortal again.”
“Is Monty right?” I asked. “You want me to become mortal again?”
“This is not about what I want,” Fate said. “This is about what must be done, to restore balance.”
“So you’re saying my being immortal, something that was done to me, mind you, is jeopardizing all of reality?”
“You were not born this way,” Fate answered slowly. “Becoming immortal has allowed you to interact with beings and situations you never would have impacted had you been mortal.”
“Am I supposed to just go up to Kali and say: ‘I need you to remove the curse’, and that’s supposed to work?” I asked. “Have you ever met Kali? She doesn’t seem like the kind to take requests, least of all mine. She cursed me. It wasn’t a gift.”
“Why aren’t we speaking to Atropos?” Monty asked. “Why you?”
“You want more of them to appear, really?” I asked. “I’m good with one of the three.”
“The Alloter measures the thread, but Atropos is the one who cuts it,” Monty continued, looking at Fate. “Why are we having this discussion with you? Wouldn’t Atropos be the one to present Simon with this choice? Unless…”
“Unless they can’t take direct action against me,” I said, having a sudden realization. “Unless…I’m mortal.”
“Your thread cannot be cut in its current state,” Fate said. “This is true.”
“Seems like there’s more,” I said. “What aren’t you saying?”
“The balance must be restored. We cannot sever your thread currently, but the threads of those your life touches”—she glanced at Monty—“can be.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked. “Are you threatening those close to me?”
“I am Fate. I have no need for empty threats. I will tell you what will occur if you continue along this path,” she answered, as her voice transformed, increasing in volume and tone. It suddenly sounded like more than one person was speaking at once. “You will heed my decree.”
“I’m heeding,” I said, rubbing a temple “but you need to lower the volume. I’ve had one hell of a headache, very little coffee, and your volume isn’t helping. Dial it down.”
She stared at me for a few seconds, nodded her head and smiled.
“You will either restore the balance and your mortality,” she said, lowering her blended voice, “or everyone you have impacted will have their threads severed.”
“Sounds like a threat to me,” I said. “What happened to not making threats?”
“I said I have no need for empty threats.”
“Ah, yours are full of menace then,” I answered. “Since when does Fate get involved in day to day affairs? I thought you three were big picture, cataclysmic overseers, that sort of stuff.”
“My very existence defines day-to-day and the ‘big picture’ as you call it,” she said. “Your immortal presence in the day-to-day affects the larger scheme of things.”
“Yet you threaten those close to me.”
“You think you are alone and have few people in your life, don’t you?” Fate asked. “You pretend that you are isolated, now that you are immortal.”
“I’m not exactly a social butterfly,” I said. “Monty, Peaches, Michiko and a few others are my circle. Don’t need much more. My life is complicated as is. I’d say that’s isolated. My circle is small.”
“Wrong,” Fate answered. “This entire city”—she waved an arm around—“has been set on a different path because of your actions. Even
now, the repercussions of your influence are impacting others.”
I laughed, but then grew serious when I realized she wasn’t joking.
“You’re serious?” I asked in disbelief. “My actions? What are you talking about?”
“That is why we are speaking to you,” Monty said, understanding while I was still in the dark. “We altered their timelines.”
“Glad you know why. Care to share?”
“Every time we saved the city or averted a disaster, we changed the fate of the city and the people in it,” Monty said. “We altered lives and outcomes.”
“You have created a raveled mess, Simon Strong,” Fate said, crossing her arms. “Your participation in the events of this city have rippled across countless lives.”
“We saved lives,” I said. “What were we supposed to do? Sit back and watch it happen?”
“You weren’t supposed to be involved at all,” Fate answered. “You upset the balance.”
“What about Monty?” I asked. “Why are you making this all about me? No offense, Monty.”
“None taken, I’m curious as well,” Monty answered. “Simon didn’t act on his own. Why single him out?”
“His involvement set you on a different path,” Fate answered. “He is the catalyst, the nexus of the disruption. If he had remained mortal after your first case, you would have left this city. You can extrapolate the rest.”
“You say that like I had a choice,” I snapped. “Kali cursed me. I didn’t ask for this.”
“You chose to act of your own free will,” Fate said, her voice grim. “No one forced you to make the choices you made. That was all you, not Kali nor anyone else…just you.”
She was right. Didn’t mean I had to like it.
“What? I should’ve retreated to some mountaintop and sat crossed-legged until Kali changed her mind?”
“You should have done everything possible to reverse your immortality,” she said, “because you knew it was not the natural order of your life. You chose to exploit it.”
“You make it seem like I wanted to be immortal,” I said. “I was working a case and got in between two gods who were pissed at each other.”
“Seems like you make a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“It’s a gift,” I said. “Kali cursed me alive because she wanted me to suffer. I’m not exploiting it, but I’m also not going out of my way to have a conversation with a goddess of destruction either.”
“That is not my concern,” Fate replied, standing. “It is a matter you need to resolve with her. She will either agree, and you can continue to live out the remaining days of a mortal life, or she will refuse, and we will have to take…steps. To restore the balance.”
Another threat. This one sounded worse than the first one. It was probably the way she paused before the word ’steps’ that set off my warning system.
“Steps?” I asked, concerned. “What steps?”
“While it’s true your thread can’t be cut now, it was not always this way,” Fate replied. “If you cannot alter your immortality, we will be forced to go back and sever it when you were mortal, before you—”
“Upset the balance, I get it,” I finished, looking at Monty. “Can they do that? Go back to a time in my life when I was mortal and”—I made a scissor motion with my fingers—“snip?”
