TIME OF PROPHECY
By Sorceress Cassandra180
Disclaimer- Dispite the fact Cassandra is my namesake, and I spend great deal of drooling over The Rock, I sadly own nothing. Everything is owned by Universal, their screen writers, and Max Allan Collins.
I'm nothing more or less then a young women who wishes to tell the story through another's eyes.
PROLOGUE
THE BEGINNING
"They say knowledge is power, but I say it is a poisin…"
-Kaileena on the Predetermined fate of the Empress of Time from Prince of Persia Warrior Within
The story I wish to tell you, happened. It happened long ago in a time before the sands were towered with the monuments of the kingdom of the pharaohs. But before I can tell you anything else, I must tell you, of something that came before the time my tale was lived. A tale that you must hear in order to fully comprehend my story.
A long time ago there was a small poor, yet humble village of farmers, warriors, wives, husbands, and children. Each family lived in a one room mud brick hut.
But in one hut in particular a young girl sat behind her black mirror in the shadows of the small mud brick home. The images that she saw in its depths where not arranged by time.
"Daughter?" spoke musical voice, and the young girl glanced over.
The voice belonged to an exotic looking woman. Her skin had a golden hue; her hair was the color of obsidian and her eyes where an almond shape and they where as large as they where dark; the women was wearing a simple linen tunic and in her arms was a baby boy.
This woman was Nefertina, also called The Night Star. A great sorceress in her day, but that was long ago.
"What do you see?" She asked the girl.
The girl stood up and turned to face her mother. The light illuminated her visage. The girl may have been a mere eleven years old but the villagers had said her adult beauty was already starting to shine. Her skin had the same golden hue as her mother; her hair was the same obsidian; and her almond eyes had the same depth to them. But there was something more to her. Something…(as all the villagers put it) mystic, to her beauty. She too was wearing a simple linen tunic.
The girl sat by her mother and spoke, "I do not know, Mother, I have seen fire and chaos but I, honestly, do not know where nor when"
"Time will tell," said her mother lightly.
The girl gave small shrug and sat next to her mother. As she did she felt icy cold shivers go down her body, through her very being.
"Daughter?" said her mother with concern.
"Mother," the girl, said her eyes wide. "Something is going to happen to us something…Diabolic".
There was a sound in her front yard, the sound of horse hooves. What was happening? The girl ran to her front door and pulled it open. What she saw made her gasp, hands fly to her mouth in surprise.
In her yard where five soldiers. Four of them where wearing red turbans and had bronze swords it their cuirasses. All of them rode on simple brown horses. All of them but one…
Their leader was wearing silver chain mail and had two swords in his cuirass; his ride was a black steed. His skin was a light tan, the sides of his head was shaven his fine skull had a shock of black hair long and braided in to warrior's braids. He may have been beautiful yet he was virile. Any who did not know his name knew him by his manner.
He was a warlord.
The soldiers and their leader dismounted.
It was then the girl's father appeared. He was a warrior in his own right. His hair was long and dark, his skin a deep tan, his eyes matched the girl's (dark) and he had battle markings on his face, on his belt was a sharpen knife that he always had. Just in case.
The girl's father went to the warlord and said in a strong sure voice, "Can I help you, Sir?"
"Yes, I am called the Great Teacher," said the warlord, " and I am here to see The Night Star's daughter. The girl-child that, it has been said, sees with the eyes of the gods".
It was then the warlord's cold eyes fell onto the girl. She felt another icy cold chill course through her soul. She looked down to her sandals.
"I wished to see if the rumors where true," continued the warlord.
Her father nodded and went to the girl, and escorted her to the warlord.
"Father," she said, softly, in his mind, "something doesn't feel right."
"I know, my little Jasmine." He said, whispering his nickname for her. "Just do as he asks, and he'll leave us alone".
The girl nodded not at all patience for this man with his sinister eyes to leave her and her family alone and disturb someone else with his evil presence. Soon enough she stood before the warlord, fighting her urge to run, as far as she could, the other way.
"This is her?" said the warlord surprised, "this is Nefertina's daughter?"
"Yes".
"This is the image of an angel!"
