The Prophecy
I am Keyra.
Once, I had been a Priestess of Jineta, known and feared for my relationship with the Other. I still perform the rites that are reserved for Priestesses alone, though I no longer have a strong connection with Her.
Once, I had been apprenticed to the Prophetess Sar after I had shown the ability to See the future. She taught me how to walk the paths of madness without getting lost, or becoming entangled in the dreams and nightmares of the future.
Once, I had been married to the High Prince Jekare, had loved him, and borne him two children, Kemara and Seri. We raised them, sang to them to put them to sleep or ease their nightmares, and comforted them when they were hurt, whether it be a skinned knee, or a broken heart.
Once, I had been the Queen of the Cerceres no Tamrhea, more commonly known as the Forest Ria-jin. I had ruled always with honor, but not always with kindness.
Now, I am the Guardian of the planet Ria, God of a people Gifted with the elemental powers, who are regarded as mysterious, and dangerous across the galaxy in which our planet dwells.
I stood in a clearing ringed with massive trees, and stared at the statues. Had been staring at them for some time. The artist had spared no details when he created them. My eyes rested on the statue on the right, a small, naked female standing, her posture indicating serenity and strength. One hand hung at her side, the palm facing forward, and the fingers slightly curled, clearly displaying the cut on her wrist. Someone not of my race would think that she had tried to commit suicide, but that wasn't so. A cut on the wrist meant many things. A promise to the land to keep it healthy, a blood offering to an element to honor it, or an acceptance of a male into her service. Which made me look at the other hand. The hand that rested on the head of the male. The beast. The feline features melded with a humanoid body reflected the inner ferocity that was an inherent part of a Ria-jin male's personality. He crouched beside the woman, his teeth pulled back in a vicious snarl. At a first glance, one might say that the woman had tamed the beast, had made him her pet, but they only need to look at the details to realize that he was still very much untamed, and that the leash he accepted did not make him her pet, but put him into her service. Like the way he crouched at her side with one clawed hand planted in the ground, giving a sense of barely contained rage, rage that came as naturally to a male as breathing, but was restrained by the arm wrapped around her thigh, the woman his anchor against the tide. His snarl was not that of a mere animal, but came from a desire to protect the woman against anything, and at all costs. All in all, an exquisite portrayal of the male and female relationship of Ria-jin society.
But our society has become cruel. Long centuries ago, a collar was created to control the Ria-jin, male or female, who have abused the Gift. Those collars were mentally linked to a person who was to monitor the prisoners' thoughts and emotions, and to punish them with an agonizing bolt of pain if they got out of hand. During the time of the collars' existance, they have been used very seldom, and only in extreme cases.
But a few decades ago, those collars started to circle the necks of those who had committed minor transgressions, crimes for which they only needed to pay a fine, or work off the debt, crimes not serious enough to have a delicate circle of gold unlock the natural barriers of the mind, and leave them open for perusal by the controller. With their minds opened, they could not protect themselves from a controller's sadistic enjoyment of destroying their ability to use their Gift, and twisting their minds until they died, or retreated into madness. It started slowly enough, a man here, a woman there, but soon the Matriarchs, women who governed a town, started to enslave those too poor to have any influence with the powerful, or have any money to bribe themselves to safety. Even the males who served the Matriarch, who could have refused to follow her orders, took pleasure in collaring.
It spread, from town to town, and it now has started to infect the cities. I could only sit and watch as the faith that the lower classes would have their rights protected from the higher classes erode into dust and blow away, and the trust between men and women weakened until they could no longer believe that a woman would not force a male to serve her unless he so desires, or that a male wouldn't take advantage of a female's moonflow, and rape her. I couldn't stop it. Even if I was not bound by the oaths that gods must take, I would not have been able to destroy it since it had spread too far by the time it had come to my attention. I was too late to purge the poison, too late to restore the hope that everything would return to normal.
Or so I thought.
The dreams started a week ago. At first, they were flashes of moon-kissed skin, rose tinted hair, and a power that made my bones hum. Then, they started to gain in intensity, and with them, so did the power. It caressed my skin, shivered along my nerves, and made my blood simmer. I had spent too much time training to See to not recognize a vision when it came to me. So I did something that I had not done in the long centuries that I guarded Ria as its Kami. I walked the paths of madness. It was before these very statues that I stood with my eyes closed, and started to shroud my mind in insanity. I was careful, never going too fast, nor too slow, the former putting my mind at risk to be permanently ensnared, the latter simply taking too long. When my mind was fully veiled in madness, I opened my eyes, and looked at the statues again with Sight-sharpened senses. Only, they weren't statues, but living beings, though they remained as still as ever.
The male caught my attention first, as his body was shifting into different males from different races. They came in all shapes and sizes, and from many walks of life. I didn't recognize any of them. Except one. Deval. It made sense, I had thought as I studied the male before he shifted again, that the sharp-witted, vibrant boy would turn into this shrewd man, this vigorous warrior. It would go against his instincts to do otherwise.
Finished with my observation of the male, I turned to the female, and, for a moment, it was all I could do to breathe as I looked into her eyes. The power that started to flow from this seemingly frail woman made my bones sing, thrummed against my skin, raced along my nerves, and set my blood afire, even as a Song rose into the still night air, my soul soaring and dipping with every beautiful and haunting note. Then, from deep within the spiritual river that the Gift springs from, what the Ria-jin call Palileamak, I felt a powerful connection between all five elements and the woman.
I was terrified. Terrified of the reservoir of energy that looked to have no end, terrified of the body that could contain such power, and not be torn asunder, terrified of how that power would be used, and most of all, I was terrified of the darkness surrounding her, held at bay only by the presence of the male.
No one could have this much power! No one should have this much power!
There was nothing tainted in the elements . . .
But power can be corrupted.
By herself . . . or others.
Such power in the wrong hands could . . .
Who is she? Where is she?
How had she escaped my attention for so long?
She must be found.
Such were my thoughts as I stared at her, following this anxiety and that, forming, then discarding, ideas, all the while hoping that I was not too late. There was nothing tainted in the elements true enough, but in the hands of a skilled manipulator, given enough time, her conviction that she is doing something right and good, whether it be laying a city to waste, or subjugating Ria and other planets, could very well leave the elements untainted. But how was I to know? I had not caught a whiff of her before last night, and such power, dear Gods! such power could not have been hidden from me. So what was it? Shielded? Dead? Unborn?
Immersed in my thoughts as I was, I was not aware of the presence outside my mental barriers until it 'knocked', so to speak. I am not a suspicious one by nature, but even so, only a fool would have answered that knock without precautions. Fortifying my mental barriers with more strength and haste than usual, I answered by opening my barriers a crack and sent out a wisp of my thought. I brushed against her mind, intending to feel out a bit of her personality.
And I received the biggest shock of my life.
It wasn't that she was unborn, that much I had suspected, but that she wasn't even finished. A soul that had gone through the trials of many lifetimes, that had resisted the many temptations of life, could be refined to have that much power. But an untried soul? Even one that, from what I could tell, had a vast wisdom to complement her power? Insane and dangerous.
And yet, perhaps the only hope for the Ria-jin.
That was yesterday, and as I stand here before the lifeless statues I am still unsure. Ironic. After all of my prayers, the one who answers frightens me more than the prospect of the Ria-jin continuing along their self-destructive path.