Hope placed her glass on the bar. The sliver of milk that was left, splashed around in it. With her shriveled hand, she cleaned off her milk mustache. "And that's how I ended up here," she concluded her story. "De-- Fate banished me."

Frederick poured her some more milk. He then poured himself a glass of milk too.
"That's the worst story I've heard so far, Hope. You deserve better."
He knocked back his milk in one go and placed his glass on the bar next to Hope's.
"How do you think your Destiny felt when she did what she did?"

Hope's wrinkles etched themselves deeper in her forehead.
She focused on the splashing of her milk as she moved her glass back and forth.
"I have no idea," she said. "I want her to feel bad for hurting me, but I also want her to be able to live with it, you know?"
Hope sighed.
"I guess I just want her to be happy? I don't know..."

"What would you tell her if she were here now?"

Hope stared at her glass. Her hair regained its colour. Her wrinkles softened. Her eyes lit up. "Maybe that Life is worth living, no matter its burdens?"

Frederick nodded. "And would you also tell her you love her?"

🔹🌹🔹

The moment Hope had been banished to another dimension, her magic had slowly whithered away. The golden threads that once lushly intertwined with Life's cords loosened and fell apart.

Life as people used to know it, returned in its dull, gray and fateful form. The world had lost its Hope, but Fate wasn't yet ready to give up on her.

She pulled her jacket close as she made her way through the rainy streets of the capital. Fate had sent message to Time to meet her at her place and was on her way to tell Coincidence the same.
As she turned the corner and walked into the park, Fate was met with a frightful sight.

Under the pavillon stood Coincidence and Vision, surrounded by Perception and his goons.
Vision stared at Coincidence in utter shock.
The same expression that had shortly lingered in Hope's eyes when Fate had chosen Perception's side, was now written all over Vision's face.
She turned her back to Coincidence and as she walked away - her gaze fixed on the ground - Perception raised his finger.

Fate's eyes widened. This was not good. She had already lost Hope and she wasn't planning on losing Coincidence too.
She called upon the cords.
Her eyes shifted from left to right and from up to down as she watched every possible outcome of interfering with Perception.
Throwing herself in the middle of it was no use, but she could make Perception slip up while doing the spell.

Fate glanced at Perception. She knew the spell by heart from all those times she had to helplessly watch as those she called friends were excommunicated. He was nearing the end of spell...

Fate swiftly weaved the letter b instead of the p in Perception's Present and nervously watched the situation unfold.

With a grin on his face, Perception spoke the last word of the spell. His mouth formed a small o when he realized he had slipped up.

A flash of light surrounded Coincidence and as it faded, she was still there.

Fate sighed relieved.

Perception screeched. "Why are you still here?!"
He knew perfectly well what had happened, but he didn't want to accept his mistake.

Coincidence smirked. "It seems like the deities still want me here."

"I am the deities and I want you gone!"

"Then you should have done your job better." Coincidence cooed. "No takesiez backsiez."

Perception hit his foot on the ground. "Get out off my sight. Now."

"Okay, okay. You don't have to get all worked up over it. I'm leaving."
Coincidence hopped down the pavilion and skipped towards Fate with a huge smile on her face.
She turned one last time towards Perception. She placed her fingers in the form of an L on her forehead and stuck out her tongue.

Perception threw his wig on the ground, jumped on it and stormed off.
_

When Coincidence got close enough to Fate, she cheerfully greeted her. "Hiya, Fate."
Coincidence suddenly turned gloomy. She pushed her fingers against each other and looked away. "Perception found me out."
She fiddled with her fingers. "I won't be able to distract Vision any longer. She doesn't trust me anymore."

Fate sighed. "I know, kid. It's okay. We don't need her anymore. We've got much more important fish to fry.
Do you remember that fledgling deity I wrote you about? She's been excommunicated.
We've got to save her."

🔹🌹🔹

When Fate and Coincidence arrived at Fate's place, Time was already waiting.

Fate opened the gate to her backyard - a rectangular piece of land, just big enough for her old car to fit in and filled with pebbles and other small stones.
She hadn't been here in months and there hadn't been anybody to maintain its cold, distant, practical and modern look.
On the stones now grew moss and in  between the pebbles grew grass and tall, colourful wildflowers.

