Fate, Smoke, and Mirrors

By Christina Quick

Gypsy left home and her past as far behind her as she could. She made a new life and good friends. When a call from her mother sends her home to see her dying grandmother, she plans a quick trip and an even quicker escape. But the thing about going home is it is never as easy as you want it to be. She left a lot of unfinished business, and brought a lot of new business with her. She has a claim on her life and there is more than one Goddess hoping to collect. Between her first love, his jealous brother, her strained relationship with her mother, and everything else; her trip home may ask a higher price than she is willing to pay.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mistress Mirabell
• Release date: Aug 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476260358

Christina Quick

I live in Laramie Wy with my wonderful family. This is a whole new venture and I can't wait to see how it goes!

Book preview

Fate, Smoke, and Mirrors

By Christina Quick

Copyright 2012 Christina Quick

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Dedicated to my mother who was my first fan; to my husband who never let me quit, and to everyone else who took the trip with me

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Nine

About the Author

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The Legend of the Weeping Goddess and her Mirror Dark Twin

Some say that they have always been; the Ancient Gods

Created by a force too old and powerful to be remembered

And since time first began to spin they have wandered

Seeking pleasure and distraction

Worlds came to be and others were destroyed

Wagers were made and games were played out on created fields

But after many ages they became bored

The old ones lost interest in their creations

They sought fresh entertainment and missed the excitement of new beginnings

It had been long years since they had last created another

For too long it had been only them; the Ancient

It was decided that this is what they needed

The impulse of youth to awaken them once more

So on a moonlit night they gathered under a sky of stars

The stretch of ground was bare

And had never seen the hand of any but them

Now in spite of the long time spent together

None of the deities trusted any other

No one wanted to bequeath great power

Each feared being set upon by the others in their time of weakness

They argued far into the night

Finally they each agreed to share the cost of this creation

So each gave a single drop of blood to the ground

And with this drop was a whisper of blessing

A gift of power

As each gave what they most longed to have of their own

And as the last drop fell to the rich earth

All worlds fell silent

And all creations ever made, held their breathe

Then from the earth came a female form

She shifted from maiden to mother and then to crone

Back and forth between images she moved

Until the moon smiled upon her upturned face

Then she kept the form of her youth

Thus the child Goddess was formed of dream and desire

She lifted slender arms and sang to the moon

She danced with bare feet on her earthen womb

She was the incarnation of youth

All were well pleased with their work

She brought laughter and joy to them once again

The newness of youth spread through them all and they were happy

The young one’s eyes soon turned toward the newest world of her birth

She became entranced with the many creatures of earth

Before long she spent her every moment walking the land

People bowed before her and animals knelt for her blessing

Her name was sounded to the heavens

And she was filled with joy at the sound

So she gave the blessings of peace, love, joy, and hope

This was the start of her downfall

Unwilling to bless one and curse the other

The goddess blessed all creatures whether they plead her name or not

She gave her gifts to all of the creatures of earth

This angered the dark minded Gods

Next she offered forgiveness to all and forgave freely

This angered the strong willed of the Gods

Soon they all took to grumbling about their child

They worried that earth would forget about them

They feared their child would cause their names to lost

The complaints became the whisper that a mistake had perhaps been formed

So on a moonless night they met again

On the spot of her birth was where they first spoke

Then they fought over what was to be done

It seemed as if no agreement as to her punishment could be met

Until one came forward

Shrouded in time she came from so long ago

That her name had been lost to even her followers

Her story never passed lips

And no one could guess why she spoke now

She spoke in coldness though

She spoke to the darkness in them all

What has been gifted may also be taken

She said

Let us rescind our gifts

Let the child live her life as one of the mortals she coddles

This may be done if we are willing to pay the price

The last may have been a warning

But no one asked the darkly shrouded form

They instead spoke of her words

They whispered of taking back what they had given

This idea found favor with them all and they called her to them

They called her as sister because they could not bear to betray a child

And she came

In youthful form with bare feet and tangled hair

She sang to the unseen moon and danced with innocent joy

And as she stood among them

They all touched her with left hands

One by one with downcast eyes, they touched her

And where once they had whispered blessing

They now muttered a curse

Each rescinding their gift

Each taking back what they felt was theirs

The Goddess fell to the ground and began to weep

Her tears fell to the rich soil that had birthed her

Now the earth had absorbed for many years the magic and gifts of all gathered

