Strings of Fate

1- Wine and witches

Ba

I pause for a moment to adjust my uncomfortable high heeled shoe. It’s black to match my waitresses‘ uniform which I honestly find to be too provocative for what is supposedly an upscale restaurant. Sex sells I guess, not that I would ever let a customer touch me that way.

Borderline is one of the few places in the city that allows both normal customers and Magies, so despite the long hours, barely adequate pay and uncomfortable uniform, It is perfect for me as one of the only places that will hire someone who is marked but has no marketable magic skills.

Like all children, I was tested for magic when I was only a few days old. Since my specific bloodline is unknown and my magic is unidentifiable, I was marked with a delicate swirling pattern around my upper right arm. While labeling everyone according to their species might seem concerning, it actually saves a lot of lives.

Most species have weaknesses that are much easier to avoid if they aren’t shoved in your face by some oblivious person who has no idea the damage they’re causing. I don’t know a lot about the marks themselves, only that they are applied magically and that everyone has one unless they are one hundred percent, normal human.

Normal humans make up about fifty percent of the population in big cities like this. Some magics are easy to identify. Shifters inherit their abilities from their parents, so they are marked as Shifters from birth on their arms with varying marks depending on their individual species.

Witches and Sorcerers also inherit their power from their parents and are easily identified. People like me however are harder to categorize. I was left outside the hospital for magical beings when I was only a few hours old. After days of tests to confirm I was not any of the known species but that I did in fact have magic. I was marked as an unknown.

Now that might sound all cool and mysterious but believe me it is not. Humans and Magics. don’t tend to get along all that well. No humans will accept me because I am marked as a Magic, and no Magics will accept me because I don’t fit in with any of their groups. I can’t even find any other unknowns in this city as most people get their marks adjusted as soon as they are old enough to identify their powers for themselves.

1/5

1- Wine and witches

My life is not so easy. I do have magic, just as the tests showed, but it has never lined up with any known Magic species. For this reason, I have been unable to get my mark adjusted. This might not be a problem if my magic was something dramatic and powerful that demanded respect, but this is not the case. I can’t breathe fire like a dragon Shifter, or hex people who piss me off like Witches.

or seduce people like a Succubus. Now I don’t mean to be unappreciative of the power I do have, it’s interesting and all, but it just really doesn’t pack much of a

their destined soul mate and blah blah blah. Yes I

be friends. This doesn’t mean they won’t have other friends or anything like that. Just that those specific people are destined to meet and that they will become close friends

shows up between people who are fated to be enemies.

anyways. Occasionally I come across other threads, but I don’t always know what they mean, and since I don’t exactly have a guide book with colour coded charts I have no idea. how to figure it out unless I plan to stalk people and their friends and figure out the relationships between them

suspect that green threads are for fated mentor/mentee relationships. I often see them connecting young people to old, students to teachers

see people with white threads, and when I do they tend to be doctors, fire fighters or other do–gooder types. My best guess is that they are fated to save the people they are

each other. Sometimes people mix up their blue threads with their red threads and

2/5

people have only one or two threads, or sometimes none at all. No one ever has more than one red thread though. One soul mate per

saving grace is that I don’t see the threads between people unless the two people are fairly close by each other, say a few blocks maybe. I don’t know if I can see my own threads. I never have before, but that doesn’t mean anything. I might not have any, or maybe

even if they haven’t met the person yet. I can also tell if the people whose fate is predicted by the thread have already met. If the thread is light and floaty like it’s caught in a breeze, I know that

pretty distracting. It’s hard to pay attention to someone’s face when you are busy staring at the shiny threads that are trailing off from their hearts which no one else can see.

The swirling patterns in my mark are supposed. to represent the threads of fate, there are three of them in red, black and white. The mark is actually quite pretty but it is nothing compared to seeing the real

and as long as people don’t look too closely at me, I usually can pass for an ordinary human which makes serving human customers far easier than serving the Magics who tend to be stuck up towards humans. I have rather pale skin and

most people assume is dyed but upon close inspection it is clear that I never have any regrowth or anything like that because it is in fact my natural hair. My matching eyebrows are another clue. My eyes are also blue but they are so pale that most people

colourless.

3/5

when I greet customers. This might be a problem in a human establishment, but in a place where Shifters and other Magics frequent it is almost expected as a way to avoid any confrontations or battles of dominance.

did try wearing contacts a few months back but I found them too uncomfortable, besides, it

and I almost stumble as I turn on the spot in my high heels. I definitely lack the grace that some Magics are naturally blessed with. I cringe slightly under the glare of my shift manager Anthony. I must have paused longer than I thought. I straighten my back and grab the tray of dirty dishes I had placed down a minute

table twenty.