The Deck of Destiny - A Caraval Oneshot Collection

Futures are Funny, Pasts are Pains

Setting: Finale
Inspiration: this is like a prequel to a request that I got which will be posted on Wednesday

"Would you just give me a straight answer already?" Gavriel snapped, growing more annoyed with his spy by the second.

"Do not be foolish. There is no straight answer to your question. I have already filled you in about your daughter's plans, and that is the extent of my straightforwardness," Anissa replied with a slight chirp to her voice.

Gavriel casted a glance towards Scarlett's suite where she was sleeping. He had Poison sneak a sleeping sedative into her water to make sure of it. They were playing a game of chess and Gavriel preferred to have the upper-hand.

"Just tell me the future! Tell me who wins!" Gavriel's body temperature rose, but he did not burst into flames. Not yet.

"There are too many branches of the future to be sure, Gavriel. You of all people should know the future is a living, breathing thing that does what it wants."

Gavriel recognized those words. A similar statement was uttered from Paradise's lips years and years ago. Had it already been years? It felt like just a moment ago he was kissing her passionately, getting into all sorts of different trouble with her.

"Then tell me her weakness," Gavriel substituted, shrugging off thoughts of Paradise.

"The same as yours. Love. Except, it is not quite a weakness for Scarlett. No, it is rather her strength." The Lady Prisoner perched on her swing and kicked off, rocking gently through the air as she continued. "While you feed off of fear, your Scarlett feeds off of hope."

Paradise fed off of both.

He could not doubt that he saw Paradise in his daughter. She looked almost exactly like her, save for the grey streak in her hair. But her personality was completely different. While he saw sparks of Paradise in her, and also sparks of himself before he became a Fate, Scarlett was something else entirely different.

"How do I best her?" Gavriel pushed.

Anissa sighed as if she was getting equally annoyed with him as he was with her. "You should really try making amends with Scarlett. It will only work out in your favor. While if you continue to terrorize her, it will only work against you."

"She will learn to respect me."

Anissa did not say anything to that. Anissa could not lie.

So there was that. Scarlett would not respect him.

Suddenly curious, Gavriel asked, "Was there ever a future where me and Paradise were happy?"

Anissa paused, as if lost in thought. "Once, before you killed her-"

Fire filled the room as Gavriel sneered at his Lady Prisoner. He did not like when that was mentioned, and he was making it well known.

"Are you going to throw a temper tantrum or are you going to let me finish?" Anissa glared at him and Gavriel put out the flames. "Good. There were many different branches, but all of them similar. You and Paradise would come to rule the Meridian Empire, with Scarlett and her younger half-sister as your heirs. You would live a happy, glorious, mortal life alongside Paradise and your daughter."

Gavriel was hit with an emotion he did not like feeling. Regret.

"What are some of my daughter's futures?"

"Scarlett has many. Some terrible, some unimaginable, and some where she gets a happy ending. In one of them, she becomes what you wish and lives a long, miserable life by your side as you rule. Or she becomes what you wish, yet she destroys you from the inside out, a wrath so terrible all of the Fates are wiped from the Earth. And one where she ends up ruling the Meridian Empire with a lover by her side. Those are just the main ones."

Something stirred in Gavriel. The second one sounded like Scarlett would become as ruthless as her mother, the first one sounded like what he wanted, and the last one made him itch with more curiosity.

"Am I alive in the last one you mentioned?" He asked.

"In some you are, in some you aren't. That all depends on Scarlett."

He did not know which future he preferred for his daughter. Whether he wanted her by his side or if he wanted her far away from his deathly grasp as possible. Maybe he would kill her as he had Paradise.

Gavriel shook his head slightly, as if shaking off the thoughts of Paradise. No, Scarlett would become his Fate and would rid him of these ridiculous feelings. He just had to ensure she chose the right path.

But she was his daughter. His last piece of Paradise. He wanted her to be happy and free.

Did he?

No. He was a monster just as Paradise believed he was. He would have never been enough for her, and he would never be enough for his daughter, so he would become so much worse.

"I'll be taking the crown tomorrow," Gavriel declared, pleased with himself. "Alert the other Fates." He clapped at some of his loyal servants, brushing them to scatter along Valenda.

One more question loomed in the back of his head.

If Paradise was still alive, would she be proud, or disappointed?

Gavriel knew it was the latter.

Somewhere in his black, black heart, he hoped his daughter would get a happy future, one that he was unable to provide. But the monsters that outweighed that small hope within him wanted her to be glorious for completely, selfish reasons.

It was up to her.

Whichever future Scarlett chose was out of Gavriel's control. He just had to do what he normally would, and see if she would destroy her life as he did, or save it.