The Fate

The Fate, a character from the Nightbound series, is possibly the most ancient and powerful magical being in the known world. Although she is first mentioned in Chapter 7, she makes her first appearance in Chapter 9.

Appearance
The Fate has gold eyes, shoulder-length gray hair, and fair skin. She wears a golden laurel crown and a veil covering her face and body. Her dress appears gray with gold circle detailing. Her facial features shift and waver like a "heat mirage", where all the faces are hers. Her majordomo says that she is over a thousand years old. She tells you that her eyes are weary with the sights of the ages and her fingers are stiff from weaving the yarn of fate.

Personality
Being at the top of the magical food chain, The Fate envokes fear and respect from others such as Kristof and Lady Smoke. They steer(ed) clear of her and wouldn't dream of crossing her. Nik says that bargains are The Fate's bread and butter. She will answer a summons if the individuals bare their souls and share something painfully private. It is her demand for her time. She appears to anger easily if she feels those beneath her do not respect her. She also appears to like the direct approach and doesn't like to be questioned about her knowledge and abilities. She says she knows all the names of every living thing, except for the insolent who beseeched her empty-handed and no longer trouble her or anyone else.

Background
In order to meet The Fate, one must travel to her home, the Chateau Des Epoques. It is as haunting as it is exquisite, an old antebellum nestled in an eddy in the flow of time, in a realm outside of time. One mode of transportation is The Charon, a ship with deathless guests that were either summoned by its previous owners or decided to hitchhike and make The Charon their home. Its original owners were reckless during the Victorian spiritualism craze, and somehow snipped The Charon loose from time. Nowadays, The Fate uses the Charon as a test. If someone needs her help badly enough to risk traversing the realms (from the Realm of the Unseen to the Realm of Living Memory to the Realm of the Restless Dead), she'll meet with them.

Nightbound

 * Chapter 7: Secrets of the Blood (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 8: The Veil of Time (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 9: The Price of Prophecy
 * Chapter 10: What Lies Beyond (Determinant)

Your Character
You go to seek answers from The Fate as her supplicant. When you and all your friends bare your souls, she appears and speaks directly to you. She tells you that the person you seek is Cassiopeia. In the end, she tells you that it is her will that you live through this. If you decide to spend the night with Katherine (premium scene), she says the rumors around The Fate say she is not a sympathetic character. However, it seems that The Fate has a soft spot regarding you, that she genuinely seems concerned about you and wants to help you.

Nik Ryder
Because The Fate is a multidimensional being, she must be summoned with vulnerability magic. As Katherine had mentioned at the Graveyard Shift, meeting The Fate lays you bare and opens up the oldest wounds. When The Fate appears, Nik tries to speak to her but she cuts him off and threatens to mute him permanently if he speaks out of turn again. The Fate calls him the 'thrice-cursed son'.

Garrus
After he was expelled from the Fae realm, Garrus approached The Fate as a supplicant. She denied his appeal and he has been sworn never to speak of what passed between them.

Powers and Abilities

 * Precognition - The Fate has the ability to see the possible futures of an individual.
 * Psychometry - The Fate has the ability to touch an item (such as a coin) and tell who used magic on said item.
 * Longevity or Immortality - The Fate is at least one thousand years old, possibly older as she was the Oracle at Delphi in the past. She also dismisses some of your concerns with the wave of her hand, commenting on your "mortal" dilemmas, possibly indicating that she is immortal and above it all.
 * Realm Portal - The Fate can either create a teleportation portal or open a doorway between her home and the mortal realm. Traversing through the portal appears to take less time than riding the Charon.

Trivia

 * In Chapter 8, when Ivy jokes about wanting to hang out with The Fate, Krom makes her tell The Fate (in case she's eavesdropping) that she was speaking figuratively and doesn't want to lose her left hand.
 * Katherine mentions The Fate attends the Mardi Gras parade every year.
 * Nik says The Fate doesn't care for zombies though because they have no souls to bargain with.
 * In Chapter 9, The Fate's butler says that every supplicant that has consulted her has been captured on canvas for eternity.
 * The Fate is also a playable character in her premium scene / Monster Tear. The three supplicants in her memory are the ones you see painted in the canvas when you arrive at her home.
 * Summoning The Fate in her chateau requires the supplicants to practice vulnerability magic. They may shed their clothes (to feel "naked" and vulnerable) and reveal deep secrets and insecurities. They can also brand (or tattoo) themselves with the supplicant's mark, or perform ritual scarification.