WORLD FORUM DEBATE TRANSCRIPT: PORTAL METAPHYSICS

TRANSCRIPT

TOPIC: Portal of Fate Metaphysics
LOCATION: The World Forum
PARTICIPANTS
	Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Glomdoring, moderator
	Miska, mistress of the Forum
	Luce Shevat of Hallifax
	Eiselle Mes'ard of Gaudiguch
	Norin Saltfeather
	Altazar y'Cafici of Magnagora
	Laindriss of the Glomdoring
	Huskii Myeras of the Serenwilde
	Cheliyi Lunarose of New Celest
	Ronin Willowstitch
	Kaiyo, companion to Luce
	unnamed thoughtful scholar
	unnamed orclach scholar

~

ESEI: As most of us are aware, the Portal of Fate has served us for generations. It was the Elder Xyl who built it, at the direction of the Fates Themselves, and the Elder Meridian who watched over the first Fate-touched who entered it. It was built here, then Mount Dynara and now Mount Avechna.

ESEI: Some are forever lost to the Portal, and as memory changes when one enters. Perhaps only the Fates know how many have been lost to that between. This brings me to my first two points of reference.

ESEI: First: the Portal of Fate changes memory, not merely of the people who enter but also the loved ones, friends, allies, and enemies of those individuals.

ESEI: Second: we do not know what happens to the people who do not leave the Portal.

ESEI: Third: objects may be placed into the Portal of Fate, but they are not found again, presumably destroyed in the passage.

ESEI: Fourth: a shard may enter the Portal as one race and exit it as another, and many find themselves human after the fact.

ESEI: Fifth: it is known that the Fate-touched, should they succeed with leaving the Portal, are transformed, supposedly touched by a so-called Other.

ESEI opens the floor.

ALTAZAR raises a hand, wishing to speak.

EISELLE raises a hand, wishing to speak.

ESEI welcomes ALTAZAR to the floor.

ALTAZAR: Wyrden Haruspex, honoured gathered, I am Altazar y'Cafici of Magnagora, once a lecturer in this very forum. I wish to query the first point made, namely that the Portal of Fate changes memory of not just those who enter, but of their loved ones, allies, and the like. What proof do we have of this?

LUCE: The most obvious proof of that is the need for parents to acknowledge children after the fact. We've many storied families and houses with long lineages, after all.

ALTAZAR: Is that not so because the person going through the Portal of Fate have, themselves, been changed by the process?

ALTAZAR: They might be of a different race even, and have no memory of their kin. Stands to reason that a furrikin father would not recognise their abruptly tae'dae offspring after their transformation.

ESEI: A family related by blood Before may be one's true family After as well - or not. It is rather up to the persons involved, no? Sometimes the soul calls to like, and the Fate-touched tend to form stronger bonds with one another moreso than not. If a child enters the Portal but their parents do not, it is likely they will never find each other again.

ALTAZAR: I concede this point, the Hall of Records does not require formal tests to acknowledge familial relation. However, I do not believe we should take as fact that the Portal of Fate can interfere with the memory of those who do not choose to interact with it.

LUCE: One may as well argue that the beings who step forth from the Portal are no longer the persons who stepped into It, which is an interesting philosophical stance, but has just as much evidence. Is your assertion that those who have clear recollections from Before have been deluded?

NORIN, addressing ESEI: Are we claiming that the portal-touched and those not are unlikely to have been related? There are many in our numerous organizations which trace their lineage to those who have never entered the Portal. I would instead suggest that the likelihood of their meeting may be reduced, but not rendered null.

LAINDRISS: Perhaps not the Portal itself, but the Fates weaving the fabric of destiny around the fate-touched, could alter those who did not go through the Portal.

ESEI, addressing NORIN: I do not mean to imply such a thing, as I myself come from such a lineage, only that those thus far proven have been large and ancient lineages, such as the Stormcrows and Shevats. I have yet to hear a Fate-touched child reuniting with non-touched parents or similar relatives.

ALTAZAR: To assume to understand the workings of the Fates is folly, if some can recall something of their past after passage through the Portal of Fate, perhaps it is by Their design, or perhaps a misweaving of sorts.

CHELIYI, referring to RONIN: I am not quite sure if this was an argument, but! I am related to a non portal persons.

ESEI, referring to CHELIYI and RONIN: One case.

EISELLE: In the book of Xyl, didn't the fates provide the method for Xyl to create the portal? I think what Laindriss suggesting that the Fates involvement have merit.

MISKA refers to the blackboard and its collected excerpts.