The sun broke through the clouds and Fate stopped for a moment.
She stared at the wildflowers swaying to the wind. The fresh drops of rain reflected in the sun.
Fate took a deep breath. She smelled the flowers laced with the freshness of rain.

Time watched the calmness in the otherwise uproaring Fate.
"I love what you did with your garden," they said. "It was time you added some colour."

Coincidence throttled in the backyard and leaned on the old, rusty car that was slowly being overtaken by the flora.
"I prefer it much neater, but then again, that would mean getting rid of this thing too." She kicked the car. "And we all know that isn't going to happen... Why do you keep this old thing anyway when you walk everywhere, Fate?"

Fate pulled herself out of her daydream. "Huh? What?"
She looked at Coincidence who gestured at the car.
"My car? I love it. It's the only thing left of my parents. It might not work anymore," she said as her hand caressed the rusty hood, "but... Yeah. You know."

A twinkle appeared in Time's eyes. "When has our Fate become so soft?"

Fate knitted her eyebrows. She wanted to say What do you mean?, but Time continued: "I like the new you."

Coincidence tilted her head from left to right, her arms tightly crossed. "Well, I-"
Her olive skin turned cornflower blue. She staggered on the pebbles and as her raven hair turned azure, she fell on the ground.
Her arms and legs twitched in and out of reality.

Time turned towards Coincidence and Fate rushed to her.

"What's happening? Why are you blue? Why is she blue?!" Fate looked at Time.

Time shrugged. "I don't know. Do you?"

Fate's eyes shifted. "Perception's spell! He wanted to excommunicate her. I made him slip up."

"Where exactly in the spell?"

"The last word."

Time held his head in his hand. "Oh my deities, that's not good."

Fate looked wide-eyed at Time. "What do you mean?"

"That spell... It's true that when you slip up, the person remains here, but it's never without consequences, you know...
When the slip up is at the start of the spell, it's just some nausea and headaches, but when the spell has been nearly concluded, the magic will do it's job and try to vanquish its target, but it will never fully succeed."

Confusion was written all over Fate's face.

Time elaborated. "The magic is pulling Coincidence to the other realm, but can't finish her off. She's now neither alive in here nor there. She's not even existing inbetween."

"What do we do? You can turn back time and undo it!"

"You know as perfectly as I do, that the Past can never be changed."

"Then what do we do?"

"We take actions now to change her future later."

"You know the Future can't be changed!"

Time tilted their head and raised their eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"

"I mean..." Fate threw her arms in the air. "How do we stabilize her?"

Karma appeared, leaning against Fate's backyard fence. She uncrossed her arms as she walked towards the scene.
She bended over Coincidence who was twitching and shifting. "Oh my, that doesn't look good, now does it?"
She smugly looked at Fate. "Suits you right to mess with my work."
Karma crossed both her arms and feet.

"This is your doing?!"

"No, Fate. This is yours. I'm just here to gloat in the aftermath."

Fate wanted to take a swing at Karma, but Time held her back. "Calm down, Fate, calm down. Don't make things worse."

Karma smiled smugly. "Yes, Fate, listen to your daddy."

"They're non-binary!"

Time glanced as proudly as a parent at Fate. "Thank you, Fate. It means the world to me you consider me-"

Fate moved her arms wildely. "Not the point! How do we save Coincidence?!"

Still bending over the blue Coincidence, Karma brought a finger to her lips. An idea formed in her mind and another smug smile on her face. "You have to give up something dear to you."
She straightened her back and crossed her arms. "That's the only way to stabilize her."

"I've already lost all that's dear to me."

Time staggered back and leaned on the car. They muttered. "What about me? I thought I..."

Karma cocked her head while she moved her weight to her other leg. Her hair bubbled. "Are you absolutely sure about that, Fate?" She gestured at Time.

Fate turned her head. She looked at Time leaning on the car. Fate knitted her eyebrows and tilted her head. "The car!"

Hurt was written all over Time's demeanour.

Karma shook her head.