Inherent Fate

by Geanna Culbertson

  “Happily ever afters are unstable, Crisanta,” Lenore said. “They can take decades of work to build, but mere seconds to destroy. And then what? Do we fall apart? I assure you that is what would happen if it weren’t for the systems we’ve put into place to maintain order. My agency’s involvement with protagonist selection has allowed us to keep a handle on this world’s future, keep things running smoothly, and keep darkness at bay. It may seem harsh, but it is all for your own good and for the good of the realm.”

  I placed my hands on the edge of her desk. “Rationalize it all you want, Lenore,” I said, my face a mere two feet from the Godmother Supreme’s. “It still doesn’t give you the right to decide who amongst us is worth investing in and who should be tossed aside. You shouldn’t have abandoned the people of Earth, people like Natalie Poole.”

  Lenore scrunched up her nose. Without saying anything she went over to a bookshelf on the right side of the room and selected a dark blue book as thick as a dictionary. She opened it and spoke Natalie Poole’s name. Instantly the pages began to flip on their own, emitting a flurry of red sparks like they were kicking up enchanted dust.

  When the pages stopped turning, Lenore read silently for a moment before closing the book and returning it to the shelf.

  “Magic Classifications, Key Destiny Intervals, the Eternity Gate,” I recited aloud as Lenore made her way back to the desk. “I may not know what the words mean, but I know they’re important. I know she’s important. Antagonists are after her. They’ve been going to Earth to try and destroy her because they know she matters, and if she had Fairy Godmother help she wouldn’t be so vulnerable. By withdrawing your support from that realm you’ve left her and others like her completely defenseless.”

  I’d been carefully watching Lenore during this statement to see if she showed any sign of surprise to the news. But there was none. She seemed unmoved.

  “I’ve left the Earthlings to their own fate, Crisanta,” Lenore replied. “If memory serves, that is exactly what you’ve always wanted for yourself—a life without the meddling of outside forces.”

  “Don’t turn this on me,” I said. “The Author takes our lives from us by keeping us in crates designed to be shipped to specific endpoints. You’ve left all the people of Earth in one large pen and turned the other cheek to the wolves that have been sneaking in. Or did you think I hadn’t figured it out? You didn’t even blink when I mentioned the antagonists a moment ago. You know they’ve been getting to Earth, don’t you? They’ve been using the holes in the In and Out Spell just like Ashlyn did before you cursed and banished her.”

  The Godmother and I were locked in tense silence for a moment. I held my ground despite her intimidating glower.

  Since learning that my dreams were actually visions of the future, I’d come to a lot of conclusions. This deduction was one that had been simmering in the back of my mind for some time, but it had grown clearer with each bit of new information I’d acquired from our adventure.

  Natalie was not the only person on Earth I’d dreamed about over the years. She was the only recurring character in my nightmares of that realm, but I’d had plenty of other visions of people there being tormented, even killed. Now that I knew about Arian, Tara (Arian’s right hand in the Natalie Poole campaign), and Nadia, the truth about their identities had also become apparent.

  Nadia had ordered the elimination of protagonists that posed a threat to the antagonists, a mission she’d charged Arian with leading and underlings like Tara with carrying out.

  Natalie Poole—this poor girl the Godmothers had abandoned—was one such protagonist. Since I’d found a book with her name on it in a section of the Scribes’ protagonist book library marked “Other Realms,” I reasoned there must’ve been other Earthlings with books too, just like there must’ve been other Earthlings with files at Fairy Godmother Headquarters. They had to be the people on Earth I’d seen tormented by Arian over the years.

  Maybe they were important to the antagonists in some way. Maybe they all had Magic Classifications or Key Destiny Intervals or whatever like Natalie did, and they were paying for it like I’d seen her pay for it in countless visions.

  Standing there—angry and defiant—I began to put the pieces together. I realized with horror that all these years I thought I was being subjected to surreal nightmares, I was actually witnessing the suffering of protagonists in other realms—protagonists that Lena Lenore and the like should’ve been protecting because protecting protagonists was their job.

