CHAPTER 106: CONNECTING THE PIECES (PART 2)

Aphrodite stood frozen, staring at the suspended figures of Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The chains that held them weren’t physical; they shimmered like strands of illusion and willpower, shifting through purples, blacks, and silver, anchoring the sisters midair. Each thread pulsed faintly with energy—a heartbeat from a source unseen but undeniably powerful.

"They’re alive," Aphrodite whispered. "But barely."

Ares moved beside her, spear still ignited in crackling red flame. "Then let’s cut them loose."

"No, wait—" She caught his arm just as he raised it. "These bindings... they’re not just magical. They’re temporal. Any brute force could tear their essence apart. We’re dealing with something far more delicate."

Ares scowled. "We don’t have time to be delicate."

But even he understood the risk. He lowered his spear and surveyed the chamber, tension running through every muscle in his arms. Aphrodite stepped forward, her fingers tracing the outlines of the bindings—not touching, but sensing. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

"I’ve felt this magic before..." she murmured. "Not on Olympus. Not in the realms of the gods."

A memory flitted across her mind—faint, like something half-remembered from a dream. A voice whispering her name in a different time. The purple mist, the distortion in Akhon’s eyes, the silence of the Loom...

She opened her eyes. "This magic is tied to memory. It’s feeding on what they forget."

Ares frowned. "Then what do we do? Make them remember?"

"I can try," she said.

She stepped toward Clotho—the youngest of the three sisters, the spinner of beginnings. Her face was gaunt, pale, but there was something behind her half-lidded eyes. A spark.

Aphrodite reached into her heart—not her magic of beauty or desire, but something older. The memory of the first kiss she ever gave. The joy of a mortal’s wedding. The first time a mortal chose love over war. She concentrated all of it, weaving it into a whisper.

"Clotho," she said gently. "You taught the mortals what it meant to begin. Now remember who you are."

A pulse ran through the room. The chain around Clotho’s arm twitched. A thread unraveled, faintly glowing gold.

Clotho stirred.

Ares took notice. "That’s working."

"Help me," Aphrodite said. "Reach them with something real. Something unchangeable."

Ares looked at Lachesis, the measurer, and frowned. "She always hated me," he muttered, but stepped forward anyway.

He lowered his voice. "You measured the length of every soul’s journey. But I’ve seen lives cut too short. I’ve waded through battlefields you watched over. You know me."

No warmth in his tone. Just truth.

A red shimmer ran along Lachesis’s bindings. Another chain loosened.

Aphrodite turned to Atropos, the one who held the shears of endings. Her bindings were the thickest, coiled around her like a cocoon.

Aphrodite knelt before her. "I don’t fear endings. I’ve loved mortals knowing they would die. I’ve wept for every moment I could never reclaim. If anyone understands the pain of what was lost, it’s you."

A silence followed.

Then, with a soft crack, Atropos’s bindings quivered.

Suddenly, the air rippled—and the mist returned.

"You dare meddle with what I’ve sealed?" it hissed, no longer calm, but seething. "I warned you. I offered you peace. A perfect world."

Ares stood before Aphrodite, spear in hand. "You offered us a lie."

The mist surged forward, lashing out. But this time, Ares was ready. His spear met the tendril mid-air, and a shockwave boomed through the chamber. Aphrodite shielded the Fates with a barrier of divine light, straining against the force.

"You want them?" the mist snarled. "Then take their burden."

In a burst of unnatural motion, the mist lashed all three of the Fates, embedding itself in their forms. Their eyes opened in unison—and glowed violet.

"No!" Aphrodite gasped.

The Fates spoke, but the voice was not theirs.

"You think freeing them will change anything?"

Ares lunged. "We’ll tear you out of them if we have to!"

But before his spear reached them, the sisters vanished—blinked from the realm in a flash of purple energy.

"DAMN IT!" Ares roared.

Aphrodite fell to her knees where Atropos had been.

They were gone.

The mist receded, but its presence lingered like smoke after a fire.

Ares slammed his fist into the cracked mirror, splintering it further. "We were so close."

"No," Aphrodite said, eyes still wide. "We did something. We loosened them. They remembered for a moment. That means they can still be saved."

Ares turned to her, still burning with frustration. "They’re in its control now. How do you expect us to find them again?"

Aphrodite stood slowly. "We don’t follow the trail of the Fates. We follow his. Whatever that mist is, it can’t cover its tracks forever."

He glanced at her, breathing hard. "You have a plan?"

"No," she admitted. "But I have instinct. And I know where to start."

Ares raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

Aphrodite looked upward, past the crumbling ceiling of the chamber, toward the peak of Olympus. "Zeus. He’s the king of gods. He’s either being used... or he’s letting this happen."

Ares grunted. "That’s one fight I’m looking forward to."

