Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(94)

They are whatever they want to be, I surmised. How would I get information from such evasive creatures? I decided on a fairly simple and unobtrusive question. “When did you give me my powers?”

Terra twisted her lips as if deciding how to answer, or if she would answer. “On your fourteenth birthday,” she finally confirmed.

Fourteen. I remembered that birthday well. By breakfast, I was exploding cups and saucers without thought. By dinner I accidently set fire to the neighbor’s barn. Within days, my powers rivaled the most advanced of my classmates. In weeks, my tutors.

“And what were you hoping to accomplish by giving them to me?”

“Accomplish?” Terra chuckled. “There is nothing to accomplish. There just … is. We just … are.”

I scowled, earning a giggle from Unda, her face alight with excitement over my frustration.

“Why did you come here? To play games or to ask us for help?” Incendia demanded to know, crossing long lean arms over his chest.

Play games? They were the ones playing games! I breathed in through my nose, held it for a moment in my lungs, and then pushed it back out. “You know exactly why I came. Why did you bring me here?”

“We do not answer questions. We give answers,” he barked in response and my head jerked to one side with the force of his tone, as if he somehow slapped me.

Any rational person should be on their knees, begging for mercy. I had lost my ability to be rational long ago. “No answers? Not even for your special person?” I retorted, my mouth twisting sourly.

Incendia scoffed. “You are Terra’s, not mine.” So they each had their own ‘chosen ones.’

“Come now,” Terra said soothingly, a smile on her face as she spoke to her counterparts. “We may as well give her something. She’s given us so much.”

What the Hell have I ever given them?

Terra turned to me, smiling in response. Her arms fanned out over the bowl of worlds. “What have you given us? A break from this monotony! These worlds,” she reached down, scooping up a handful, “so many, and all the same! The same requests, the same wishes, the same pleading …” She said, shaking her head as she tossed the worlds back in. Popping sounds filled the air as they crashed into others, breaking apart. Destroying life. Destroying existence …

I forced that sick feeling in my gut down, focusing on my own needs. Information. Respite. “And how have I done that?”

“By being you! Reckless, stubborn, persistent Sofie!”

I frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Terra began walking around the semicircle, passing each of the other elements as she spoke, her hand waving across the vessel. “We govern over existence. Each of us has a universe.”

The dividers in the wheel—they now made sense! Four quarters, four Fates, four universes.

“That’s right,” Terra explained. “Each one of these universes is identical. Each one has a planet just like yours.” Four universes, four planets. That meant there wasn’t just one parallel planet to Earth. There were four!

“She catches on quickly,” Ventus chimed in, but by the irritation in his voice, I don’t think he saw that as a good thing.

“Four versions of the same world times how many worlds …” Terra continued, ignoring him. “Don’t think you are unique or clever, or somehow you wish for things that others do not. The same spells come to us, over and over again. Immortality, wealth, beauty, youth, revenge …”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Unda droned. “Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. The seven sins—over and over again. You’re such dull creatures. It becomes …”

“Tedious after a while.” Terra completed her circle around the bowl, ending where she began to finish Unda’s sentence.

“And you must answer them all?”

“No … not in the least.”

“So … why don’t you just ignore the requests, if they’re so tedious?” I pressed.

“Yes, we do much of the time. But we can’t ignore all. What else would we do, then?” With hands widespread over the bowl and orbs focused, Terra stated, “This is our purpose.”

My head was spinning by now. I’m sure there was a simpler way to explain all this. “We maintain equilibrium. Where there is life, there must be death. Happiness for sadness. Love for hate,” Terra explained.

“For whom?”

Terra’s brow quirked, the first sign of confusion I’d seen from any of them. “For whom?”

“Yes. Who decided you needed to maintain the equilibrium?” Again, that bewildered look. “Is there a higher power than the Fates?”

“We answer to no one!” Incendia features suddenly tightened into a savage glare.

Well, I guess that’s a touchy subject. Whether there was someone or something higher was still unclear, though I had a feeling perhaps a higher power was in control, beyond these Fates. Incendia’s eyes narrowed as he read my mind.

“So, you just answer us when you feel like it?” I asked.

Terra smiled. “More or less. When one of you casts your spell, we decide how that spell will be delivered, how the course of fate will be changed. If it will be changed.”

Change the course of fate … the blood in my veins suddenly sparked. “Yes, about that.” Now I remembered why I was here. What had driven me to demand to see these wretched things. I crossed my arms, leveling Terra with a stare. “I don’t recall asking you to bind a baby to a deadly curse, or resurrect my lover. Or kill him in the first place!”