• It was in the lands of gold and azure skies, a place lost to the laws of man but not that of miracles and the wonderment that was life.
    It was of a kingdom far to the lands of the west, where crystal water flowed over fields or purple iris and silver white lilies that fell within the streams and decorated the water like ships to the seas beyond.
    Within the heart of this land stood the palace of the royal family, enriched by the company and the laughter of people young and old, as they calibrated the eternal spring that their lands forever knew.
    And as night fell upon this land of Eden, the stars would sing a sonata over the warm winds that carried the white lily petals, like snow fall that glowed brightly in the light of the graceful moon.
    But one night, that sonata became a dirge, as the sky was blocked out by blackened clouds of a coming storm.
    Into the lands did come an evil, a foul beast of the shadows, who conjured a mighty fortress above the palace of spring, the earth and people below trembling before its might as the evil commanded supreme power over the land.
    The soldiers of the kingdom charged forward to attack, only to be defeated one by one as shadow fell over them and drove them to madness. All seemed lost as the black night continued to remain.
    Then did a light appear within the dark. A knight, who wore his armor with blessings of the people and his king, did stand against the shadow, his will unbroken as he stepped forward with his dutiful sword in hand.
    On a chariot of magic stone, he floated up to the fortress of the evil, and prepared to face the monster within.
    Through beast and steel, he cut a swath in the ranks of the fiendish army, undaunted as he charged forth with light of the dawn in his blade!
    To the deepest chamber within the fortress, he marched, and to the darkest corridors he tread, but he was blocked in his way as he came to the gates of the fortress's very heart.
    The massive doors before him stared down upon his form with a face of diabolical fiend, daring him forward and showing no compassion to any who tried at the master within.
    As the knight grabbed at one of the handles, a chuckling he did hear from behind.
    He turned around with his sword pointed towards the newcomer, but it was not what he had anticipated.
    There, as if laying down on the very air, few feet above the ground, was a human like being as white as the lilies of the lands below the fortress.
    Its long and flowing hair was like the moon's glow, only with the pureness of that which was empty, his clothes were like that of a man from the east, a kimono of finest silk.
    The knight commanded an answer: “Who are thee to be in a place as foul as this? Are thee the master or are thee the servant of the evil I have come to slay?!”
    The ghost like being flashed a mischievous smile, knowing fully well something about to happen, though also ready to tell.
    “I am a spirit of time,” the white one began, “And I have come to warn you, should you enter through that door, you will be defeated.”
    The knight did not believe the spirit's words, “Who are you to say what my fate be? I have not fought monsters and traps to banter words with a pessimist, begone from here and never return!”
    The spirit however, laughed with all it's being, “I did not come here to be thrown away before I gave you an offer,” The being spoke eloquently, “will you at least hear me out, Sir knight?”
    The hero placed his sword down and answered, “Speak, then leave.”
    The spirit floated forward like a phantom on a wind never there, speaking with a silver tongue of a bargain best to be taken.
    “I offer you a gift,” it spoke into the knight's ear, “a gift to bend the power I rule over, the power to return to the past.”
    The knight stepped back to keep the spirit in view, “Why should one such as I deserve a gift that I would not need?” He asked with moral in heart and mind.
    The spirit shook it's head, hair floating upon the wind it lay upon, “You are about to lose a most important battle,” it said simply, “and even if my words are false, why would you not take advantage of the power I'd bestow upon you? The power to rewind back to this spot, to this time, and try again until you win? Victory would be assured!”
    The knight began to think through these words, and soon felt a question reach his throat.
    “And what will I owe thee in return?” he asked with suspicion, “of what price must be paid for such a bargain to be met?”
    The spirit laughed, “The price? All I will need is to watch and enjoy your glorious dual against the beast within those doors you stand before now.”
    Then did the spirit fly behind the knight and whisper in a ear: “Everything is in your favor, go, and with my gift, rule the night away from day and bring back that which you desire! Your kingdom's happiness!”
    And without further speech the spirit brought out from the mist's of time an hour glass of finest craftsmanship, connected by a chain of quick silver to the knight's still beating heart.
    The spirit vanished with it's final words being: “I'll shall watch, you shall act, enjoy your requiem!” and with that did he laugh into the darkness of the never there, leaving the knight to contemplate and struggle.
    The brave hero finally pushed open the doors, and so did he come to see the menacing stare of an evil most cruel, he swung his sword at the darkness that consumed his foe but no! The blade missed as the monstrous shade flew like a bird into the air and threw down a storm of blue fire, burning away at the brave knight's strength and resolve!
    But just as the fire nearly consumed him, a familiar laugh rang out, and all became still, and then did the Knight find himself before the gates he had stepped through moments ago.
    “Tis true!” The knight suddenly realized, “The spirit spoke without lie and sent me back before my apparent demise at the hands of fate!”
    Without seeking the spirit's words or presence, the knight rushed forward, taking once more the battle against the monstrous evil, only to find his blade thrown away and burned once more by the flame!
    “A curse on your luck, villain!” The knight damned as he appeared before the black demon gates.
    Over and over did he try to tear away the darkness with his blade, hoping to catch his vile enemy off guard, but nay! Always was he constantly beaten and always was his sword too weak to penetrate the evil's shadow!
    “How can I win if my blade cannot harm him?!” The knight protested to the heavens above and concealed by ceiling and storm, “My opponent is of thin air and vicious sorcery!”
    The knight again and again tried his best against the monster but never did he so much as scratch the being, always did he hear a laugh before time reversed and returned him to the familiar gates.
