This theme proves to be is a central preoccupation in A Game of Fate, for even as the world of the novel is governed by the Moirai, the actions of the key characters simultaneously champion the power of individual choice. The narrative eventually resolves this conflict by suggesting that while destiny establishes key circumstances and connections, the characters’ determination to exercise their free will ultimately defines their actions and shapes their futures.

The power of fate is most evident in the long-established connection between Hades and Persephone: the result of a bargain that Demeter once made with the Fates. Upon seeing Persephone for the first time, Hades perceives a fragile “cord that ran from his chest to [hers]” (28), and with this physical manifestation of their predetermined bond, he must immediately come to terms with the fact that he must unquestioningly acquiesce to this major development in his life. He learns from the Fates that his bond with Persephone is the price that Demeter, who despises Hades, paid for their favor in granting her a child. This predestination feels like a “game” to Hades: a form of torture in which his deepest desires are dangled before him. This sense of cosmic puppetry extends to Aphrodite’s bargain, which is her attempt to force a fated outcome of love through a wager. In both instances, fate is presented as an inescapable force that sets the stage for the novel’s primary conflicts as the characters strive to impose their own will on circumstances that have already been set in stone.

As both Hades and Persephone struggle to approach the situation on their own terms, their actions defy the seeming inevitability of fate, and the narrative consistently elevates the importance of free will. Although he knows that Persephone is fated to be his queen, Hades is tormented by the question of whether she “would have chosen him if [she had been] given the freedom” (45) to do so. His desire for her to choose him freely, rather than being bound by destiny, illustrates his understanding that a forced relationship is no relationship at all.

Paradoxically, Hades’s decision to bind Persephone in a contract is itself an act of free will, for he uses this ploy as a way to exert control over the situation; although he willfully restricts her options, he wants to gain the space to win her affection on his own terms.

Even secondary characters have a chance to grapple with the dictates of fate, for the mortal Sisyphus actively defies his destined demise and manages to cheat it by breaking Atropos’s shears, disrupting the natural order. This act of defiance illustrates that even a mortal can challenge the Moirai’s decree. Likewise, Orpheus breaks into the Underworld to beseech Hades for the return of his deceased wife, hoping to subvert that which has already come to pass. However, just as Sisyphus still dies in the end, Orpheus is granted only a single day to spend with his wife in the Underworld, and these events both imply that any full or partial subversion of the Fates’ will can only be temporary.

In the end, St. Clair suggests that destiny and free will are not mutually exclusive, and Hades and Persephone’s relationship illustrates this idea. The Fates may create the path and the circumstances, but the ones destined to walk that path must then determine how they will walk it. Thus, they have the freedom to choose whether to succumb to fate, defy its will, or seek to control their own destinies, and from this inner struggle, their true character is forged.