Chapter 1 - The Prophesy

One nation's hero is another one's doom. In the end, it is usually the victors who write the history and thus their adversaries are always portrayed as the evil ones. But what if the other side had won? Who then would history see as evil? In the end, it is not the actions of a nation that decide goodness of evil, but the perspective of the person writing down the history.

In the Golden Age of Arcadia, just before the continent of Melosia was destroyed by the rains of destruction, the Melanites had just finished construction of their own Gigas. The Black Gigas was a thing of mystery, for few of the Melanites even knew of its existence, and most wouldn't have cared less anyway. They were fighting a war, thriving on the utter chaos of it all.

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"Selina!"

The young white haired girl laughed, the sound carrying through the nearly empty streets of Maramba. She ran, not knowing why, with the reckless abandon of a four year old girl. Behind her trialed her mother, whose worry she could not see, and her aunt, both of whom she knew to be behind her for that was part of the game.

Finally she came to the city gate, giving one glance at the dhabu stand, and turned around to lean on the gate innocently. She watched with her shining blue-green eyes as her mother and aunt nearly caught up with her, and grinned widely as she ducked under the gate into the desert. Her mother was close enough that she could hear her gasp of horror, knowing the danger of crossing the rift between the two sections of town on foot. This had been Selina's hope all along... to worry her mother.

With an ease that was natural to her, she called upon the power of the blue moon, shielding herself from the harsh winds and heat, and ran as well as she could to the other gate, sliding underneath it. She knew it would take a while for her mother to catch up to her. She would have to ride a dhabu over... that and she was getting plump around the middle. Selina laughed again with the thought of her mother riding a dhabu with that round belly.

She looked around the barren far half of the city of Maramba, and for a moment briefly forgot exactly why she had wanted to come here. Then she saw the dhabu that her father and his men had loaded up with various spices standing in front of the town tavern. She giggled and ran to the only other building in this part of town.

It was a small building with open windows and long drapes that served as the door. There was a large ornate sign above the door, which looked rather interesting to her, though she could not yet read. It was then that she decided that this would make a perfect hiding spot. She ran into the building, huddling in the drapes and peeking through to keep an eye out for her mother.

"Why have you entered here, child?"

Selina screamed in a pitch only a child can hit, turning to face this new terror that presented itself. There she found an older woman, sitting in the middle of the room on a round, flat pillow, the folds of her dress embracing the large moon stone that lay in her lap. Her terror turned into curiosity at the sight of its red glow.

"Wow..." She whispered in awe, "It's so pretty..."

The older woman smiled, pushed up her rather large glasses further onto her nose, and held it out for the child to inspect. Selina walked over slowly, and then took it into her arms, her torso nearly disappearing behind it. She giggled as she looked through the stone, fascinated at how funny everything looked through it. The older woman smiled widely, until the inner glow of the moonstone flickered once, twice, then finally extinguished. Selina lowered it from her face, a disappointed look on her face. It was then that the woman discovered where her moonstone's energy had gone to...

"By the red moon..."

"Selina!"

The white haired girl spun and launched herself at her mother, who'd just rushed in through the thin curtain, her curly hair frizzing out in every direction, making the girl laugh at the sight of her. Jaycera caught her daughter and hugged her for a moment, then held her at an arms length, her blue eyes boring straight into her daughter's.

"Don't you EVER do that again, do you understand me." She said sternly, "I was worried sick!"

"Oh, Mama..." Selina said, wrapping her small arms around her mother, "You don't need to worry. I can take care of myself now!"

Jaycera sighed, rolled her eyes, and grinned slightly, "With a daughter like you, the day I stop worrying is the day I die worrying." Then she noticed the bright red glow between her eyes brows, "Where did you find a moonstone?"

At about that moment another head found its way in to the small building.

"Jay... Selina?" Ryne asked, poking his head in through the curtain, "I heard a scream from the tavern and heard your voices so I..." he paused for a moment, noticing the forgotten first occupant of the room, "...Kalifa?..."

The older woman smiled, motioning for him to come in the rest of the way.

"By the Red Moon, Ryne." The fortune teller exclaimed, "I didn't even see you coming."

Ryne smiled wryly, "Oh you know you were never that good of a seer, Kalifa." He teased, "The only right prediction you ever gave me was what I'd had for breakfast in the morning, and I think that was because I was usually wearing some of it on my shirt."