ORCLACH SCHOLAR: We have multiple records of those surviving the Portal that proved their blood to be the blood of ancient families.

ALTAZAR: In any case, I simply wished to posit that the first point raised should not be taken at face value as it has far reaching implications. I would instead suggest that it is the change one undergoes that makes finding kin once more difficult, for both sides of the family.

ALTAZAR yields the floor.

NORRIN, addressing ALTAZAR: Admittedly, it was more difficult to find Chel when she uh. Turned into a living tree.

ALTAZAR: Wyrden Haruspex, if I may continue?

LAINDRISS: I myself have still not regained any memories from before the portal, so I do not know if the race I was before I became one with the Wyrd was truly mine.

ESEI welcomes ALTAZAR to the floor.

ALTAZAR: These are the research notes of one Xanthippe i'Vipere, a family that has traced their lineage back to House i'Xiia of Magnagora, "Investigations into Immanidivinus and the Soul".

ALTAZAR In these research notes she has outlined her studies upon this very topic, including research into the Portal of Fate. She has attempted to reproduce the Goddess Mugowumpois's experiment of tracing something or someone through it.

ALTAZAR: She was, unsurprisingly, unsuccessful. But she has, for her experiments, sent three of her children into the Portal of Fate, only for them to be lost to her forever.

ALTAZAR: Until such as time as the House i'Xiia was refounded and this, among other historical papers, was found, the children in question had no recollection of their ordeal, or their mother. The notebook, as such, brings nothing illuminating to our debate, but I find that historical support of statements we have already made to be a valid endeavour.

LUCE: Do her notes include detailed sketches of the children in question?

ALTAZAR: They do not, she appears to have been more focused on trying to trace the glyph she tried to imbue into them, than the actual memory-impeding and other effects of the Portal."

ALTAZAR: This notebook and the other records are all stored within the i'Xiia Asylum if any are interested, but you will need either an i'Xiia or a Magnagoran to open the passage, it is inaccessible otherwise.

ESEI: That is curious. I do not believe I have heard of anything of the like, only long-distant relatives remaining after a House has been founded or refounded.

LUCE: The temporal disconnects between subjects entering and exiting the Portal likely don't help things in that regard.

ALTAZAR: It is unclear what race the children were after their journey through the Portal, it is only known that once they discovered their history, they embraced their viscanti heritage fully.

ALTAZAR: They may as well have exited as mugwumps. Which is entertaining if you are familiar with the racial composition of the Great Houses of Magnagora.

ALTAZAR sets the notebook up for display.

LUCE: As I recall, a great many of the city's citizens would have been mugwumps prior to Cosmic Hope, yes?

ALTAZAR: Indeed, more specifically though, the House i'Xiia was mugwump.

ALTAZAR yields the floor.

ESEI: Shall we move on to another point?

ESEI welcomes EISELLE to the floor.

EISELLE: Oh! I- Yes, I just had a comment really, about what you said about objects going through the portal of fate, and how they are presumed destroyed. I was thinking to suggest a theory that they might not be destroyed but perhaps reappear as items or artifacts that will be of use to those who successfully exit the Portal of Fate.

ESEI: It is not impossible, aye. I have placed a fair few items in the Portal, though none of any particular note, to see what happens. However...

ESEI: Perhaps we might go try to see if something explodes when placed inside it.

CHELIYI: I means... Don't pieces of candy get chucked at us from the portal during the Haunting?

LUCE: It's honestly impossible to prove either way. We know the Fates seem to revel in unraveling our attempts to understand Their ways.

CHELIYI: What if they're the ingredients for candy.

ESEI: You make a good point, Cheliyi. Wandering souls, after Atropos's Shears are lost or broken, are brought back to the Portal in exchange for candy.

ESEI: Are these lost souls then turned into Fate-touched?

LAINDRISS: That is the candy that looks like body parts, right?

Several members of the debate confirm.

LUCE: I was under the impression that such souls were those who have died who were not needed further in the Weft, and are thus allowed to be rewoven into new lives.

LUCE: I...vaguely recall one of the Three mentioning something similar, the first time it happened in modernity.

ESEI: Is the Portal, then, a device to reincarnate in and of itself?

ALTAZAR: I prefer that explanation to wondering if the candy we are given used to be a person.

LUCE: Heavens forbid.

CHELIYI: Oh, I meant less that the uh, souls are candy, and more that... the junk we go in with gets repurposed into like.... food. Y'knows... Alchemy style.