  “Did you also know there are antagonists actively trying to destroy protagonists in this realm too? Do you even care?” I spat bitterly, my spite outweighing the more sensible part of my conscience that would’ve advised me to hold back. “Or was your precious state of order so important that you chose to preserve appearances rather than let protagonists like me know that there were people out there hunting us down?”

  Lenore’s eyes flashed angrily. In the next half-second she removed the ring from her index finger and transformed it into a wand. She pointed it in my direction. Before I could move a charge of bright red energy bolted out of the tip like a surge of lightning. I shot across the room and slammed against the back wall, landing at the base in a heap. The wind was knocked out of me, and I felt my veins fizzing with a charred feeling. Lenore approached me, wand grasped firmly in hand.

  “I’d heard rumors about antagonists roaming the realm, Crisanta. But to answer your question, no, until very recently I didn’t know they were targeting specific protagonists. That knowledge has only come to me via the Author within the last couple of months. Since finding out, my Godmothers and I have been trying to isolate the group that poses a threat to you. We discovered their bunker beneath the Capitol Building and a couple of other hideouts in the last two weeks, but since we don’t know how many more there are, we chose not to share the information out of respect for your best interest.”

  “Right,” I coughed. “My best interest. I’m sure yours had nothing to do with it.”

  I tried to stand, but Lenore was faster. She waved her wand and a burst of magic rushed around my arms and slammed me into the nearest chair.

  “Sit down,” Lenore said sternly. “I am not through with you yet.”

  I was tempted to go for my wand but restrained the impulse.

  “You and your friends were supposed to be at Lady Agnue’s and Lord Channing’s,” Lenore said. “We could protect you there. Your leaving put you and your friends in the sights of people who shouldn’t have been able to touch you. That choice is on your head, so don’t you dare blame me for whatever’s happened to you.”

  “How were you supposed to protect us when your In and Out Spells are failing?” I asked.

  Lenore’s expression softened ever so slightly. “The holes that have been appearing in Book’s all-encompassing In and Out Spell are out of my control,” she admitted reluctantly. “But the other ones in place—the ones around your school, the Indexlands, and Alderon—all remain perfectly intact. So while the antagonists may be using the former to reach protagonists on Earth . . . I truly don’t know how they’ve been escaping Alderon to pursue the main characters here.”

  The news took me by surprise. It also stirred mixed feelings inside me. For while I was relieved that the In and Out Spell around Alderon didn’t have any holes, I was equally unsettled by the notion that even the Godmother Supreme had no idea how Arian and his kind were getting out.

  “We will figure it out sooner or later though,” the Godmother said as she made her way back to her desk. “At least the only protagonists that have been killed so far are a few of the ones whose books we destroyed. No one knew they were main characters to start with, so they won’t be missed.”

  Boy, when this woman was direct she really didn’t hold anything back. I guess when you were the person in charge of controlling others, you had the luxury of knowing there was no one who could do the same to you.

  How I wished there were security cameras in t
his room—ones with audio that I could use to play back her horrid words for others to hear, show them the monster she really was.

  I stood and approached Lenore. “How can you be so cold?”

  She waved her hand dismissively and pivoted away from me. “It’s not coldness; it’s pragmatism. Since those people never knew they had protagonist books, they just behaved like commons. And what difference does it make if we lose a few of them in the long run?”

  Fury built inside me again and I lashed out. I couldn’t help it. “Those are people you’re talking about, Lenore. It makes no difference what archetype they were born into. You have to warn them about the antagonists. And you have to tell all those people with protagonist books that you’re hiding the truth about who they are.”

  “I’m not going to do that, Crisanta.”

  “Then I will. The moment I walk out of here I’ll make sure they know. I’ll make sure all of them find out.”

  Lenore turned on her fancy heels to face me. “You’ll do no such thing, Crisanta Knight.”

  “Really?” I replied. “Try and stop me.”