The woman smiled and pushed her glasses back on her nose, "Eggs, sausage, and some fried grouper."

Ryne cocked an eyebrow, looked down at his shirt, then back at Kalifa.

"...And you still have a knack for it I see."

"The moons work in strange and mysterious ways..." she said in her grand, fortune teller way.

Ryne looked down at the large red moonstone that set in her lap, now lifeless and dull.

"What happened to your moonstone?" He asked, looking back suspiciously at his daughter. The small girl was standing beside her mother, both hands covering over the silver moonstone in her forehead, but neither able to contain the bright light that still peeked through.

"Selina..." Ryne sighed, kneeling in front of his daughter, moving her hands, then placing his right hand on her forehead. The larger crystal in his hand absorbed all of the energy that his daughter had sucked out of the red moonstone, the red glow now pulsating from his right hand.

"Can I see your stone?" He asked his father's old seer, who handed it over to him. With a technique he'd developed over the years, mostly due to his daughter absorbing unwanted energy, he transferred the power back into the stone, then handed it over to Kalifa. "There, that should do it."

Kalifa inspected the stone, her astonishment apparent. She spun and tossed it into the air, waving her arms around it in a familiar way, the large stone hovering and spinning at a speed to fast for his eyes to follow. After a while she stopped, the stone falling into her lap gently. Her breathing was ragged and deep, worrying Ryne. He'd seen her many times as a child, but he'd never seen her like this after a reading.

"Ryne." She said between breaths, "Can I... speak to you alone... for a moment?"

Ryne shrugged and nodded at Jay, who picked up their small daughter and walked out through the flap. Kalifa watched them through her thick glasses and waited for the sound of a dhabu and an opening gate before she started.

"Ryne," She started, taking off her glasses and looking his full in the eyes, "The Red Moon has sent me a vision."

Ryne looked at her for a moment quizzically, then pulled up a mat and sat down across from her. "What kind of vision, and what does it have to do with me?"

"I saw your daughter, though not as a child, but as the woman she will become. Her eyes were of fire, and she was dressed in all black, commanding the armies of chaos and darkness. I saw the world under her heel, and then nothingness."

Ryne looked at her hard, a cold anger rising in him, "If this is your idea of a joke, Kalifa..."

"This is not a joke boy!" Kalifa yelled, surprising Ryne with it's ferocity, "Even you know of the prophesy of old! Your child bears the mark! The mark of our destroyer!"

Ryne laughed and stood up, walking toward the door flap.

"I don't have time for any more of your fairy stories, old Seer."

"If you forsake her destiny then we are all condemned."

Ryne pulled back the door flap, then stopped, leaned on door jamb and looked back at his old friend, "I hardly believe in destiny anymore, Kalifa."

"Destiny doesn't care if you believe in it... it drags you along anyway."

Ryne sighed and leaned his head against the door jamb, "What about my wife's pregnancy? Did you see anything about that?"

Kalifa sighed and fingered her stone for a moment. "Twins... twin boys."

"Thanks." Ryne said, and with that he walked out of the fortune teller's home.

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"What did she have to say?"

Ryne snapped out of the self induced thought trace he'd put himself in, his dhabu rocking steadily underneath him.

"What?" He asked, looking over at his wife, who was walking her dhabu aside his as he walked it down to where their ship was docked.

"The old Seer, what did she have to tell you that was so important?"

Ryne studied her for a moment, then fixed his eyes on her rounded stomach.

"Twins... we're going to have twin boys." Was all he told her.

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In the Golden Age of Arcadia there was a Seer. The oldest of the Silvites, he had been aged already when his people had discovered how to alter their own genetics and have their bodies produce the Silver Moon crystals within them. He had even been one of the first to undergo the procedure, granting him near immortality. But his crystal had not formed in the hand as most of those who underwent the alteration had. It had formed in the middle of his forehead, expanding his mental capacity greatly. It was then that he gained the ability to see the future.

The day that Melosia was destroyed he had a great and terrible vision.

"...the sword of the Black Moon will rise again, the last Silvite bearing my mark at its hilt..."

The rest of the Silvites branded this treason and heresy and left him on the continent of Soltis when they sunk it into deep sky...