LAINDRISS: Oh, no, I was just wondering if the candy is the people who went into the Portal and never came back.

ESEI: Perhaps the objects simply -are- destroyed, much like the way that various Nexii seem to be capable of doing.

LUCEFood is somewhat rare, from the Fates. Unless one were to count the Cornucopea of Wonder as Fate-given.

CHELIYI If so, the Fates are really cruel and also morbidly funny.

ALTAZAR: Tasty candy. Either way.

LUCE: I believe the candies are the extent of it. Weapons, instruments, and curatives, however are far more frequent boons on new and re-awaking adventurers.

ALTAZAR: Avechna's Peak is known for roving gangs of pilgrims, the Fates simply must equip those they send back out of the world with something to fend off their incessant requests to see the peak.

EISELLE: And awakening adventurers they come through the portal with different clothes and equipment?

LAINDRISS: But moving onwards, if I remember correctly, you can stand at the portal and beseech the Fates to reincarnate you if you realise you exited the Portal in a form that was wrong. I am not certain therefore, if that is a function of the Portal, a power of the Fates, or if the Fates can use the portal to do things, like, operating a machine.

LUCE: I believe it's less a mechanism of the Portal directly than that the Portal is some form of conduit to a place where the Three are able to more readily reweave a life.

ESEI: Perhaps the inside of the Portal is much like the Elders describe the Void, and those that wander there still have not met a so-called Other, and thus perish if left too long...

LUCE: We've no way to test that hypothesis though. As I said, They're fond of foiling attempts to understand the thing.

ESEI: Thus is the spirit of the matter - we can only theorize and infer.

LUCE: There does seem to be a disconnect between when a person enters and when others leave. Or rather, there does not seem to be any particular connection between those.

LAINDRISS: Do the Fates currently reside inside the portal? I know for a while before the Taint Wars, they were on Shallamar.

ALTAZAR: It is a valid point the Initiate [LAINDRISS] raises, though, that beyond just a total transformation, the Portal of Fate does also permit one to take on the right form should one feel passage through it did not go as planned. It is a power not found elsewhere. It is worth adding to the overall list of facts outlined at the start.

CHELIYI: I'll admit, I've never actually seen a non fate touched person actually enter the portal befores.

CHELIYI: So .. do not know how the space is between entering and leaving.

LUCE, addressing CHELIYI: I actually was late because I was looking for a book I thought I'd read once, about a scientist who'd made a study of Fate-touched. I couldn't find the blasted thing though, so I'm beginning to suspect I saw it in the Dreaming. Which is...not a place one should rely upon for the laws of nature.

ESEI: There is also the ability of changelings, though perhaps that is more the power of an artifact. On the other hand, finks and gnomes are not immediately available on the outset, like most others.

LAINDRISS: Perhaps it is harder for finks and gnomes to retain their form as their progenitor splintered in aetherspace, not on the prime plane.

CHELIYI: That actually... makes sense. Aren't there, ah... on that one bubble, the race that someone kept trying to learn the language of for a few centuries?

CHELIYIThey cannot be reached by the Portal of Fate for fate touched, no.

LUCE: The kaelye, I believe.

CHELIYI: Starts with a K, yesly. Yes!

ALTAZAR: That is a point I had not considered before. I thought, perhaps, it is due to their lack of established colonies within the Basin of Life, but your explanation is much more likely, Initiate."

LUCE: We only have one potential race that comes to mind that could prove or disprove that, and they are...far too young.

CHELIYI: Hm... but, Kepherans only became Portal touched once the underground opened.

LAINDRISS: Because it's hard to enter the portal if you don't know it exists.

ESEI: For now, at least. Though, I understand the goddess that Splintered into the kaelye was not of precisely sound mind, yes?

THOUGHTFUL SCHOLAR: Hmmm, sorry to interrupt, but is that important I wonder?

ALTAZAR: Perhaps also hard to make a choice while exiting it, if one does not know some options even exist. I highly doubt the secretive Fates lay all their cards on the table while one ponders their choices.

CHELIYI: Maybe is more accurate to say that the Portal can only give people a shape if the shape has entered the portal before...

LUCE: Likely not. One could argue that many of the Progenitors were not of sound mind when They splintered. Bollikin and Loboshi were both noted to be deeply depressed in the accounts of Theirs.

THOUGHTFUL SCHOLAR: But it could still have some effect, hmmm?

THOUGHTFUL SCHOLAR: Just thinking aloud, please, continue!

