In a grey/sepia version of the world, three siblings walked the city streets of Soma. The narrow streets were crowded- as it always was at this time of day. The folk of lesser living didn't survive their days with idle activity and rushed to fulfill their meager existence.

  Such desperation. Such futility. The middling brother considered their pointless plight with apathy.

  The fates often took pity on these lesser beings, put into their charge by beings no greater. They were made to be story tellers. Fate weavers. Interfering in the affairs of gods or men. Born to make any certain victory, or defeat- less certain. To keep the power of the world flowing and to never allow it to stagnate in one place too long.

  And recently, an influx of power had travelled to this insignificant city. The affects of their visit were still rippling across the many eventualities.

  The oldest of the three was male, with a faded grey robe on. With silver hair that had receded and a clean shaved face who spoke gently. The youngest was a girl, who wore a regal dress and spoke poshly. While the one of middling age was a man, who spoke with authoritative but noble grace. He wore slim-fitting fencing attire. White slacks and dark grey vest over a royal blue shirt.

  They weaved through the crowd of citizens, who had been frozen in time while they blurred effortlessly past.

  The three vastly different individuals stopped outside a heap of rubble. The towns thieves guild had been demolished by an unstoppable force.

  "This one eludes us still.", "Surely, older brother- you could divine his intentions by now?" the girl said, coyly. The older one nodded. "It is irrefutable. It is after the god. Whatever it is." his eyes shined and he could see a ghostly version of agent Craig walk into the building after effortlessly smushing the guards head into a wall.

  "It must end." the middling brother said. "Could the gods current champions stop it?" the young girl asked. The elder shook his head; "No. The Arkai nor even the Fae would be sufficient for that matter... This being draws on power from beyond this world. We must counter it with our own. A new champion, from the other side.", "A player? Then you believe we should change our position regarding them?" the middling brother asked, appalled at the idea.

  "When they started landing on our doorstep, brother, it was impossible to. But now- I'll admit, the pests are contemptible, but our younger sister claims to have seen potential in the players. Isn't that so, Clotho?"

  She smiled. "I like the players, they're so fuzzy! Their aura disappears and reappears in weird spaces, like a magic trick. They're missing parts. But everything they're missing still works! It's like a tree that's all leaves and no tree!"

  The two men looked at the strange girl. She was vastly intelligent, but lacked the experience to articulate what she means efficiently.

  "Yes, but what of their potential?" the middling brother asked.

  Her face scrunched up a bit- "Well, they're... Immortal. They can't be killed, only contained or sent back to their realm of origin, like gods. But they're soft. Like field mice. They're smarter than most people in our world, and they're creative. Many of them have weird ideas, like 'rights', they think people have fundamental rights. Cute, right?" she smiled at them.

  The two brothers were plain faced.

  "We were designed to run the world, but these 'players' are ruining the order we painstakingly created. That's hardly potential...", the middle brother said. "And it feels as if it's by design, brother. I feel the urge to not interfere with players as I do with the natural born. As Clothos says, their power comes from beyond this world so it makes it difficult to direct."

  "In time, we will learn their behavior as we have the natural born. Those missing pieces will be found. But for now, we turn them on each other. Create a contained feedback loop. We can't allow any more gods to be destroyed."

  "Agreed. Sister?", she was eating a skewered rat that was being sold at a vendor. "Hmm?", "What is your view regarding the players."

  "I say we reach out to a few gods and set up a tournament."

  At that, the two gods looked at her with raised eyebrows.

  She tossed the rat on-the-stick over her shoulder. "Look, it has all of our favorite things." she pointed to her self and counted off a finger; "1. potential.", then she pointed at the middle brother "2. merit", and "3. an end."

  They looked to each other confused. Then back at the small girl with black hair and fiery orange splotches of color mixed in. "So we have these players compete for survival, and those of them that do are rewarded with a chance to be free of this world. They'll protect our interests and this world or never leave it... A dastardly plan, little sister." the middling brother said smiling.

  "I didn't say any of that, but that sounds good too." she said going for another rat kebab.

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  "I only hope the gods will be open to it, surely they are aware of this threat by now. But our control over them only spans so far..." the eldest said.

  But now the middling brother was thinking, he paced back and forth.

  "We could play on that old feud of theirs. What do they call themselves? 'The betrayers', an odd name isn't it? Who would call themselves that?", "They didn't, they merely adopted the title as a point of pride." the elder informed him. "So we can use this tournament to settle that childish feud once and for all, while on the other hand solve this business about 'other worlds' and 'players' as well...", the eldest said. "At least for a time.", their sister chimed in.

  "Yes, for a time. That much goes without saying, sister."

  Then suddenly, the three remained in place as the world blurred around them.

  As if it spun beneath their feet.

  They had emerged in another town when it slowed. "What are you showing us now, brother?" Clothos asked.

  "This is the capital of Adun, remember?", she looked around the dingy impoverished neighborhood. "No. Not this part.", "Yes, it seems the fates can't remember all." he said in a snarky way, getting her back for her comment about his memory earlier.

  "I suppose so. But the question remains.", "Well, dear sister, this is where our problem headed to next. This tavern is occupied by a players guild it seems."

  The middling brother started walking away. "Where are you going?" the eldest asked him. He waved behind himself as he walked; "I'll get that tournament thing started... You know how I am."

