Jack stood at the edge of a room in his personal Mirror Space. Inside, Reina was a picture of focused intensity. Her long black hair fanned around her as she hunched over a thick, leather-bound grimoire.
Her slender fingers traced arcane symbols. Her brow furrowed in concentration. She was deep in the middle of inscribing a new, complex magic spell. Utterly engrossed in her actions.
Jack wrote a short note and left it on the shelf. He had decided it was the ti for him to go to the center of the Tideless Island.
He needed answers. Specifically, he needed to understand the concept of 'Fateless'. The word uttered by the narrator voice during the Trial of Fate. The voice had given him a clue. That the answer could be found in this island's hidden heart.
He wouldn't go there in his human form though. Jack Night was quite powerful. But this journey felt different. He couldn't afford to be limited by flesh and blood.
With a thought, [Incarnation Shift] was activated. His form slowly dissolved. Flesh and bone rippling into translucent mist. His outfit lted into mist. Replaced by an ethereal cloak and a featureless mask.
Within just a minute, Jack Night was gone. Replaced by Jack Mystery. The mysterious specter. The advanced ghost in the ethereal form of a stage magician.
Jack imdiately entered his stealth mode. In an instant, he turned invisible. A re nothing in the air. Undetectable to any type of mortal senses.
He drifted out of the Mirror Space. The familiar windless, humid air of Tideless Island greeted him.
Jack floated to the center of the island. A silent phantom. A non-existent entity. Cutting through the dense jungle undergrowth and ancient, gnarled trees. The suffocating pressure intensified the closer he was.
It wasn't oppressive in a physical sense. It was more like a crushing weight on the soul. A profound sense of ancient power that dwarfed anything just by existing.
Eventually, he reached his destination. The jungle seed to ld with an ancient structure. One that was barely recognizable as a temple.
Twisted roots embraced crumbling stone. And vines choked what might once have been grand archways. The air around it shimred faintly. A testant to the concentrated pressure within.
Jack didn't bother with entrances. He simply phased through the nearest wall. His incorporeal form passing through solid stone. As if it were re mist.
However, the mont he was fully inside, sothing shifted. The silver coin, the one he'd gained from the Trial of Fate and carried since, began to glow.
It was not just a faint shimr. But an intense, blinding luminescence that enveloped him. The suffocating pressure vanished. Replaced by an odd, weightless sensation. The dark, crumbling interior of the temple dissolved around him.
Then, he was sowhere else entirely.
The blinding light faded. Leaving him blinking. Or rather, the spectral equivalent of blinking.
He found himself in a peculiar, impossibly comfortable living room. A warm fireplace crackled gently in one corner. Casting flickering amber light across the space. The air slled faintly of old paper and sothing sweet, like honey or chamomile.
There were soft, inviting sofas. Upholstered in deep velvet. Arranged around a low table laden with what looked like herbal tea.
The entire room was bathed in a pleasant, diffused glow. As if sunlight filtered through stained glass. Though there were no windows. Several tall bookshelves lined the walls. Cramd with thick, ancient-looking tos.
Jack was no longer invisible. His spectral form, the masked stage magician, stood starkly visible in the center of the room. He was still incorporeal. But he felt oddly solid. As if his insubstantial nature had been temporarily anchored.
A figure moved on one of the sofas. A beautiful, mature lady. Radiating an elegant older sister vibe. She was sitting upright. A thick book resting open in one hand. While the other cradled a warm, steaming cup.
Her long, dark hair cascaded over her shoulders. And her eyes, calm and knowing, t his with tranquil gaze. She didn't show a flicker of surprise at the sudden appearance of a ghostly figure in her private sanctuary.
"Greetings, Spirit of Conviction!" She said. Her voice was a lodious calm that seed to smooth away all prior stress. She took a slow sip of her drink. And then set the cup down. "Have a seat, please..."
Jack was taken aback by being addressed so directly. And by the peculiar title. He simply stared for a mont. He hadn't expected to be visible. He hadn't expected to be greeted.
"Er... greeting to you too I guess. I'm… Jack Mystery. Pleased to see you." He finally managed. Making a showy greeting by taking off his top hat and bowing.
She offered a gentle smile. "Well... You can call Rainsister."
Jack had already guessed it. But it still shocked him. Rainsister. The Goddess of Knowledge. Empress of Rain. Queen of Exchange. Sister of Serenity. Witness of Compassion. A... deity.
He found it hard to believe. He had stumbled into the presence of a true deity. This didn't seem like a trial. Not in the way Webmother's and Cloudfather's had been.
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"Is this… is this another Trial of Inheritance?" He asked. A pragmatic question to clarify his assumption.
Rainsister's smile widened slightly. "Not exactly, Mr. Jack Mystery. Unlike so of my departed brethren, I do not precisely need to 'leave the realm' in the customary fashion. So, no, I won't be leaving any inheritance trials any ti yet."
"The Cloudfather..." Jack began. Getting straight to the point. "Well... during his Trial of Fate, the voice there called 'Fateless'. It implied that I should seek you out for more information."
He watched her. Expecting surprise, perhaps even confusion. He received none.
Rainsister nodded slowly. Taking another sip from her cup before placing it carefully on the table. "Ah, yes. Cloudfather always had a rather blunt way of conveying complex truths. Fateless. Yes, that is an apt way to describe what you are. And what I am, too."
She leaned back in the plush sofa. Her posture was relaxed. Unfazed by the revelation.
"We, Mr. Jack Mystery, are outsiders." She said. "Creatures who exist beyond the weaving of this world's fate. We are not caught in its threads. Prophecies, visions of the future – they hold no sway over us. Fortune telling, in its conventional sense, simply doesn't work. We are, to put it simply, unseen by fate itself."
Jack absorbed this. "So… we can't be influenced by fate?"
