From Shadow to Light - Book Ten

Ch. 22- Long May She Reign

"When you first see her, she will be a light-refracted, splintered divinity, some unlovely portrait of a goddess misremembered."

I collapsed to hard obsidian concrete with a thud, swearing under my breath as I began to lift myself off the floor. My eyes scanned my surroundings like I had been trained to do since I was a little girl and found nothing but darkness. All black, except for three stone-colored thrones, one for each of the Fates. They all sat with their legs crossed, wearing the long robes that made them powerful over any single being in the entire universe. Calliope, the silver one. Daphne, the scarlet. And Thalia, wearing a golden robe. All three watched me intensely, waiting for me. As I stood upright again, it was Calliope that spoke first. "Soari Lianna Breevort. Oh, how you intrigued us from the start,"

"Calliope," I replied, then whipped my head to the others. "Daphne. Thalia. It's nice to meet all of you under the circumstances."

Daphne's lips tilted to the side, her wavy brown hair flashing a little bit over her robe. "Circumstances including you forcing the God of Darkness to kill you with his bare hands so you can have a meeting with us? Interesting."

"You know what I want—what we both want and I will not leave until you agree," I bit back. My plan relied on their agreement and without it, I was going to fail. Fail my family and friends, even my world. But these beings—they cared about this world, too. Cared enough to save my parents years ago and watch them closely. "You three want Erebus dead and I can make that happen. Only if you—"

"Only if we give you the ultimate key to godhood? The one we have kept hidden from every single person finding our sanctuary, begging for it?" Thalia questioned, her voice burning through me like the sun herself. But I was not about to back down, to cower at their feet. "You are still young—"

I interrupted her. "Young enough to be captured by one of the most dangerous gods in the entire fucking universe and survived through everything he ever through at me. Stop treating me like a fucking child because that is not who I am anymore. Not when I have been through shit no one ever did before me. You three know my parents, you spoke to them when they were dying. All of you apologized to them for the missteps they took to finding each other so shouldn't you give me the same kindness? Weren't you the ones that made us meet in the first place?"

"No," Calliope confessed. "We tried our best to make him stay away from you. But the connection you two have gone beyond our capabilities, Soari."

I snorted and tilted my head to the side. "And look at how you failed at that, just as you failed at not letting my parents meet sooner. Tell you what, you give me this ultimate key to godhood and I will destroy him once and for all. When I'm done, I'll give it back to you for safekeeping. Does that sound like a fair deal?"

Calliope clenched her jaw as agitation showed through her entire beautiful face. "Has anyone told you that you have the temperament of both of your parents combined?" she rolled her eyes at me. "If I knew any better, those gods of yours knew about you the second you were born. The prophecy they saw in their eyes about this very moment and all the ones after. Did you know how many of them watched over you as you grew up? Saving you when you were led by your dangerous impulses or gifting you objects of their creations? It was a sight to see, even for us who watch over everything." She gave me a hint of a smile, and so did the other two. Thinking about it, I did wonder if so many of those gods found me when I was younger out of sheer curiosity for who I am. Were they out there now, waiting for me to come back just like Helios and Moros? Were they as ruthless as them or did they have gentleness in their hearts? So many questions, but not enough answers. "Soari, you were meant to become ruler of them all, no matter how short-lived it might be. They will always see you as their savior and will protect you until the end of times. It is in your destiny and we cannot get in the way of that, as part of the laws of the universe."