Masters of Fate

by A. K. DuBoff

  Maris gently ran her fingers along a length of my hair. “You weren’t kidding about the fuchsia hair coming back! That’s wild.”

  I grinned. “I know! Freaked my parents out.”

  “How’d you explain it?”

  “I didn’t. Not well, anyway.” I glanced at Bill, not wanting to say too much in front of him. “You know how it is.”

  “Yeah, I got off easy. Wait until you see Toran.” Maris nodded toward the house.

  The door opened a moment later, and a large man stepped outside—not quite the behemoth I’d traveled with, but formidable nonetheless. “Stars!” My jaw dropped.

  “Hello, Elle,” he greeted. “I’m glad you made it.”

  “Toran, wow!” I gave him a hug as soon as he jogged over, my arms barely wrapping around his torso. His muscular physique was a scaled-back version of how I remembered him, but seeing him with dark hair threw me off.

  “How was your trip?” he asked, his voice still deep and warm.

  I smiled. “I have to say, it was kind of nice being put under for the hyperspace jumps. Budget travel, but it wasn’t all bad. The food was better than on the Evangiel!”

  He laughed. “It doesn’t take much to top that bar.”

  “I’ll, uh, leave you to your pleasantries,” Bill interjected. “Would you like me to take your pack to your room for you?”

  “Oh, that would be great, thanks.” I slid off my backpack and handed it to him. “Thank you again for having us.”

  He nodded. “Dinner will be in an hour.”

  “Great, see you then.” I smiled.

  We waited for Bill to enter the house.

  “Talk about a transformation!” I said as soon as Bill was out of sight.

  Toran chuckled. “Caught me by surprise when it first started to happen. Fortunately, the memories had started to surface, so at least I had some idea about what was going on.”

  “How’d your wife react?” I asked.

  “Shocked and concerned, at first.” Toran shook his head, his eyes sparkling. “I had no choice but to tell her what had happened. Took a little convincing, but,” he gestured to himself with both hands, “I had some good physical evidence to back up my story. Once she got used to the idea, she wanted to come meet all of you, but she couldn’t get time off from work. And then there’s Leia’s school, of course… But, we’d love to have the three of you come for a visit on Dunlore, if you’re interested.”

  “That sounds great, Toran. I’d love to meet your family,” I said.

  “We’ll need to decide if we should reveal ourselves to the Hegemony,” Toran stated.

  I shrugged. “Maybe they’ll find that message we left. But, for now, I’m happy all of the worlds are safe.”

  Maris shook her head. “It’s like it never happened—except, we know it did.”

  “Brought us together!” I said.

  Toran smiled. “Whoever would have thought we’d all end up as friends?”

  Maris laughed. “Not me! I still can’t believe we’re all here.”

  I looked around. “Speaking of which, where’s Kaiden?”

  “Ah, right!” Toran exclaimed. “I’m sure you’re anxious to see him. He’s still out in the fields.”

  Maris smirked. “We’ll give you two some privacy.”

  “You should be able to find him out that way.” Toran gestured to the west.

  “Thanks.” I took a slow breath. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

  “Elle.” Maris gave me another hug. “It’s great to see you again.”

  I smiled. “You too.”

  “I’m looking forward to getting to know this other version of you,” Toran said.

  “Likewise. I knew we’d find our way back to each other.”

  He patted my shoulder. “Things are now as they should be.”

  With a renewed wave of nerves, I headed toward the western field. The crop was still young, barely reaching my knees. Despite the clear visibility across the flat field, I didn’t see anyone at first. After a minute of fighting the glare from the afternoon sun, I finally spotted the back of a young man with medium-brown hair crouched down, collecting a sample.

  “Hey,” I called out, approaching him.

  He straightened and turned around. Instant recognition filled his sky-blue eyes, and his lips spread in a warm smile. “Hey yourself.”

  I smiled back, trying to play it cool as I strolled toward Kaiden. He was just as handsome as I remembered in my previous-future memories. “Nice place you have here.”