"Precisely." Rainsister confird. "But, while we cannot be affected by the world's fate, we can, however, profoundly affect the fate of others. Our actions, our very presence, can be a disruptive force in the grand tapestry of fate. Think of us as rogue threads, able to re-stitch patterns as we see fit."
"Is there a drawback?" Jack pressed. He knew power always ca with a price.
Rainsister's expression remained serene. "Perhaps a drawback, perhaps a benefit, depending on your mindset."
She paused for a mont before continuing. "The primary consequence of being Fateless is this... We cannot utilize the Power of Faith. At all. Worshipping a deity, even with the most fervent devotion, will not grant us any power from them. And conversely, were we to be worshipped as deities, no amount of faith from our followers would empower us."
Jack's spectral form seed to tilt. A silent, yet big question appeared in his mind. This went against everything he understood about deities in this world.
As if anticipating his question, Rainsister continued. "You might wonder, then, how I ca to be known as a deity. Well, I do have a power similar to a deity. I do have what seems to be an infinite lifespans. But I'm not a deity in conventional manner."
She smiled. "I didn't get my power through the faith of my worshippers. The Nagaean people, my original followers, are long gone. Their extinction, unlike the fading of other deities who relied on their devotees' belief, did not diminish my power in the slightest."
Another short pause. "That, in essence, is why..." She continued. "... why I can still remain in this realm. While so many others have faded into cosmic dust or were forced to leave the realm."
"The Nagaean extinction?" Jack asked. Sensing a massive, tragic piece of history.
Rainsister's calm deanor wavered. Ever so slightly. A flicker of sothing akin to weariness or sorrow passed through her eyes. Then it was gone.
"That, Mr. Jack Mystery, is a mory I prefer not to revisit. Not now, perhaps not ever." Her tone was firm, yet gentle. A clear boundary had been drawn.
Jack, ever pragmatic, didn't push. He shifted his focus. "So, as a Fateless… what am I supposed to do?"
Rainsister smiled again. A soft, encouraging gesture. "Whatever you wish. Whatever your heart, or perhaps your conviction, dictates. The true freedom of being Fateless is paramount. You are not bound by destiny."
"However..." She added. Her voice was dropping slightly. "Even we are not entirely beyond cosmic law. While we are unaffected by this world's fate, we are very much subject to universal karma."
She looked at Jack pointedly. "Accumulating too much bad karma will inevitably harm oneself. Perhaps subtly, perhaps dramatically. Likewise, accumulating a large amount of good karma will inevitably benefit oneself, in ways both seen and unseen."
Jack considered this. Karma. A simple, brutal cosmic balance. It sohow made sense for him. "Can I visit this place again? If I have more questions?"
Rainsister's eyes sparkled with a hint of genuine pleasure. "It would be quite agreeable, Jack Mystery, if Fateless Ones like us could et and converse regularly. It has been an unconscionably long ti since I last interacted with sentient beings who share this unique burden and blessing."
She raised her hand. The silver coin that had brought Jack here, still floating near his spectral chest, transford. It turned translucent, becoming a crystal coin.
On one side of the crystal coin, the symbol of swirling water droplets appeared. Ethereal and intricate. On the other, there was a series of bold, flowing numbers: '720'.
Rainsister snapped her fingers. The single crystal coin shimred. Then duplicated. One beca two, then four, then eight. Eight identical crystal coins now hovered in the air before Jack.
"My intuition sensed that other than us, there are seven other Fateless Ones currently in this world." Rainsister explained. "These coins will serve as beacons. Should you encounter any of them, one of these coins will glow brightly in their presence."
She tapped the table with her fingers. "If you deem them worthy, if you feel they are decent enough to share this secret, you may give it to them. It will link them to this place, to ."
She gestured to the coins. "The number on each coin will decrease by one point every hour. When it reaches zero, the coin can be used to enter this sanctuary. However, it will only remain usable for precisely one hour before the counter resets to 720."
"You might notice..." Rainsister said with a smile. "I'm a lazy hobody. I'm not that social kind of a person. This would only allow the Fateless Ones to gather here an hour for every month."
Jack looked at the eight coins. He noticed sothing imdiately. Out of the eight, two of the crystal coins possessed a notably lighter, almost translucent hue. Similar to the one designated for him.
The other five were much darker, opaque. Save for the glowing numbers and symbols.
"These two lighter ones." Jack pointed out. His spectral finger hovering near them. "They're different."
"Indeed." Rainsister confird. Imdiately, a knowing smile was on her lips. "You have already encountered two other Fateless Ones. Rather remarkable. Given how few of us there truly are."
She raised her hand again. And the air shimred. Two vivid, three-dinsional images coalesced before them. Floating illusions.
The first was a beautiful young woman. Her face reflecting a deep, almost lancholic kindness.
"Ah, the Mist of Compassion." Rainsister announced. Her voice was soft.
Jack rembered her instantly. Amaranth White. The young herbalist in Asquall Village. The one accused to be a witch during the Church Inquisition fiasco.
Jack had also been with her and Chloe Chase during in the Webmother's Trial. She gained Mist Inheritance while he gained Mystery Inheritance.
The images shifted. Now, the figures of two children, a boy and a girl, stood side-by-side. They looked identical, save for the gender. Twins, with sharp, intelligent eyes.
"And, the Twins of Vigilance." Rainsister noted.
Jack recognized them too. The strange twins... Adam and Alice Lingreen of Highcliff Town. He had encountered them just a few days before the monstrous clash between the Church's angel and the Purity Goddess's incarnation. A battle that had torn the town apart.
They had been surprisingly observant and vigilant. Leaving the town with their family before the catastrophe happened.
They were the other 'Fateless' ones. He was not alone in this strange, fate-defying existence.
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