Page 12 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
“That is one theory, yes,” Phina said, glancing around at the other students. “Though over the years many adepts have endeavored to theorize the exact conditions that created the Mirrors of Fate.”
The Mirrors of Fortune and Death were famedrelics in Fenrir.
Every year, a collection of knights took the two seven-foot-tall Mirrors on a tour of the territory to allow citizens to gaze into the magical reflections and glimpse their Fated futures. The Mirrors were created seven hundred years ago, when ornate Gildium frames had fallen into a magical pool called the Well of Fate, located somewhere in the treacherous geothermal flats south of the Bone Mountains.
Most particulars had been lost to history. The only reason I knew as much as I did was because Anya and Idris had ventured there and had returned to Waldron…changed.
But even my best friend had been unwilling to share with me exactly what had happened at the pool.The less you know, the safer you are, Anya had told me late one night, huddled under the silent shroud of her sound magic.Knowing too much almost got me killed, Hattie, and I couldn’t bear to put you in danger.
If Anya only knew how well I understood the importance of keeping dangerous secrets.
Still, it seemed strange that there were apprentices asking about the Mirrors’ creation so soon after Anya visited the location of their inception. Had word gotten out? Or were the Mirrors simply a common topic of debate in Fenrir City, given their mysterious power?
When Phina spoke again, her voice took on the resonant quality she used in class: measured, curious, authoritative. “What you need to understand here is the bias among adepts,” Phina said to the group. “Ask an archivist, and they’ll cite only theknownhistory of the Mirrors—dismissing all else as conjecture. Ask an Adept of the Arcane, and they’ll insist it was magic weavers who wove power into the Mirrors in much the same way that their Order weaves Oath magic. Ask an Adept of Alchemy, and they’ll insist…” Phina trailed off, eyes sweeping across the crowd expectantly.
Apprentices were quick to finish her sentence: “Alchemy.”
“Whatalladepts lack is irrefutable proof,” Phina concluded. “The Mirrors are an enduring mystery. Best not to try to solve it in your first year at the Collegium.” She winked, and a few students chuckled.
“But you’re trying to solve it, aren’t you?” Gillen asked. “Is magical water not a part of your study?”
Phina appeared amused by the bold question. She lifted a shoulder, feigning ignorance about the topic of her confidential research—a program which the Lord of Fenrir himself was a benefactor. “You know, I really couldn’t say.”
Others in our circle began talking over one another, jumping in with more questions, but a commotion from the front of the pub stole my attention. A pair of knights were arguing outside again, and—no, not outside, they were coming in through the front door.
And heading straight forme.
4
Fateless
Hattie
The knights were broad, male, and fitted in extravagant gold armor. One had an elegant longbow strapped to his back, while the other’s head was framed by exquisite twin shortsword hilts protruding from scabbards along his shoulder blades. While I did not recognize them personally, their finery was that of the esteemed Order of the Mighty, the most trusted and highly trained knights in the kingdom, loyal to not only the ruler of their respective territory but to the entire realm.
Had someone told the Mighty that I was here? Noble’s father was one of the most lauded Mighty Knights in the kingdom; after the attempt on my life nine years ago, he’d orchestrated my clandestine escape to Poe-on-Wend. Were these men loyal to his leadership? Had I been discovered?
When I’d applied for study at the Collegium, I’d used the same false surname I’d chosen the night I met Anya: Mund. I told myself that as long as I stuck to my story—that I was an anonymous woman from an inconsequential small town in rural Fenrir—everything would be fine, but the truth was, it was dangerous for me to be here. I’dknownit was a risk to have my name—even a fake one—recorded for my enrollment, but—
Wait.
A third knight followed on their heels, inconspicuous by comparison—but when my attention found her, a different sort of fear gripped me. Black armor. Doe-eyes. A white scar across her upper lip. Amenacing swagger. She was confident, lethal. The men at her sides might’ve been gloriously intimidating, but intimidation implied a hypothetical. A peaceable solution.
There was nothing hypothetical about Mariana’s potential for violence.
Memory took me back to the Possum, her voice interrupting the stillness of midnight. Black blood on her sword. A scowl on her angular face. I’d been somewhat preoccupied with my lingering distress over seeing a Fates-cursedmonsterso close to the inn, but Mariana had seemed unperturbed by that.
She’d come to confront Anya and Idris about their blank visions in the Mirrors of Fate.
Ever since my friends’ trip to the Well, the Mirrors of Fortune and Death had shown them a tumultuous grayness, like an overcast sky. Blank, untold futures. Mariana had warned us about more individuals like them, but she hadn’t explainedwhy—just that we ought not trust them.
I might have an idea, I’d told Anya and Idris once Mariana had left. What if Mariana had been talking about Noble?
I’d seen it myself, six months ago, at Waldron’s Fate Ceremony. He’d been among the first to look into the Mirrors, early enough in the procession that no one from town was really paying attention. Noble was a recluse, after all—curious as the gossips in town could be, he’d proven himself uninteresting, and therefore his blank Fate had gone unnoticed.
Except by me.
Could Noble have also visited the Well of Fate? Anya and Idris had quickly dismissed that theory, as the path was treacherous, and its secrets were not widely known. Besides, even historically, none of those who visited the Well had come away withblankFates—at most, justalteredFates. Anya and Idris had no guess as to whytheirfutures had been different—except for the presence of monsters. According to Idris, close proximityto monsters could warp one’s Fate. Perhaps the monsters lurking around the pool had changed its effect?
