Chapter Five: Angel

The three sisters worked tirelessly on their task, cutting threads and weaving in new ones to the glowing tapestry before them. Their hollowed eye sockets did not need eyeballs to see their surroundings for they were each given the gift of sight over the entire Earth, one sister for each cycle of time, past, present and future. The first sister, the beholder of the present hummed in contentment. "Sisters, our efforts were not in vain for the prince's path has now entwined with another!"

The other two nodded-past and future-when suddenly in a burst of smoke and ash a cloaked figure appeared in their midst. He was a strange creature with a face unlike that of a man, his features angular and boney and much like the three sisters he did not have eyes on his face rather he had multiple of them on his magnificent raven wings folded together on his back. "Lord Samael!" The third sister, seer of the future, gasped in fear. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" She said, her crooked fingers lacing together as she tried to appear unfazed by the Angel of death.

"Something has come to my attention, something very troubling!" The angel said with his quiet raspy voice, his black robes trailing ash where ever he paced. "Something has caused a ripple in the fabric of time." The three sisters acted with feigned shock and ignorance.

"How troubling indeed my lord!" The second sister, keeper of the past, said with a boney hand propped at her brow like a fainting damsel. "How could such an anomaly have slipped my watch?" She added with more drama, wiping away none-existent tears from the edge of her sockets.

The angel did not pay her any mind, instead continued to pace the cave, inspecting the glowing tapestry on the weaving frame. "The ripple, in reality was not too great." The angel of death explained with an eerie calm that unnerved the three wise sisters. "A simple pull at the hands of father time to turn back the clock by a mere few days, nothing we have not seen before, I would not have noticed at all if it weren't for that one little detail." The angel's boney fingers touched the glowing tapestry, feeling it sizzle and burn his immortal flesh—only those who were tasked by the gods to carry out the duty of weaving can touch it without burning.

"What do you mean to tell us my lord?" The first sister croaked.

"A soul has been taken from me because of this ripple, and as you know I must always collect my dues, every single one!"

The sisters saw the simmering anger inside the angel's heart—it would seem their little stunt did not go unnoticed by the keeper of the dead, the reaper must always collect the souls of those who had died, their names etched onto the stone slab that dictates who must die and who will live. "And only few has the power to cause such a wrinkle in the fabric of life, those who serve life and those who obey death." The angel said whilst looking at the crones, watching them tremble in fear. "And those few stand within this cavern." He smiled sinisterly as an eerie sort of quiet descended upon them.

"Um, technically my sisters and I are sitting my lord, only you are standing up." The third sister mumbled, breaking the silence. "Although now that you've mentioned it would you like to sit down?" She offered him a low stool that looked almost miniature in front of the Angel of death, his hulking black wings folded on his back. "We'd offer you some refreshments too but I'm afraid we're all out of nectar, you know my sisters, always hogging the good stuff whenever they can, no wonder they're both so fat!"

"Hey who are you calling fat you ugly troll?" The first sister protested.

"You of course, you're always chugging down the ale and nectar like it's the end days!"

"Stop it you two, we all know you're both fat and ugly!" Soon they were all pulling at each other's hair and bantering like a bunch of fat ladies at bingo night. The angel though was not amused and his faint smile fell from his face.

"Enough!" The old crones all froze and looked up at the seething angel. "You have robbed me of a soul, all three of you, and not only that but by saving the royal twins you have erased the immediate future!"

"But my lord, we could not let them die, surely you must understand that!" The first sister seems to have sobered from her banter with her sisters and pleaded to Samael. "Must you collect their soul no matter the weight of their importance to the fate of the world?"

The angel shook his head in dismay. "What is due must be paid, it is the way of the universe, it is the reason for new life—One end always leads to a new beginning, without death there can be no life, you understand that as much as I do." The angel paused to look back at the glowing tapestry. "It is true that the end days are almost upon us, every day the seal of Tartarus weakens and very soon the world will be submerged in darkness, mankind and Fae alike would come to know of an even greater enemy than each other, and truly I too will grieve the loss of the Earth if ever evil shall prevail, but I cannot erase what has been written in the stone slab. By the time we reach the point from when you three meddled with fate I must collect a soul, the law cannot be broken."

"But my lord, the prince could be one of those few who could tip the balance between good and evil, to let him die is to let the world die." The second sister reasoned.

"That may very well be true, but as of the moment the prince aims to destroy all human life on earth and therefore the gods frown upon him. If the day when he must die comes and he still chooses the path of bloodshed I cannot do anything to alter his fate, he must perish." Samael gestured to the prince's string still woven into the tapestry of life, the golden thread gleaming in the darkened room.

"But what if he is swayed from his purpose and chooses a different path?" The sisters asked, hopeful not only for the prince's sake but for the world as well.

"If such a thing was indeed to happen, then the Elf prince will tip the balance and smudge the fine line between life and obliteration for the entire world." The angel of death concluded, his words gave the sisters renewed hope. "But," Their hope was short lived as the angel pointed an accusing finger at them. "For you have taken a soul from me you must pay me back in kind if I am to allow the prince to live if he decides to renounce his claim of war against the human race."

"But what would be the price my lord?" The first sister asked.

"I will abide the laws of old and only take what is due, but because the prince is said to be destined for greater things I will propose for a trade. You, my dear ladies are the ones who cut the strings of life of those who are destined to die and you also weave new life into the tapestry, you serve life and obey death, as do I, therefore it is only fair that we come to a proper agreement." The three sisters whispered amongst themselves, before looking back at the towering angel before them.

"Very well, what is your proposition my lord?" The third sister said.

"If the prince chooses the path of life then he shall live, and in exchange I require one hundred souls, a fair price don't you think for the soul of someone who might just be the Earth's only salvation?" Samael laced his fingers together watching the horror in the sisters' ashen face. One hundred souls in his possession, the souls would not be reincarnated as they usually are once he has collected them, instead they will be melded into his chariot which he rides to collect his dues, their anguish will fuel it to become more powerful and swifter at collecting the souls of the dying, but it will also condemn those melded souls, forever in turmoil and suffering, pulling his chariot of death for all eternity. He knew that the sisters knew.

"Then so be it, but you must also agree to our own condition Lord Samael!" The Third sister said boldly, eyeing the angel with a clever look on her sockets despite the absence of eyeballs. "If the prince changes his mind and you allow him to live then you may have your one hundred souls, but if the prince does change his mind and a single good soul chooses to sacrifice them self in exchange then you must agree to it and cede your claim to all one hundred souls including that of the sacrifed." Clever the three sisters were, the angel thought.

"I admire your determination to save the world from destruction. You have an accord, and now our watch begins!" The angel of death said with a grand flair of his magnificent wings, spreading it wide as the feathers started to glow, then in a sudden whirl of ash he is gone. Once again the sisters are left to carry out their duty of cutting and weaving and to observe the game of fate that the prince must now learn to play.