I place my hands on their trapped bodies.Their lives flash past me in snatches and visions and finally there’s a loosening.The first pieces of them to unravel are the slices of soul buried in me.
A sting rips through my gut.
Heat floods my body.
My eyes snap open.
They’re fighting back.
Of course they’re fighting back.As if I was naive enough to think I could just undo not one but two angels.
The heat rockets up to scorching temperatures.Sweat pours down my temples.My nose bursts and my mouth fills with blood.
I can’t hold on, it’s too much.I fling what I have at the angels and pray it works.But nothing happens.I fizzle out and drop to my hands and knees, panting, and throw up.
Oh gods, this should have worked.I should have been able to use my power to undo what they are.I’m meant to be all powerful.Why isn’t it working?Why am I not strong enough?
The angels wriggle and fight against the bindings.The first thread splits and frays, and my blood runs cold.
Interitus stills and then laughs.
“What’s so funny, sister?”Architecti says.
“Do you see now?That I have no fate.Even the source of power can’t undo me.”
“Then you should let me kill you and be done with your wretched life.”
Interitus head-butts Architecti, but they’re bound so tightly that Architecti’s head ricochets and they both end up groaning and with bloodied faces.
The image of the sisters stood before the Mirror of Fate flashes through my mind.I have seen the memory she’s talking about.
But Interitus’s words ring through my mind.Do you see now?I have no fate.
Her mirror was dark.Empty.She thought she was forgotten.But that is not it at all.
She missed the point entirely.
The angels snap their heads to me.It appears I am laughing.Laughing so hard that I have tears running through the blood and dirt on my face.
“What is amusing you?”Interitus says.
“You, actually.”
She frowns at me.This time, I try a kind approach.I help them stand.
“What is it you desire?”I ask Interitus.
“The end of fate.Of a system of control and oppression.”She says it adamantly and without pause.
“What would you do to achieve it?”I ask again.
“Anything.”
“Would you die for it?”
She nods.
I move to Architecti.“And you… what do you desire?”
