Luna walked inside and it was nothing to brag about in her estimation. The people present weren't either. She flinched at first sight which was no doubt rude, but how could she help it? Three old crones. Knobbed and hobbled and bent. Their hair was gray and sparse, the dresses they wore were purple, and glistening crowns sat upon their heads.

"Who are you people?!" Donner didn't even bother to correct her. She felt him raise his arms in aggravation, but he was wondering too. "Where is this? How did I even get here!?"

"By a fate of your own design," said one old as dirt lady. "The realm of the Three Sisters who are us."

Donner started talking quickly. "The fates. Mythology. The ones who control the destinies of all humans and even the gods."

Which meant they were over Life, too. But, the woman said this was her own doing.

"Did you do something?" Luna asked.

"We did not."

"And that's the issue," Donner said. "The point. They gave you whatever it was you wanted. You're living a fate they do not control."

"Then did I do something?" There were too many people talking; she was getting confused.

"You already know that you did."

Right. She did know that. But what did that mean?

"Why did I do this?"

The woman who spoke shook her head. She wasn't telling. Maybe that was what Life wanted, too. To keep it a secret until it was over.

"How do I know when I'm done?"

"You will know."

In her mind, she said, "Great. We learned nothing. Why was I here again?"

"World Tree," a short answer. He was busy thinking about these additions to his reality.

"About the tree I took, do I need to give that back or is it fine?"

"Keep it until you are done with it and then return it." Firm.

"So tossing it to Ink Pen isn't a good idea?"

No answer.

"Right, right. Do I need to water it or…?"

"It will sustain itself."

She nodded slowly and looked around the room. The other two didn't pay any attention to her at all. There wasn't much to see and they were busy with crimson strings.

It would have been awkward if she cared at all. She spoke to Donner, "Do you want me to ask anything? They might not tell me but who knows."

"I honestly don't know," he said. "Do I want to know my destiny? I don't think I do."

"Yeah but what about getting out? Should I ask about that?"

"If you want to, do it, but I don't think they'll answer."

She didn't either, but just in case, "About the guy inside my head. How do I remove him? Do you know about that?"

"We do not."

How could they not know?

That meant something that she was missing.

"Leave now."

The order was spoken and compliance forced upon her. Suddenly she was no longer in the room with the ugly ancient women, instead, she stood beside the World Tree once more, in her own world. The sky outside was as dark as before and she thought no time had passed until people burst into the room and ran at her. Adult people in robes that she vaguely recognized as staff members.

"Oh shit," she thought. "How long were we gone?"

"No idea," Donner said. "But I do believe it was worth it. We have things to think about. Get out of this and go to sleep."

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Easier said than done because the grownups demanded answers. She was away for a whole week and they didn't know where she was or what she was doing and she wasn't sure what to say to them but it was easier to tell the truth than make up a lie so, "I saw the fates and they told me I could keep the tree."

Crickets.

"You have a way with words." Disparaging, but it didn't bother her. What did bother her was the way they were all looking at each other and it bothered Donner to. "I wouldn't normally sanction behavior like this, but Luna, send them away."

"Oh good." She clapped her hands. All at once their eyes turned glassy and she told them, "It's fine. Everything is fine, the issue is resolved. Luna needs rest."

One of the female teachers took her by the hand and said, "Well, it was a harrowing tale, to be sure, child, but all's well that ends well. To bed with you and don't even think of leaving your room!"

On the way, she was told they'd hired a tutor for her, to help her learn control over her power. An advisor, like Donner told her about years ago. He was the one guy in the crowd who didn't seem to buy it. She'd never seen him before. But that was a problem for another day.

"Never had an issue like that before," she said to Donner once she was asleep. "Did you see him? He totally knew."

"Your manipulation wasn't planned and generalized. If he was specifically trained to resist such magic it may not have been direct enough. It's something to look into later. For now, we must discuss what happened."

Yeah because that was a doozy.

"I can't believe it was a whole week! Did they tell Ji-hun?"

