1. Prophecy

’Seven will fall, and eight will rise. Tragedy unchained, the world collapses.

Greed falls from a great tower and rises over a vast land. His knowledge of what is to come makes him a great leader.

Sloth rests as countries fall and awakens as they burn. The world bends and freezes to his will.

Wings of iron and eyes of glass, Envy is split in two. She will rise with the angels and scream for the earth.

When Pride takes control, emotions fade away. All are fallen to silence.

Lust’s garden of stone hides ruin. She will dance alone with the statues, too.

Gluttony hides behind a black mask of truth to take all that she sees.

Wrath paints the roses red as she rots on the end of a needle.

Tragedy is a howling memory of vast oceans. The seas will rise onto land once more. Their bodies are buried on beds of stone, each one a puppet for her to control’

“I think we’re onto something with this!” Alex said, looking down excitedly at the papers he held, notes scrawled all over them. Alex Roswell was a huge man, tall and muscular. He would’ve seemed intimidating if not for the gentle look in his eyes and the calm way he spoke. His hair was brown and flat, curling up a little at the ends. His brother, Blake, was slightly shorter and a lot skinnier, a blank expression on his face and a monotonous voice to go with it. He had an orange scarf he wore constantly and would often fiddle with it to keep himself occupied. His hair was a little longer than his brother’s, and messier too, but shared the same colour. Their eyes had the same honey colour to them, too.

The two had spent the past three years researching, poring over old books and cryptic messages, trying to make sense of them. There was one particular story they focussed on, the Seven Deadly Sins. The story told that certain people throughout history were the embodiment of one of seven different types of Sin. Only one would be alive on Earth at a time, and on the day one dies, the next is born. The Sins were to be reborn in a set cycle, and nothing could break the cycle off. Killing one would only lead to the next being reincarnated. The Sins were reincarnated into different bodies each time, and lived different lives, but still exhibited the qualities of the Sin that dwelled within them. These qualities would begin to show themselves after some event in the life of the person (known as a ‘Host’), usually something with a negative impact on them.

After 14 cycles, the reincarnations would become very different. At the end of the 14^th cycle, there would be a 70 year period without a Sin inhabiting a Host, at the end of which all seven Sins would be reincarnated at the same time. This time it would be different. The Hosts would each be killed, and would return to life completely healed and inhabited by a Sin. Their personality would change drastically, the sin taking over. If all seven were brought to the same place and a ritual was carried out, the Sins could all be placed into an eighth body and form a new Sin, one which would destroy everything.

Alex and Blake believed the 14^th cycle had already reached its end, and the last days of the 70 year period was upon them. They had looked back over history at significant people who could be Hosts of Sins, and they believed that in two days it would be exactly 70 years since the last one.

Blake looked up from the computer. He’d been compiling a list of important people in society who could end up becoming a Host, and had little results. Nothing they had found had given the slightest indication as to who the seven Hosts could be.

“What? Let me take a look.” He turned around, leaning over Alex’s shoulder to read the torn-out page he held. “Is that the translation of the King’s Prophecy?” The King’s Prophecy was a prediction made by an ancient King, written in a language they’d only recently worked out how to translate.

“Yeah, it actually tells us things about the Hosts.” Alex smiled, a look of excitement in his eyes. Blake’s expression was unchanging.

“Wait a second.” Blake paused to think, leaving Alex temporarily wondering what on earth could be going on behind those eyes. “Look at the passage for Greed. It speaks of a person with ‘knowledge of what is to come’. Do you know about the Blue King?”

“Yeah, he’s that one king who thinks he can see the future, right?”

“King of Iestra, yes.” Blake confirmed, beginning to get absorbed in what he was saying. When he got started with a new idea, it almost took over him. “He does not merely think he can see the future, he can accurately predict future events. He has been correct in a vast majority of his predictions, enough to put to sleep any doubts about his authenticity, and he is even rumoured to know exactly when and how he dies.”

“And you think this guy is Greed?” Alex was a little unsure, but anything to go on was practically a godsend.

“He’s the only possible candidate we’ve found so far. Plus, The Blue King does not rule from a castle. When he came to power, he had a tower built from blue stone.”

At this, Alex started getting excited. “So he’s our guy?”

“It would seem that way. He has everything the prophecy mentions.”

“Why don’t we request to talk to him?” He suggested.

“That could work, but he would not be likely to accept. He is a king, after all.”

Alex jumped up from his seat, determined to meet with The Blue King one way or another. He hurried out of the room, off to go get in contact with someone who could arrange a meeting.