In time it had come to hold its own power

It pitied the weeping one it had helped to create

It called her daughter

So the earth sent her its own blessing

It sent power to console her for her losses

But the earth was still young and its power ill managed

The sending went wrong

And as the Ancient watched a shadow formed

At the feet of the weeping Goddess it curled

It grew to mirror its host

And then with a shout of triumph and glee

It broke away

And stood beside its sobbing twin

The Gods looked in fear at this new form

Their sister child lay weeping still

Sheltered by the ground

But her shadow twin stood tall and proud

With dark skin and eyes and blood red lips

She looked in anger at her twin and spat on her

Ashamed of the weakness she had been created from

Then she turned and walked into the world

Not knowing what else to do

The elders picked up the weeping one and carried her away

They whispered apologies and cuddled her

Showering kisses, they sought to console her

She forgave them quickly but she had first been cursed by each ones left hand

So she never ceased to weep

A dark shadow covered her heart and she knew pain

The damage done by the impulsive earth was something no one could unravel

The mirror dark sibling could not be undone

Even the eldest of them could offer no answers

So she walked the worlds and destruction followed

She whispered and all creatures moaned in pain

She culled the cruel to follow her

And her name was a curse

The weeping one sought to reconcile but found her twin too dark to bear

They exchanged threats and blows and war was called into being

All the worlds were the field of battle and existence suffered

Even as they were blessed

The Ancient tried to look away

They wanted to choose no side in this conflict of will

Not sure what to make of these two who were once a single form

But the pleas of the endless creatures they had all made could not be ignored

So they declared that one twin must be contained

They were given only earth on which to battle

In the end only one would walk the earth and the other would sit

In eternal darkness alone

Never to be spoken of again

Thus began the war between the Weeping Goddess

And her Mirror Dark Twin

"Life passes in memories while time holds its own council.

And as ages pass; people rise and fall by the whim of uninterested powers…

The Gods hold little use for us; save two. Darkness and Light; they are an unnatural division. One created in love and the other with a curse; one was once complete and the other a shadow.

The Twin Goddesses, what strange enemies. They make war a harsh game with the world and we tremble at the balance…

Hoping they too will turn their gaze elsewhere. But at the same time leery less a new and more terrible power arises; damning us all to a new and bitter hell.

Thus do the species of earth look toward Fate for mercy.

Fate who may yet be the greatest trickster of all…"

Butha in his speech to the world leaders in 2024

Prologue

The room was overly full and quickly growing uncomfortably warm, and several of the people in it had already stripped off their coats and unfastened ties. The rising heat had made many less concerned with their appearances. This was the first time that so many leaders of the nations had gathered in one place and it was a highly charged situation at best. Aides scurried around with a variety of useless notes and fetched coffee mugs no one drank from. The air was filled with the quiet buzz of conversation and electronic gadgets that seemed to be temporarily working for once. They were all waiting for the same thing; and they were all nervous.

The room was a semi circle with tiers leading down to a platform with a podium and microphone. A large projector screen was blank in the background. The room was huge and sound tended to echo thru it. It was also poorly heated; not that it mattered at this point with so many people crammed into it. The building itself was actually a teaching facility and this was intended for performances and lectures. Only last week, there had been a production of old twentieth century plays.

It was also one of the largest single room still standing and so the only place that would begin to fit everyone. It was located in a small country in what had once been known as Switzerland before the great realignment of Europe in 2018. Apparently the idea was to try and make everyone feel like this was a neutral location and therefore safe; as if anyone really felt safe anymore these days.

This meeting had been thrown together in a matter of days; not so long ago such a thing would not have been possible; but the last few months had brought about so many changes and situations that no one had refused the idea of meeting and trying to figure out just what was going on. Suddenly all the petty issues and arguments of the past seemed pointless in the face of a larger issue. It wasn’t the thought of peace or world effort that brought these various leaders together but fear of the unknown and they were all sitting in one room waiting for that unknown to arrive for a visit.

The events leading up to this meeting had all taken place rather quickly. The first of these events started in the winter of 2021. The weather had been unusually warm that year; which had frightened people with the threat of global warning such a recently averted devastation. Everyone had feared a return of the catastrophes and illnesses they had only now started to recover from. This combined with the increasing number of violent crimes had put everyone on edge. The whole world seemed poised on the brink of disaster or even a return to the chaos of the past. Politicians had been frantic for answers or someone to blame; and then the sightings had started and everything changed.