The girl said nothing in response. She couldn't find her voice. She just stared blankly at him.
"Come with me, Young Angel", said the warlord, offering her his hand.
Swallowing, trembling, and vary reluctantly she took it. He led her to his four waiting soldiers. All of whom where waiting at attention.
"Now, Young Angel, tell me the names of these men", said the warlord to the girl.
It was then she found her voice. "Sir, what if I am not correct on a name?" she asked in a strong voice.
She wished she hadn't said it after what happened next.
The Great Teacher (as he had called himself) smiled a cold, heartless, blood-chilling smile, and whispered in her ear, his message for her and her alone, "If you are wrong I will kill that man. I will kill every man whose name you have guessed wrong. Then I will move onto the rest of your petty village, until only you and I are left alive."
She gasped. She glanced to her father her eyes full of fear. Then she looked to this man. Was he bluffing? Was it a lie just to make her tremble so? Was it a bribe to make her get her answers right to impress him? Or was he truly a monster? She looked in to his eyes to see.
The man, the warlord, was not lying. He was deadly serious.
Quickly, she went to every one of the soldiers. Greeting, and saying their names. The soldiers looked surprised (how did this girl they had never seen know their names?) so did the warlord. She surmised that she had gotten them all right.
"Is that all you wished, Sir? Or is there something else you wished of me?" she asked. Praying to the gods above that he would say no.
"No", he said, (she could breathe again) still surprised. "No, that is all".
She nodded and walked to her father. The Great Teacher went to his horse, as did his soldiers.
Then it happened.
A vision seared through her brain, her being. She fell to her knees, her palms pressed against her forehead. Her father ran to her side, knowing well what was happening. Every villager stopped to watch her; they all know her power.
It was then she ripped her hands from her forehead. Her eyes darker than usual
A golden emblem flashed in her eyes. She spoke in a voice unlike her own; it was deep and resounding. It seemed to echo off the deadly silence and into the distance…
… Like the voice of the gods.
"IN A MERE TEN YEARS FROM NOW THE ACHIENT PROPHCEY WILL BE APON US" She spoke.
"BY TOLLING BELL AND THUNDER'S SWELL. A FLAMEING STAR SHALL FALL FROM THE SKY. BY A FULL MOON'S GLOW, IN HOUSE OF SCORPIO, KNELLING MEN SHALL BOW TO THE KING ON HIGH."
It was then she fell, losing consciousness into the waiting arms of her father. Then the dark warlord mounted on his horse, and rode off slowly understanding her prophecy…
---
It was nights later, while her father sharpened a hatchet size scythe and her mother was take care of her baby brother, the girl found herself in front of her black mirror once agian. In it she saw…
…A full moon that shined so bright that it rivaled the sun. On it was a scorpion symbol. Flames framed the peaceful night sky. It was then a shadowed, godlike figure appeared...
…She leaned forward, now interested…… It was then the shadow parted from his features…
…She gasped. She knew him from somewhere. But where? Her dreams? A vision long ago seen but now forgotten? Before she could tell a loud BAM interrupted her thoughts.
She looked up to see the door be yanked off its hinges. And four familiar soldiers bashed through the door.
"Get the girl and her mother," said one.
Suddenly her father ran at the soldiers, swinging his kama. Two of them swept past her father one of them grabbed her, and threw her over his shoulder. Her black mirror fell to the floor and shattered into pieces. It's image now lost and was later forgotten. Her mother was knocked out and was slung over his shoulder. Suddenly there was the sickening sound of metal interring flesh.
"Father! NO!"
She saw the soldier rip his blade out of her father, his blade stained with the blood. Then her baby brother started to cry. She saw a soldier hold his blade above the infant, but then she was rushed outside before she could see it come crashing down.
Outside, was utter chaos, other soldiers killed anything that breathed and burned anything that could burn. She could hear the screams of children, women, and men as they met their end. Tears blurred her eyes. These people where her friends and they where being killed in front of her.
The sight of the carnage was one she would carry for the rest of her life.
The girl tried to fight he captors, but resistanceagianst them was futile. For all where greatly strong brutes.
Her mother was thrown on to a horse as she tried to fight her captors.
