ACACIUS

As he made his way to Ophelia's hut, his thoughts turned from his dream to the crone. No one alive knew how she had come to live there, none had seen her or what she looked like in a long time or even seen anyone claim to be her family. Acacius couldn't understand why she lived away from the populace or why her hut hadn't changed with the times as other structures in Ailonopolis had done. But he did know that her visions were true as she had seen the city change and had foretold the future they now lived in. He had also heard the rumour of her being an interpreter of dreams, it was for this very reason now that he discreetly made his way to her hut.

As he approached her hut, the door cracked open and the crone looked right at him and waved him towards her as she said "I have been waiting for you, Acacius" her voice raspy as if she didn't speak often or hadn't in a long time. He was suddenly full of apprehension but he mustered up the courage and went in with her into her hut. Nothing prepared him for the warmth he felt sliding over him, he had expected it to be as cold as the rumour had said. He looked around to see the crone bent over a burning fire stoking the flames.

"It's for you, I am beyond such desires of the world you live in," she said without turning to him. He took a seat as she said "so, tell me what brings you to this part of the city this late in winter". Acacius mulled over her words in his mind wondering how one told a crone who saw him coming what he had dreamt of.

"Perhaps, you should begin at the beginning", she prompted him. He looked towards her to see that she was staring at the fire she was now sitting near as if it was something she didn't see often. "That's the problem, wise one," he said "I do not know when they began". The crone laughed and her laughter warmed his heart so much it was as if he had finally found a lost member of his family who he had never known.

"But you do, Acacius, you do," she said without taking her eyes off the fire. "That which you seek, you already know," she said, Acacius scowled and asked, "I do?". "Yes, you do, search deep within yourself, the true answer lies within," she said as she laughed again. Acacius thought for a while about what the wise one had said then he spoke "but it is you the elders that say only a fool walks into the future backwards".

"Search within for there lies all that you seek," she said as she laughed again. Filled with frustration over not getting a satisfying answer, he stormed out of the crone's hut.

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OPHELIA

As the door closed, she crumbled onto the stone floor of the hut, for a minute there she had almost taken him for Isidore; her brother who had been dead for centuries. The boy who had come to her seeking interpretations to his dreams had looked so much like her innocent brother had the morning he had wandered to the foot of the mountains only to be killed. She had almost called him Izzy as she had fondly called her brother. She had however remembered what he was called in the vision she had seen of him.

She knew he couldn't be her Izzy for his aura was of light but her earlier visitor had reeked of the blood of others she knew he had killed. She couldn't however understand why she had suddenly thought of her brother, why was she suddenly feeling homesick. There was no home for her to go to anyways, the founders of Ailonopolis had made sure of that when they had spread the tale of her being evil. It didn't matter then that she had never hurt anyone, the villagers had believed the founding fathers.

Shaking her head, she caught the tear that threatened to roll down her eyes. I am a priestess now, the mouthpiece of the goddess Artemis who they worshipped on Ailonopolis, I must not let my feelings keep me from being pure, she thought as she proceeded to put out the fire she had built for Acacius. She welcomed the darkness and the cold that had become her only companions as visions of a girl with black tresses and blue eyes took her over.