The Cost of Betrayal

   Hundreds of years ago  Lachesis looked around their room, she sighed heavily. "This coven needs some serious help."      Clotho looked to her sister and shook her head, "No, you know that we are not to meddle in the affairs of the witches. We have an agreement with Hecate." Clotho didn't mind most of the gods or goddesses, she knew she was stronger than them, but Hecate could be trouble if they meddled too often in her affairs. Hecate loved that her witches had free will, and that meant for any of them.      Lachesis pointed down at the coven, "This coven will not last if we don't step in!"      Atropos shrugged, "So? Many things created in the mortal world do not last. What business is it of ours if this one falls to the same fate as so many before it?" Atropos had the horrible task of cutting threads, and she was growing tired of it today. Too many children were falling to her scissors and it was turning her mood dark.      Lachesis was about to speak again when in walked Hecate herself.      "Ladies," She smiled.      Clotho looked at the goddess warily, "To what do we owe this honor?" She barely kept the snideness out of her voice.      Hecate huffed, "I need a favor," she walked over to their watching pool. "Oh, I see that you are interested in this coven."      Lachesis nodded, "Yes, it is failing, if we don't intercede soon, it will vanish."      Hecate was looking into the water intently as if she were searching for something. Her eyes fell upon what she was searching for and she smiled, "This coven can not fail."      Lachesis was surprised, Hecate usually was more ambivalent towards her wards. She eyed the goddess warily, "And why is that?"      Hecate crossed her arms, "Because I need one of their descendants."      Atropos looked up from her snipping, "And what group should we allow to fail instead?"      Hecate swirled her fingers until a tiny island showed up, "What about this one?"      Clotho gasped, "Atlantis? But they are doing well! Why don't you take one from there?"      Hecate shook her head and laughed, "Because I need someone strong, not someone that has had it easy! And besides, they have become too selfish and greedy. Return them to where they came. Send them back down into the depths of the sea. I'm sure my dear cousin, Poseidon would love to have them back." She turned to begin to walk away, "Don't make me get grandfather involved." She strode out the door knowing full well that her plan would work.      Clotho stood from her stool and walked towards her sisters, "We have to warn the king," she said.      Lachesis made a bored face at her sister, "I know."      Atropos lifted her scissors, "I'll notify Poseidon at once, maybe we can do something."      Lachesis shook her head, "No, there is nothing we can do, but warn them." She looked at Atropos sympathetically, "Your job is going to be very busy."      *************     The king and queen of Atlantis looked solemnly at the parchment in their hand, they were worried that this day would come. They could see their kingdom falling slowly to the sins of greed and selfishness. They knew that they were just as much to blame as anyone, they should have stopped it. They turned to their mage, their most trusted servant, "What do we do?"      The mage looked at her rulers with tears in her eyes, "I have seen the future, and it does not bode well for us. All we can do is pray that death comes swiftly and painlessly." She rubbed her hands over her belly, she was heavy with child and it broke her heart to know that she will never see her son rise to the greatness she saw for him.      The king looked to his mage, "Do we know how long we have?"      The mage shook her head, she only knew what the parchment said, and not when it would happen.      The king gave his wife a loving look, "Then we say nothing, and make our people happy."      The mage nodded and walked to her quarters, she resolved herself to make sure that her son would leave this land and be safe. She hurried to her room and devised a plan, making him a small cradle.      A few days later, as she placed a spell over the small wooden bed, her labor began. She labored alone, her husband, gone from this world, taken from her in a horrible battle just a few months ago. Her eyes flooded at the thought of not having her son. She would die alone, but she would be able to watch over him from the Summerlands. She just had to save him.      The tremors started shortly after her labor, "No!" she cried, "He must live! Please!" She begged the skies as another contraction took over her body sending pain from her back down into her legs. They were coming closer and faster than she thought they would.      As the ground shook angrily, knocking her books and spells off the shelves her body did as well. Suddenly an urge to bear down and push overcame her. She cried as she let her body take over and do what came naturally to her. As the baby emerged from her body, she gasped. He looked just like his father, oh how she missed him! She scooped up the baby, still covered in vernix and fluid. She wiped him clean as quickly and gently as she could. She knew that time was of the essence.      He squirmed slightly beneath her touch and began to cry. As if he were sensing that his mother wouldn't be with him much longer.      "Shh, shh, baby, don't cry. I'll love you forever.  You will be loved and cared for where I'm sending you. The world you were to grow in is not meant to be." She swaddled the baby in the quilt she had made for him, quickly attaching the note and tucking the amulet around his neck. She kissed him gently on the nose, "I love you, baby." She placed him in the cradle and with as much strength as she could muster, she uttered the spell to send her son away to safety.      As the cradle disappeared from her sight she let out a pained cry, her worlds falling apart before her very eyes. She lay there, sobbing, the King's servants rushing to her begging her for answers. "What is happening? How do we save ourselves?"      The witch looked at them, her eyes dull, "Unless you want to breathe underwater, you will die." Her voice held no emotion as she informed them. It was at that moment that Poseidon appeared, "My people! You have been selfish and greedy, because of this the Fates have decided you don't deserve the rights of being amongst the land walkers." He lifted his trident high above his head. "But I will gift what the witch has claimed. You will not die but live as merfolk. Taking care of my oceans, and the beings within it. You will not allow the land walkers to ruin your new home if you do. Your fate will be the same." His warning was ominous but gave them hope. They all agreed willingly, all except for the mage.      Poseidon turned to her, "And why do you not want this gift?"          The mage looked up at god, "Because I have nothing to live for."      "Your son isn't reason enough?"      "He is no longer here."      Poseidon looked at the woman, "Where did you send him?"      The mage smiled, "Far away from here."      ****     Lachesis looked at her sisters, a worried frown on her face, "This is going to be a problem."      Atropos simply shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, "There isn't much we can do, but put him on the right path."      Clotho smiled at her sisters, "Then we need to tie him to someone."      Lachesis shook her head, "No, that won't work, he needs a strong hand to raise him."      Atropos lifted two threads, "How about them? They are barren and want nothing more than to have a child."      Clotho eyed the threads suspiciously, those two were barren for a reason. "Why the sudden change of heart?"      Atropos shrugged, "He's not really theirs, is he?"