The Fateweavers

“How did you do all this so quickly?” I ask, looking around. “Magic.” Skylar replies, before chuckling. “You made me the owner of this room, so I was able to use a menu to put in a few cool features.” She elaborates. That does make a lot more sense. Yet another cool feature of this barrier that I didn’t know about. This place gets more awesome by the second.

Skylar looks down at our wrists. “Hey what’s that? Did you get matching tattoos while I was working?” “I wouldn’t call this work.” Mia banters and Skylar rolls her eyes, smiling. I start towards her, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her on the forehead. “It’s a new type of magic I got access to. We tested the whole class thing, and this was the result.”

I recall and recite the skill description to her, including the new skill we all get. “That actually sounds really cute.” She lifts up my wrist, inspecting the mark. “I like it, it’s really pretty.” I smile at her. “What do you think, do you want one?” I ask. Looking into her eyes, I already know what her answer is. “Of course I do.” She responds, her expression reflecting the love she feels for us.

Still marvelling at the new look of my windows, I hold her hand gently, close my eyes, and let the magic of the new skill flow through me. The same warm and tingly feeling as before flows from my heart, to my fingertips. Skylar accepts the pleasant tingle of the magic and sighs happily as it establishes itself in her system. “That felt nice.” She says, smiling.

I kiss her gently and I feel her melt in my arms. We break the kiss and her eyes sparkle dreamily. “Okay that gifted lover skill is great. How are you even better of a kisser than before?” She asks. Then Skylar giggles as she remembers that she has the skill too. “Yesss, tonight is going to be amazing.” She purrs happily. “Indeed it will be.” I kiss her on the forehead. “We still have things to do though. Are you ready to drive us yet?” She nods, still a bit lost in the love and affection. “Yeah, give me a sec.”

Exiting the kingdom and going back to my apartment is a bit of a scary experience. We’re all on guard as we don’t know whether anybody is watching the apartment or waiting for us to reappear. Luckily there doesn’t seem to be anybody around. After a few tense minutes of carefully looking around to make sure we’re safe, we pile into Skylar’s (thankfully untouched) car and set off for the Fateweaver outpost.

The drive passes by quickly, as we spend the time talking, bantering and making out in the back seat. Skylar manages to focus pretty well on the road, despite the scene playing out behind her. That woman has amazing self discipline. In what feels like no time at all, we enter the barrier and Skylar parks the car.

The building looks surprisingly normal. I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t a plain brick building with no visible magical features. The lobby is visible through the entryway, through a set of plain but well maintained glass double doors. Plenty of windows dot the buildings’ exterior, providing lots of natural light to the people inside.

Mia is the only one who’s ever been here before, and she says she mostly knows her way around. She leads the way inside, telling us to let her do the talking. She pushes open the doors and we follow her, as she strides confidently up to the front desk. The receptionist looks up at her questioningly. “Good morning, how can I help you today?”

“Hi, we’d like to hire a Fateweaver to strengthen a barrier for our guild, please.” Mia lays out, and the receptionist nods. “Have you officially registered your guild?” The receptionist, who I believe is a goblin of the feminine variety, asks. Mia nods in confirmation. “Great, can I have the name of your guild please?” “The Centurions.” She replies. The goblin taps away on her computer for a few seconds before looking back up at us.

“Perfect, I just need to confirm your identity. We’ll need the magical signature of your leader, a Gemma Rose?” She reads out. I step forward and she turns her gaze to me. I flash her a smile. “That’s me.” I affirm. She gestures to a pad on the desk, and I place my hand on it. It scans my magical signature for a few seconds before flashing green.

“Thank you. Please take a seat, a Fateweaver will be out to assist you shortly.” The receptionist says in a friendly tone. “Thank you.” The four of us find a row of seats in the waiting room where we can wait. We sit down and chat quietly between ourselves as we wait for the Fateweaver to arrive.

While we wait and talk, I look around the place, again expecting to find some kind of magical features. It looks more like a doctors waiting room than anything though, save for the lack of health related pamphlets and things. The most magical things around are the other people waiting, with more magical species, most of which I know by now. It isn’t too long before I hear a gentle sounding feminine voice call out. “Gemma Rose and The Centurions?”

Turning to the sound of the voice, my heart speeds up slightly as I see who called us. The woman in question is short, petite, with long blonde hair, blue eyes and an absolutely adorable face. She’s wearing a simple baby blue dress and while I can tell she has a small amount of makeup on, it’s also very minimal. She also has a really pretty tattoo of a rose on her shoulder.

I stand up, and my girlfriends stand up with me. She looks in our direction and smiles. I smile back and we walk towards her. “Hi, I’m Elsa. You wanted to strengthen a barrier?” She asks, businesslike in her words but friendly and welcoming in her tone. “Yes please.” I answer courteously. “Perfect. In case you’re unfamiliar with the process, let me explain.”

“We currently only offer our services for barriers in a radius of 20 kilometres from the outpost. For this particular service, we have contracted drivers to take us to where your barrier is anchored in the mundane world. We go inside, I make the requested changes to your barrier, and the rate you pay depends on the length of the drive and what those changes are. Do we have an agreement?” Elsa lays out.

Her voice is almost enchanting to me. She speaks quietly and gently, as if she could never harm a fly. Despite her quiet, almost mousy seeming demeanour, she doesn’t seem shy. She speaks confidently, yet softly, never raising her voice beyond the minimum she needs to, to be heard. I get the feeling that I could happily listen to her talk all day.

“Yep, that sounds good. Although I don’t think we’ll need the driver, our barrier is pretty easy to get to.” I say. She nods. “In that case, lead the way.” I wonder why she doesn’t take more precautions, but after a few seconds of consideration, I suppose there are a variety of Fateweaver tricks she could pull to keep herself out of harms way.

We walk outside the building, with Elsa in tow. “Elsa is a pretty name by the way. Did you pick it yourself?” I ask, and she giggles at the question. “I loved the Frozen movies and felt like I had a similar look to Elsa, so I changed my name. I loved the whole ice powers thing, and her blonde hair and blue dress is really pretty too.” “It suits you.” I compliment, and she smiles at me. “Thank you.”

We stop outside the building and I look around. We’re still in the Fateweaver outpost barrier, so I’m not sure how this is going to go. “I think this should be good? I think we can enter it here.” I say, looking at Elsa. She looks back at me, confused. “I’m going to pull you into the barrier now. Ready?” “Uh sure?” She answers. I activate the spell and all five of us enter my Kingdom.

I breathe in the smell of the fresh cold air, enjoying the feeling of the freezing temperatures against my skin. I look over at Elsa who is shivering. “Oh my G-G-Gaia this is so cold!” She hugs herself and rubs her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. “Oh sorry, I need to invite you to the party.” I say, mentally sending her an invite.

She looks at the window as it appears in front of her, confused and not sure how to react. “Accept the invite, it will let you resist the cold.” I tell her. “T-this is so s-strange.” She mutters, still shivering as she examines the window for a few more seconds before extending her hand and pressing the accept button.

Immediately as she’s added to my party, she gets affected by the same buff as my girlfriends. She shivers for a couple more seconds before her body realises that it’s not cold anymore, and her motions stop. She looks around, still confused. “This place is strange. This barrier is yours, you say?” She asks. I give her an affirming nod and a small smile.

“Your powers are strange.” She remarks and I giggle. She looks around, taking in the sight of the landscape around her, the different animals wandering around in the snow, and the brilliant palace that is now my home. “This is a really beautiful barrier though. I have no idea how you managed to create this. Give me a second, let me tap into it.”