  He surveyed the field. “It’s been fine for the past few months.”

  “And now?”

  He stepped forward to meet me. “Now, you’re here.”

  We ran the last several paces and embraced. He scooped me up in his arms and held me close.

  I buried my face in the crook of his neck. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you, too,” he murmured into my hair.

  Our lips met in a passionate kiss, as comfortable and familiar as two longtime lovers after a prolonged separation.

  Breathlessly, we pulled apart, laughing with joy to be back with one another. I entwined my fingers in his, never wanting to let go again.

  “What now?” I asked, looking into his eyes.

  “Well, I’m not sure how long Toran and Maris intend to stay, but I’ll need another month to finish this research study. After that…”

  I nodded and squeezed his hands. “I have nowhere else I want to be.”

  Kaiden turned so his back was to the farmhouse. “Good, because things could get interesting.” He pulled his right hand free from mine, and electricity danced across his fingertips.

  I grinned. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

  THE END

  Thank you for reading Masters of Fate!

  If you enjoyed this trilogy, please take a moment to share your thoughts and reactions in a review on—on this book and the first book in the trilogy, Crystalline Space. Customer reviews are a critical part of building awareness, and you can help make this series a success!

  Elle and the Dark Sentinels could have many future adventures, so please let me know if you’d like this series to continue.

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  ALSO BY A.K. DUBOFF…

  Cadicle Series

  "Exciting space adventure" - Publisher's Weekly

  The Taran Empire is fighting a secret interdimensional war... and they're losing.

  Out of sight from modern-day Earth, the Taran Empire rules the galaxy from the planet Tararia. Cris Sietinen, a High Dynasty heir, leaves home to seek training for his prohibited telekinetic abilities and start a new life with the Tararian Selective Service (TSS). But training to be a TSS Agent isn’t the dream life it seems. Cris and his family are at the center of a galactic conspiracy and must fight in a secret interdimensional war that will spur a political revolution. Join three generations of the Sietinen family as they challenge destiny to win a war where enemies are not always who they seem.

  Learn more:

  www.amyduboff.com/cadicle-series

  Troubled Space

  Nothing could possibly go wrong. Probably. Well, maybe…

  When you go to the trouble of legitimately buying a ship for your illegitimate smuggling operation, and that ship turns out to be stolen from a powerful weapons dealer… well, you might figure the universe hates you. But not Jack Tressler, an aspiring smuggler; he’s used to taking misfortune in stride. Given the choice to die—or get an ill-fitting cybernetic eye and join a crew of thieves on a crazy heist—he opts for the unpleasant modification. After all, it’s just another day in the life. With rabid pirates, ruthless corporations, and a scorned former employer all vying for the same bounty,
Jack and his new friends will need all their wits and snark to survive until their next meal in this farcical space opera adventure.

  Learn more:

  www.amyduboff.com/troubled-space

  More Books and Stories

  For a complete list of Amy’s writing:

  www.amyduboff.com/books

  AUTHOR’S NOTES

  Thank you for reading Masters of Fate!

  Wow, this series has been a wild ride to write! When I first conceptualized this trilogy, I thought it was going to be pure space fantasy. As you can tell, it evolved to be much more than that. However, I can’t talk about how it got an infusion of hard sci-fi without talking about Jim.

  Now, Jim and I had an interesting start to our relationship—in that we met online via him leaving a one-star review on the first book in my Cadicle series. Contrary to some popular writerly advice, I will occasionally respond to one-star reviews, and I did in this case. I addressed each of his criticisms and explained some aspects of the Cadicle series that aren’t evident in the opening chapters. Jim graciously replied and said he’d give the book another chance. As it turned out, he rather enjoyed the series and went on to be interested in my future writings. I always value a critical eye on my books, so I invited him to be a member of my beta reader team.