At first people had thought the planet was being invaded by aliens. They had hid in fear from the strange new creatures that were beginning to appear all over the world. Military units all over had gone on high alert and parents had kept their children inside. Newspapers reported the strange creatures being seen all over the world. Some had been humanoid in appearance and some the stuff of dreams or nightmares. Attempts had been made to communicate with the creatures and a few of these meeting had been successful while others had ended tragically. The planet had held its breath waiting to see if an invasion was coming or if the world was ending.

That uneasy waiting had lasted until the Aura began to show up in people. At first the newspapers had called it mass hysteria and perhaps possession. No one knew why it had become known as Aura but that was the name that spread and stuck. Aura or Aurellia as a whole had brought with it a whole new set of worries. It had started with the children; and quickly spread to older people. Suddenly everyone was starting to be able to do things; strange things. Objects being moved through thin air or disappearing only to reappear miles away; and other stuff began to happen that had only been seen in books and movies. Things seen in dreams were traced in the air and came into being.

Suddenly; all the known laws of reality and even nature seemed changeable and almost everyone was finding out that they could do things that before had seemed fantastic or impossible. No one knew what to make of these new powers or how to control them. People tried to find ways of coping with these sudden changes and the appearance of all the strange new creatures; but things got even worse, very quickly. Finally some of the so called aliens had started to fight amongst themselves or with humans that seemed to only have the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; and everything started to fall apart.

Humans had always thought that we were the only so called intelligent species on the planet; and it turns out we had been wrong. We had suddenly found that we were only the gray fringe between a host of races that seemed to fall into light and dark categories. There were numerous other races living on the same planet and they were fighting a war. This war was being orchestrated by two powers called the Twin Goddesses.

Humans had always had a privileged position that kept them separate from the Others as the Gods and Goddesses had waited to see if the new and youngest race would fall in with the light or the dark but things had come to head in the war and they had found they could no longer let the newest race flounder on their own. Suddenly we had to choose sides on a battle we knew nothing about.

So one Goddess had opened the barrier and allowed the Haze or higher abilities to flow into the human realm and then opened the doors between. Turns out she wasn’t the first one to do this and the dark Goddess, her shadow twin, had already done the very same thing in smaller amounts. She had already called followers to her and whispered in their heads of power and violence. She had already started a poison shadow that had begun to spread all too quickly among mankind.

The beings sighted in the world were dubbed the Others and scientist began to try and categorize these beings. Meetings were held and overtures made in the hopes of dealing peacefully with these new races; though it was a shaky peace. Some of the Others had no interest in man and some saw man as food or worse. But there were those who stepped forward to teach and accept the overtures of peace. This uneasy peace and the growing battles may have continued on for who knows how long if a strange little man dressed in robes had not tried to take over the world.

It had seemed funny at first to see the short white haired man dressed in overly long blue robes and green boots yelling into microphones for world leaders to surrender to him. His hair had stood on ends and his eyes were wild. He had seemed a crazy harmless old nut at first and people had sat in front of TVs and laughed at the footage of him ranting and waving his fists.. The amusement had quickly turned to horror the first time he killed anyone. People had watched in terror as the TV showed this man throwing purple lightening from his wrinkled hands. Graham Parker had stood in front of millions of TV viewers and killed an entire news crew. He had leveled large military units in seconds, and destroyed buildings and for a few days it looked as he might actually succeed in taking over the world. No one seemed to be able to stop the small old man who continued to babble about his Dark mistress and her even darker plans. Graham Parker had been a botanist working for private companies but had stopped to begin a secret project several years ago. He had been a quiet harmless man, who liked to dress neatly in grey suits and bright ties. No one expected anything like this from him.

It had taken a small group of the strange new beings to take him down. They had fought a battle that dazzled the eyes. Throwing what looked like colored lightening at each other and doing other even more fantastic things as well. For almost nine days this continued before Parker had been subdued. There was a huge area of Europe that was still black and barren in the spot where the battle had gone on. One of the beings; a blue tinged creature with wings and an extra set of limbs had died in the battle. The Banelfa had been caught by a bolt of lightning intended for a group of men trying to take pictures. They had been more worried about camera angles then the danger they were in.