LAINDRISS: I think the lack of kaelye Fated is more to do with their dependence on the environment of their home demiplane. They are very connected into it. And that environment is not compatible with ours as events of the past demonstrate.

LUCE: I think the illithoid may be the strongest counter-argument for that. They're hardly mad, on the whole, and adventurers may exit the Portal and incarnate into them straight away.

LUCE: But one cannot claim Illith was of sound mind.

LAINDRISS: Was she though? Just because we could not understand her mind, it does not mean she was insane."

CHELIYI: "Insanity" as you puts it is pretty complicated. Not just a state of mind, is often an illness of different kinds. Would argue it is irrelevant.

ESEI: Indeed, it is difficult to argue that we could claim to know the mind or emotions of an Elder in full, much less that of a Soulless, whom are, by nature, more... alien to us.

ESEI: I also recall that there are no known centaur Fate-touched - at least none I am aware of in modern history.

HUSKII: I heard they can only cross the Portal due to the stolen shards they carry by all Illith ate...

LUCE: I suspect dragons may give us some guidance here as well. There are no Fate-touched dragons, but there -are- Fate-touched shards of their Progenitor.

ALTAZAR, gesturing to the blackboard: Book of Meridian - 'But dragons could not go through the Portal of Fate'. It is unclear as to why, only that it is so.

CHELIYI: ... too many legs? We usually say star shapes to refer to people who go in the portals.

NORIN: Maybe a dragon's personality is too strong to adequately bond with an Other?

CHELIYI: And the Elders, they were written as Star Shapes as opposed to some of Their Older Siblings.

LAINDRISS: Centaurs have a strange relationship with Fate. They can tell the future, yet they stubbornly avoid doing anything to affect it. Including, perhaps, becoming Fated.

LUCE: Or too closely bound to the other dragons. We've also yet to see a livari emerge from the Portal.

ESEI: Indeed, the dragon lifecycle is... perhaps one of the more unique, of all the mortal races.

CHELIYI: Didn't dracnari also come from the same Elder as dragons?

CHELIYI: Why aren't they as like... closely linked?"

ESEI: Aye, the Primordial God Dracnoris splintered into both dracnari and dragons.

LUCE: Thus, I think it has less to do with the Progenitor's disposition as the race's.

ESEI: Dragons are also rather solitary, and excluding that brief Ascension, I do not believe we've seen them elsewise.

LUCE: Though...do we have a record of where Dracnoris was when He splintered?

T. SCHOLAR: What if the act if splintering were different somehow for Dracnoris?

ESEI, addressing LUCE: Aye. He splintered in Mount Zoaka, I believe.

LAINDRISS: And dragons do still travel there sometimes.

CHELIYI, addressing T. SCHOLAR: Would make sense. He was... described as a stranger shape than the Elders that we know, yesly.

LAINDRISS: Didn't Dracnoris long to know what being star shaped was like? Perhaps that was a factor in his splintering.

CHELIYI: In one of the Elder books, I think. Maybe his own?

ESEI: Ah, the Zokona Volcano, pardon.

ALTAZAR: Given the very complicated way dragons and True Dragons function, it would not surprise me if they were outside of the usual soul and shard cycle and thus incompatible with the purpose and workings of the Portal of Fate.

ESEI, addressing CHELIYI: He took the form of a traditional dragon, yes.

LUCE, addressing EISELLE: Don't your folk attempt to hatch dragons at some point in your quest for your belt?

CHELIYI, addressing LUCE: I thought that was a wyvern. Which is like... different?

ESEI: In the Book of Meridian, Dracnoris says that He is not a Star God, and wonders what He might splinter into.

ESEI, addressing LUCE: That would be the fire wyverns of Zoaka.

HUSKII: The Dragons who hunt the aether currents are... likely also different.

ESEI: I feel I have heard a theory where Dracnoris's sister, Draxbaylock, splintered into the black dragons of aetherspace, but that is, of course, unconfirmed.

ALTAZAR: If memory serves, the dracnari lecturer mentioned Dracnoris' splintering was not a given, as a Primal.

HUSKII: Do we know of others which can't cross the portal? I don't think I've heard of a fatetouched fae... And although there are a few very clever cows, I don't think one was ever bumped through the portal's gate...

CHELIYI: Ah... just to recap. What was the original topic of this sections? Do feel like we've grown down a rabbit burrow.

ESEI: I understand that the only ones that the Fates confirmed to be unable to pass through the Portal were the Divines, as They are too... linear, I believe the terminology.

ESEI, addressing CHELIYI: The Metaphysics of the Portal of Fate.

