The Fates (Book I) - 2014 Watty Award Winner!

4.1 - The Sacrifice

Dear Readers: Onward to Episode 4! Thanks so much to all of my readers for following and supporting The Fates thus far - it means a ton to me ^_^

To open the episode, let's see where Lachesis has landed on earth, after her inspiring chat with Chaos in the Cave...

P.S. Greek myth lovers out there - a few new names in this scene may ring some mythical bells ;)

EPISODE 4 - DOUBT

________________________

Scene 1: The Sacrifice

2020 B.C.

She wanted to go back. As soon as she arrived on earth again, the fear swelled up a thousand times more fiercely in her human soul. She’d been foolish, to think she could ever be brave; for this fear was a part of her, if not the very heart of her, both mortal and divine.

Beholding her own beauty for the first time, in the mesmerizing mirror of Chaos’s steely greys, had sparked a sudden burst of confidence in Lachesis’s immortal soul. She had always imagined herself to be plainer than both of her sisters; she wasn’t sure why. The Fates had never come by any reflective surfaces in the Cave, so she had not had any reason to believe that.

But now she knew that it was certainly not true. Though Atropos remained unsurpassably stunning, Lachesis no longer had to harbor any insecurities about being less beautiful than her little sister—no matter how much smarter and stronger and braver and otherwise better Clotho might be, a little voice in Lachesis’s head had chimed in against her newfound shred of self-esteem.

And yet those deeper virtues were the ones that mattered, she woefully reminded herself now. What had her pretty face ever won her anyway, other than trouble among men on earth? This harrowing earth, on which she had just landed for the second time. How foolish she had been, to think that beauty was a basis for bravery!

She wanted to go back. She wanted to go back home. But there would be no turning back. Not for another day, at least, or till she could find sleep.

And there would be no sleep for now, beneath the blazing sun, assailed by human voices. Like the first time. Far too much like her first time on earth, in the circle of stones. The memory jarred her bones…

Yet then again, this time was different—the language spoken by the men, for one. Lachesis found herself fluent in this foreign tongue as well. Chaos had explained, before encouraging the fearful Fate to place her thread back on the Loom, that gods always retained some superhuman powers while on earth in human form. Foremost among these was a universal gift of language comprehension.

At least it was a little bit less terrifying, knowing what these men were saying, Lachesis silently comforted herself as she cowered beneath these strangers’ dumbstruck eyes.

Fishermen, by the looks of it, with spears and nets in hand. She had arrived upon a pebbled beach, beside a brackish bay that licked her bare limbs where she lay. The sun seemed brighter here than in the grassy realm where she’d first landed. The air was dry, beneath a broad sky free from so much as the faintest wisp of cloud.

She steadied her breathing, braced herself for just another day here in this fearsome world. For Mother’s sake.

“…the princess?” a fisherman whispered in awe to his friend.

“Of course not, halfwit,” the companion jeered. “Royals don’t wash up ashore with the catch of the day.”

“Haven’t you heard, though?” another chimed in. “The king was set to chain his daughter to a cliff today, as sacrifice to Cetus. Mayhap she broke free of the chains and fell into the sea.”