Prologue

A grandmother tells her granddaughter of the prophecy that was told twenty years ago.

            “Grandma, can you tell me the prophecy?” asked an eight-year-old girl, her high-pitched voice shattering the quiet of the street on which she and her grandmother walked.

            The old woman jumped a little, and immediately halted in her tracks. She glanced down at the girl walking beside her before wildly looking around their surroundings. They were not around.

            “Sh!” the grandmother said sharply as she looked back down at her granddaughter, holding a gnarled finger to her pursed lips. “Don’t speak of such things out in public, May!” She kept her voice hushed as to not draw unwanted attention.

            May frowned, looking at her grandmother with apologetic brown eyes. The grandmother looked around once more. A few villagers stared at them with mixed expressions of fear and worry. She ignored them. They were not the ones she had worried about overhearing.

            “Let’s go to my house, May,” the grandmother said without looking at the little girl.

            “’Kay,” May muttered quietly, and followed the elderly woman down the dirt street.

            They spent the short trip in silence, blending in well with their quiet neighbors. The grandmother kept her eyes looking straight ahead while May let hers wander, except for when she spotted any men wearing black uniforms with steel chest plates and barbutes; before she could lock eyes with them, she dropped her gaze to her sandals. When they arrived at the wooden shack, May followed her grandmother into her small abode.

            “Phew, that was a close one,” the grandmother said, a smile in her voice, as she walked over to the small, round dining table and set her basket full of groceries on it.

            “Sorry, grandma,” May quietly said with a frown as he looked at her grandma from the ramshackle rocking chair in which she now sat.

            The grandmother turned around to look at her granddaughter. “Oh, May, you don’t have to be upset, honey,” she said. “You didn’t know any better is all.” She paused, the slight frown vanishing to allow an inquiring look to show on her face. “But tell me, where did you hear about the prophecy?”

            “Yesterday when I was outside. A man was yelling it to two of those big scary guys before they took him away.” The frown grew as May’s eyes shined with a mixture of worry and an innocent curiosity. “Do you think he’s going to where my mommy and daddy are?”

            The grandmother frowned sympathetically at the question. After taking a moment on trying to decide on how to answer, she gave a single small nod. “Yes, May, he most likely is.”

            “Grandma, when do you think my mommy and daddy will be back? I miss them.”

            “Oh, sweetheart.” The grandma crossed the room, scooping May up into her arms with minimal effort. She may have been rather small, but she still possessed some of the strength she had in her younger days. She sat down in the rocking chair, which creaked loudly from their combined weight. “They’ll be back soon, I’m sure.”

            “I hope so,” May said as she wrapped her small arms around her grandmother and rested her head on her shoulder.

            The grandmother rocked them, inwardly hoping that her words were true. These days it truly was difficult to say. Most people that were taken away to be locked in a dungeon somewhere rarely returned. No one was ever sure what happened to them, but most feared the worst. All that their loved ones really could do was hope that they were still alive and that the prophecy would come true.

            “Can you tell me the prophecy?” May asked again, almost as if she had read her grandmother’s mind.

            The elderly woman looked down at the little girl and smiled softly. “Yes, yes I can. You see, things were a lot different when I was a kid than they are for you. We lived in much happier times with only few worries. But many, many years ago�"”

            “How many?”

            The grandmother paused, trying to think of how long it had been. “Oh, I’d say about thirty. At any rate, thirty years ago, things changed. Malphas rose to power. He fought his way up to the position he has today. Hundreds of people, including the greatest warriors and mages Kior has ever seen, tried to stop him, but none prevailed. Malphas was just too powerful to defeat. When he managed to take control, he completely changed the way our kingdom ran.

            “Then, ten years later, a man bore great news for all of the people of Kior. He told of a prophecy. According to this prophecy, twenty years from the year he told it, a gem would descend from the heavens and seek out the Chosen One, who, with the help of their party, would take the Gem of Peace to the temple in the northwest to exterminate Malphas and his soldiers. When that is done, Kior will be able to see the peace it once saw.”

            “How much longer until the Gem falls?”

            “It’s been twenty years now, so it should descend before the year’s over if the prophecy is true.”

            “Do you think it is?”

            The grandmother nodded, and offered an assuring smile. “Yes.”

            “And do you think the Chosen will be able to save my mommy and daddy?”

            “Yes, yes they will, May. They’ll be able to save all of us.”