The Prophet of Serath

No one expected anything good to come out of Serath, especially not the foretold prophet.

For centuries the people awaited the deliverance of the Prophet, a man said to possess the powers of the sacred and the ability to give mankind back their freedom under the reigning terror of the Legion. They looked for the miracle birth of the foretold child.

But no such child came.

After two centuries of power, the Legion forbade any talk of the prophet. Only hushed stories existed behind closed doors and rumors traveled amongst the remnants of man, but no one dared talk about the prophet in the open. Their life depended on it.

Only Nefaria the White Witch who lived in the hills of Tynash knew the truth. Each full moon she lifted her lace shawl over her face and made the trek to the Lilly River. She carried two items--the locket and golden tablet.

“Oh, Holy One, hear my plea for mankind,” Nefaria prayed, bowing her head toward the full moon. She pulled out the golden tablet and read the engraved writing in the moonlight. A sonnet she’d whispered hundreds of times before in her life:

“In the holy sphere of time,

declare the child born,

save mankind from despair,

our destiny transform.

Let no harm come upon

The child of destiny

For in their grasp they

Hold the golden key.

Please hear the cries

Of your treasured man

Illuminate the locket

Of this guardian's humble hand.”

Nefaria reached into her bosom and pulled out the heart-shaped locket from her cloak. The amber heart glistened in the moonlight. She swung it softly in the air while chanting the sonnet. A monthly routine taught by her father and learned from his father. Generation upon generation of guardians holding onto the faith that would ultimately be revealed by the locket.

When Nefaria found out about her sacred calling as a guardian she asked her father, “Has it ever illuminated for any of our ancestors?”

Her father, Dia, looked her in the eyes and said, “Never.”

When he saw that Nefaria, only a teenager at the time, was disappointed in his response, he lifted her chin up and said, “The foretold child will come and the illuminated locket will show a guardian the way. When it does, all that you see will change forever and the Legion will lose its power and secrets will be unleashed.”

“What happens if it illuminates for me?” Nefaria asked.

Her father, never one to lie, answered, “I don’t know.”

*****

Across the Lilly River, Coban watched the old woman swaying in the moonlight. Although not a far distance from her, he was far enough that he couldn’t hear the words she spoke nor see her face. He only knew one thing.

He was sent to kill her.

The kill decreed by the Legion.

Coban never asked why he was sent to assassinate people; he did as commanded and never disobeyed. The Legion trusted Coban to fulfill all his obligations to the order and he always followed through. He believed in the oath of the Legion. Coban learned from infancy that the one true way was the path of the Legion. The oath seeped into his psyche and he often found himself repeating it out loud, “Foundations of humanity are built on the four pillars: control, fear, light, and darkness. Mankind cannot be trusted to rule; therefore, we rule them.” He believed in the oath; he killed for it. For he had seen what mankind had done to itself in the previous times, he’d been taught the history and knew how fierce mankind could destroy, not only the land and resources, but each other.

Man could not be trusted.

Coban’s life revolved around the order. For the past nineteen years, he knew no other way. His memories stemmed from his programmed mind, a system created by the Legion called Opid. The system was a series of medications, programming, and shots that Coban regularly participated in. His training included deep meditations, mind sweeps, and intense military training. He believed he was more machine than man, and he accepted it with devotion.

He assessed the distance from him to the old woman and decided she was too far to kill with an arrow. She looked weak enough to take on with a knife. The Lilly River had a neck a small distance from where he stood, it would allow him to easily walk across. He made his way to the crossing and slowly crept toward the old woman. The moonlight guiding his footsteps.

As he got closer to her, he knelt for a moment to listen to what she was saying. She held an object in her hand and sang a soft melody. She seemed innocent enough, but if she was an enemy of the Legion, she was an enemy to Coban. He pulled out his dagger from its satchel and took a step toward her.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks as the object in her hand started to glow. The glow intensified quickly until it fully illuminated. Coban put his hands in front of his face to block the blinding light.

And then he saw it.

Or, rather, he saw her.

The Woman.

*****

Nefaria stood in amazement at the sight before her. The locket illuminated. It drifted from her hands and started to transform before her eyes. It transfigured into a massive energy of light and then softened to show the outline of a woman.

The Woman’s long, white hair flowed off her shoulders and moved like the waves of the sea. Her eyes sparkled like diamonds and she wore a shimmering gown that swept the ground around her. A single gold sash wrapped around her waist. She smiled at Nefaria and said, “Oh, darling guardian of man, I am here to give you the words you have longed to hear. The child has been born, the foretold prophet that will help to unbind mankind.”

Nefaria dropped to her knees in fear, bowing her head to the woman.

The Woman continued, “Nefaria, arise and look so you shall see all that will take place.”

The Woman reached out her hand and presented an orb made of crystal. The orb danced on her hand, then opened up to a portal that showed a small babe being nursed by a mother.

“The foretold child,” Nefaria said, a single tear escaping her eyes.

“You have assessed it well,” the Woman said. “You have been the faithful guardian of the locket for many years. Now it is time for another to take the locket and give it to the child. The time has come. The end is near. Evil will pass away like a daffodil and freedom for mankind will once again reign,”

“Whom shall I give the locket to? I never had children of my own,” Nefaria said.

The woman then looked past Nefaria and to the bushes behind her, “Coban, you may come out and show thyself.”

Nefaria, startled at the thought of another person close by, looked behind her to see a young man a few feet away. His face gripped with fear, a dagger barely hanging on his fingertips, and his lips void of any color. He stepped a few feet closer, and his body shook in fear.

“How do you know me?” Coban asked, his voice barely steady.

The Woman said, “I know all things and all men. You were created for such a time and such a task. You will take the locket to the foretold prophet so that the child may fulfill the destiny of mankind.”

“I think you have the wrong person,” Coban said.

The Woman smiled and said, “You have been chosen for this task. Look and see so you will know the true owner of the locket.”

Then the orb in her hand started to change and this time a slow lapse of the child growing up quickly sped by and suddenly in the midst of all three of them, a full-sized image of a beautiful, young woman with raven black hair and deep blue eyes stood before them. Unaware she was being watched, she walked alone in the woods picking berries and laughing.

“The prophet is a woman,” Nefaria said, her mouth ajar.

“Yes,” the Woman said. “Her name is Theresia of Serath. She must be found for her time has come. Tell Coban all he needs to know about the prophecy and the truth. Give him the locket and the golden tablet.”

Coban stepped forward, still trembling. “I work for The Legion, I am sent...” He couldn’t finish his sentence; the Woman had taken his voice from him.

“Coban, you have a great destiny before you. Your voice has been taken from you until you can learn all that there is to learn from Nefaria, then you will find Theresia the Prophet and you will protect her until her calling is complete,” the Woman said. She turned to Nefaria, “Teach him of the ancestors and of the truth, and he will be ready when his voice returns.”

Nefaria nodded and bowed.

The Woman’s aura dimmed until she fully disappeared, then the locket drifted back to Nefaria’s hand. Holding the locket and the golden tablet, Nefaria started to walk away. She took a few steps forward then turned around to see Coban planted in the same spot.

“You better follow me,” Nefaria said. “We’ve got to get to a safe place before the Legion starts looking for you.”

Coban hesitated, then remembered the beauty of the young woman. He felt compelled by something else, something otherworldly, and for the first time in his life, he took steps away from the Legion.

Away from the life he always knew.