The Lords of Order had, sense the beginning of their existence, been trying to right the chaos in the universe. They enlisted unsuspecting souls to deliver their teachings and if that soul was really lucky, they'd give them ultimate power (at a price) in exchange for their servitude until the end of their days.

Quin, Equinox, had very few memories of her father, most of them clouded by a blinding golden light and tainted with her mother's tears.

Her father only came around maybe once a year if she was lucky, or perhaps if her mom was lucky. Quin had never established much of anything with the man who'd help create her but, he had been everything to her mom.

Her mom was once a beautiful woman, eyes greenish blue and deep like the depths of the ocean, hair whiteish gold like the clouds at sunrise, and her smile could light up a room...

At least thats how she'd like to remember her mom, those were all details in stories from her uncle Giovanni. The woman Quin recognized as her mother was frail and broken. Analise's mind was lost well before the girls 10th birthday, a fact she kept to herself for fear someone would try to separate them.

When Quin turned 14 her mother ended her own life, at that point it had been several years since her father had come to visit, almost 6 to be exact.

She couldn't really find it in herself to blame her mom, no it had to be her father's fault, that damned Lord of Order... and the rest of them. In truth she was relieved to no longer watch the woman suffer, her mom had finally found the peace she'd been waiting for.

Not long after... Quin found Dr. Fate waiting for her outside of her cousin Zatanna's home, where she had been living since the tragedy of her mom's death almost a year prior. It wasn't a day they had scheduled to see Giovanni so her anxiety immediately spiked.

"Fate?" She called hesitantly as she walked further up the path, "Zatanna is on a League mission—"

"I am here to see you, Equinox." He answered monotonously.

"Why?" Her voice was irritated, she could feel the hair on the back of her neck raise like a warning. "What do the Lords want from me?"

"From you? Nothing yet." He turned then and slowly floated toward her. His golden glove held out a small ornate pocket watch, "this is a token from your father."

Quin frowned, "I don't want anything from him, he never even came to see me after mom died—"

"Caspian is— he is no longer with us." This time it sounded more like her uncle Giovanni's voice than Nabu's, a soft and gentle tone, "I'm sorry Quin..."

"My father is dead?" She took the watch from him absently, her fingers tracing the magic symbols on the front, "what happened?"

"We are unaware of the circumstances..." Nabu's voice was back.

She looked down at the watch in her hands, a faint chill of magic seemed to call to her from inside it, "this was his?"

"It seems, he left it for you."

It was then that Quin clicked open the lid, a cloud of gold dust burst from inside, coating her face and forcing her to sneeze. "What the hell was—" She paused as lettering seemed to engrave itself into the metal.

Sine sensu qui sis, numquam cognosces si iam domi es.

The icy burn touch of magic coated her skin and she grit her teeth at the effort to not let the untapped well inside her reach out to it. "What does it mean?" She asked Nabu and held out the pocket watch for him to see.

He studied it for a moment, tilted his head up to look at the stars as if listening to something, then looked back at her, "you'll know when the time is right."

Quin scoffed, "do you people know how to say non-cryptic things?"

"We are all very sorry for your losses Equinox..."

"I'm sure you are— goodbye Nabu." She snapped and shoved past him into the small two bedroom house, the door slammed behind her.

In her room Quin played with the pocket watch, there was something about it that pulled on the threads of magic inside her, burning hot strings reached out toward it. Gold light swirled from her palms and wrapped around the watch.

"No no no, stop!" She tried to pull it back in but the watch itself pulsed with cold energy and glowed white, blinding her while her hand agonizingly seared with cold heat.

She sobbed when the pain subsided only to realize the golden etchings that had been on the watches casing were now embedded into her flesh like a tattoo and the pocket watch was no where to be seen.