Page 87 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
This wasn’t the first time I’d been asked this question, though it was the first time I was going to give my carefully crafted explanation in front of anyone powerful enough to see through a lie. “The origin is still debated by my people of whether it came fromall correctoroh yes.”
“We didn’t bring her here to discuss the etymology of troll slang,” Master Thomas interrupted, his voice laced with disapproval. “Get on with it.”
Witch Agatha frowned while Duke Julian waved my attention to a wall. “We’ve turned off scrying, but Guild Mistress Alice is being questioned in the next room. She’s said something we would ask your opinion on.”
My curiosity getting the better of me, I focused all of my perception on the wall between us and the next room—and heard nothing. Which was impressive. Grand Duchess Calisto should be resting off her mana burn to complete an eight-hour rest cycle before tomorrow’s afternoon tea, so the room was likely a permanent pocket dimension prison. “How can I help?”
“I will share with you two riddles by two gods.” Duke Julian cleared his throat. “The first was from the god of Shadow: ‘We have known the traveler and watched her ways. But I will not claim the realm to Shadow, and the weave is being woven as we walk.’”
I waited to hear more, but that was it. I tapped my chin as I considered, then asked, “What was the question?”
“Their Royal Highness wanted to know what would happen if they defied Fate and continued to live.”
“As a note,” Wizard Lorthar spoke from his seat, eyeing me with an air of interest, “we do not know what theexactquestion was, since they only provided us with a recording of Shadow’s reply.”
“Hm.” I closed my eyes, drawing breath. Other’s might assume that Shadow was speaking about Alice as the ‘traveler’. My ego was apparently as big as Thomas’s because I knew Shadow was talking about none other than myself.
A traveler between worlds.
I opened my eyes. “I have heard many riddles, and this sounds pretty clear. Shadow says that the weave is being woven as we walk, and it doesn’t matter if we change things because Fate will just weave whatever choices we make into her plan.”
“That was my conclusion as well,” Julian said with relief.
“And it might have beensufficient, but we are not talking about one fate and one riddle,” Master Thomas pointed out. He turned angry eyes on me and accused, “These riddles will affect more thanjustTheir Royal Highness of Peldeep.”
The mage held up a scroll and unrolled it with a dramatic flick of his wrist. It was a list of names, starting with Madame Potts. “All sixty-three fates that you’ve touched will need to be addressed—”
I cut him off with a laugh.
“Sixty-three?Who do you think I am?” I could see that Master Thomas had no idea about my accomplishments as Madame Potts, and so I decided to tell him. “I’ve saved hundreds if notthousands. Dungeon breaks that wiped out entire villages? I prevented. Pirate attacks that sunk whole merchant fleets? I foiled. Assassins, bandits, stampedes, kidnappings, fires, floods—thislistis an insult.”
“Well said.” Julian put a hand on the back of my chair in support.
I changed my mind; I took back everything. Thiswasfun.
Master Thomas made to reply, but Julian continued. “It looks like this Alice doesn’t know as much as she claimed, or this would be a much longer list.”
“So it would seem,” Thomas ground out, magically rolling the parchment closed with a snap. “But what about the second riddle? Let us hear whatMadame Pottshas to say when faced with a riddle from Fate herself.”
He looked ready to see me fail, and I rolled my eyes. If he only knew how many times I’d had to listen to Fate go off in some convoluted message …
“I’m ready when you are.”
CHAPTER 50
Fate’s Always Loved a Good Villainess Trope
Julian
“What mortals toil to the coiling thread. Why weave the same when knots form in the line. The loom feeds a snag in Fate looming. So seek first those of second death. Find tears in time before time unravels. The weave undone. To walk away. To stay. Embrace death by the first fallen leaf. Tie ends or end in Void.”
Gerda flinched, and Julian wondered that she had no skill to help her obfuscate her emotions. He was impressed that she’d kept her secret identity this long with only her will and wit.
“Okay …” she started, but then stopped. “Before I tell you what I know of Fate, you should probably activate a truth spell.”
Wizard Lorthar replied, “I already have.”
The troll nodded. “Fate speaks in riddles because she isn’t seeing one person or one path. She’s looking at countless threads that come together across worlds and how they weave together. So, the first thing we need to do to understand her message is figure outwhois involved andwhat fatecan be changed.
