《In the Dark of Night》Twenty-Three
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Selene was breathing hard, her breath turning white in the winter air. She was nervous. The last thing she wanted to do was see the Priestess. She still remembered how their last visit went, the images and the visions of war and death the woman had put into her mind.
That was a warning, Daughter of Night. Maybe this time you should heed it.
Was this what she meant? The great war that was about to begin?
She hurried her steps, dodging children and baskets, people both in human form and animal form. As she passed them, she couldn't help but imagine what would become of them all if war began. She knew nothing of warfare yet she knew that it only held destruction.
Her heart ached at the sight of the smiling children, so similar to the children of her home before the demon's attacked. She walked even faster.
She finally arrived at the cavern in which the woman was and hesitated at the opening. Would she even speak to her? Was she even there to begin with? Selene had no choice, she had nowhere else to turn. So she entered the cave.
Immediately, Selene sensed something off. The chamber no longer glowed. In fact, it cast out a dark mist, curling around her legs and swirling around as she walked. As if reacting to her presence, the mist darkened until she couldn't see the grassy floor, then she couldn't see her legs. It continued until the entire room was pitch black. She couldn't even see her hands as she held them out in front of her.
What is going on?
"Hello?" she called out. She received no answer.
She kept shuffling forward trying to feel for something, even the willow itself. Nothing. She had been plunged into an endless abyss, a world of only darkness.
"I need your guidance," she yelled, "please," she added softly, the smiles of the children flashing in her mind.
A voice finally spoke, it was the woman, "You have come for answers."
"Yes," Selene answered, stumbling forward blindly.
"You will not find them here," the woman said, her voice echoing off the walls. She sounded as if she were everywhere at once. Yet at her words, Selene felt her chest tighten.
"I have nowhere else to turn. Please, I'll do anything."
"There is no lie you can tell that I will not see through, child."
Tears welled up in her eyes, she was about to lose her chance at the truth.
"Who is this king?" She asked, desperate for some information.
"He is evil. He is death. He is power."
"Is he going to start a war?"
"The war began millennia ago. He is just another pawn, another beginning of the cycle that never ends. He was not the first nor will he be the last."
"I want to fight. He killed the people I loved. Justice must be served."
There was silence for a moment, and Selene feared her time to speak had ended.
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"Your mind is clouded. You cannot see past the blood you wish to spill and the pain you wish to inflict. If that was how each man lived their days, the world would be empty and the spirits would be restless. You are destined for much, Daughter of Night. You must learn to look past the pain you have felt and the people you have lost and towards the future."
The mist began to move, whipping against her body. The wind became so strong that she was forced to her knees, yet it wasn't grass that she touched but dirt. Suddenly, the mist cleared away in a final gust of wind and the sight before her made her eyes widen and her lips part in shock.
She was back on that battlefield, just as many bodies as before littered the ground around her. In her lap was a woman, her hair and skin the color of night, and covered in dirt and blood. Her armor was dented and her hand still seemed to reach for a weapon that wasn't there. She was dead.
Selene was too shocked to move away from the body. She sat there for a long while until she heard a noise. She looked up to see a man standing in front of her, his hair red with blood and his arm missing, the stump still bleeding.
It was Kai. His eyes were pained as he looked at the body on Selene's lap. He took a single step towards them before collapsing into a pile of bodies. He did not rise again.
The scene changed. No longer was she in the aftermath of a battle. Now she was standing in a meadow, the moon lighting up the grasses around her. She saw a horse a few steps away, nervously picking at the stalks around it. Next to it lay a man asleep, his hair brown and his face beautiful. She knew this face. It was Lucius.
Yet he was different. Instead of the handsome features, he once had, there was a scar even more brutal than that of Aiden that stretched across his face, over his nose and cheeks. She tried to take a step towards him, yet found she couldn't. Before she could try anything else, he opened his eyes and stared directly at her.
A relief washed over her at the sight of him awake and alive. Yet it was quickly vanquished and he slowly sat up and reached for the short sword strapped to his horse's saddle. His eyes were full of hatred as he charged at her, preparing to drive the sword into her heart with a battle cry. This was not the man she knew. She could do nothing as he came at her, so she closed her eyes and braced herself for a blow that would surely kill her.
