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Eliza Brennan - Dhampyr
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Eliza: Fateful Meeting
“Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Why were we looking for the Fates on a cold day in December when we could have been at his parents’ house in front of the fire? We were here because Mac was concerned for Alaster, his father, about the way he’d been aging since I’d gotten pregnant. Generations of Brennans had watched over their farm and the city of Galway, protected it from evil and darkness. Mac would have taken Alaster’s role as protector years ago had destiny not stepped in. We hoped that our son would some day be able to take Mac’s place, but in the mean time Alaster was aging quickly.
I leaned on Mac as we walked down the alley, hoping that I wouldn’t slip in the slush and take us both down. I was concentrating on our footing more than anything else, so I was surprised when Mac stopped half way down the alley. I looked up to see a door and a large display window that I swear hadn’t been there when we’d started this way. There were herbs and other magical items on display in the window, and the sign above the door read ‘Fortune’s Alley’. Mac pushed open the door and led me in side.
It was warm inside, almost too warm. Quickly I stripped off my gloves and opened my coat, running my hands down my stomach hoping it would quiet the babies, who had just decided to wake up and play football inside of me. Mac took off his gloves as well and smiled reassuringly before taking my hand and leading me further inside.
The store almost looked like the typical new age store that Salem was full of except that it wasn’t. Everything looked hand made, even the leather bound books and the intricate jewelry. There was nothing wrapped in plastic, nothing mass produced. If it weren’t for the very modern cash register, I’d have thought that we’d stepped into the past about a hundred years, or into another world.
We didn’t see anyone in the store as we walked to the counter, just a sign near the register and that read ‘ring bell for service’. Next to the sign sat a silver bell with a vine carved handle. Mac picked it up and rang it three times. Before he could put it back down, a little girl was standing on the other side of him.
“Mac,” I said softly, drawing his attention to the girl as she reached up to pluck at his sleeve.
She was only about five or so, with very blonde hair and vivid blue eyes. She wore a long blue dress that matched the color of her eyes exactly.
“May I help you, sir?” she asked in a lilting voice.
“Well, hello,” he said as he looked down. “What’s your name?”
“Alyssa,” she replied with a smile. “What are you looking for? I’m sure my sisters and I can help.” She gestured around the room in a surprisingly adult fashion. “If it’s not here, we can get it, guaranteed.”
“Actually I came in to talk to you and your sisters,” he told her.
The girl just smiled up at him, but from behind us we heard a slightly older voice say, “We thought you didn’t believe in us, Macalister.”
When we turned to look a girl of about seven was standing near the end of the counter. She had long brown hair, and lighter blue eyes than Alyssa. She was wearing a dress similar in style to the other girl, but a deep green, and a name tag that read ‘Lauren’.
Before Mac could reply, another girl spoke from near the door we’d come in through. She was a little older than the second girl, perhaps nine or ten, with blonde hair like the first, but hazel eyes and a purple dress. “We thought we’d have to come get you when the time came.” Her name tag read ‘Natalie’.
Mac nodded at each of them as they spoke. “When the time came for what?”
I jumped a little when a fourth girl appeared right next to me. This one looked to be in her early teens, with shoulder length brown hair and hazel eyes. Her dress was grey, and her name tag read ‘Cait’. “Your destiny, of course,” she answered. “Is that not why you are here?”
“I suppose you could call it that,” he said slowly. “We are here about my father.”
Natalie looked at Cait. “I told you he wouldn’t come here for himself.”
“His time is nearly over. Wouldn’t you rather ask about them?” Alyssa asked as she pointed to my stomach. I covered the area she pointed to with my hand as if that would protect my babies from her.
With a smile, Lauren said, “We could tell you many things about them.”
“Or yourself,” Cait added.
“My father has endured more than he was meant to,” Mac replied. “Now that his true successor is about to be, he is starting to show his true time. I would wish to ease that time or make his remaining responsibility as easy as can be.”
“Your father’s fate has already been written,” Alyssa told him. “You cannot ease his burden or take his responsibilities from him.”
“Many years will pass before your son will be strong enough to shoulder Alaster’s burden,” Natalie added gravely.
“Your duty is to teach him how,” Cait said firmly.
“Among other things,” Lauren put in as she walked closer to us.
“Shh,” Cait hissed softly at her. “He has not come for those things.”
Suddenly Natalie was standing between Alyssa and Mac. “What would you give to ease your father’s pain?” she asked as she took his hand.
I was more than uncomfortable now that all of the girls were standing so close to us, but there was nothing I could do. Regardless of their great powers, they looked like mere children.
“You have seen my coming here,” Mac said brusquely. “What is your price?”
Lauren nodded. “Every action has a consequence.”
“Every favor, a price,” Cait added.
Alyssa looked at Mac thoughtfully. “What if the price was not yours to pay?”
“Would you still choose to ease his burden?” Natalie asked, still holding his hand.
“I would still consider it,” he replied honestly. “Ask your price.”
“How can you bargain with that which you do not believe in?” Lauren inquired with a tilt of her head.
“Hush,” Natalie cautioned her. “Do not antagonize him, he has quite a temper.”
“Temper will not help him to help his father,” Alyssa replied coolly.
“Neither will your bickering,” Cait snapped at them. She studied me for a moment, then Mac before saying, “It will take many years for your son to grow.”
