Chapter 44: The Evernight Goddess
In the silent expanse of the divine domain, where starlight and shadow intertwined seamlessly, the Evernight Goddess opened her eyes.
A ripple of awareness passed through her—Klein Moretti. The mortal's existence was small in the vast sea of time, yet there was something… disruptive about him.
Her gaze lingered not on the present, but on a dream she had received.
It had not been an ordinary dream. No, it was a memory draped in symbols—shards of an ancient time, when The Fool stood on the stage of fate and the Antigonus family danced with madness. In the dream, the Fool's silhouette blurred with shadow and mystery, and behind him loomed an endless throne of symbols she could not wholly comprehend.
It was a puzzle. A puzzle wrapped in danger.
The danger was not the type that could crush her instantly—few things in this age could—but it was the kind that shifted the flow of the River of Destiny, changing its direction without warning. And that made it valuable… or fatal.
She did not yet know if the Fool's reappearance would serve her designs or hinder them.
But one thing she did know: helping Klein might secure her a future advantage.
This was not a whim, not the kindness of a distant goddess. It was a decision weighed on the scale of divine calculation. A mortal was nothing by himself, but a mortal walking the right path could become an ally… or a shield… or a weapon.
Klein's future forked into three possible pathways—three sequences that could be claimed by his hands.
If he chose wrongly, if he became like the Black Emperor of history—a man blinded by his own supposed grandeur—then she would abandon him without hesitation. Such an existence had no value to her, only risk.
But if he chose the Pathway of The Fool…
Her gaze deepened.
She did not need to explain the significance to herself. The Fool's pathway, its connection to the Castle Above the Grey Fog, and the role it had played in ages past—these were truths she had carved into her being long ago.
If he walked that path, the future might unfold in her favor.
And so, she would not guide him with a firm hand. She would not place him in chains of protection or push him toward fate directly. No, mortals were unpredictable—push too hard, and they might shatter.
Instead, she would watch. Watch and wait. Nudge, perhaps, with the faintest of touches when the threads of fate allowed.
She closed her eyes again, the shadowed hall growing darker.
"Klein Moretti… let us see if you are worthy of the path I wish you to take."
The goddess of Evernight faded into the depths of her domain, her decision made.