Eva Tate had been out since five o’clock yesterday morning on an errand for her boss, and had only gotten in at seven o’clock this morning, so when the phone rang at midday, it was her girlfriend, Jin, who had taken the call.
“Eva, love.” The Asian woman with long black hair and startling green eyes shook her partner gently, “Social services are on the phone.”
Eva forced herself out of a well deserved and much needed sleep to nod and pull herself out of bed, following her girlfriend down the corridor and picking up the phone. “Eva Tate speaking.”
“Lindsey Winters, I’m with Social Services.”
“Good,” Eva checked the clock quickly, “Afternoon Ms Winters, does this mean the paperwork’s gone through?”
“Indeed.” Lindsey sounded cheerful, too cheerful for Eva’s liking considering the lack of sleep, but she pushed the irritation aside. “In fact we have a child we need to find a home for as soon as possible.”
“Do tell.” Eva perked up, having been waiting for this good news for months and surprised that they’d been picked out for a child so quickly.
“The boy’s eighteen months old. His name’s Harry Potter.” Lindsey sounded like she was reading off of a sheet, “It might only be a temporary placement, it sounds like he just wandered away from home and once we find out who his parents are they’ll have first rights to the child.”
“I understand.” Eva nodded, “I’d be happy to take Harry in for as long as necessary.”
“Good, we’ll drop him off at two.”
“Thank you, I’ll be ready for him. Is there anything extra we should know?”
“We’ll do all necessary checks before we leave to make sure you’re suitable, but you shouldn’t have a problem.”
“I understand.” Eva nodded, though she couldn’t be seen by the woman on the other end of the phone. “Thank you for choosing us.”
“You’re welcome Miss Tate. Provided everything goes well, Harry should be staying with you for a couple of days.”
“I understand.” She repeated.
“I’ll see you at two.” Lindsey put the phone down.
“Eva?” Jin asked, confused.
“The spare room’s free, isn’t it?” Eva asked, pausing on the stairs.
“It’s as neat and tidy as possible.” Jin nodded, “Why? Is it finally happening?” She asked, excited.
“It’s only for a few days.” Eva warned, “Until they find his parents.”
“I don’t care. It could be for a few hours for all I care. If they’ve picked us we’re likely to get picked again if we do a good job!” She danced down the hallway and into the living room.
Eva was about to head up to double check the spare room, wondering if they should get a crib or an alarm or something if the boy was likely to wander, when a bright light blazed out of the living room door, forcing Eva to shield her eyes until it had gone down.
“Eva!” Jin sounded rather annoyed. “You have a visitor.”
She’d kind of guessed, considering all of Jin’s ‘visitors’ appeared at the door or without a flashy light show and their friends, those who lived here at least, had their own house keys.
Eva entered the living room to find a tall, brunette woman in a gorgeous white dress waiting for her. “My Lady.” Eva bowed to her patron, frustrated. Why now?
“Straighten Eva, I must speak with you at length.”
“My Lady, please do not presume me rude, but you have come at a rather inopportune moment.” Eva said as she directed the woman towards the sofa and looked at Jin, who nodded and darted off to make some tea. “You see Social Services have...”
“I know.” The woman said, settling demurely on the sofa and waved Eva silent. “That is why I am here.”
Eva nodded. This woman was the embodiment of fate, the one who dictated how the paths of each individual ran. This woman was also the reason she was alive right now.
Eva had been friends with Jin for years, and, back when they’d been eleven or twelve, Jin had fought with an enemy called Korina, an evil sorceress who was devouring the souls of innocent people in order to prolong her life and had been doing so for around five hundred years. Back then they’d believed the prophecy that had announced that Jin was the only one who could beat her.
When they’d defeated her, through a combination of skill and sheer dumb luck, they’d believed it was over.
So when Korina had returned four years later, they had been unprepared, surviving the first assault against them only because the Soul Stealers had focused their attack on Jin, giving Eva a chance to use what she’d learnt since their last encounter, which, in turn gave Nate, Lucy and Orion time to arrive and help.
They’d found and defeated Korina in battle again, but this time it had been at a price.
Before Jin’s summons could defeat Korina and force her out of the Soul Stealer who she had possessed, in order to seal her away, Korina had struck a lucky blow, sending Jin’s fire bird crashing into a pillar.
Eva who had been in the direct path of the bird, had had to dive out of the way, and had been unable to get to her feet quick enough to get out of the way of a spell cast by Korina, which, as far as everyone else involved in the fight had been concerned, had killed her.
It had been then that this woman, Madam Fate or Lady Destiny, she went by either name and was known by many more, had stepped in.
She had been following Eva’s story closely, especially since Eva’s story was caught up in the story of Fate’s favourites and the girl was studying under a Master of Wu Shu, who had trained up on Xuan Wu’s Mountain, and when it had seemed that Eva was about to be killed, Destiny had plucked her from the battle field, taken her to the world of the Gods and given her a choice.
Become Raised and given a chance to go back and fight alongside her, by that point, girlfriend once again, in exchange for doing a few jobs for Madam Fate, up to and including dealing with Dark Lords, Sorcerers and Mages at the start of their career, so that Fate wouldn’t have to go through the rigmarole of fighting with a world that no longer wanted to believe in Gods and magic to get things done properly, or die.
Those were the choices and Eva had, quite understandably, chosen life, not quite understanding until much, much later what choosing life as a Raised Human would mean, and when she returned to the human world three months later, it was to the shock and awe of her friends, who had believed her dead.
It wasn’t until Eva, as was the norm for teenagers who gained a lot of power, had made the mistake of getting cocky on one of the jobs that Madam Fate had sent her on and she’d gotten herself killed, that she truly realised what being Raised meant.
It meant that while she could be killed, she would return to the human world after a certain amount of time. It could be anything from three months to a stupid amount of years, but she would return. She wouldn’t stay dead.
She also wouldn’t age.
She had tried to pull away from Jin when she’d found that out, unsure whether she could cope with watching her girlfriend grow old and die, and had even asked Madam Fate to Raise Jin like she had Raised Eva.
But even if Fate had been willing, Jin would have turned it down.
She had quite enough on her plate with Korina, without adding any other problems.
And so Eva had stayed with her, and had been about to ask Jin the big question when Jin had made a suggestion.
They couldn’t have children together, so what if they adopted?
Eva, having the most steady income, had made the application, and now it seemed like it was going to come to fruition, but why was Destiny here now? And what did she want with the child that was only going to be staying with them a few days?
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