“This is not true. We took the king to Penance, and he died atop the Tower of Sin.”
“Lies!” screamed Meadhbh. The shrill sound of her voice was worse than knives cutting glass. “What right does a heathen like you have to stand before me, and weave falsities in my presence? You—”
The Lady cut herself off. She looked down at each of the others and turned back to Farris.
“You…” She said, Her voice softer than before, almost like a whisper. “All of you. You are all dead.”
Farris had no answer to this. Cormac gasped, and Fionn jumped to his feet. Nicole’s eyes were as white and white as ever, but only Padraig was unmoved.
“How did we die, my Lady?” Padraig asked, perhaps more sardonically than he should have.
Meadhbh looked down at the captain. “Padraig Tuathil died in the Grey Keep, after bringing news to his king that the city had fallen. The dead stormed the building, and he died trying to protect the citizens of Cruachan.”
“Cormac O’Branna,” she said next. “He travelled to Penance after the fall of Point Grey and caught the bloody flux while living amongst the squalor of the refugee camp.”
Cormac himself barely acknowledged his own name, but kept his gaze locked on the floor.
“Fionn the Red,” she said next. “He was set upon by bandits on the way from Roseán to Point Grey. Chief Engineer Nicole was killed in an explosion that took down the Tower of Sin.
“And Farris Silvertongue,” she said, turning to Farris. “He died after an encounter with a mountain troll and drowned on the shores of the Clifflands.”
“You’re wrong,” said Farris. “None of these things have unfolded as you claim. I did not die on those cliffs. Padraig was rescued from Cruachan on the night the horde came, and the Tower of Sin still stands.”
“The Tower still stands,” echoed Nicole, rising to stand by Farris’s side. “As do we.”
“Impossible,” mused Meadhbh. “This is not what was destined to happen. Your fates as I see them were determined before Creation. Before the Apotheosis. Before—”
A strange look crossed her face. Then the Lady smiled.
“Of course. I understand now. You no longer walk in my Light.”
“What do you mean?” asked Farris. Even if She did, he certainly didn’t understand what was going on.
“Most of what you have been told by the Church are half-truths,” She began. “It is not my place to elaborate on them, but there is one thing you should know. Seletoth did not create the heavens and the earth. The land, the wildlife, and the animals that inhabit this world all predate Creation. It was only Humans that Seletoth created. Therefore, it is only Humans that are bound by destiny. Of the fate I have seen.”
Padraig shook his head slightly on hearing this. As unfamiliar with the faith as Farris was, this certainly seemed contrary to what the Church taught.
“But long before Seletoth’s Humans made it to Alabach,” Meadhbh continued, “something peculiar happened. The savage primates that once roamed the lands slowly changed over time, developing from generation to generation into what you today call Simians. The fate that binds Humans so tightly does not have as much strength over your people.”
“So, we are free from your Light?” asked Farris, afraid of what the answer would be.
Meadhbh didn’t respond to Farris directly. “Since the moment Humans were created, the fate of the land was sealed. A young girl named Morrígan was destined to find a means to usurp the gods, and even Seletoth would fall to her power. Every Human, from the highest earl to the lowest peasant, is bound to this destiny. King Diarmuid could not spurn the tides of fate, even when he saw what end awaited us all.
“The Simians are not bound by the same limitations. It happened once long ago, when the engineers of Penance began building their tower. Destiny dictated that it would not exceed Mount Selyth in height, but the tower kept on rising. This was the first and last time Seletoth would interfere with the Simians and their efforts to stray from my Light.”
“The Tower of Sin,” whispered Nicole.
The Lady gazed down at Farris. “But Seletoth is no longer as strong as he once was. Now the Simians’ seeds of chaos have been left unchecked, and their roots have dug deep into the Tapestry of Fate, unravelling its threads one by one.”
“I don’t understand,” said Farris, shaking his head. “How—”
A burst of blue light filled his vision, and Farris saw himself, more than a year ago, climbing the cliffs of Alabach. Then he saw himself fighting off the highwaymen that jumped him on the way to Point Grey. Next, he saw himself interrogating the false druid at Sin, the one who was supposed to carry out the Crown’s attack on the tower. He saw himself picking Cormac from the crowd of the refugee camp, and then swinging through the window of the king’s private quarters in Cruachan. Finally, saw himself and Nicole in an old hangar in the Steamworks of Penance, a blue fire burning amongst discarded papers at their feet.
“Do you see now?” asked Meadhbh “Farris Silvertongue, you are but one Simian, but your actions alone have caused ripples throughout the lives of those bound by fate. From the moment you choose not to die amongst the cliffs of Roseán, you walked outside of my Light. From there, your choices, though minor in themselves, have turned many from this path, even Morrígan. It was she who was supposed to stand before me today, not you. Even I did not think it was possible to fight fate in this manner, but it seems I have been proven wrong.”
Farris’s mind reeled at the revelation. Me? I caused this? He turned to the others, who looked expectantly at him. I… saved them?
“But what about Morrígan?” asked Padraig. “What is it she wants? Is she still a threat?”
The smile vanished from Meadhbh’s face. “It was destined that she would seek to usurp the gods. First, she sought power, which she found in her undead horde. Now that she has claimed the king’s power for her own, she no longer craves more.”
The Lady closed her eyes, as if in pain.
“But she has caught a glimpse of the Truth, the same Truth the Church was established to conceal. She will come for me next, and on taking my power, she will learn what no mortal should ever know. What lies beyond the Eternal Sea, why poison flows through the Glenn, why Seletoth created Man…. These revelations will drive her mad. From there, destroying Seletoth and bringing an end to all life, will be the only reasonable response.”
The others stood in silence, but Meadhbh stepped down from the altar, towards Farris. The Simian did not flinch, even as the Lady’s holy light strained his eyes.
“However, this destiny may not unfold as it was supposed to. I once said that we are all thralls of fate, and there is no hope in fighting what was meant to be. But through the fires of steel and steam, the Simian people have sewn chaos into this world.” She raised a hand and placed it on Farris’s shoulder.
“And where there is chaos, there is hope.”
Guide to Alabach, Her Places, and Her People
AC: After Conquest. The Thralls of Fate begins in AC403.
Aislinn Carríga: Lady of Keep Carríga, Rosca Umhír, sister of Sir Bearach and Cathal Carríga.
Aldrich Canal: Simian-built canal connecting the Rustlake to Móráin Sea.
