The Hidden Prophecy

"Belboz is a great wizard indeed - if a bit on the impetuous side," Ecstasy replied, smiling at Jastina. The Queen blushed, and Embron frowned briefly. "However, there is a portion of the prophecy that no one has ever been privy to. Until now, that is." With that, Ecstasy made a motion and a stone block about two feet across came loose and popped out from the wall.

Warily, Joan approached the stone. As Sir Fred, she likely could have never budged the thing. However, the power in her new form allowed her finish pulling it out, and she sat it aside as gently as she might have a child's block.

"Zounds!" Embron said, mightily impressed. Jastina's eyes threatened to bulge out of her head at the display. Ecstasy only smiled and said, "Go on, look inside and see."

Joan looked in the gaping hole and saw, to her surprise, an ornate wooden box with copper inlays. She pulled it out and opened it. Inside lay a scroll, bound with the seal of none other than that of the old High King, Rolis the Protector, and his personal mage, Zerrod.

After a moment of them all looking at it, Embron said, impatiently, "Well, don't just stand there, girl - you have His Majesty's Assent to break the seal and open it!"

With a sense of both expectation and trepidation, Joan did just that. The first words she saw were a greeting and a warning from Zerrod that the opening of the scroll was a portent of possible disaster for the kingdom, and that only the prophecies he'd divined could save them from utter destruction!

Ecstast only smiled serenely, but the humans in the room traded nervous glances. Zerrod had been a mage of tremendous power, and words from him were not to be taken lightly.

Joan read the scroll out loud. The promised disaster was described in great detail, and even King Embron, a warrior of no small repute, was revolted by Zerrod's description. Arthema was not a warrior of conquest, or even of profit, but of chaos - her armies would loot and plunder and destroy all before them, leaving the kingdom a wasteland for a thousand yearrs.

Still Joan read on, her voice trembling only slightly as she read the part about the warrior "in the form of a lissome lass". Finally, she came to the last stanza of the prophecy. "It's here!" she exclaimed as she unrolled the last of the scroll. "It says:"

The final battle will now unfold,
The win or loss will soon be told.
The scales of justice 'eer will weigh,
When Darkness springs from noontime day.

The Warrior-Lass will join the fight,
And only one shall match her might.
From metal to flesh, joy's spirit shall rise:

1. "Together they shall win the prize."
2. "And open everybody's eyes."
3. "To be revealed as Queen of Lies!"
4. Joan stopped. "This is incredible! Someone has torn away the last stanza of the prophecy!"

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree