All paths were leading towards death.
Zuen was staring at the Fate in their hands, helpless. Ishtar had done good work. Every single person that Zuen’s human would encounter over the next week was a potential cause of death. Every decision Zuen could possibly lay out for the human to choose was the wrong one.
Bombings. Train accidents. Drunk drivers. A rabid dog, escaped from a veterinarian’s office. A meth addict with a knife. How were they supposed to find a way around this? Zuen’s human was doomed to die. A wave of hopelessness rushed through Zuen, as they traced the paths laid out before them. Every likely progression of events had been manipulated by Ishtar, and Zuen had to admit that it was indeed impressive. Ishtar was probably working with some other Beings to make it this perfect.
There was a tug on the fabric of space and time, and Fate splintered.
Zuen blinked and disbelief took hold of them, followed by a sliver of hope.
Half the paths that had been leading the human towards death had suddenly ceased existing, and new ones had appeared in their place. New ones that did not lead to the human’s demise. His Free Will had purged a lot of Ishtar’s influence. Finally, Zuen began to understand why humans like this were such a danger for Beings and the Universe: They did not follow any of the likely progressions. As a result, they could not be controlled.
“I should not be looking for the most likely paths of Fate”, Zuen realized. “I need to look for the unlikely ones. The ones you are willing to choose with your Free Will. You don’t like going down the path of least resistance, Caleb.”
Caleb.
Using the human’s name was something Zuen usually avoided. It created a connection that was too intimate, too inappropriate. Beings were not supposed to care about humans, they needed to be detached to make the right decisions about their human’s Fates. But Zuen had already violated that, hadn’t they? They had refused to cause Caleb’s death.
“What is it that you want, Caleb?” Zuen asked, watching as their human decided to walk home 10 kilometres in the middle of the night instead of taking a taxi. The taxi driver would have been drunk, causing an accident in which Caleb would have died. But the human had decided to get some fresh air and exercise – at 4 in the morning. Ishtar had not expected that.
Zuen inspected Caleb’s Fate, and the Fates of other humans crossing into it. He would be safe until the morning at least, but a student from his school was about to have a mental breakdown and steal his parent’s gun, going on a rampage. There was no was for Zuen to affect that student’s Fate, but …
A careful touch, and the temperature around Caleb started dropping. He started shivering and a path of Fate formed. The most likely next step for the human would be to call a taxi after all to avoid having to walk through the cold.
“Come on”, Zuen whispered. “You are too stubborn for that. You already decided to walk, why would you call a taxi now? It would be the path of least resistance; it would be easy. But you don’t do easy. You know you can make it home on your own. You don’t need to waste money on a taxi.”
There was a tug on the fabric on space and time, proving Zuen right.
Caleb had thought about calling a taxi but decided against it. Why waste the money? It was such an unlikely, such a stubborn move. Caleb was not dressed for the cold, the walk was long, and it was late. Everything had been pointing towards him following Fate.
And yet, Free Will prevailed.
“You stubborn, stubborn human. We may actually be able to give you a happy life.”
Of course, the human could not live forever.
Although.
Why not?
A weird feeling took hold of Zuen. It felt … rebellious. It felt freeing. It was a rush of excitement that they had never felt before. Why couldn’t Caleb live forever? The human was smart and had enough ambition for greatness.
And on top of that, it would be immensely satisfying to defy Ishtar for eternity.
Zuen watched Caleb walk through the cold night, pushing on even as he got more and more tired. But the human did not give up, did not question his decision. In many ways, that was admirable. As reward for his stubbornness, he would wake up with a bad cold in the morning, which would lead to him staying at home and avoiding being shot at school.
There would be many negative implications for many other humans, Zuen knew that. But Caleb would be safe, Caleb would carry on and thrive, not knowing he had been Fated to die that day.
And as long as Zuen would find ways to manipulate Fate in unlikely ways, the human would stay alive.
The cold kept piercing through Caleb’s bones, but it was only 6 more kilometres till he’d be home. About an hour to walk at his current speed. Not worth the hassle of calling a taxi, really. On top of that, the walk seemed to help alleviate the weird feeling of wrongness he had been carrying with him for the past few days. It seemed to fade away with every step he took until things started to feel normal again. Maybe he had just needed some exercise!
Things seemed to be falling into place, even though Caleb wasn’t quite sure what those things were. But did it matter?
Signature by @atopy
I've just decided to catch up on some reading today. I have some anxiety that keeps me away from this place most of the time but I'd really like to start getting over it, as there is an engagement problem and a readership problem on the platform and as a mostly inactive user I am part of that problem. Plus, I miss the place.
I read this and the first part just now. I notice you've not received any human comments for either part and that it's been four months since it was written. I imagine that must have been discouraging and it must feel like it fell upon deaf ears (blind eyes?).
Well anyway, for what it is worth, four months later, I've read it, and enjoyed it. It's interesting that each person has their own assigned fate-being in this universe; I don't think I've seen that before... the closest thing is the "guardian angel" concept but this is different.
There's some good dissonance here; we feel an impulse to root for Zuen since we, as humans who value our free will (or whatever illusion of it we have), identify with Caleb and the idea of being sacrificed because we think too independently doesn't really vibe with us. Besides, it's always a good time to root for the rebels. At the same time, though, how many other humans are going to die as Ishtar and the other fate-beings relentlessly pursue Caleb's death? I certainly would not want to be Zuen in this situation, feeling that guilt. But then again, why should they feel guilty? They're not the one doing the killing, after all... though it is unavoidable that if they just allowed Caleb to die, fewer lives would be lost in the whole mess.
Good story; would like to see what happens next.
Thanks for the feedback!
You're right, it's hard to write when it feels like nobody cares, so I've kinda dropped this story. Doesn't help that creativity is difficult on a covid brain, and short stories are a lot easier than longer series.
I'll see if I continue at some point, I do already know the ending...
I understand the feeling. I think a majority of content creators on this platform do, to an extent. There's just not the audience there used to be and it's depressing. But it's also self-fulfilling, because here, our content creators are largely each others' audiences. So as time goes on and people disappear, it gets worse... and worse...
I hope to somehow help to change this, but I can't do that if I've disappeared the same as everyone else. Hypocrisy drive, engage... So, hopefully I will be paying a bit more attention from now on. We'll see what happens...
At any rate, I'm always happy to read something you've written, short or not. So if you find short stories a more suitable medium to work in, I'll be glad to read them... hopefully more promptly henceforth...
Thanks for the reply!
Poor Caleb. Or Zuen. Or Ishtar. Or all of humanity. Or whichever combination of them you've seen fit to kill painfully, because I know it's someone...
Why do you think anyone has to die? They could all live happily ever after, for eternity...
On and on and on and on...
The only way you'll allow that is if they're in a state of constant anguish, begging pathetically, fruitlessly, for the eternally unachievable release of death. That's even worse.
(well, for them; it's actually better for me)
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