Suddenly everything around me is a soft glowing green. Not the eerie, stuffy green of the Fateworld but rather a natural soft green, tinted gray and soft yellow, that reminds me of the trees at the edge of the river by the sugar fields where my mother was.

The girl gasps softly, and then lowers herself down to the ground. "So soft," she whispers, lying down against the plants, on a spot of mostly tiny shoots. She closes her eyes and smiles for a moment.

"Anderei, come see this!" I exclaim softly. In a few moments the man arrives. He also gasps. Astounded. Delighted. I've only heard him sound like this a few other times, all of them involving our children. I'll leave him here. He needs... whatever this is ... just as much as she does.

"I'll finish with the mining," I tell him, and head towards the far end of the tunnel.

I pick up the hammer and the pick and start working away at it. In a matter of moments I am exhausted. In my bones, in my muscles, in my chest and my head and my soul. I push myself through it though, mentally screaming. I have to keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. And no matter how much it strains me I have to keep going. Keep focused. Feed the beast of work with my own blood. This is a pattern I am familiar with. A pattern my life is forcibly built around. A pattern I only now have hope of escaping. Not escaping myself, mind you. But escaping all the same.

The thought of escape soothes me, just a little bit. What else soothes me is the thought that the child is getting the help she needs.

The stone under me is hard and cold and my arms burn and ache and strain. Everything is a mess of pain, physical, mental and emotional. It is repetitive work and that is the worst type. Rock and rock and rock. I'm only getting a moment of what the child must go through for hours on end each day though. Her whole world is crushed under rock.

I wonder if Mafalia or Pavlin or Andronicha or Levi are in a place like this. If they are, they'll at least have some kind adults to take care of them. It would be hell. But it would be better than being placed inside a house. I doubt they're getting that luxury though. House slaves already trained in silence and submissiveness sell for more.

Fuck.

Keep working.

A while passes before Anderei's voice cuts in.

"Hey, Nancee! I don't know what happened but the masters are all asleep! Irisitti, the young girl, she is too. She feels quite a bit better, the herbs we prepared really helped soothe whatever was ailing her. We found a little spring in the ground that we used to wash the ingredients and we mixed them in a food bowl. And we even found some roots and berries for her to eat. Hopefully she'll be better soon. I had hoped we could say goodbye but I think it's best not to wake her up. Wanna leave?" Hope, excitement, amazement, and joy is threaded through Anderei's voice. He's talking more than he ever normally does.

I smile at him. Surer than I ever normally am. We join hands and walk towards the green. There we see Irisitti, sleeping calmly on her side on the blanket of green, leaves overtop of her like a blanket, face soft and content. It's so beautiful I almost cry. We bend down to kneel by her side. I pray, but I have no idea who I pray to.

/Please please bless this girl/ I speak softly, head bent in reverence, /please bless this human child. May she know rest. May she know freedom. May she know respect. May she know love. May she know power. May she know safety. May she know comfort. May she know kindness. May she know health. May she know friendship. May she know laughter. May she know guidance. May she know understanding. May she know happiness. Please./ I pause.

/All hail./ Anderei states solemnly, sincerely. Almost as if we're in church. But unlike church, his words are full of healing and not devastation. I bend down to kiss her temple. Anderei does the same. We whisper goodbye to her. And we walk back into the dreariness of the Fateworld.

We talk softly under the strangely electric, overcast sky. He can't believe what just happened. I cannot either. It was a miracle. It was beyond a miracle. Anderei talks of how for the first time in his life he has hope. So do I. We've both spent our lives believing our people were powerless. But here we are. We outsmarted a Fate. We defeated a freaking god. We openly cursed out our master. The golden child who grew up with everything that we were denied. I tell him about the family whose baby they were able to heal. I tell him about the magical medicinal herbs that manifested themselves in front of the door, that knocked a fucking towerperson out on our behalf. He smiles brightly at this. We both smile.

But we also cry. We cry to each other. Loss still haunts us. Too much was still taken from us. We wonder to each other where our kids are. He hopes they're somewhere where they can see the sunlight from time to time. I hope they're not alone, wherever they are, not like I was during those first hellish years.

We cry for a long time that seems to stretch out uncountable and it feels so incredibly good and so incredibly healing to get the tears out. We cry for the first time in a long time. It helps. But it doesn't change the fact that we're grieving.

How are we able to cry now, after years of gulping down our grief and tears, of choking on them? Maybe because we finally feel safe enough to. We're winning, somehow. The universe is on our side. Somehow.

That doesn't mean that there aren't twisted forces at work though. That doesn't mean that the corrupt forces aren't still at work, aren't still winning.