"They must have. I don't know what will come of that, you'll have to wait and deal with it when it comes up."

She was purposely not dreaming of the crystal world because it was so alarming. This place was a jungle with wild animals. Lots of birds singing to one another. No snakes though.

"Being back in real life again made it even weirder," she said, hugging herself. "I didn't realize how fake that place was." She didn't know how else to describe it. When she was there it was real enough, but barely. Returning made the difference all the more pronounced. The gravity, the air, the lack of life. "I'm not supposed to be there, I don't think."

"No one is," Donner told her. "The Fates work alone. Whether living or dead, their realm is not for anyone but themselves. I don't have much to tell you about them, except that the little we saw validates the few things I've read."

"Here's what they said," she pointed to a white board."They don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing. I guess I told them to back off. It doesn't seem like something that happens normally. You said they're in charge of everyone, including gods."

"Yes, all the literature points in that direction. There's some debate about their power over Zeus but other than that, they reign supreme."

"I don't even want to know about Zeus or anything," she griped. "There's already too much happening! Forget about that, what about you? What did all that mean? How could they not know how you get out of my head? That sounds like something they'd be involved in. If they didn't want to tell me I think they'd say so or say nothing. That wasn't what she said."

"No and I don't know the meaning of it but it is concerning. There have been other hints of something more, as well. Things the Ink Pen has said have bothered me, too."

It was a bizarre situation from the outset. A man's soul trapped in the mind of a child. There was no precedent for it and a clear path for the spirits of the deceased to travel existed. He'd gone there himself and failed to walk the length of the bridge.

"How did you interrupt my walk?" he asked, more to himself than her. "Did you truly interrupt me…" Because it didn't work on anyone else. It wasn't supposed to work. Even a primordial deity could not interfere with the trek of the dead, they were destined for something and no one was getting in their way.

"Maybe you aren't a normal human, either," Luna said. "I don't know what else it could be. I couldn't stop Pink or Ungle when they were walking. Father Time said some stuff, too. Things about you, when he didn't remember who he was. It's like he knows something we don't."

It couldn't be that he…

"Do you think you forgot, like me?"

But if he did, then who was he?

The sounds of the tangled forest echoed eerily as they sat silent, stewing in their newest predicament. If Donner was more than Helios, then who the hell was he? She'd thought it was too much of a coincidence that he was the sun and she was the moon, but she couldn't find the meaning of it. Yeah, it was strange, and maybe it meant something, but what?

All signs pointed to another hidden facet of the universe.

"Not everybody has lives this complicated, right?"

"I don't think so. That is the role of the Fates. Their whole job is to keep the strings untangled," and their strings seemed a jumbled mess, which meant the Fates weren't involved, something he'd never considered possible. Like most of his research into the gods of antiquity, his knowledge was surface-level. He'd done more to gather and catalog all available intelligence than anyone in several centuries, but it wasn't as if he'd found new evidence.

Until now, of course, and what he had didn't answer many questions. The Fates were real, Life was real though in the form of a female child, Father Time played a role and there was a destructive force waiting to take out the cosmos.

As much as he'd learned, he felt he knew less than ever.

"Okay," Luna called his attention. "Let's say all of that stuff is real. It doesn't have a lot to do with daily activity that we can see. It's in the background and no one knows or cares anymore. So what do we know?

"I'm Life and I don't know what that means because I forgot on purpose. Father Time forgot himself, too, also on purpose. Is it possible that you're not human either? Could you have done the same thing?" She wanted to shake her head at the idea off-hand. "It sounds crazy, but then again this whole thing already is."

Now that the idea was planted, roots began to take hold. A new sapling in the jungle, quickly growing into something reminiscent of the World Tree sitting in the exam hall of Arcane Arts.

Donner wasn't ready for that.

"Because of the time disparity, you've got two weeks left until school starts. Get through it with that tutor, I also believe it's the man you failed to manipulate, and get access to the library as soon as possible. This is our best course of action for now."