CHELIYI: No. I mean, the point we are arguing right nows.

EISELLE: I had proposed about items going through the portal not being destroyed.

LUCE: We did get in the weeds then.

ESEI: Perhaps who and what exactly may become Fate-touched, perhaps.

LUCE: Or at least, who may emerge."

CHELIYI: Well. My vote is that you gotta be star shaped and able to actually physically reach the Portals.

ESEI: As Divines are not permitted to enter, much is likely the same of the half-formed of Cosmic creches, not that they may depart said creche for long without risking insanity.

CHELIYI: I don't know how the other is shaped, but if there's one common thing about fate touched, we got legs and arms and a head.

KAIYO: We'd like to raise a point of order.

KAYIO: Are we concerning ourselves, for this debate, to -this- Portal of Fate? Or should those of other Basins of Life be considered as well?

ESEI, addressing KAIYO: Do you speak of alternate timelines, or elsewhere in this world presently?

CHELIYI: ... there are other Basins?

KAIYO, addressing ESEI: The former. Timelines and realities divergent from our own.

ESEI, addressing CHELIYI: No. At least, it is unlikely, considering that the Horizon Walkers have only found the Fortress of Grimkeep over these last few hundred years. Unless Jojobo has its own Portal of Fate.

CHELIYI: Rights.

LUCE, addressing KAIYO: I'm not seeing the relevence here.

ALTAZAR raises a hand high in the air, signaling his wish to speak.

ESEI, addressing KAIYO: It is difficult to say, as we only live in the one timeline - the Prime Timeline, per the Vernal Isikathi.

ESEI welcomes ALTAZAR to the floor.

ALTAZAR: I would posit it might be related to a being's suitability to the plots of the Fates as well - who and what can enter. The Book of Xyl tells us that the Portal is the result of the Fates interfering. It is Clotho who reveals the parchment with schematics for the Portal, as part of a discussion that mentions the inevitable triumph of the Soulless. "We do not interfere often", she says right before that, and then interferes.

ALTAZAR: Therefore, the purpose of the Portal of Fate and who is permitted into it may well be interrelated.

ALTAZAR yields the floor.

ESEI: Perhaps Her keyword there is 'often', but I see the point.

MISKA refers to the blackboard.

LAINDRISS yields the floor and departs.

ESEI welcomes CHELIYI to the floor.

CHELIYI: Why do younger folks have to pray for salvations? Is it to the Fates? Perhaps is an easy question to answer, but I thought prayers were for like... Elders.

ESEI: I understand that praying for salvation is explicitly to the Fates, yes. Prayer to the Elders is more of a ... direct communication.

LUCE: If memory serves, those who provoke the Gods' wrath can also be denied the gift of the phoenix's resurrection.

LUCE: So not necessarily just the young, it's just that the demidivine have ways to bypass needing to beseech the Fates for resurrection.

LUCE: Gods know the Sisters don't do it on their own though. I've heard stories of Fate-touched needing to re-fan their sparks for delaying too long.

CHELIYI: Wait, actually yeahs. What about when fate touched are turned to maggots? Isn't that like... a shape change?

LUCE: More of a curse, that.

ESEI: Yes, it is a curse.

KAIYO: It touches on our previous point though. There are those amongst the mortals who, because of another timeline's interference, may assume the shape of the nagasith, who are not star-shaped.

CHELIYI yields the floor.

CHELIYI, addressing KAIYO: Eh? Nagasith are star shaped, yes?

CHELIYI: Some have like, kinda big tails but they gotta have legs.

HUSKII: Two legs... two arms... A head... Lots of folk have tails...

ESEI: The typical strain of nagasith -are- star-shaped. However, Fate-touched tend to get a bit more... Creative. With their shapes.

ALTAZAR: It is their humanoid features that permitted them to do their job as spies, legs and feet and everything.

LUCE: I do tend to weigh Fate-touched furrikin slightly less heavily than typical denizens in my phenotyping project. Not that that's a simple matter even with that caveat.

CHELIYI: Admittedly, do not know many other mugwumps who have a tail like me.

HUSKII: And there are races which have changed a lot from their shard... Faeling for example! While they share characteristics with their Elfen shard, much different!

ESEI clears their throat.

ESEI: I must say that this has been a curious debate with you all, though I fear I must depart soon, myself. I am curious to know if any of you might be interested in forming some sort of speech and debate association, and also if any of you are interested in placing objects in the Portal of Fate, for scientific purposes.

ALTAZAR and LUCE raise their hands.

