Chapter 1235: Shadows of the Stars

The final night passed quickly. I retreated into Haven while those better suited to such things finished planning the assault. Fate found me at the small shrine, my legs tucked to one side, watching water trickle through the crystalline fountain. I didn’t look up when she approached, only clasped my hands a little tighter in my lap.

"Thinking of him?"

I nodded, and the goddess settled beside me. Her long dress pooled around her legs, its golden folds resting against the stone.

"I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you sit before," I said, smiling faintly.

"Most gods have a throne," she replied.

"But not you."

"No. My place was never meant to be above the stars, commanding them, but among them, like a shepherd with her flock."

"I don’t want to be a ruler either."

"And maybe that’s why fate brought you to me." She glanced at the fountain. "He was rather different. Strong and unwavering. When he decreed an ending, he made it so."

"I still can’t believe he’s gone," I whispered. "I know he was only a part of Oblivion, but that doesn’t change anything. He was there when no one else was. Even when I thought he’d betrayed me, he hadn’t. Now he’s gone forever. Was he even real, or just another...secret?" I sighed, resting my chin on my hand. "Why didn’t he tell me? When I learned he was an oblivion demon, couldn’t he have said something?"

"Perhaps he didn’t know how."

I looked at her uncertainly. He was an emperor who had witnessed existence since its beginning. How could he not know how to explain himself?

"Oblivion has spent ages apart from the living realms," Fate continued. "While I struggled to turn the divine council toward the Father’s will, he wandered worlds whose stories had already ended. Fyren was a fragment of his soul, but his experiences were real. He spent that time with you, just as you spent it with him."

"He was just there because someone needed to protect and guide me. You couldn’t be there always. I get that, it’s just..." I sighed again.

"Maybe that was his role at first, but spending time with you could soften the oldest, hardest hearts. I would know," she said, the faintest glimmer of a smile appearing. "Often, he complained about you, and how...confusing you are. But he never suggested leaving your side. I think he felt things he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. No," she said, shaking her head. "That time was not wasted. Not for you, or for him."

I stared at the water. Fyren had been so awkward when I hugged him, yet toward the end, he’d begun to hold me when I came to him, not just when I asked.

"He called you his Oracle, didn’t he?" Fate asked.

"I’m already the Oracle of Fate."

"And yet, your soul is filled with darkness. Surely you can see it now. The space between the stars."

I looked up at my aura. Its lights drifted on the astral winds, but now I could follow the currents between them, into depths that had always escaped my sight, just like the mural under the cathedral.

"My shadow," I whispered.

"Indeed. Where fate brought visions, oblivion brought protection."

"But I was hidden from scrying with the Eyes of Fate, before I ever met Fyren."

She watched me without saying a word.

I shivered, hunching my shoulders. "This whole time?"

"From the beginning. Oblivion was woven into your gifts when I blessed you before your descent. Did you never wonder how your Resistance could unravel mortal magic so readily? It was his gift as well as mine. The two powers grew together with every level you gained. When the time came to entrust you with the divinity, its counterweight was already prepared."

"The Primordial Mark... It wasn’t just for the demons. Binding them to me was just incidental."

She nodded. "Still, I am curious to see what your fate demons become. They already show great promise. Truly fascinating."

I lowered my eyes. She spoke as though we were discussing another spell I had learned, but I could remember struggling to understand every change in my soul. I’d gone to her frightened, asking questions she’d let me think had no answers.

"You could have told me."

"Yes," she said after a pause. "I could have."

How many times had we had this conversation? Couldn’t she argue just this once? I balled my fists, biting my lip. I knew every reason why, but I couldn’t shake the anger and frustration. I forced myself to relax and shifted the conversation to a topic that ached quite the same.

"If oblivion was always there, why didn’t I notice? The divinity changed everything. My soul, my aura, my magic..."

"And who is to say oblivion did not? You only saw the stars because they shone, not the darkness that didn’t. One power follows fate," she continued. "The other severs its weave. That is why your path remained hidden, even from those who should have been able to predict it. The usurper was right, you know. Fate had decreed him the winner."

I nodded slowly, beginning to see. "There was a time I was supposed to die. That’s what you said. And when I didn’t, everything began to change."

"Yes. Oblivion kept the pattern from closing around you. It could not prevent pain or death, but neither could fate require your steps. You survived, and the futures that depended upon your death had to change."

"Korra was a hero. Luke was an apostle."

"And each had their role in the divine cycle. Each had a side they would fight and die for. Then they met you."

I thought of Korra standing beside demons at our council, Luke holding me while heroes prepared to fight at his side. None of it should have happened? I’d thought we were finding a way through the future, but perhaps there hadn’t been a future there to find.

"Is that why I could never see more than a step ahead?"

"The darkness kept your path from being fixed. Each step gave fate something new to follow. Beyond it, there was nothing certain for your visions to show. Possibilities, sure, but nothing more."

I sat quietly, trying to fit her words around everything I remembered. I had stumbled forward so often, frightened and uncertain, waiting to discover where I was meant to go. All that time, the path had been forming beneath my feet.

"And the others? Did I change what they wanted?"

"You changed what was possible. What they did with those possibilities remained their own."

"But everyone should have that."

"Yes. That is what the Father wished."

I glanced at her. "That’s what you and Oblivion are trying to do?"

"Mortals must be able to live without their futures serving the needs of gods and emperors. There will be no more divine and infernal mana, no realms sustained by the suffering of the weak. Gods and demons shall persist, but they will share the consequences of their actions with those they have so long ruled."

"And what is my role in all that? You and Oblivion have prepared for this since the beginning. How could I possibly make a difference?"

"We need an ending to the now and a beginning for the next. The start and the finish, the only times fate and oblivion brush. But I cannot carry his power, nor he mine. Our own natures forbid it."

"You need me as a vessel."

"A crude term, but not an inaccurate one."

My stomach tightened. She had given me the freedom to walk, then spent my life preparing somewhere she needed me to go. I understood the difference, but it felt smaller from where I sat.

"The World Shard," I said. "That’s what you’re after. A simple ninth-level being could never be the vessel of a god, much less an emperor too."

She inclined her head. "Ninth-level is not enough. You must carry both powers beyond Enusia, beyond mortality. This world is the first step on a staircase that spans eternity. Our allies are many, and growing, and once Fate and Oblivion can join as one, we can begin to alter the cycle. This world is a proving ground, the beginning of a war that shall span eternity. A war for existence itself."

"I...I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to leave, but..." I shook my head. I’d spent this entire war following where fate led, trusting in her vision. But now that it was laid bare, I was starting to understand why she hadn’t revealed it in the first place.

"The time for that has not yet come upon us, child. To ascend, we must first claim the world shard and establish the pattern. Only once True Mana flows through the Ley Lines, and the people of Enusia cast off the divine shackles, will we be ready. Then, and only then, shall the true war begin."