WHERE IS YOUR RESOLVE?

Phoebe flinched, looking around at the empty darkness, and she rolled her jaw, “Resolve? Everyone I know is probably dead. Viviane doesn’t wanna kill me but… What the fuck does she even want? What precisely am I meant to do, you ugly motherfuckers!?”

YOU WERE ONCE WORTHY. TRUE OF HEART. YET, THE HEART IS FRAIL. QUIET. UNWILLING TO FACE THE DEEPEST OF FEARS. UNWILLING TO SEE, WHAT MUST BE DONE.

“Go fuck yourself.”

I AM DREKTANION! The disembodied voice roared into the void and knocked her flying. Head over heels and bouncing off the invisible ground, cracking her head on stone she couldn’t see. I BROUGHT YOU TO THE GRAVEYARD OF MY PEOPLE. I SHOWED YOU THE POWER OF THE WITCH. A FALLEN ORC BREAKS YOU? I AM THE LAST OF MY KIND!

Phoebe shivered from where she lay prone, unable to stand. Sure that her head was bleeding. “Last… Of your… Kind? Kinda thought… You were dead.”

DEATH IS BUT THE DOORWAY.

She groaned, trying and failing to push herself up again. “The fuck… Does that mean?”

The voice went quiet, the anger leaving it, “OH, LITTLE PHOEBE. IT IS THE ANSWER THAT YOU SEEK, IN ALL OF THIS. IF YOU ARE TO SAVE THOSE YOU CARE FOR… THE GATEWAY BETWEEN THE WORLDS…”

Phoebe shuddered, “No fucking way.”

I HAVE SHOWN YOU THE WAY. I HOPE TO SEE YOU, ONCE MORE, CHILD OF DESTINY.

Gruna was dead and gone. Accepted into the arms of her god. She was probably in some kind of heaven, a paradise. Phoebe couldn’t see the orc welcoming it if she figured out a way to bring them back. Leo was out of his depth, but she barely knew him. Ghost was… Phoebe wasn’t sure if he even classified as alive.

She was pretty sure if Viviane killed the wolf, that she’d be able to bring him back. Phoebe wasn’t sure if she could summon him before that, but that story wasn’t closed. She’d be able to save him. She knew that much.

Yet, here was some ancient dragon of legend, telling her to kill herself, whilst a vampiric elf was sucking her dry.

Phoebe frowned, finally managing to force herself to her knees. She swayed, and touched her neck lightly, feeling as if the fangs were still in her. Death wasn’t just the gateway. It wasn’t some portal. It was exactly where she was. Right now.

This wasn’t the cave where the dragons had fucked around with her head, this was the place between worlds. This was… Limbo.

She could do with a ferryman, but wasn’t sure if she’d feel the need to punch Death in the face for everyone he’d stolen from her so far. Marcy was probably gone. Elion wouldn’t let something petty like a friend keep the Child from her Destiny. Motherfucker.

She took a deep breath and held her hands in front of herself.

A deep purple flame instantly lit, easier than it had ever been. The colours meant something. Phoebe was beginning to think that the purple that Viviane walked around tossing wasn’t just anger. It was hatred. The blue she used to have… That was hope. Not much of that left in her.

If they were going to find a way out of this mess, then Phoebe was going to need something else. She needed to know what she was, understand what she was. Born a human, called a witch and a Child of Destiny. What exactly was the Child of Destiny? What happened when they grew into an adult, like she actually was?

Hate she had aplenty. Gruna’s death, Ghost’s death, those were crimes she was never about to forgive. The rage had her reaching for the teeth in her neck, questing upwards to find the roots. Desperate to yank them out of the bastards head, and feed a river of fire down his throat. She could feel it there, on the edge of possibility, but she held back.

It wasn’t enough.

Killing Elion and Viviane were not enough for Phoebe. She didn’t just want vengeance. She wasn’t some broken hero out of a movie, she was a woman who wanted… Her life back. The life she’d had with Gruna, whispering to the trees, or the life she’d had joking with Marcy over bad coffee, she’d take either of them at this point.

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She frowned, and focused. She hadn’t exactly learnt a whole heap from Gruna. All the same, she had learnt enough to offer a greeting. So she offered up her name to the quiet air, this void of nothingness. She didn’t expect an answer, and none came, but it was something new. She needed that.