The Banelfa became the first published account of the Others giving their lives to protect us from powers we barely knew how to use or control. The incident had served to make everyone aware that we needed to quickly develop a plan for dealing with all the strange new things that were happening in our world. On that day the idea of haze lost some of its appeal and became a two edged sword that the humans of this world had no idea how to use.

This had been the beginning of violent battles all over the world as other people and beings also tried to take over groups and countries; occasionally even the world. Each time they had been stopped by the similar groups of Others. Finally a letter had been sent to a television station. The letter had been written on parchment by someone named Butha; who had promised to enlighten the frightened world on what was going on and what was expected of them.

By this time electronic equipment all over the world had began to go haywire. Communication was unreliable and people were in a panic over powers no one knew how to control. Thousands found themselves to be out of work as electricity became unreliable and all the various things it ran obsolete. Even cars were falling into disuse in some areas as everyone was afraid to go anywhere. This was why the leaders of most of the world’s countries were seated in a large overly crowded room waiting for a delegate from one of the Others to speak to them…

The meeting…

The hum in the room had reached a frenzied pitch when a harried looking aide hurried into the room and whispered to the chairman of the global meeting committee. The man had jumped to his feet and almost tripped as he headed toward the podium. A hush had descended the room as he reached the mike. He cleared his throat and straitened his limp tie. He swallowed several times before starting to speak and on the first try did not manage audible sound. The momentary panic in his eyes might have been funny at any other time; but now everyone simply sat with bated breath until he finally managed to find his voice.

It appears that the delegate has arrived and is ready to speak to us. I would like to ask everyone to turn off all electronic equipment you may have brought and to give him or her; our undivided attention. We are all aware of just how important this is. Thank you. He bowed awkwardly and went back to his seat were he gulped a glass of water as if dying of thirst.

A few people shook their head at the idea of this meeting being organized by someone so obviously ill-equipped. No one seemed to remember that the man in question had once been a speaker of some note. And no one would remember that after this meeting he would hang himself in his hotel room with the same limp tie he had been wearing that day. His note would speak of a dark voice that whispered to him in his sleep of evil things and his growing fear of what was to come.

The room had fallen silent and all eyes turned toward the main door to the meeting room. Men and women craned their necks like excited children trying to get a first glimpse of the delegate and all of them wondering what race had been chosen to speak with them. A murmur ran through the room as people began to whisper of the beings they had seen or met and everyone speculated on who or what this Butha was. It had been assumed that the sender of the note would be the one to speak with them.

A raspy throat clearing itself had startled them and all eyes swung in surprise to the podium at the front of the room. Where moments before an empty podium had stood; there was now an impossibly tall pale figure seated on a wooden stool. It was unclear if the being was male or female but the form was dressed in a dark suit with a red tie. The hair was long and black and fell past thin shoulders in a neat ponytail that ended half way down its back. The eyes and lips were also a deep black that seemed to absorb the light; and those close to the figure could see that the teeth in the black mouth were small and serrated looking though blindingly white. The figure sat there letting everyone stare for several minutes with a slight smile. Then with another small clearing of the throat that sounded like dry leaves blown across the ground; Butha began to speak.

I am sure that many of you have questions and I hope to be able to answer many of them but I would first like to ask your indulgence in allowing me to tell you a story... He; for it was clear that this was a male in spite of his raspy papery voice and long hair, broke off as a man in a priests garb stood and walked toward the platform he stood on. The man stopped at the foot of the stairs to the platform and looked up at the thin man in front of him.

What sort of demon are you? He asked with a firm voice, And why are we sent a demon from a pagan god? Why are we here listening to you when we should be praying?

The pale man laughed a sound like birds crying or nails on a chalkboard, I am not demon though I probably seem so to you. My people have served the Goddess for time untold. I am here because my Goddess bade me come. You are here because your God is busy and does not concern himself with most earthly problems as is the case with many of the Gods you humans call out to. Yes, they are all real and all rather busy with other things; it is only the Weeping one and her twin who still dally very closely with so called earthly matters; the Weeping Goddess and her shadow twin the Dark Goddess. You are here because at this moment my so called pagan Goddess is all you have; do you really want to turn your back now?

The priest had grabbed his rosary and stood straighter, "Why should