"The howling Fate," Anderei starts, "the Fate who was there when we first saw Aslesha's baby getting taken away, he was with Irissitti too. A mine overseer was yelling at her for not working fast enough, when I first saw her. She looked like she wanted to cry but of course she didn't. She was begging him to let her rest, that she was hurting so much and she needed to rest and she just couldn't go on. He didn't care. The Fate was standing behind him, though Irisitti couldn't see. It was sending these streaks of smoke, like, poison smoke into him. Almost puppeting him."

"Do you think the Fate was fuelling his rage? His cruelty?"

"Yeah I think so. Or causing it or maybe feeding off of it or maybe all these things."

"How are we going to defeat this Howling Fate?"

"We'll find a way. We will."

Suddenly we see flickering. Fire lit stone walls flicker in and out of the overcast background.

"Should we go to check?" Anderei asks.

"Yeah."

We come upon a small room, clearly a forge. There are four people inside. Two women, a man, and a small child. The child is a child like Pavlin (judging by their medium-length hair) who has very dark, almost night-black skin and eyes full of sadness. They sit on the stone floor, their palms open on their lap. Dear Universe, they are badly burned. This is not okay.

I rushed in, knowing the drill by now, and kneel beside the surprised-looking kid.

"Hi. Don't worry please. I'm like you I've been stolen by the towerpeople. My name is Nancee. I can help you."

"Nancee?!" Katapata's voice cuts in, its quietness not hiding its surprise at all.

"Kata!?" I look up, and she's there standing by the forge, along with a curious-eyed, dark-skinned woman and a man with skin the colour of cinnamon and raven black hair.

"Hi." I'm as awestruck by all of them as they are by me. It's really awkward, but all six of us end up sitting on the floor together. We exhange names and greetings as quickly as we can. The child is named Neyadim, their mother is named Alurissa, and the man, a soul-brother, is named Azer. Anderei and I tell them that we've seen miracles, been part of miracles, and that we were sure somewhere just around the corner there are healing plants.

"I know how to prepare anything. My mother taught me. Back when I still was with her." Katapa's voice goes from cautiously spring-filled to loss-filled within a single sentence. We all miss the adults that loved us. A now our own children would too. I feel anger within me that is hotter than the forge that rages around us.

"These burns are pretty bad," my wife continues, ducking her head to be eye-level with the little child, "but I know what we need to heal them. Can you come with us?" There's kindness in her bone-weary voice.

"Sure." Their voice sounds so small but also sure. I can tell that they trust us. We get up and walk out of the door, whispering words of encouragement to little Neyadim.

Everyone except Anderei and I gasp when we come upon the field of plants of all types that rolls across the alley, which had not been there at all previously. Anderei smiles in a way that is triumphant, a bit mischievous, a bit broken despite it all, and a bit calm. I soak in how much we're all revelling. Katapa, Universe bless her, wastes no time in foraging around, picking leaves and bark and root off of plants she hasn't seen alive in over a decade. The rest of us sit down. Anderei and Azer are helping Katapa gather the necessary plants, while Alurissa and I focus on keeping Neyadim as happy as possible.

"I'm very happy to meet you. It's so sad that you're hurting. You deserve to not be."

"Thanks." They smile. And though the corners of their eyes are marked by pain, it's genuine. I know what fake smiling looks like.

"I really hope you get better soon." I offer them a sad smile.

"Me too baby," Alurissa adds.

"Do you want me to stay here or get some herbs?" My voice is sweet, kind to the little one.

"Stay. I want to know where you came from."

"Okay sweetie. Can your mom get the herbs?"

"Sure."

"That sounds like a good idea baby." Alurissa smiles sadly at her child. "I'll be a few steps away if you need me."

"Katapa already told me you guys are on a mission to defeat the Fates." The young one smiles. There's a sparkle in their eyes. Awe and empowerment and mischief all rolled into one, with sprinkles of who knows what added in as well. "She said you took down the Fate of Pride with love and self confidence." They look down to their own self and smile. I hope they learned from these events that their confidence in themself and their people, and their peoples' confidence in them and each other, is more powerful than how much the towerpeople look down on them.

"I'm glad you know. Wish us luck."

"I will. I know that you're doing this for your children, and all the other children too. When the Fates are destroyed, I'm sure you'll be reunited with them."

I start crying.

"I love you. I hope you never are seperated from your family." That's all I can say. We cry together.

"What happened next?" They eventually ask me.

"We made it to this place with jagged rocks..."

After I tell them the rest of the events, they smile.

"I suppose it's magic. But healing is always magic. So it's not too different." Their voice holds more wisdom than their small body suggests they can hold. Yet it's all there.

"Oh?"

[scene continued in next part]