“I don’t know,” Monty said, pensively. “I’ve never heard of a retroactive timeline correction. This is highly irregular and unprecedented.”
“‘Highly irregular and unprecedented’ sums up my life in one sentence.”
“We can and will take the appropriate action to restore equilibrium,” Fate said. “If you don’t or can’t resolve this, we will. No one escapes or alters their fate. No one.”
“You want me to find Kali and convince her she made a mistake,” I said, exasperated. “Clearly, you haven’t dealt with gods. Admitting mistakes isn’t in their vocabulary. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“Start there,” she said, pointing to the mark on my hand. “That is more than just a symbol. It is a key…use it.”
“A key?” I said, looking down at my hand. “What are you talking about?”
“You have seven days,” Fate answered, picking up her book from the conference table. “That is all the time I can allot. If you are not mortal by that time, you will face a simple choice. Have your thread severed, or allow those whose your life touched, to perish.”
“I just want to say that, as choices go, that one sucks and is far from simple.”
“Life is rarely simple and yours is more complex than most.”
“What did you mean by repercussions? What repercussions?”
“You will realize that everything is connected,” Fate answered, making it clear she held a black belt in cryptic speech. “Those close to you will be affected first, along with the places of power in this city.”
“Well that clears it all up,” I said, frustrated. “You do realize this entire city is practically a place of power?”
“Don’t be naive, Simon,” she replied. “Narrow your focus where the two intersect and you will begin to see the effects of your current state.”
“What? I don’t even understand—”
“Seven days, Simon. Goodbye.”
She vanished. A second later, a large hourglass materialized on the conference table. The silver sand slowly fell into the bottom bulb.
“I guess it could be worse,” I said, moving closer to the hourglass. “She could have gone modern with one of those digital countdown timers.”
“This is serious, Simon,” Monty said. “We need help on this.”
“I agree,” I said. “Who do you think we should get? Because I’m fresh out of ideas on how to deal with Fate before she gets all snippy.”
“That would be Atropos and her shears,” Monty said. “Although it seems all three were speaking at the end. Still, the energy signature felt familiar somehow.”
“Familiar how?” I asked. “You know who she is?”
“It’s impossible,” Monty said, waving my words away. “I must be mistaken.”
“Fine. How do we stop Atrophy from cutting my string?”
“Atropos, and it’s your thread, not string.”
“Thread, string. Tomayto, tomahto,” I said. “How do we stop her?”
“I’ve never faced a personification of Fate,” Monty said. “Is she like Karma?”
“Nothing and no one is like Karma, trust me.”
“We need an expert on life and death,” Monty said. “Someone who could at least point us in the right direction.”
“Right direction?” I said, raising my voice. “Were you not paying attention? That was Fate! She gave me a week, and you want to go in the right direction?”
“I was paying attention, but were you?”
“Of course I was,” I said. “I especially heard the part about either severing my string or the erasing everyone I’ve impacted.”
“Not that,” Monty said, waving my words away. “The other part.”
“Giving me a week to find and convince Kali, the goddess of destruction, to remove her curse and make me mortal?”
“The other, other part.”
“Now you sound as clear as Fate. Elaborate please.”
“You will impact others close to you and places of power,” Monty said. “Like you said, this entire city appears to be a hub of power. If that hub is compromised and the balance broken, your curse would be the least of our worries.”
“How am I supposed to find Kali? As destructive as you are, it doesn’t make me friendly with a goddess of destruction.”
“Kali is also known as a goddess of creation, among other things,” Monty said, “which is probably how she managed to curse you alive.”
“You know, I wasn’t really paying attention to the creation side of things when she cursed me,” I said. “She seemed pretty pissed we interfered in her 500 year op to stop Shiva. It slipped my m
ind to ask if she was going to demonstrate her creative abilities.”
“There are several important things we are missing,” Monty said. “Why did Kali curse only you? I was there with you.”
“Good question,” I said. “When we find her, why don’t you ask her?”
“More importantly, Fate said something relevant.”
“The whole ‘ending me or those close to me’ comment really focused my attention. I must’ve missed the other relevant part. Enlighten me.”
“She said no one escapes or alters their fate, no one.”
“I remember that, so?”
“It’s not true,” Monty said. “I personally know several people who have altered their fate through their actions and will. Myself included.”
“Are you saying Fate is lying?”
“I think she is presenting the truth in a manner that benefits her,” Monty said after a pause. “It would be like my saying your creature is a dog. Technically true, he appears to belong to the canine species, but it is far from the complete truth.”
“That’s just typical. Every time we deal with beings of power, they seem to have some sort of hidden agenda,” I said. “Specifically gods and their power plays.”
“True,” Monty said with a nod. “It may be their reality differs from our own, due to their natural state of being. Gods operate on a timetable of millennia. Humans,”—he glanced at me—“at least most humans, must seem insignificant in terms of scale, their lives being mere moments in the grander scheme of things.”
“Just because we don’t live as long doesn’t mean we should be made pawns in their games,” I said, angry. “They always think we’re just specks of dust to be brushed away when we irritate them.”
“Apparently, Fate would like to revert you back to dust status,” Monty said. “It would seem you have become more than just an irritant. There is more going on here, but I’m not seeing it.”
“Will this expert you mentioned be able to see it?” I asked.
“I believe so.”
“Who exactly is this expert on life and death you’re referring to?”
“I’d say it’s past time to get your creature some quality meat,” Monty said, standing to leave the room. “I think pastrami is his protein of choice?”
Dark Glass: A Montague and Strong Detective Agency Novel Page 8