They turned and began the long ascent back to Olympus—battered, shaken, but no longer unsure.

Because now, they had confirmation.

The Fates were alive. The world had been changed.

And they were going to restore it.

No matter what it took.

---

The hall trembled as Zeus descended from the storm-laced skies, a flash of lightning heralding his arrival like a celestial war drum. His feet touched the marble floor of the ancient sanctum where the sealed entrance to the Fates had once stood. Aphrodite, Ares, and Hermes stood their ground, tense and ready.

"Who dares disturb the balance of Olympus?" Zeus’s voice boomed like thunder, echoing off every pillar. His presence radiated power, a god in full force.

"Zeus, it’s us," Hermes said, holding his hands up in an attempt at diplomacy. "We’re only trying to understand why the Fates are missing—"

"They are not missing," Zeus interrupted, his gaze sharp and strange, as if clouded by something unseen. "They are where they must be. No more questions. No more trespassing."

Aphrodite’s brow furrowed. The warmth she once knew in his tone was gone. "Zeus, that’s not like you. The Fates have guided us for eternity. Their silence threatens all order. Why won’t you let us see them?"

"I said they are not to be disturbed!" Zeus roared, hurling a bolt of divine energy toward Hermes.

The messenger god dodged nimbly, skidding across the floor with winged sandals ablaze. "That answers that," he muttered.

Ares stepped forward, summoning his spear in a crimson flash. "If you want to throw lightning, old man, you’ll find I can throw blood."

Zeus narrowed his eyes. "You’ve always been reckless, Ares. You forget your place."

"No," Aphrodite said, stepping beside him, her voice now colder. "You’re the one forgetting things, Zeus. You always listened before. Now you bark and strike like a chained beast."

For a split second, something flickered in Zeus’s eyes—hesitation, confusion. Then it vanished under a mask of fury. The sky cracked again, and he lifted his hand, calling forth a storm.

Ares lunged before the lightning could strike, his spear clashing against the god-king’s summoned barrier of electricity. Sparks flew as divine steel met divine will.

Hermes weaved around the battlefield, flinging enchanted daggers that whirled like streaks of starlight. "You guys better wrap this up quickly—he’s calling down a hurricane!"

Zeus released a storm blast that sent Ares flying back, crashing through a row of golden columns. Aphrodite caught him with a pulse of force from her own divine aura, breaking his fall before it shattered his bones.

"Don’t hold back!" she shouted. "He’s not in control of himself!"

As if on cue, a whisper slithered through the storm—inaudible to all but Hera’s chosen. The shadow behind Zeus’s rage. A purple mist unseen to the others, nestled deep in his mind like a parasite, whispered lies and rewrote loyalty.

Zeus charged forward again, his fists wrapped in lightning. "You will obey!"

Aphrodite blocked the strike with a shimmering wall of energy. It cracked but held. "I don’t want to hurt you!"

"You can’t!" he thundered.

But Ares could.

He returned with full force, his armor blood-red and eyes burning with divine rage. He slammed into Zeus with the fury of a thousand battlefields, knocking the king backward through the sanctum’s far wall and into the courtyard beyond.

Hermes zipped in, grabbing Aphrodite’s hand. "Now or never, Dove! The seal!"

Aphrodite knelt before the fractured altar. Her hands glowed with divine warmth as she whispered the old invocations of fate, of thread, of purpose. The seal flickered—still solid, but weakened. Cracks began to appear.

Then Zeus rose again, bleeding golden ichor, more furious than ever.

Lightning carved the sky, turning it black as night.

Ares rushed him once more. "We don’t have to win, we just have to stall!"

Zeus parried the spear with a flick of his hand and drove Ares into the ground with a pulse of raw force. He raised his hand to strike—

And paused.

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

"I... remember..." he whispered, trembling. "Kaeron... the threads... Akhon..."

But then the mist surged again, and the memory slipped away like smoke. His fury returned with redoubled strength. "You will all kneel!"

Hermes gritted his teeth. "He’s breaking through! Just a little more!"

Aphrodite focused every ounce of her divinity into the seal. "Threads of life... strands of choice... awaken!"

The altar shattered.

A gust of wind howled from the breach, as if the very fabric of destiny had gasped.

The sanctum walls shimmered, revealing an ancient staircase, sealed from all sight. The entrance to the Fates.

Behind them, Zeus roared.

"Go!" Hermes shouted, grabbing Aphrodite. "Get to them! I’ll hold him!"

Ares stood beside him, breathing hard. "You’re not dying without me, feather boy."

Aphrodite hesitated at the threshold. "Don’t let him fall. He’s being controlled."

Hermes winked. "Wouldn’t dream of it."

She descended alone, the echo of battle behind her and the path to destiny unfolding below.