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Abba — The Unchanging
Abba is the goddess of fate, and her name is a palindrome — the same forward as backward. This is not accidental. She is the same at the beginning of an age as at its end, the same to a king as to a beggar. She does not decree outcomes. She holds the shape of things.
Of all the gods in Vael’s pantheon, Abba was the most interesting to write, because she raises an uncomfortable question at the heart of the novel: if she governs fate impartially, what does she make of the Unfinished — people killed before their time, their unlived years stolen? Is an interrupted fate still a fate? Her clergy argue about this in low voices. They have not resolved it. I haven’t either, which feels right.
Her romantic connection to Tement — the god of war and fury — surprises people until they think about it. She values constancy above almost everything. And beneath all of Tement’s fury and noise, he is more constant in his essential nature than most of the pantheon. He is always exactly what he presents himself to be. Abba finds this, in her way, restful.
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Stephen B. Anthony is the author of Transmigrant, an epic science fiction thriller, available on both Amazon and Audible.