The Goddess of Life and Family

The Goddess of Life and Family had been expecting the request from her Archbishop of Ciel. She was hoping to have an answer ready for her, but the God of Justice had been ignoring everyone again, so when the request came in, she had to put her on hold while she went and kicked in his door. It didn’t take as much of her power as she thought it would too kick it in this time; he must have realized that she had far more power to throw around than he did.

“Why are you disturbing me, woman? There has been another coup in Gristal, and I’m having a hard time figuring out what’s justice under their new laws. Madness must have written these,” Justice growled, not even bothering to look up from the lawbook, which was far too thick for a small city-state, that he was studying.

“You have been ignoring Messenger again. I need an answer that Answer cannot provide. Have you Touched a girl in the City of Ciel? There is a child there that has far too much power for a mortal to wield.” Life and Family asked from the ruins of Justice’s door.

“I did no such thing, woman. Now begone. Fix the door on your way out,” Justice replied, still not looking up from his lawbook.

Walking out the door, which she did fix with a flick of her wrist, the Goddess started walking back to her realm, lost in thought. This was quite disturbing. She hadn’t thought Justice was the culprit; not really his style to Touch a child, but Holmes had already checked with everyone else, and they hadn’t Touched the child. Hell’s even Madness was upset that such a young girl had been given so much power, and he had Touched a fetus before just for a laugh.

Rounding the corner to her realm, she found herself in a room that was both infinite and intimate, its walls covered in viewing spells that kept flickering from person to person rapidly. There was one person in three bodies sitting, standing, floating, and phasing in and out of existence in front of her. She wasn’t positive, but she thought she had just been kidnapped by the Fates, it could be Majic.

“ Greetings….mortal? NO! It’s a goddess this time, pay attention! Ah! Greetings Half-Mortal, I-We-I have summoned you here to give you the answer your mortal seeks,” The Fates boomed in a whisper.

“I thank you for any answers you may provide,” the Goddess said.

“Required thanks not. I want them. I must have them. Quite I’m trying to have a conversation. The child was blessed by me by accident, she now has more Power than the Champion I-WE- had planned would have had, but wrong power, much harder to work with now. Give me more thanks, answer was given. Not yet I still have more to tell.” The Goddess of Life and Family was starting to think that Madness was the picture of sanity. Trying to follow this disjointed conversation was giving her a migraine. How did The Fates get anything done with all this internal, or was it external since there were three of them, bickering? The Fates started speaking again so she tried to pay attention.

“Chaos is spreading RANDOMNESS that will be bad-Death, Fire, Sex-in the near future as you mortals measure time. Time is meaningful and meaningless and not very important to me. I was about to Bless a new Champion when he appeared and blasted-FUCK THAT MAN-my spell off course. The child it hit, so sad she was supposed to die today, must be protected and kept in ignorance-SHE MUST KNOW WHEN SHE IS OLDER-in order to keep her from Madness’ embrace. Make sure she stays with the people/parents/protectors/lovers she is currently with, they will keep her sane, and safe until I need-need not-her. Understand Half-Immortal?” The Fates tried to say.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The Goddess of Life and Family took a minute, or was it a millennium, to figure out what she had just been told. “I believe so, Fate. The child is a result of Chaos interfering with your plans. She was fated for death, and must now be protected until it is time for her new FATE. You want her to stay ignorant of your Touch, and to join the family currently sheltering her,” the Goddess summarized.

“Correct….?Goddess? Fuck it, it doesn’t matter what you are, this conversation has changed things somewhat, DAMN! Now we need to nudge more people around-NO!!! I need to pee I need a break! A Fate has needs too, I/we’re not robots! Tell her parents what I have said, tell her later….or was that earlier…no definitely later. Whatever, just go away now,” The Fates said, causing the Goddess to start fading away. Just before the Goddess completely faded from The Fates realm she heard a cry, “OH! As an aside Sanity is Madness and Madness is Sanity,” all three incarnations of The Fates yelled.

The Goddess found herself outside her bathroom door on the ceiling for some reason. Shaking her head at the weirdness, and for a Goddess, the bar for weirdness was quite high, she walked down the wall and proceeded to send a summary of her....conversation….? to Fluffy letting him know to wrap up his investigation soonest. She would have to get with the God of Magic to reign in her Guild regarding this child. So much to do….OH Drat! I still need to answer my Archbishop. Re-establish the connection to her Archbishop, she said:

“The God of Justice did not Touch the child, but I now know who did. Before I can tell you, I have instructions to give. ONE: The child must be adopted into the House of Halrond. Fluffy is informing his Temple of this now. TWO: You must tell the Halrond Elders of this conversation. THREE: The child must remain ignorant of whom touched her until she has almost or fully grown. FOUR: NO ONE ELSE MAY KNOW WHO TOUCHED THE CHILD UNTIL SHE IS INFORMED. This is for her protection. Do you understand Archbishop Octavia of Ciel?”

“Yes, Goddess, I understand,” the Archbishop replied.

“We shall see. For the child’s sake and yours, I hope you do. Now for the headache-inducing explanation. She is Fate-Touched. Chaos has spread some Randomness that will cause problems in the future. Fate was attempting to Touch the Chosen Champion when Chaos broke into Fates Realm and redirected the spell. Beyond the Realm of all possibility, it landed on Alessandra, who was close to Awakening a strong Death Magic Gift. Fates Blessing had magnified her power many times beyond what was planned for a Champion of Fate. This has enraged Fate. Alessandra was not supposed to live beyond today; she was supposed to die in The Wet before her Gift ever awakened. Fate now needs her to grow up and be as well-adjusted as possible. The House of Halrond is the only House with the resources and temperament available to help Fate accomplish this. Now you need to figure out how to explain to a child you can’t give her the answers she wants, explain to her parents what's going on but that they need to hide this from her, oh and they can’t tell their King that he has a time bomb on his hands,” the Goddess said. With a chuckle, the Goddess added, “Have fun not telling all the other Archbishops about this either. I’m sure they will bug you about what’s going on.”

“It shall be done to the best of my abilities, Goddess,” the Archbishop said.

The Goddess clearly heard the Archbishop’s thoughts about how hard the restrictions would make her task and decided to mess with her a little. A Goddess had to entertain herself somehow.

“I could blind you if you really want me to make this a bigger challenge,” the Goddess said, not even trying to hide her amusement.