A/N: This plot bunny has been in my mind a while... it's a different style from my usual stuff, but I hope you enjoy. :)
The valley was familiar, with the flowers of red, yellow and white blooming to their full perfection and dark green blades of grass whispering words softly in the light breeze. The girl laughed and flopped onto a patch of clovers with a happy giggle and rolled onto her back. The sky was the bluest of blues, filled with puffy clouds without a trace of gray.
Irnai, the young girl of almost nine, fell silent and listened to the grass's chatter as the wind brushed it softly. Not anything new, she decided, and her attention was pulled towards a new sound, the ominous soft footfalls of a creature with three legs. The wind blew colder and Irnai gasped a little as she lay low to the ground.
"Irnai," a woman's voice called. Irnai's breath quickened at the sound of the young woman's voice. No, please, not again, the girl thought to herself. "Irnai, my child, don't hide from me." The woman's voice was high and pure, the most beautiful sound Irnai had ever heard, but now that voice gave her the chills. Quietly she crawled away from where she heard the woman. She must not make a sound.
She lifted her head and stared around the meadow. There, the woman was not twenty feet from her, walking at her slow pace. Shakith, as that was the woman's name, never walked quickly unless she knew exactly where she was going. Irnai almost sighed with relief when she realized she had not been discovered yet.
"My child, are you playing a game with me? My brother summoned you, so I know you are here." The woman's laugh was painfully sweet, and Irnai froze. She was poised and graceful like a dancer, walking slowly through the daisies and honeysuckles, her carved staff knocking the ground softly back and forth along the ground in front of her. She was close now, and Irnai panicked and jumped to her feet to run. She didn't want to be caught, but she made too much noise now to go undetected by Shakith. It did not take long, and Irnai was in the arms of her goddess once more.
"Let me go, please," Irnai cried, her childish voice rose to the next octave in her fright.
"Now, Irnai, why would you ever want to escape me?" Shakith's white eyes searched out the child's face as if she could really see it.
"I don't want to know any more please, I'm happy where I am!"
Shakith shook her head and smiled at Irnai as if she thought she was a foolish child. "But greater things await you, can you not see that?" Irnai tried to look away from the beauty of the goddess's face but was drawn back to gaze at her perfect olive skin, her slanted eyes, and the mane of shimmering black hair and her soft rose petal lips. She would be perfect if not for the white blankness in her eyes.
"I'm so tired, please, mum, don't tell me anymore." Desperate tears fell from her green eyes and dripped onto the arms of her goddess. Shakith touched the tears gently and raised her wet fingers to her lips. Whatever she tasted in those tears transformed her perfectly sculptured face to a mask of livid and terrifying rage.
She slapped the child sharply across her face and dropped her to the ground. Irnai crumpled in both body and spirit, and wept as she hugged the legs of Shakith. "It is not my choice, Seer-Child. My half sister has asked me to use you on her behalf." She stabbed her staff against the ground. "If I was stronger than my brother, I assure you, you would not go through all this. I am but their servant, doomed to carry out their will until the end of the world." She leaned over and scooped Irnai up and dried the frightened child's tears. "I'm sorry, Irnai, I would not sacrifice you for the Tortallan King if I had my will. Unfortunately for the both of us, I do not have a choice." And with that, Shakith, the blind goddess of seers filled the young girl's mind with the knowledge that would make Irnai cry in her sleep for weeks.