The second time Phoebe had summoned Ghost, she’d burnt her hands. Desperate, and trying again and again to bend reality to her will. It wouldn’t be like that here, but the wolfhound was born from hope. She wasn’t sure she had any of that left. If she made a summon with the purple flames… It wouldn’t be him. She was also pretty sure that Viviane would be able to feel it.

Would waltz in, beat her senseless, call her ‘pet’, and disappear without revealing a single thing. Again.

She’d stumbled into a herd of netherbeasts, when she’d first arrived in the world. If it wasn’t for Gruna, Phoebe would have died right there and then. She could feel them though, looking back at her memory. They felt darker than anything she’d ever summoned. Something darker than even the feel of Viviane’s magic. Something messed up was behind them.

They weren’t driven by hate, but… Death. They just wanted to empty the world. She gave a bitter half smile. They were probably one of Merlin’s defence mechanisms. He’d shoved the netherbeasts into that world to make something that would grab and hold Viviane there. Too bad the witch had taken control of them.

Ruark had been a blue flame. Dead, defeated, and so very angry that his apprentice had fallen. Yet, all the same, he was filled with hope. He and Gruna both, had found their hope in Go’ruuk. The god had even been able to zip Phoebe from one world to another, as if it were nothing.

Yet… The gods did nothing about Viviane. They respected her independence or… Or she was even stronger than they were. Strong enough to tear holes in the worlds, just to entertain herself.

What in the fuck did Viviane actually want from Phoebe…?

That was the key, to everything. All the answers lay with why the witch had chosen her, and then let her loose, more than once. Had seen Phoebe gaining in power and control, and just walked on by. Destroying everything Phoebe cared about, but trying to push her… To become the Child of Destiny.

Gruna had known what that meant. Phoebe regretted the argument. Cursing out the gods. She still wasn’t about to follow them, but they had given so much to the orc. A purpose. A life. Gruna should be proud of what she’d accomplished, before Phoebe had come along and ruined it all.

Elion had waited around, cursed and undead, just for her to turn up. He was trying to make her into something, push her towards her destiny, even now as he tried to kill her.

Death was the gateway.

Viviane wanted Phoebe dead and buried… By her own hand. Elion was desperate for it, trying to force her to end it all by going for Gruna. Removing her ties to the world. Drektanion bullied and howled at her, pitying her for what she would have to do.

Phoebe considered everyone trying to force suicide on her, seeing it from beginning to end. She nodded slowly and staggered to her feet, she took a deep breath and rolled her jaw sideways, “Fuck that.”

She didn’t have any hope left. She had too much hate. However, one thing she had, that she had always had, was defiance. The young woman shoved aside the title of witch. She took the claim of destiny, and kicked it far beyond. She embraced exactly what she was, who she wanted to be. She wasn’t going to let anyone give her a single command. Not anymore.

Fuck ’em all.

She void shifted around her, turning into a whispering wind, as Phoebe reached out into it. She took the unending, the unbending, the unbroken, and she snapped it into pieces. The wind turned to a scream of howls, and she screamed with it. Her voice bellowing that she would never bend her knee, that she was coming for them.

Her cry lowered, becoming guttural, as she ignited the wind. Silvery light flowed outwards into the web spiralling around her, before the flames flickered out and encompassed it all. Red and orange light exploded into being and blinded her as it fought back the darkness of the void.

> “I was once lost in a dark cave,”

> “No more light, broken down beyond the brave,”

> “All in fear, screaming fright,”

> “Gonna fuck ’em up, and kill ’em all till I lose my sight!”

Phoebe felt her body fighting back. Being dragged by the wind and fire. Burning her up, trying to knock her off her feet. Whatever the magic was, it was too much for her. She had no idea what she was doing, but she knew it felt like the right thing to do. For Gruna, she wasn’t about to give in.

> “I’m lost in a world of pain,”

> “But I’ve got my voice, and I’ll remain,”

> “With every scream, a spell is cast,”

> “I’ll conjure strength from this darkest past!”

She was going to stick a stake through Elion’s chest, and bury the motherfucker, just like the last time. She was going to make sure death caught up with the bastard, for every crime he’d committed. Every single one of her coworkers that he’d killed.

> “Through battles fierce, I’ll fight my way,”

> “Through fire and ice, I’ll seize the fuckin’ day,”

> “My fire raised, my heart ablaze,”

> “In Valhalla’s halls, I’ll take her gaze.”

Phoebe screamed out one last roar of stubborn wrath, and the void in front of her ripped in two.