The three night-blue, robed figures marched down a long, stone corridor, flanked with silver torches and tapestries as high as the ceiling. Their shadows casted looming shapes onto the already dark stonework as they hurried with great haste.
“You’re saying it’s still the same,” the middle male spoke, with a voice that slipped through his teeth like silk. It only put the other two figures on edge.
“Yes, Lord Yaolothiz. The seers have been racked with the same visions all night now, drawing the same image and ranting on about the same person,” said the shortest man, his pace increasing to keep up with the others’ longer strides.
“I've ordered all the subjects to try and capture it, but nothing has worked so far,” said the third, who was a very tall woman, her voice rough like parchment.
“When did they first receive these visions? Why has no one informed me?”
“The head seer started to receive them a year ago, but in the past few months, they have been becoming more frequent and stronger. Now the others are like it as well. We tried to contact you, My Lord, but you were away on the King’s business.” They suddenly all turned left and marched down a much smaller corridor.
There were no windows set in the walls, as these corridors now were deep underground, running under the Palace like a maze, leading out to the guild. Only the Order of Magicians was allowed down here, one of the most secret areas in the city. Not even the King has been down these corridors.
They reached a large pair of oak doors, carved from top to bottom with incantations, to ward off evil and intruders. A young magician stood outside, a novice. He wore the same style of robes, full length with a veil covering his face to remain oblivious. What gave him away as a novice magician was that his robes were deep green instead of blue.
“Lord Yaolothiz,” he bowed. “Please, come inside.”
“What has happened?” he demanded. The young man flinched under his robes.
“The head-seer is having another vision.” Yolothiz threw the doors open and they boomed upon colliding with the wall, the noise resounding around the room. He strode inside. The room was large, dark and very empty considering its vast size. The ceiling was held up by ten smooth pillars, but nothing more around the edges could be seen in the dark. In the very centre of the room sat a gaggle of women, illuminated by a small handful of burning candles. Each one had hair that was past their shoulders, all of them bushy and unkempt. There was a wide range of ages, the youngest of which looked to be no older than twenty. The eldest of these women sat in the centre of the circle, her skin portrayed her unnatural age, well beyond any normal human. All the women were shrieking inaudible incantations, whilst scraping their drawings into the floor using their hook-like nails. Their skin blackened with dirt, their robes tattered to the point of unrecognition, it truly was an unnerving sight. But the three of them approached, without hesitation.
The younger women parted to let them through, cowering, hiding their faces, and dragging themselves as far as their shackled legs would allow. They weren’t interested in the younger ones and so cast them no sideway glances.
The head-seer was ancient beyond human years. Her skin so shrivelled that she looked like well-aged leather. Her eyes were white and pupil-less allowing her to see the secrets behind the world. She sat hunched over, drawing something on the floor with an invisible quill, scratching with her hooked nails, ignoring the company in front of her. Yolothiz crouched down in front of her. Snapping his fingers, the blue-robed male, brought out a quill and parchment and bowed as he passed it over.
“Now then, seer, what is it your eyes can see?” He placed the quill in her hand and let her go to work. She didn’t look at the parchment when she started to carve her drawing into it, pressing down so hard it was close to snapping the nib.
Her voice grated through an overused throat as she spoke, almsot in hysterics
“I…I see her; a creature that is neither completely human, nor completely a beast. But she holds a power, one so strong she could be considered a god. But I see an end, an end to the war. She will bring it, oh yes she will…but for which side, even I can't see. But she shines, shines so bright, a bright light to our dark visions. We see her each moment now, invading our dreams. She keeps growing stronger, day by day, be wary of her for she could mean...” Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed. The other younger seers flustered around her, comforting her.
Yaolothiz looked at the parchment where the seer was drawing. He scooped it up and proceeded to walk outside. The others followed behind without orders.
“It seems we have a problem on our hands,” he said as the doors crashed shut behind him. “You’ve said it’s been a year and still no success. Why not?” he demanded. “You know who she is, yes? Did we not collect some strong subjects?” he asked, rounding on the other two.
“Yes, My Lord. Upon explaining to the subjects they seemed to know who it was we were looking for. But they just haven’t succeeded,” the male stuttered.
“General Juhnik is preparing more troops as fast as he dares. He will be ready if the war escalates. And he is now here,” the woman hissed.
“Did he succeed?”
“No, My Lord. But he will need seeing too, he’s been restless and refuses to calm down. He’s been left in the north chambers, restrained, for now.”
Yaolothiz cursed and stopped. He stared at the picture on the parchment. Through the scratches and blotches, the seer had drawn a shaky picture of a young woman, with hair that was past her waist in length. But she distinctively had the wings of an angelic creature, and the tail of a demon. Even though it was just a picture, her eyes shone through into his with a piercing glare. Grunting, he screwed up the parchment and threw it into the nearest flaming torch.
The fire suddenly burst into unnatural colours of blue and green. They stood and watched as the image burnt and curled in the bright flames before them. As the last remnants turned into an ashy pile, Yolothiz turned to address the others.
“I will not lose this war,” he spat. “By any means necessary, we will exterminate the black stain from our lands, eradicate our history with these vermin and we shall start anew. Find her, but do not kill her. I will see to it personally that she begs for her own death. Then we shall see how much of a god she really is.”
END OF BOOK 1