“I did.” The ghost of a smile haunted the woman’s cheeks.

 “No, yes, no!” Vhalla shook her head in frustration.

 “Not in so many words,” Vi relented. “But the language of the Gods is hard to translate into mortal tongue. I did my best for you.”

 “If I had known—”

 “You wouldn’t have done anything differently.” Now there was a heavy sorrow in the woman’s voice. “I know that now. I have seen the vortex of fate clearly.”

 “That’s not true,” Vhalla insisted.

 The woman paused and passed judgment on Vhalla for a handful of minutes. “You were drawn by a man who ran the Black Tower, just as Aldrik was. You were taken to the caverns, just as he was. You were used to open a gate, just as he was. You were raised without a mother, just as he was. Pushed to battle, just as he was.

 “In many ways, just as his father was before him.”

 “You lie.”

 “Your mother was forced to watch her mother live in hiding, be persecuted and face the threat of judgment, or worse.” Vhalla’s fairly recent discoveries about her childhood added extra gravity to the woman’s words. “Your mother saw the same future in you.”

 “You don’t know any of this,” Vhalla said stiffly.

 “Just as I did not know the first words he ever spoke to you?” The woman arched a dark eyebrow.

 “Who are you?” Vhalla’s voice was beginning to rise.

 “I am the one who is about to offer you a choice. A choice that will change everything and set into motion that which can break the vortex.” Vi had finally reached her point. “Tell me, Vhalla, with what you can see in your limited view, how will a child of the Emperor grow?”

 “What?” She didn’t even realize the palm that had instinctually covered her lower abdomen.

 “Think.”

 Vhalla’s eyes widened as the woman’s words finally hit home. She had lived without her mother. Aldrik had lived without his. If the woman’s implications were to be believed, then his father had lived without at least one of his parents. In light of recent information, Vhalla was forced to wonder about the exact details of why her mother had lived without her grandmother.

 “No.” Vhalla had seen the briefest glimpse of the vortex the woman spoke of. The spinning fate that had trapped her and everyone she loved within it. She stumbled over to Vi, grabbing the woman’s warm hand. “Tell me this is not the truth you see in the flames!” Vhalla didn’t plead for her own mortality, but at the thought of leaving Aldrik and a child she had never met.

 “Do you want me to lie?” the woman’s voice was a cool contrast to her skin. “I will not lie to you, but I will offer you a choice.”

 “A choice?” she repeated numbly, a strange tingling surrounding Vhalla’s body, starting from the woman’s fingertips.

 “If you leave now, you will remain trapped. You and all you know and love will continue onward, time and time again, forever. Fate has grown too hungry, and it will never have its fill.”

 “Or . . .?” Vhalla braced herself.

 “Or you build a new fate.” The woman reached into the wide sash wrapped around her waist. She pulled on a silver chain, producing a familiar plain pocket watch. “Regain your powers as a Windwalker and be the crux by which balance can be restored to this world.”

 “Is that . . .” Had she made an unintentional vessel all those months ago? “Of cour—” Vhalla stopped herself, changing her words. “Yes, I want to build a new fate.”

 The woman pulled the watch away, snapping it into her palm when Vhalla reached for it. “I told you, fate is hungry, and it must have its due. You cannot gain a future without sacrificing the one that lies before you.”

 “What must I do?”

 “You choose if you will be the Empress this world needs. If you will sacrifice your future upon the altar of fate, before the eyes of Gods and men. If you will become an Empress that can save this world. If you will enter into a pact with me to ensure that the vortex is finally quieted.” Vi watched Vhalla’s reaction carefully with her glittering, dangerous eyes. “Buy time, with time.”

 A hand clasped around Aldrik’s watch, knowing instantly what the woman wanted.

 “Do you think if you give it to regain your magic, he will vanish from your side?” She gave a thin smile.

 “Will he?” Vhalla pressured.

 “No more insights; I cannot afford it. You have your choices: leave as you are and be trapped in the vortex that threatens to consume this world. Or give that which is most precious to you, the future you carry, for something far greater than you or I.”

 Vhalla’s whole body trembled. She wanted to leave. Every inch of her screamed for her to run back to the bed she should have never left. She wanted to pretend she had never heard Vi’s words. Vhalla urged her mind to pretend that the woman was no more than a hoax.

 But her heart knew. Even if her mind could not comprehend everything that was happening, Vhalla knew somewhere deep within her soul that what Vi said was true. She ached at the sight of the watch, at the thought of her magic once more.

 “Let me come back,” Vhalla attempted. She wanted Aldrik; she wanted to at least discuss it all with him.

 “No. The next time you come you will not find me. There is only one more time I can come to you.”

 “So I’ll make my decision the next time we meet.” It was foolish, but Vhalla would be the hopeful fool.

 “Choose now. It must be your choice alone.”

 Vhalla couldn’t handle the woman’s eyes as her hands began to move. She couldn’t bear a witness on what she was about to do. Vhalla’s fingers closed around the clasp of the watch that she had hardly removed since Aldrik had promised his future with it.

 “Tell me one thing.” Vhalla paused, just shy of handing over Aldrik’s token. Vhalla remembered the princess’s words, that it was a vessel holding his magic. “This will not be used to hurt Aldrik, will it?”

 “I did not use this to hurt you.” Vi twisted her hand and dangled the watch with two fingers. “I could have sold this at a great price to the man who sits on the Southern throne.”

 Vhalla looked down at the watch Aldrik had given her, unable to argue. Its once polished surface was scratched and beginning to tarnish from never-ending wear, but she loved it more now than the first day he had given it to her. Aldrik had said he had made the watch at the Crossroads. There was a dark poetry to losing it here as well.

 With a trembling hand, Vhalla held out her most precious possession.

 Just like that, it was gone. Vhalla looked on as the Firebearer curled her fingers around Aldrik’s gift. The thing he had put so much love into was gone. She had given it up.

 Vhalla looked at the blank watch in her hand. It was a clean slate, perfect and unblemished. She had traded Aldrik’s gift for power. Was she any better than Victor?

 The flame extinguished, and Vhalla’s head snapped back up, startled. The darkness pressed upon her, pushing at her chest.