**Fate Answers

[Sileauniamh]

She listened with a somewhat bemused expression to the prayers and cries of her faithful and the desperately hopeful alike. While she paid much more attention to the former, the latter often gave her hours of amusement. While her halflings gave her the most joy, serving her with a devotion not often found in the other races, she was not terribly particular in her
favored. Once, because he so amused her, she'd favored a crazed elven bladesinger to distinction, and for quite some time he'd been at turns perhaps the most fortunate of men, and the most unfortunate, depending of course on the situation. The desert nomads were perhaps the most noble of her creatures, giving credit to her hand in almost every aspect of their lives. Yet, she had not always been such as she was now. Her world had been once without
a goddess of Fate, having lost a fair number of gods in a terrible war that had threatened to sunder the very world. Yet she had prevailed to the delight of some and the curses of others. She had even managed to expand her touch to other worlds and other places, with a fortune that perhaps only Fate could find. Once she had been but an elfess, and many touches of her former self she retained despite her divinity. When she traveled the mortal
lands she still appeared as but an elfess with a bright riot of silky red curls that seemed to have a life and will of their own, framing an almost dollish face with bright violet eyes that sparkled with mischief and laughter. Her tiny figure was often adorned in soft silken dresses of deepest purple, an elven sashling of similar hue wrapped about her diminutive waist providing many pouches for the spell components she no longer needed. Cleo, her
familiar, was still ever at her side, a sleek and deadly lioness in her own right, now even more deadly for having remained a creature of the divinity her mistress had become. Still, she was well suited for what she had become, having been as ever changing in life as Fate could always be. Still even the most inept of her following was wise enough to be wary of calling upon her name in simple passing, for Fate had a far reaching hand and one never
knew when she just might be listening. So it was with some surprise that she heard her name so casually mentioned.

"I'd kick Fate in the ass if I had the opportunity to do so."

There was a ripple as those who attended her paused in their doings, breath held, not certain as to how this might play out. Her brow rose in some surprise and for a moment nothing happened. Then, she laughed. It was a sound like tinkling bells, light and clear, yet those who served her did not yet release that breath, the silence, but for her laughter, was thick enough to slice. Her gaze found that of her familiar, and her voice was richly
amused as she said.

"Cleo, my pet. Shall we go then and give him this opportunity he so desires? Yes, I think we shall"

**********************

In Rosehaven it was a perfectly normal early spring day, the sun was shining, the birds busily flitting about, the sun warming, the market busy. That is until the sudden appearance in the middle of the street of a diminutive elfess with bright red curls and a lioness at her side. Amazingly none remarked on the strangeness of the appearance, for indeed the common consensus had it occurred to anyone to ask was that she'd been there all
along, or perhaps she'd just arrived by normal means from some place else. Her actually passing down the street was more remarkable, but not for herself but for the strange occurrences that seemed to follow her, though none thought for an instant that any of these had to do with the small girl with the sparkling eyes and the sunny smile. Yet as she strolled in turns the folk of Rosehaven found that their luck was suddenly changed, some for the
better, some for the worse, all in varying degrees. The poor farmer come to town to sell his few goods at market came away that afternoon far richer than he'd expected, while but a few stalls down the apple vender cried in despair as his wares turned out to be worm ridden and near worthless. A small child fell and scraped his knee only to discover but inches from his wounded appendage a small silver coin in the dust. And miles away, for this was
largely elven and human lands, halflings began to stir with the sudden desire to travel this direction. She looked about her surroundings with a smile, her hand fondly stroking the smooth head of her companion.

"What a lovely day for traveling, Cleo."



Originally posted:Date:04 Apr 2002 01:33:38 EST- Lady Triel