    “I...I can't do it...” he fell to his knees, so many tries had he given into defeating the foul beast, he had even tried to stop the warping of time by even becoming the monster's champion, only to be defeated by another knight, he had tried to negotiate with the evil, but it still did nothing but ruin him.
    Over and over had he been beaten by the monster, the laughed of the entertained time spirit ever present and ringing in the knight's mind.
    “It can't end like this...” he told himself, “I'm not strong enough to win, yet even if another take my place, if should fall I will be returned here again and again to feel agonizing shame...”
    The knight ran from the gates, ran back the way he came, for what better chance did he have? Stay and be defeated was all he could hear himself say and think, run and live was all he could reason.
    But as he reached his levitating chariot of stone, all stopped for just a mere moment, and he was before the gate once more.
    “NO!” Cried the knight, “Why am I back at this wretched gate of darkness once more?!”
    “You forgot our deal,” came a voice.
    And the knight turned to see once more the mischievously smiling, spirit of time, who held up the hour glass the knight had seen what seemed an age ago.
    “If you are beaten, you will return right back here,” The spirit reminded, “You ran away, so you immediately lost.”
    “I did not lose!” The knight exclaimed angrily, “I just need to find more allies! Together we can beat the monster beyond these doors! I am all alone!”
    “You have me.” The spirit smirked, “What better power is there then the second chance you always needed?”
    “But I am without the power to beat him!” The knight replied, “Please! Let me take this chance to return to the city below and return with more knights such as myself! I promise to return!”
    The spirit shook it's head with a laugh, “A deal you have made, a deal you will pay. Those are the rules.”
    And so did the knight find himself shoved through the doors by a magical wind and forced into the fray of a battle never ending!
    And every battle the knight entered, the spirit watched, never bored because of insanity having burrowed into it's mind as it watched the epic fight again and again even when the knight refused to fight, the spirit would laugh as the evil tormented him through it all.
    “Why do you do this?” came another voice beside the spirit of time.
    The white haired being turned to meet with a woman of pale completion, covered in a white veil with marigold flower petals seeming to fall from her image at all times.
    “Why do you cause more suffering to a being not worthy of such a pointless immortality?” She asked from behind her veil.
    The spirit of time laughed, “Why not? He would perish in battle? What a bore it would be! Why not let us see all the possible outcomes before letting him come with you, Dear cousin?”
    The veiled spirit then leered at her kin, “If you wish to see every possible outcome, then I shall aid you, by doing what is demanded by natural law.
    The spirit of the hour glass smirked and turned his instrument upside down, stopping the flow of seconds once more and bring both the two before the enervated knight.
    The veiled spirit then came to the mortal man, and she cooed, “Dear child, do not fret over what cannot be stopped, you have seen for yourself that even if you had done otherwise you still would have met with the design fate had in store for thee.”
    “But if this is my fate,” Began the knight most saddened, “Why was even to be born if I could not save that which I care for with all my heart?”
    The spirit of time then vanished with a smile, expecting another performance, leaving his veiled cousin to do as she wished.
    “I did not say fate wouldn't allow such a thing,' she said with kindest heart, “Know that even though Fate be the stone to mark the road's end, destiny be the road you choose to reach said destination.”
    “I do not understand.” The knight lamented.
    “You have been defeated over and over, but you have done so under different conditions.” She explained with wisdom's speech, “I shall grant thee the destiny that you seek, but know that all mortals must be fated to end one day, and with my power I shall end the bargain my cousin, Zeit, who is spirit of all that flows through moment and hour.
    “Who are thee who control such power?” the knight asked hopefully.
    The veiled spirit did not answer, instead she summoned forth a shield for the knight, one that held the face of a skull that bore eyes of purest starred ruby.
    “Take my offering and show it to the evil that you face so hatefully, show him my visage and you shall be victorious, however, once my face is revealed within the eyes of the skulled shield you wield now, you too will suffer the stillness of the end.
    “Be there no other way?” The knight asked with still saddened eyes.
    “It is this, or else suffer the twisted gift of immortal torment.” The womanly spirit apologized.
    The knight then did throw away his sorrow, did then he show courage, for now was the chance he needed, and now was the chance his people and kingdom did ask direly for.
    Into the threshold he did step, and into the darkness he did meet the evil that threatened to engulf his homeland.
    “Gaze upon the eyes of you own demise!” The knight did boom as he charged forward with his shield burning with the phantom light of ghost and specter!
    The eyes of the skull flashed red and burned into the shadow, and so did the evil cringe and cry as it came to see a visage far more terrifying then the darkness it had conjured on it's own.
    But the knight too saw this horror...but it was not the wretched sight the evil had seen, nay, it was the sight of the veiled woman, who was showered in light.
    “Truly are thee a noble knight,” she did say as she offered a hand to the knight, who stood over his body as it lay in peace behind the veil of light only to turn into a curtain of marigold petals and scatter upon the breeze.
    “Though you were given the chance to live but fail, you sacrificed yourself in knowledge that a greater god could be served in losing something not forever fated to live.”
    “I fear that I could have chosen a better way however,” The knight looked up to the being, “I feel remorse that I could not find the better way out of this doomed fate of mine.”
    “Do you believe your journey over?” The spirit asked the knight, “Come, your wings must spread for them to bring light.”
    It was only by looking around himself that the knight did see the purest white wings of a phoenix grow from his back, and so did the two fly through the vanishing fortress, into the dawn of the new spring that called to the lands below.

    Though Fate be unchanging in it's design,
    Destiny gives choice to the road ahead that we traverse towards
    And should that road lead to a fate unwanted
    know that it is our choice in destiny that make us who we are and shall be,
    And not the fate we are forced to bare.