Prologue

before the story begins...

         Shadows trickled across an old man's face, squeezing in between each wrinkle and expression left on his face by time. His eyes glittered with wisdom and knowledge. There was one other thing spread across the elderly man's face; mischief. His balding head of white hair was nearly hidden by the thick darkness in the corner of the room where he sat on a crate with ease. His voice was strong and confident when he spoke,

            "You know, Yukira, I do enjoy these talks of ours." His gleaming fire blue eyes met with yellow ones on the opposite side of the room, belonging to a young woman with   black hair that hung as if a waterfall ran from her delicate scalp to the middle of her torso. She wore intricate robes that continued flowing down to the floor, embroidered with swirls and clouds in deep shades of silver and blue. Her glowing face was worn, dark bags were etched underneath her eyes and she seemed to have to peer from underneath her heavy face to see this man seated across from her. She stood, a look of defeat spreading across her slightly flushed, young cheeks. Her skin was too pale in the moonlight sneaking through a crack in the bottom of the closed wooden door. It was a cool night, crisp on the faces of the two occupying the large, empty storage closet. Yukira shook her head softly, pleading ever so quietly,

            "Fate, you must take back my powers. I'm getting attacked!" He looked up with his aged and watering eyes, responding with a surprisingly young voice,  

            "Now, you know I can't do that, but if you didn't want attention you shouldn't have attracted it. Magic is not a toy, Yukira, it is a gift. And I can't take gifts back." Frustration brought small tears to her eyes which she quickly swallowed back into her head. Fate continued, "Darling, if you're wondering what to do, all that I can suggest is to find an heir, securing that Shidou will continue to have worthy empresses." Fate got up and crossed the room, each step causing a small creak and a puff of aged and layered dust. He brushed back a long strand of black hair from her gentle face. She whispered to him,

            "I've already had a family come up to me, the woman was pregnant. They wanted for their new child to be leader of Shidou."

            "That's a good start-" She cut him off, then piercing him with her shining yellow eyes,

            "It's going to be a boy." His voice changed now to sound wheezy and old, saying,

            "Ah, well, you could meet that newborn girl that you recently showed interest in." He winked at her, planting a feeble kiss on her white forehead and said two words that resonated through the small room after he left,

            "Good luck."

 

            Yukira had thrown a black cloak over her robes. Her hair would have blended with the cloak if the moon weren't reflecting off of the silky attribute. Her body was chilled, but that was normal lately. She swept quickly along the soil outside of the palace walls, seeing her destination quite close. This was where Fate had specified they would meet again. The lights should have been off in the pagoda-style temple; it was after hours. Yukira quickened her pace, but by the time she slid the paper door open it was too late. Yukira was angered to find that the child she was looking for earlier was now here, bundled in a red cloth in the center of the floor, and a younger baby boy wrapped in a deep green. She knew immediately what they had been doing; what they had done. She whispered sharply to the parents of the boy at first,

            "Why would you do this?" The priestess in her simple rose red robes was cowering in the corner. She had performed this, but knew what Yukira was now capable of, now that it had begun to snow, the white pieces of sky dizzily swirling into the temple. The two parents bowed while kneeling, their voices muddled by the ground as they both pleaded,

            "Empress Yukira, forgive us." Her eyes widened with fury, her voice only a low growl,

            "Why do you beg forgiveness now, after you have ruined her life." She motioned toward the small girl on the floor. They did not respond, they only stayed, not moving, their aces to the ground. The candlelight in the temple cast flickering long shadows from the six beings in the room. 

            Ice ran through Yukira's veins and before she'd barely thought of it, her hands were on the parents' heads which she had forcefully pushed up from the ground. Her eyes bore into them and as she pulled her hands away, they brought with them dim outlines of the man and woman kneeling in front of her. When Yukira closed her freezing hands the outlines detached from them and stared incredulously at their own limp bodies on the floor. 

            There was quiet whimpering coming from the priestess in the dark corner and Yukira began to close the distance between them, but just as she reached the cowering woman, a deep, strong voice calmly said,

            "I wouldn't touch her if I were you." Yukira whirled around to see Fate standing over the small children. She took a deep breath and thrust the cold out with her exhale. The old man gave a sly grin, confidently remarking,

            "Good girl." Yukira shook her head, pulling down the hood of her cloak. Sadness spread across her face as she looked down at the little girl lying on the ground and she dropped her voice so that the priestess could not hear the conversation,

            "She'll be miserable, Fate." He gave a half smile and replied,

            "Not necessarily, my dear." All she could do was watch with disbelief as he gave her a kiss goodbye on the cheek and lay down next to the small boy wrapped in green. He looked up at Yukira and nodded. She hesitantly allowed the ice to creep back into her veins. She pressed her hand against Fate's and the small boy's heads. As she closed her hands, the boy's soul was released, but Fate's soul snapped back and landed in the boy's body.

Author's Note

comments greatly appreciated!! <3