  “I don’t have to. You’re going to stop yourself.”

  “And why would I do that?”

  “Because if you breathe a word of what we’ve discussed here to the greater public—a single person outside of that little mischievous group you’ve been traveling with—then I can’t be held responsible for what terrible, unspeakable things happen to them.”

  Lenore twirled her wand and pointed it at the bookshelves lining the right side of the room. Several files shook themselves free and levitated to her desk. I noticed each folder had a swirl mark on the top right corner that matched the ruby design on Lenore’s ring.

  Once they came to rest upon the desk, the folders opened. Shimmering bubbles the size of plates began to rise up from each one.

  The orbs floated between me and Lenore and I leaned in to get a better look. Each contained the vague image of a person. As these images became clearer I recognized the faces of my parents, my brothers, and each of my friends.

  “As I said,” Lenore went on, “I suspected that you would be knocking on my door again. So after you discovered the Scribes’ protagonist book library I began to make preparations. You were getting too close to some very private matters, and I knew you were hardly the type to stop searching for answers.”

  She sighed. “In retrospect maybe I should have taken you then. I’m sure Debbie told you I had been searching for you. But against my better judgment, I was convinced to let you go. A mistake I regretted almost immediately, but you left the Forbidden Forest before I could snatch you up again.”

  “Convinced?” I repeated. “Convinced by who?”

  Who could possibly have enough power or influence to sway this woman to do anything?

  Lenore waved off my question. “Anyways, the point is that I knew you would come to me in your own time, so I had a contingency set aside for the occasion.”

  I glanced at the images of my friends and family, making sure to keep my face blank as I turned coldly to readdress the Godmother Supreme. “So what’s all this supposed to mean, Lenore?” I gestured at the floating spheres. “Are you saying that if I talk, you’ll what, kill them? My friends? My family? You’ll eliminate them all to keep me in line?”

  “Regrettably not,” she admitted. “Fairy Godmothers—like genies when they were around—are known for having all-powerful magic, but that perception is a fallacy. Our magic may be incomparably strong, but it has limits. For starters, genies could not use their abilities except under the discretion of their masters and were bound to the prison of their lamps. Godmothers cannot use their magic without the conductors that are their wands. However, the greatest restriction on our abilities, and genie abilities, is that we cannot use our magic to bring serious, direct harm to another living being.

  “So—although it would be a far neater solution—I cannot kill you or any of the people you care about. But let me make one thing clear. I can still bring you to your knees. Need I remind you that my Fairy Godmother Agency is responsible for regulating all magic and happily ever afters in this realm. So I assure you, Miss Knight, while I may not employ the most conventional method for keeping people silent, if you get in my way I will find other, more creative ways to fill your friends’ and family’s lives with misery.”

  “Lenore, I swear. If you so much as even touch them—”

  “There’ll be no need for that so long as you keep your mouth shut, Miss Knight,” Lenore stated firmly. “On that note, I’ll ask you one time only—do we have an understanding?”

  Once again I felt the compulsion to pull out my wand and, to quote my friend Blue, “go all Mulan on her butt.” But again I restrained myself. Lenore had the deck stacked against me; there were so few cards I could hide from her. For now, I needed to resist playing this one.

  With no leverage, I swallowed my temper and steadied my voice.

  “Yeah, we do.”

  “Excellent.” Lenore clapped her hands together, causing the bubbles to disappear. “You are free to be on your way.”

  I began to head for the exit, but when I was a foot away from the door it opened from the other side. Standing in the entryway was one of the Fairy Godfathers who had escorted my friends and I out of the building on our last visit. He was about seven feet tall and his skin was tanned and leathery. Had I been in a sassier state of mind I would’ve made a joke about how his stank, pickle-scented aftershave went well with the mustard stain on his white shirt.

  I assumed he was here to shove me out the door. But when I tried to step past him he promptly stretched out one of his meaty hands and spun me back in the direction of the Godmother Supreme.

