Chapter 185: Echoes of the Future
Until recently, my nights were frequented by nightmares and pain, rarely giving me a chance to fully rest. Yet now, it had been nearly a month since I’d been chased by shadows through the fiery halls of the Divine Throne. The last nightmare I could remember came shortly before I awoke in Elise’s arms following my ordeal at Western University, nearly a month ago. She’d lit a small, flickering fire in my heart that kept even the darkest of dreams at bay.
It wasn’t only nightmares, either. Even the Eyes of Fate had remained quiet, no longer burdening me with unwelcome visions. It was ironic, really, that the one thing I’d yearned for - knowledge of the future - was now my greatest shackle. Thron had been right all along, for how could I hope or trust when all my future held was darkness?
The brief reprieve had brought me a few weeks of peace, yet it ended with a single breath, and I found myself standing in an unfamiliar garden. Unlike other visions, my soul retained the form of my body, behaving as it had following my death and consequent summoning to the Divine Colosseum, save this time I was on an island floating through the depths of the night sky.
Several other islands floated freely around, but beyond them, there was nothing save a sea of stars. The island was fairly small, barely thirty feet across, with a white marble fountain in the middle. The fountain featured a winged woman clothed in nothing but her long, flowing hair, standing on a flower. Golden streams spurted upward from her outstretched hands, raining down upon her head and the flower petals and leaves before collecting in a shallow basin from which the sculpture sprouted. The entire work was made of transparent crystal, observable only by the contours of the golden water and the sight warp of the stars seen through it.
Behind the statue, I could make out the graceful form of a woman. She wore a long dress that had no beginning or end and seemed to be woven from the night sky itself. Although her back was toward me, her face concealed by long, flowing hair, I couldn’t mistake her for anyone else.
"Fate."
The goddess remained motionless, her hair rising in the mysterious astral wind. I took a hesitant step toward her, but stopped, staring down at my hands, trying to confirm whether I was truly here or not. Was this actually a vision?
Moments before I relinquished the hope of speaking with her, Fate sighed, her shoulders slumping. The stars sheathing her body swirled as she turned, whirling dizzying until she came to a rest, her glimmering eyes meeting mine. They were soft, and melancholy, an emotion I couldn’t reconcile with the usually serenely expressionless goddess.
"So you’ve come here after all," she murmured.