  His sister put her hands on her hips and smiled brightly; "When you start something- you finish it!", he chuckled back-

  "That's right."

  The middle brother left them to their investigation and went to the beings he needed to talk to immediately- the gods.

  ---

  He emerged out of a dark red boulder. He brushed his short black hair back and used his abilities to make the heat less smoldering.

  The sky was blackened with thick swirling clouds that emitted red lightening unendingly. Apart from the roaring thunder- there were the sounds of screams and crying souls. "Ah!" a voice cried out. The fate looked down to see he had stepped on some poor fellows hand.

  "Oh, I'm sorry, how rude of me.", the hand gripped his ankle in response; "P-please, h-help me..." he groaned out painfully.

  The fate pulled his leg away; "That's not my responsibility. Perhaps I will send some goodwilled adventurer on a quest to resurrect you. Good day to you." he lied. He's probably created two quests in his time. That would be micromanagement for him. He handled bigger schemes, schemes like the one he currently concocted.

  His sister had dangled a spectacularly entertaining idea to him, and now the obsession had set in.

  He strode across the fiery landscape and arrived at a palace carved from the lifeless red rock. Two demons guarded the entrance but disregarded him. Fate went where it pleased.

  The large metal doors groaned and opened to greet him.

  "Talos! My old friend, it's been some time since you visited! Are you here to make light of the sorry state of things as you typically do?", a massive figure over nine feet tall saluted him from their skull throne.

  "No, no, not this time Typhus. Actually, I'd like to offer an entertaining solution to your family feud."

  "REALLY!? That would be like, so cool of you. Finally you're taking an interest. I assumed you thought it was beneath you." he sat forward eagerly, spilling a bit of wine from his oversized golden chalice.

  Talos hid a clenched fist behind his back. It was true, he could care less and in fact he found the feud annoying. It made every situation a matter of good vs evil, and it was so painfully cliche.

  "Yes, quite. I must say Typhus you are... Speaking differently than how you did when we last spoke."

  Typhus smiled, showing blackened rotted teeth, his sickly yellow eyes seemed to flair with light. "Ah, you are probably right. I've been watching what these players call 'films', I've imprinted their memories onto palantirs and have been enjoying a show called 'Keeping up with the Kardashians.', I'd offer for the damned to watch it as well, but they seem to prefer the flames. Their loss. It's like they don't care about Chloes pregnancy scare. Would you like to see?"

  "Perhaps another time. I'd like to know if you were still interested in selecting a champion among the players."

  "You're kidding."

  "I'm not."

  The god took a sip from his wine. Went to speak- but stopped and took another drink. "Say I do this, after all you fates speaking about how these players are an 'unknown' and that you would need time to figure them out- what do I get?"

  "AAAH! AAAH!" a person started shouting as they woke up in a metal cage with many barbs. Typhus grimaced, and waved a hand. "Stop that confounded noise!" a demon with horns all over it's body shimmied over- "But sir, it's the damned- their eternal torment.", "I know! Just- take it outside!"

  The demon complied- looking to a few other demon servants who stood off to the side. They unlatched the massive cage and cradled it in their arms as they left the throne room. "AAAAH!", "Aaaaah!" the screaming mans voice became muffled as the door to the throne room slammed shut.

  "It's hard to find good help these days... What were we saying?" Typhus asked.

  "Player champion.",

  "Player champion, that's right. What do I get for helping you?"

  Talos sighed and conjured a chair near him. It stood in stark contrast to the red-on-black theme of the place. The supporting structure was leafy in design, and gold. While the cushions were a deep royal blue.

  He sat down. This would be a long conversation, and he started with Typhus first for a reason.

  "As I said, I plan on helping you deal with your age old feud. And the champions can be apart of it. I know the reason your more like-minded siblings lost the initial conflict was because you were outnumbered, but individually many of you are more powerful than your rival siblings." Typhus nodded along as he explained, none of this was new to him.

  "I thought, if you could get champions to represent you- in a neutral tournament where each god would be represented individually by their corresponding champions- it'd be a much fairer competition to affect the fate of the realm. Whoever wins, will get a single favor from the fates."

  "Two."

  "One."

  "One and you have to visit."

  "...One."

  Typhus sighed, "It seems I have no choice in the matter, it's not as if I can allow the other gods to have an advantage. In the end, the fates control the gods, and the gods control the humans. As it's always been. But this, this will change things. But that is your intention, isn't it? Does it have anything to do with that supposed 'god killer'?" he asked, swirling the goblet in his hand.

  "...Possibly.", the big red man scoffed; "I'd like him to come down here and try that. I'd tear him a new one while I fuck him in the old."

  "Of that I'm sure. Would you like to know the details?"

  He waved a hand- "I'll choose a champion, in fact I already have one in mind. You just tell me when and where. I care not for the details, my champion will inherit my power, and so victory is assured either way."

  Talos smiled and stood up- his chair disappeared.

  "Very well.", "Are you going? You know, I was just about to watch the next episode- they were giving their parents a stripper pole for their anniversary, it's quite exciting.", "How the players come up with such theater, I'll never know. But I'm afraid I must be away, there are many gods to speak with on this matter. I thank you for your hospitality." he bowed and turned away.

  "If you speak with that light bitch tell her that I have worshippers moving into her lands and she better keep her grabby hands to herself this time!" he shouted after him.

  Talos shook his head. It would be a long day.