A Light Through the Mists

by Lady of the Dog Star

In the years before King Arthur, when Britain was being torn asunder by outside invaders and civil war, the British people called upon the Goddess for a way to peace. She gave them her answer, in the form of a human girlchild named Ciara.

Author's Note/Disclaimer: It isn't necessary to have read the Mists of Avalon, or any of Marion Zimmer Bradley's books to understand this story, because most of the characters are of my creation. However, this is based on the world of Avalon that she created, and there will be references to characters that are of her creation. This takes place in the times before King Arthur, when the British Isles were immersed with civil conflict and outside invasion. However, a basic knowledge of British and Celtic history might make things easier for you. Please, as always, leave a review telling what you like/don't like/would like and etc. Thanks! (I know it's short, but it's just the prologue. The other chapters will be longer.)

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PROLOGUE:

Ciarán Speaks:

Do you believe in Avalon? In that mysterious island shrouded in mists so thick that passage is impossible unless you know the way? Many stories have been told of the sacred isle, hushed whispers of rumour. This is my story, and it is your choice as the whether you believe it, and with it, all the magic that is Avalon.

My family was one of the old Britons, an obscure tribe in the North. They had been there before the Romans, and they were there when the last of the Roman legionaries departed from these shores forever. My country was now free, as it had been in the days of my fore fathers, and as it would be in the days of my children. Rome had left us to the Saxons, and to our own civil wars. War within and the invaders barely kept out threatened to tear Britain to her bones. In response to the cries of her people, the Great Mother sent a girl, just one girl, to restore order to this once great island. And it was upon her shoulders that the fates of all the people on the island lay. She came as the daughter of a young country girl, known to mist as Anna, but I simply knew her as Mother, for I was her only child, and the child that the Goddess sent. For although no other member of my family, besides myself, has been possessed of the Sight, or any magic, for that matter, the women have always been strong. We have always worshipped the Goddess, and we always answered her call. My mother had as a mere maiden of sixteen, called to the fires of Beltane with the messenger of the Goddess, and I would as well, in my own time and my own way. It was for that purpose that I existed, after all.

I was called to Avalon as a child, scarcely past my sixth summer. There, upon my arrival, I began the hard training that one must undergo to become a priestess. It was within the mists of the summer country that I grew from girl to woman, and it was in those mists that I embraced my true destiny.

Yes, I do believe in the magic of Avalon.