  Fast forward to the beta review stage of A Light in the Dark, the second book in the Dark Stars trilogy, Jim started asking me about some of the universe mechanics in Dark Stars. This sparked a number of long, in-depth conversations. I had a lot of ideas and knew how I wanted things in the universe to work, but I didn’t have the science background to put the right vocabulary to those concepts. Working together, we documented the dimensional hierarchy and how different aspects of the crystalline network functioned. I’m incredibly thankful for the amount of time Jim spent talking through all aspects of this story and lending his expertise to help me fill in the gaps. This story wouldn’t be what it is without him!

  With that said, there are several assumptions about the story universe that are touched upon but didn’t get fully explored in the book’s narrative. If you’re curious about the universal mechanics, read on :-).

  Q: What is the dimensional hierarchy, and what’s in each dimension?

  3D – normal physical reality

  4D – time

  5D – telepathy/thought

  6D – Toran’s gauntlets artifact; Saps/Overlords

  7D – Kaiden’s circlet; Hoofy and other ‘mythical’ beings (unicorns, dragons, etc.)

  8D – Maris’ shield artifact; window maze; nimbuses (nimbuses also have a 7D component)

  9D – Elle’s sword artifact; crystalline network connections/storage

  10D –Consciousness

  11D –Duzies

  Q: How does the ‘magic’ work?

  A: The 11D dimensionally ubiquitous, zepto-elemental singularities (‘Duzies’) enable the apparent magic. The team’s hyperdimensional artifacts concentrated and intensify Duzie energy. Kaiden’s circlet functions like a magic antenna that allows his non-magical staff weapon to become super-saturated with Duzies, making it a concentrated director of magic. As the team’s bodies become saturated by Duzies, they are more readily able to cast their own magic without their artifacts.

  Q: Why could only ‘viewing-spheres’ be used for dimensional transitions and not normal crystals?

  A: Crystals only exist in 3D spacetime while viewing-spheres span all dimensions. Crystals are Duzie-saturated normal matter. Viewing-spheres are Duzies in pure solid form.

  Q: Do all planets that exist in spacetime also have extended existence in higher dimensions in some form or another?

  A: The planets have a distinct physical presence in 6D, 7D, and 8D. In 5D, 9D, and 10D, all mass is amorphous ‘dark matter’ which supports thought channeling and network storage. In 11D, all matter is pure Duzie-plasma.

  Q: Why do Darkness planets have reduced-gravity in normal spacetime?

  A: The anomaly-related, Duzie-powered Darkness draws power from transmutation of planet’s mass, reducing its density but not disturbing its magnetic field or geologic underpinnings.

  Q: Why did the anomaly site in space where the aliens first appeared have excess gravity but no apparent mass?

  A: The dimensional-rift anomaly channeled and concentrated normal matter and dark matter gravity from nearby systems across extended dimensions into 3D spacetime at a central point. The 6D aliens used this unique site as a staging ground for their intended invasion from their home plane.

  I hope you enjoyed this story and found it to be a satisfying blend of sci-fi and fantasy. I’ve loved both genres for as long as I can remember, and I’m excited to have been able to merge the two in what I hope was a fun, unique way.

  I’d also like to give shout-outs to the rest of my fantastic behind-the-scenes team who helped polish the book and get it publication-ready: Kurt, Randy, Troy, John, Eric, Pam, Charlie, Leo, Diane, and Nick. You are all amazing! Thank you for your continued support and for donating your time to helping me turn dreams into reality.

  Special thanks to my husband, Nick, for always keeping me fed and for putting up with my weird work hours. I couldn’t have a more perfect life partner!

  Thank you again for reading the Dark Stars trilogy! Readers like you are who enable me to be a full-time author, and I’m so thankful to you for making that possible. If you’d like to see future stories in this universe, please let me know in your review or send me a message via the contact form on my website. In the meantime, look for other new books in the coming months :-). Happy reading!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  A.K. (Amy) DuBoff has always loved science fiction in all its forms—books, movies, shows and games. If it involves outer space, even better! Now a full-time author, Amy can frequently be found traveling the world. When she’s not writing, she enjoys wine tasting, binge-watching TV series, and playing epic strategy board games.

  To learn more or connect, check out: www.akduboff.com