“To develop his abilities to the point where he may be the protector you should have been,” Lauren added.
“Helping your father will mean changing that,” Natalie told him.
“Is there no way to pass some of that time quicker?” he asked them. “Reach his Awakening sooner?”
“What you ask is difficult if not impossible,” Alyssa murmured, frowning.
Natalie looked at her. “There is a way.”
“Both must endure it,” Lauren breathed thoughtfully. “To change one destiny is to change the other.”
“We would have to explain the change in time,” Cait warned her.
“In their minds, and the minds of others,” Alyssa added.
“Some would have to remember both,” Natalie insisted.
“Wait a minute.” They’d lost me somewhere along the way, I couldn’t follow their logic. “What are you saying?” I looked at Mac, more than a little worried about what these children wanted to do to my babies. “What are they saying?”
“They can make the children age quicker,” he explained gently, “until the Awakening.”
“And cover it with magic?” It didn’t seem likely, but then again, they were supposed to be the Fates, the makers of Destiny. “How much quicker?”
“Quick enough, girl,” Alyssa told me in her child like voice.
“It’s the only way to help Alaster,” Cait added.
“But you both must agree,” Natalie said, looking up at Mac.
“And there is one more thing,” Lauren warned, also looking at him.
Then they were all looking at him, and speaking together. “You must stop fighting us.”
Mac laughed softly for a moment. “Then I have one more request,” he said, sobering quickly. “I never knew Corrine while she was a child, and now I am making a deal to shorten the childhood of these twins, all in the name of Destiny and Fate. The next child born of our flesh shall be untouched by your hands. Its fate will in its own hands, with no destiny to fulfill.”
They all looked at Lauren, whose face was set in a stubborn expression. “Why should we agree to that? Destiny is not yours to decide, it’s yours to fulfill.”
“Lauren,” Natalie began, but she was interrupted by Alyssa.
“She’s right,” the youngest girl said. “He’s fought us all this time, there’s no reason to believe he’s going to start cooperating now.”
Mac raised a hand to stop the argument before it could really begin. “When the Seer told my father where to go to find a mother for his children and a wife for himself, he scoffed, for he didn’t believe in fate either,” he told them. “But still eventually he found an excuse to go where she told him, and here I am. When I was told of my fate and where to go to find a mother for my children and a wife for myself, I too scoffed, not believing. But eventually I found an excuse to go where I was told to.”
He stepped closer to my side and put one hand on the back of my neck, tilting my head up to place a soft kiss on my lips. Laying a hand on my enlarged stomach, he turned to look at Lauren first, then the rest of the girls. “And here I am, making deals with the Fates on the lives of my unborn children, and for the life of my unconceived child.”
The other girls stared silently at Lauren until she threw up her hands in surrender. “Fine, your second son will be destiny free.”
I looked at Mac in surprise and a bit of wonder. Another son, one who would have a chance at a normal life. It was almost too good to be true.
“Then we are agreed?” Cait asked as they all watched us, waiting.
Mac looked at me expectantly. “I agree.”
I didn’t want to agree. I wanted these children to have as normal a life as possible, but that wasn’t likely to happen now. How could I not agree when Alaster’s life and the Brennan farm stood in the balance? Riley would take over as guardian of the farm whether he was seven or seventy when Alaster died. By aging faster, he had more of a chance to learn what he needed to know to survive protecting the farm.
Putting my hand over Mac’s on my stomach, I said, “I agree.”
Suddenly all four of the girls jostled closer to put their hands on my protruding stomach. At first their touch burned through my sweater, but the heat faded quickly. I clutched Mac’s hand as they began to speak, and suddenly all I could see was the ocean with a full moon shining down on it, at midnight, a time and place where all things are possible.
The oldest girl began to speak, followed by each according to their age.
“On midwinter’s morn the twins will cry.”
“Their future will quickly pass them by.”
“Three trips around the sun will see.”
“Them come into their destiny.”
The last words of the spell the girls spoke in unison. “A howl raised by the moon’s clear light will find his magic shinning bright. A wolf, a mage, and enemies three; this is what their fate shall be.”
The twins had lain quiet until the spell was complete, but as soon as the words were spoken they moved so strongly that I wondered if they were trying to escape their fates. By the time the girls took their hands away the movements had subsided enough to be bearable.
Mac had felt the sudden movements of the children beneath his hand and looked down at me anxiously. “Are you all right?”
“We’re fine,” I assured him with a smile, suddenly sure that it was true. “They’ve settled in.”
He smiled back, then turned to the children. “You will always be welcome to visit our home.”
The girls giggled amongst themselves at that before moving toward a beaded doorway that hadn’t been there moments before.
As they went, Natalie whispered to Alyssa. “You should have told him about—”
“Shh,” she cut her off. “That will come in time.”
“You’ve done enough telling what you shouldn’t,” Cait added as she followed them through the doorway.
Lauren paused in the doorway and to give Mac one last smile. “We will see you again, Cormacalaster.”
He had only time to nod before she left the room and the doorway faded away leaving unbroken wall. The store had returned to the way it had been when we had walked in, but now it felt different, empty. After doing up our coats and putting on our gloves, we stepped outside into the cold. A last glimpse at the window showed the sign now read ‘closed’, and all of the lights inside had been turned off.
Mac put his arm around my waist to steady me as we walked down the alley through the ankle deep slush to the car.