This young lady, the centerpiece of The Eleventh Age series, is in my head 24/seven.

Born December 21, 1989, Elli turns 16 early in the story.  As our hero, she is just learning the truth of who she is, what she is and must become, and the destiny Fate has placed on her head for more than ten thousand years.  Elli is a thinker, she questions everything (to the point of annoying people like Elijah), and the idea of Fate and being fated bothers her greatly.

One of my favorite scenes in the first book is in chapter 14, when Elijah is attempting to explain Fate to Elli.  He’s a thinker also, but while Elli has a tendency to think scientifically, Elijah thinks philosophically:

“Fate is… a bit harder to explain.  Some people would have you believe that Fate’s the design of an all-powerful God.  Others would have you believe that it is simply the direction that the universe has always intended to take–the evolution of chance, perhaps, manifest in a new and intelligent form.  Either way, there is some intelligence of some kind there, I believe, otherwise there’s no way to explain why some people have simple premonitions or others get whole messages about what will happen years from now.  Maybe some are just so in tune with what is going on that they can predict what will be, but I don’t think so–I’ve had too much opportunity living here to meet too many seers that are completely out of touch with reality,” he laughed quietly.  “Personally, I like to think of Fate as the collective energy of everything, the all, past, present and future, every thought, dream, intention, will and force of everything that has ever, might ever, or will ever exist.  It’s easier for me to cope with it as such a glorious monstrosity than to fall victim to the ages old arguments no one will ever know the answer to.”

Elli scrunched up her nose and gave him a curious look.  “You know how you taught me that energy contains every possibility and in order to do magic we just have to learn how to release our energy in the direction of the desired potential?  We give it our will?”

“More or less,” Elijah nodded.  “I hope I didn’t sound quite so pedantic when I said it.”

Elli laughed, then frowned, shaking her head.  “No. Anyway, I wonder if maybe Fate’s sort of like quantum entanglement.  As we give the energy our will, all the unused potential has to have somewhere to go, so the energy takes on a will of its own.  Some people hear the possibilities as prophecies.  And we’re all affected by it, even without our knowledge, because we’re all made up of the same stuff. I mean, everything in the universe is within  us, so we’re all part of the entanglement, right?  So maybe Fate is just… spin.”  As Elijah grinned at her, Elli caught herself blushing and held her face in her hands. “I know it’s a stupid idea,” she added quickly.

“No, that was actually quite brilliant,” he laughed.  “You very well could be onto something.  I don’t pretend to know much of anything like that though, as you’re talking like man again.”