  “Oh wait,” Lenore said as she tapped the point of her wand against her free hand. “Did we forget to discuss the matter of your magic?”

  Lenore waved her wand and a flurry of scarlet sparks zipped around me. The power lifted me off the ground and yanked me forward. I tried to struggle free, but the magic squeezed my limbs tightly.

  Ugh. This is so degrading.

  I floated to the center of the room as the Fairy Godfather stepped inside and shut the door.

  “Fine, Lenore. You got me. I’m magical,” I huffed. “You saw my wand from the security camera in Debbie’s office. So what, you gonna threaten me about how I should keep quiet about that too?”

  “I think not,” Lenore replied sternly, her smile disappearing altogether. “It’s as I was saying before—I control and regulate all magic. And while I am comfortable with our arrangement in regards to you keeping silent about the answers I’ve given you, I can’t have an impertinent teenager running around the realm with Fairy Godmother magic.”

  Lenore twirled her wand. In a flash the sparks that were whirling around me transformed into a giant, jagged block of ice. It encased me from the floor to below my chin, leaving everything but my head completely contained. I couldn’t move an inch.

  “Let me go, Lenore,” I snapped angrily.

  Ignoring me, Lenore signaled to the Fairy Godfather. “Cederick, you brought what I requested from the supply room?”

  Cederick came to Lenore’s side and withdrew a small bronze box from his pocket. Lenore gestured for him set it on the desk then proceeded to unlock it with a key she retrieved from one of her drawers. I stretched out my neck to see what was inside, but the pair of them blocked my view.

  That dilemma was remedied when Lenore turned around. Between her fingers she held a black piece of goo roughly the size of a small coin. Before Cederick closed the lid of the bronze box, I glimpsed a dozen or so other pieces inside.

  Lenore approached me and I eyed the dark blob. At first I wasn’t particularly threatened by what looked like a piece of used chewing gum. But then I noticed Lenore was holding it tightly between her fingertips to prevent it from getting loose.

  Now that it was closer, I also observed that the thing had a number of extensions that emulated body parts—four
tiny limbs and a fifth appendage that must’ve been the head because it had two flashing yellow specks for eyes.

  “This is a Stiltdegarth,” Lenore explained. “It is an organism native to the northern kingdom of Zeitgeist and it has the unique capability of sucking magic out of creatures—much like a leech sucks out blood. Stiltdegarths have many uses. Their blood, for instance, can serve as a magic deterrent that cancels out powers. But at Headquarters we use them to take magic out of retired Fairy Godmothers and deposit it into new ones. It’s a simple process. These feisty, vicious little things suck all the power out of one Godmother, then we slit them in half and allow the magic to flow into our new appointees.”

  “That’s disgusting.” I shuddered.

  “Perhaps, but as the only other known method for extracting magic is the much more violent way of the magic hunters, we consider it a pleasant alternative. Now then, please hold still.”

  I struggled against the block of ice. “Lenore, don’t you dare—”

  “This will hurt, dear,” Lenore said as she reached for my face. “But do try your best not to scream when you go under. It’s still working hours and I wouldn’t want to disturb anyone.”

  She placed the black blob directly on my forehead.

  “Lenore! No!”

  That was the only thing I had time to shout before—with a flash of her wand—Lenore used her magic to raise the ice until the rest of me was encased.

  I could still see Lenore and Cederick through the cold shield of crystal blue. Then the gooey thing Lenore placed between my eyebrows started to squirm. It immediately began to burn and sting and sear as if the creepy creature was burrowing its way through my skin into my skull.

  I thought I heard myself scream, but I wasn’t sure. All sounds went dead. In the next instant, everything went black.

  Horrifying pain swirled in my head like a smoothie of pure torment. Visions began to flash across my mind. Chance Darling—the detestable prince who’d inspired me to come on this quest when my prologue prophecy dictated I would marry him—was dressed in silver armor and waving at me. Then he was standing next to Blue and Jason in a forest of dense vines and brambles. He held up a lantern that illuminated his striking eyes against the darkness of night.