The Cabal Leader was kneeling in front of the Prophetess. She was the only female of their species, the only one who could give birth, and the one with the greatest connection to Time.

They were in her personal chamber, which, as most Timelord dwellings, wasn't private at all. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of transparent Time crystal, allowing anyone to see inside.

Timelords didn't sleep, so there was no bed there. All her belongings were in her spatial artifact. She was sitting in a simple purple chair made of Arcane crystal, the only piece of furniture in the room.

She was naked, showing her glory for all Timelords to see. Timelords seldom felt the desire of the flesh, yet her duty to perpetuating the species had her doing her best to seduce them at all times. The Cabal Leader felt detached appreciation for the curves and beautiful symmetry of her body. That was more than what he felt when he looked at her face.

For she had a face.

Her features were perfectly proportional, enough to rival any elf, but it just didn't feel right to see a face where there should be none. Not for Timelords, at least. It was even weirder to see no emotion on her face while she spoke, as if she was some kind of puppet.

"We belong to Time." Her voice was beautiful, another thing unique to their female. Her tone was level. "As such, we must understand that all things have a beginning and an end, even Time itself. The Hero Who Is Not could've brought us glory and released us back to the vast skies where we belong. Alas, you sent your people against him, and it brought us his ire instead, which will cause our premature end. It's our duty to Time and our very nature to accept it and go graciously. If Time is willing, our people will be born again elsewhere before reality meets its end."

"Prophetess, please, command us to fight!" he pleaded. "We can't just accept our deaths like this! All Cabal Leaders will revolt if you keep this attitude. Please don't! It's best if we keep a united front in this war of extinction!"

"Yours is a limited perspective. I see our past long before we existed. We were created and went extinct multiple times before. Not always with bodies like this, but always as children of Time. This is just another chapter in our story. Accepting our fate will bring us a swift, merciful end, while fighting it will bring you nothing but agonizing suffering."

"Prophetess, please! You're a Master! You could kill him with a thought!"

"Foolish Cabal Leader, that would bring forth a calamity to the entire universe. Even now, I can see your rebellion has an infinitesimal chance of succeeding, and I pity you. For if you succeed and live long enough to understand how you doomed Time itself, your suffering will have no bounds."

"Then show us, Prophetess!" he begged. "Show us your wisdom! Show us and make us believe, make us understand, as you have done before! Why do you refuse us so in such an important crossroads of our history?"

"Because even if you kill him and doom Time itself, it would still be a better alternative than the wrong people learning about who he is and enslaving him before he is strong enough to resist. Such greed would only lead to his eventual escape and vengeance. You have no idea what he would be capable of then. Only I could properly dominate him in a way to benefit the entire universe, but not with my current power."

She made a pause, then continued. "There's a tiny chance you'll come around with a history of his past. I shall give it to you, despite the potential dangers involved. But there's a price to pay."

"Name it," he said hopefully.

"Give me a child."

He had no hair in his body, but he felt goosebumps just hearing that request. "If we are doomed to go extinct, why do you care about procreating?"

"Two reasons. One, because I accept my fates. I am fated to give birth as I am fated to die, and I'll do both. Two, because I want to take comfort in a final pleasure before my time comes."

Male Timelords saw mating as mere business and took little pleasure from it, but for the Prophetess, the entire process was highly pleasurable. Such a unique specimen!

"I accept," the Cabal Leader said. He wanted her words, needed them. All Timelords yearned for her prophecies more than anything else.

"Then listen well. He was still a Prime Immortal, not even at the peak of his power when he was betrayed. No expression existed for a feeling of sorrow that spanned galaxies before, but it was created after he was done with his revenge. He left a never-ending trail of corpses in his wake, but the widows and widowers, the orphans and parents who lost their children, they didn't suffer as he did. His great grief, and his actions on it, came to be called 'when iron weeps blood.'"

Her room changed, showing images of the tale of the murderer's past. After she was done, he fulfilled his promise to her.

When he left her quarters, he did the only thing he could do. He assembled those loyal to him and gave them an order.

"Kill all our people, then come with me to deliver their heads and our very lives to Ironblood. We must not allow him to get angrier at us. We must give the Prophetess and her soon-to-be-born child a chance to survive, an opportunity for our race to keep existing, prophecy be damned."

As he remembered what he had seen the murderer go through and do, he wished for the first time in his life that he could cry.