The next evening, when Sirius and Saoirse woke up, they began moving around the furniture in the house. First, they moved Lachlan's crib into their room.
Sirius climbed up onto a chair and took down the mobile that hung above it from the ceiling, it was a wooden loop with strings that suspended moons, stars, and clouds made of felt like little pillows. Hung below them on the same string were little crocheted sheep with bodies resembling a pom-pom ball. It looked like someone had made it.
He transferred it to the other room with care and rehung it above the crib's new location.
Next, the moved the vinyl wall decals that adorned the wall and all of his bins of toys and shoes and the dresser that held his diapers and clothes. Once they were done, the room looked empty except for the blue walls.
Saoirse made breakfast and then sat down to feed Lachlan a bottle. She began nodding off a bit with exhaustion. Sirius noticed and came over to help. "Hey I've got it, why don't you lie down a bit while I feed him."
"Ok. Thanks." She said tiredly. She had never been so tired in her life. Even with all of the cleaning and work she had done, she had never had such an emotionally exhausting interrupted sleep.
(I followed her and lay down next to her on the bed, watching her exhausted face. It puzzled me. Why would a person do something like that for such a tiny person who wasn't even hers? As she fell asleep, I felt her energy reach out to me, and I realized that for the first time in my existence, I fell asleep too.
(I had a dream. In my dream, I returned to the place that I never imagined I would return. My old job. The three ladies that I knew so well sat in their chairs weaving strands made out of a fiber of a plant. The roots of Yggdrasil, the tree that all of the realms were made of. The golden tapestry they made was pulled tight as it shrank into a thin line that gleamed golden in color. Someone's lifeline. Each detail they had made was consolidated into microscopic moments, each second of tbe person's life recorded.
(These were the Norns. Urd, Verdande, and Skuld. Past, present, and future.
(Urd, the goddess of the past, waved to me as I entered the room. "Hello dear." She said beckoning me over. "I see that you have had quite a unique night."
(I didn't say anything, I just listened. I knew that they never said something on their own, they always said things together. As expected, Verdande, the present continued her sentence, "here darling, have a look, we are working hard to develop this person's fate, isn't it beautiful?"
( I nodded, even though all of the strings they wove looked the same to me. Skuld, the future, said her part last. "This person will become even more beautiful over time. That is the purpose of their existence."
(I nodded again, that sounded nice to me, because that wasn't the fate of everybody. So good for them. Whoever it was.
("The purpose for which we have brought you here is the spool of string you stole. We are grateful that so far you have kept a good watch over it."
(Verdande continued, "We have always known that you wanted to take fate into your own hands, and it has done you good. You are very unique my dear, for this purpose, we have come to the moment in your fate where you can have your job back."
(I felt a sudden sadness overcome me, what? I don't have a lifeline? What do they mean I have a fate? "but I don't want to!" I shouted, "I don't want to leave my family. I want to stay with them, even if it means I wander tirelessly without a purpose of my own."
(Urd raised her eyebrow, "Oh? And why is that?"
("Well, um…I got a brother now, and I want to watch over him too. I don't want to accidentally hurt his string. I am more comfortable that I have been unable to touch it. I am worried I could break it on purpose and I don't want him harmed ever!"
(In my desperate situation, I had blurted out the first excuse that had come out of my mind, in reality, I didn't care about that baby…much…but I needed to stay here or else I would miss out on the one thing I was working on right now. Finding a way to become a soul.
(Finding a way to be with Sirius and Saoirse.
(Skuld smiled at me. "We know. We know everything about you darling, for this cause, you won't be a Fylgia anymore."
(I blinked, "I won't?"
(She shook her head.
("Then what would I do?" I asked surprised.
("As you know, Verdande interrupted her sister, as always, Fylgia are spirit guides, a class of entities that assist us in maintaining the balance of fate. Because of you, there are consequences to your actions because some actions cause death."
(Urd began to speak, "I think you should remember that the consequence of taking your charge, Soairse's thread, was her death. Her connection to Yggdrasil was severed."
(Skull interjected suddenly, "All of the things she was going to do in her life were cut off. Disconnecting her from her destined future."
("But nevertheless, we Norns can see everything. We knew this was going to happen." Urd finished.
("Right now, you are evolving too. Forming a future for yourself. We are proud of you, many people don't do that." Verdande said.
(Proud of me? What? So why was I fired then? "So why am I here then? Did I do something wrong?"
("No." They said in unison.
("You did nothing that you weren't fated to do." Skuld said.
("We have decided to grant your wish to have a different purpose, so we will make you into one of the Disir." )