"Put the girl on a horse with Thorak," said a soldier.
"No", said a familiar voice. "She rides with me".
She looked up to see him, The Great Teacher!
"You!" she gasped.
He smiled a grim smile and pulled her on to his horse.
As they rode off she turned to see her home, her peaceful village, burn to the ground. She had lost everything now. That she knew. She also knew another horrifying fact. Her prediction, her prophecy, that she had days before had come true.
---
As the years passed the girl grew in the ways of sorcery, and the ways of the soothsayer.
She stayed with her mother, learning these ways under the watchful eye of The Great Teacher.
Until one day, when she was thirteen she and her mother, a former sorceress, devised a plan for her to escape.
They knew what The Great Teacher planned to do.
He planned to use her, as a weapon of war to murder a countless many and become the king of the Ancient Prophecy that she had predicted would come true with in ten years.
As soon as she had learned what she needed, she fled into the desert. There she met a young boy who was also in the desert for a short wile. The girl befriended him and he vowed to help her after hearing a part of her story.
But this was not to be.
Just as freedom was in her reach, she was captured by the Great Teacher's men, trying to save the young boy.
Never agian would she see her new friend agian. She realized this as she was carried away by her captor's right hand man, the boy fadeing into the distance.
---
The next day, she was brought to the Great Teacher's tent by his soldiers. His back was turned to the girl, so she could not see his face. But, as she looked around, she saw the warlord was not alone.
The girl's mother was also in the tent. Her hands tied behind her back. Pinioned in such away, like an accused facing an executioner.
At once her heart fell.
"You," Spoke the Great Teacher to the former sorceress bitterly, like someone uttering a horrid curse.
"HOW DARE YOU! I have let you live, only for the sake of your daughter! I needed some one to teach her the ways of sorcery, not the ways of treason!"
"You speak as if you 're already King," spoke Nefertina. "You will never be the King favored by the gods, Barbarian! You're a vile, heartless-!"
"SILENCE!"
The air in the tent was thick with a dark ominous feeling of death.
The girl trembled, in her heart she knew what would happen.
The warlord turn to the Night Star. He sized her by the bottom of her chin and turned her blank beautiful face, free of countenance to her daughter.
"Gaze at your daughter good and well, witch!" He said pulling out his sword. "It will be the last thing you see!"
The girl screamed, "NO!"
She tried to fight the grasp of the two soldiers who had her but her forearms, with no avial.
The warlord made a brandishing movement with his sword, and suddenly, her mother's neck was sliced open.
The girl's heart shattered as she watched her mother, her teacher, her only family now died before her.
- - -
That night the girl went back to her tent, weeping, grieving, blaming herself and cursing her, so called "gifts" of prophecy and magic.
She wanted to die, to kill herself. With her mother gone she felt like an empty shell, there was nothing for her to live for anymore. But as she grabbed the knife, and raised it above to stab her heart her head a flash of a vision sized her.
She saw…
…a man, an Akkadian warrior stealing her away from a towering city. And away from the Red Guard the wretched warlord commanded…
She lowed the knife and put the knife aside.
The gods had spoken, and she would be committing the most ultimate sin of her kind not to follow their wishes.
---
Now, I know, dear reader, what you must be thinking since I have told you thissmalltale of mine.
Who is this girl?
Who is that warlord?
And why does this small, so rather sad, tale play such an important role inthe story I wish to tell you?
I shall tell you, and answer those questions.
I was that young girl.
Yes, at eleven I watched my life burn away. I witnessed my dear mother's death, as well as the death of many other's. By the hand of The Great Teacher, that you may know better as Memnon.
Many may know the story of The Time of Prophecy, and of Mathayus, the Scorpion King.
The story of a time where the world learned that it could create it's own destiny. And a man who created a kingdom known throughout the ages.
Over the thousands of years Mathayus has become a man of legend, and myth. Personified as a man, and a monster.
But I wish you to please hear the story of what really happened from one who lived it. The story where, even I learned that a mortal could change the course of the future. The story lost to desert winds. My story.
I am Cassandra, a Daughter of the Furies,also called The Sorceress by the many other storytellers than myself.
And this is the true tale of the Time of Prophecy.