ESEI: Ah, well. We'll begin with the Portal. Those that wish to join, feel welcome to follow me.

ESEI: Further news on the Association shall be posted when I find a moment to form it, yes.

ESEI closes the debate. ALL, sans MISKA, depart.

~~~

BLACKBOARD

BOOK OF XYL
===========
"Recording gods is no challenge," croaked the ancient one known as
Atropos. "Your destinies may as well be straight lines, so predictable.
Mortals, however, they can surprise us, how often do we have to reweave
the tapestry patterns."

"Your job of recording will not last long, I fear," I said. "The rate
the Soulless Ones consume the mortals, they will eventually be
overwhelmed."

"True," said Atropos with a toothless grin. "It is inevitable that the
Soulless will triumph. For mortals, as you call them, are weak, not
strong enough to survive."

"Yes, you are correct about us," said Lachesis. "Our duty in this
reality would then soon end. It is a shame, for the interesting parts
have just begun."

"And we do not interfere," said Clotho, then she hesitated and glanced
at the others. "We do not interfere often."

"Often?" I asked. "So sometimes you do interfere?"

Clotho and Lachesis smiled while Atropos grimaced. Clotho hesitantly
stepped towards me, and then dropped a roll of parchment at me feet,
quickly backing away. The Fates waited expectantly. Curious, I picked up
the parchment and unfurled it. It was a set of blueprints, schematics of
great complexity. I felt my crystalline body pulsate quickly as I
studied the blueprints and enlightenment dawned on me.

"This is a portal!" I said. "A gateway that pierces reality. Will this
take us to Dynara and Magnora?"

"No, you Elders could not step through," said Lachesis.

"Only the mortals could enter this portal," said Clotho.

"They will go through," said Lachesis, "be transformed and then return.
It will give mortals a chance, no more, a small testing and
strengthening of their character, some may not survive the portal, but
those that do will shape the destiny of the world."

Over the next year, I labored on what would be called the Portal of
Fate. I constructed it within Mount Dynara, for this mountain was the
fulcrux of all of the essence of the First World itself. I took down the
plinths and protections around the top of Mount Dynara, for this great
peak must become unobtrusive and hidden from the Soulless. I would
create a resonating vibration within the mountain to repel the Soulless.

When finally it was complete, the Portal of Fate stood within a cave
about midway up the mountain peak. All the Elders had gathered, plus the
heroes selected by Meridian. I triggered the final glyph and crackling
arcane energies erupted within the portal. We could not see through the
coruscating field, yet the air warped around us, and we could see
reality shifting within the very cave itself. I tried to place a hand
through the Portal but was repelled. So it was true that Elders could
not enter.

But we saw in time that everything the Fates said was true. The mortals
who survived the Portal of Fate were somehow transformed. Almost without
exception, they ended up doing great deeds, becoming the leaders and
champions and heroes of Lusternia, sometimes even the villains.

Mortals would make pilgrimages from all over to enter the Portal of
Fate. To help, Trillillial wrote songs and stories, encouraging mortals
to do the same, to spread word of the Portal of Fate, so that all who
had heart enough would come and strive to make their mark.

Discovering the secret of how the Portal of Fate changed mortals became
the great obsession of Mugowumpois. She studied each mortal who passed
through, marking their souls, following them through their incarnations.
But the answer always eluded her.

The shard of Mugowumpois whispered the message in my ear. Then, she
stepped back and nodded. I took her to the Portal of Fate, wherein she
stepped through. Sometime later, she emerged from the portal, looking
serene though confused as mortals often did when first returning.

BOOK OF MERIDIAN
================
But dragons could not go through the Portal of Fate, and they were slow
to procreate so their numbers never increased at any relevant rate.
Also, they rarely interacted with any other race except the dracnari,
and even them rarely.
---
With a sigh, I took the crystal from Mlorag. The Fates were watching me
intently. Annoyed, I turned my back on them and released the message.
The voice of a mugwump, sounding almost identical to Mugowumpois,
whispered into my mind, "You want to know the secret of the Portal of
Fate. Look into their eyes." That was all.

"Have you walked through the Portal of Fate, Mlorag?" I asked.

Then I noticed it. Beyond her own perception was that of another, as if
someone or something else stared out with her. This other presence must
have become entwined when she entered through the Portal of Fate.

"They are quite unaware of the Other," said Clotho quietly in the Elder
tongue so Mlorag wouldn't understand. "When they step through the
portal, they brush against another reality, finding another soul that
resonates with their own, a quantum twin."