Yet it never came. She opened her eyes again to see the scene had changed once again. Now she stood in a throne room, one that felt older than time itself. The room was decorated with a mixture of gold and gems, each more beautiful than the last. The ceiling was gone, left open to the night sky and the millions of stars that littered it. Yet none were as beautiful as the throne. It was of diamond, sparkling in the torchlight. And wrapped around it was an enormous dragon.
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Its huge scales were black, the veins underneath glowing red and orange. Its green eyes were open and they stared directly at Selene. If she had been in control of her own body she would have been too terrified to even move.
It huffed and a cloud of smoke rose from its nostrils, as if in warning. Then it began to growl. The sound shook the entire room, reverberating through the ground and up the walls. Then it raised its head and roared up to the heavens, loud enough that her ears began to bleed. Then the beast turned its sights back to her and snarled, showing rows of deadly sharp teeth.
A whispering began, the same voice as the one that came from her dagger.
Black Chaos who once burned so bright,
Will stand once more and be the light.
Three who died and one who sinned,
To save the child who lost their kin.
A warrior will stand on a field of death,
To protect a love, they'll give their last breath.
From the ashes, the daughter will rise to fight,
And claim the destiny that is their right.
One will return to where it once came,
Lest the world be engulfed and die in the flames.
The voice echoed the prophecy over and over in her head. She tried to cover her ears against the sound but, she was completely powerless. The dragon opened its giant maw to reveal its teeth, and before Selene even realized it, she was enveloped in black fire. However, it was not hot.
The next setting materialized.
She was on a tall hill, staring down at an army of demons and other vile inhuman races. They marched towards her with their axes and spears raised.
Something stirred next to Selene and she turned to see a woman.
She had stark white hair and eyes that glowed blue as she lifted her hands and summoned her magic. It was Selene standing next to herself. Yet she looked slightly different, older, more battle-worn.
She summoned her Moonfire from within herself and within seconds, the entire army was vaporized in its blue, cold flames. The flames even washed over Selene herself and the scene melted away.
She was back in the cave yet the black mist was gone and the Priestess stood before her, nearly close enough to feel her breath. Selene was no longer under the mist's spell. The woman in front of her was real, so was the room they were in.
"Why did you show me that?" Selene asked her.
She replied, "You have a destiny planned out for you, it is your duty to fight for it. You've been granted a look into the willow's knowledge. Do not let it go to waste."
"Is my brother alive?" Her voice was growing louder, more frantic.
She reached out to grab the woman's shoulders but fell through empty air, barely catching herself as she stumbled. Selene had tears in her eyes as she looked up at her. The woman kneeled down and touched one tear as it fell and held it up to examine it.
"Yes."
A feeling Selene couldn't describe settled over her. She felt such a relief and happiness that she almost began to sob. Lucius was alive.
"Do not rejoice yet. For the love he had for you is gone. Now all he knows is loss and hate," said the woman as Selene's tear fell from her hand.
"What do you mean?"
"He was lost after the demons attacked your home. He was looking for someone to blame and in his madness he found you."
Selene's heart shuttered. "But that's ridiculous, there is no way I could have had a part in it and he knew that."
"Were you not the child that everyone looked at in fear? The daughter with the hair as white as snow and eyes as red as blood. The girl who never smiled. The girl who was broken by the family that fed her and sheltered her in a house of pain and torture. Your brother saw it all. And who else would want revenge on the family that treated her so, the man that beat her?"
"I—," she started, speechless.
Selene could not take any more of her words. Memories that she had buried during those weeks away were beginning to surface again: the sight of her blood as it dripped from Arthur's silver buckle, the sweat on his boots as he pushed her down, the grimace on his face as he spit at her. She couldn't take it as the memories came flooding back.
And on top of it all, Lucius blamed her for the death of all those innocent people.
"He is looking for you now. He wants revenge. As do you against the king who was responsible. You saw the look in his eyes as he tried to slay you. He is your mirror. Learn from what you saw in those visions. It is where you are heading and where you must be."
Selene blinked at the ground, taking in what the woman said to her.
"I have one more question, and I beg of you, answer it."
The woman was silent as she waited.
"Why me?"
"You speak of your magic?"
"No matter what I do, I cannot control it. I feel as if it has been thrust upon me. Was it meant for me? Why do I have this power unlike any other? How do I master it?"
"I cannot answer that for you, you must find out for yourself. That is how you learn. But I will tell you this..." The woman stood and began to walk away, back towards the willow that glowed a pink light, "We have been waiting for you for centuries, Daughter of Night."
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