Prologue: Never Intervene

An anonymous character seeks to confirm his suspicions of a distressed woman whom he has been tracking for years. Will she complete the last prophecy and accept her destiny?

Rule one of prophecies: Don’t ever interfere.

Her eyes were captivating. It seemed that the spirits had condensed the magnificence of all of the night sky’s constellations into two flawless orbs painted the precise color of a cloudless day. I could see her mind moving rapidly, beneath this pair of portals that moved my soul every time I saw her.

 Her skin was a canvas dappled with soft freckles that I could only see when she graced the sunlight’s presence. And how I wished that I could connect these dots from her arms to her shoulders and back to those eyes.

Her hair though, her hair was what truly baffled me. Mirroring an obsidian waterfall, it cascaded raven curls around her, framing the master piece. It shone with the same starlight captured in her eyes, yet remained darker than anything I had ever seen. I preface this statement though by conceding, had I seen my own soul at this point, I would know what I should compare it to.

I flipped the page in my book and waited. Nervously, I twisted the ruby inlayed band on my right ring finger, because over the course of the last five years I had set out to see if this woman could complete a series of prophecies that would confirm the she was the one I had been looking for, and this was the last test. I had seen her rush out of one of the many crumbling buildings in this village and press her back against a nearby wall. The smell of putrid waste overwhelmed my senses as I shifted my position on a nearby roof top to see her better.  My perch was above a popular tavern as to conceal any noise, but the alley way beside it was filled with years of accumulated waste.

The winter sun was setting giving me ample cover, but forced me to strain my eyes to see her clearly. The book has already told me that she had just found her brother dead, but the real test had yet to happen. The last passage I had translated from the ancient text said,

When heir finds brother dead,

All the lands will soon run red.

For he was the last loved one to die,

And Death herself can no longer cry.

So I waited to see whether she would shed a tear and confirm my suspicion, but I couldn’t see her face. Necessity dictated that I move, but I found myself inching closer before my mind reached this conclusion. In previous missions of this nature, I had gotten careless and too close, almost allowing her to see me, so I remained wary of my approach.

After shimming down a drain pipe, I closed about half of the distance between us and was now close enough to see the reflection of street torches dance in her eyes. Much to my dismay, she quickly closed them and hung her head down. Now the beautiful onyx locks of her hair enveloped her face, hiding the information I so desperately needed. I had seen her cry before, so I could usually tell when it would happen, but this time was shrouded in mystery. Panicking at the thought that I wouldn’t see the prophecy fulfilled, I interfered.

I brushed off my pants and pulled my hooded cloak closer around me, hoping that the shadows would still conceal my identity. I strode out of the darkness and onto the street as inconspicuously as I could, and began walking to her. Years of training screamed at me to stop and my heart beat was deafening in my ears.

I cleared my throat and tried to steady my voice, “Do you need a tissue miss?”

She tilted her head up and opened her eyes. This was the closest I had ever seen them and it startled me that their flawless expanse was encompassed in anger. She had a note clutched in her hand and in her velvety soft voice she replied, “Thank you, but I believe I am out of tears to cry.”

A breath of steam filled the icy air with her last words, and one by one I watched the stars in her eyes waver, and fade.

Author's Note

Every thing is a work in progress, if I made a grammatical error, let me know and it will be remedied.

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