The Balinor Chronicles: The Celestial Herd
Chapter Fifty Eight: What May Be
With great power comes great responsibility.
--Spiderman
For six months Raiden would use the Black Pool in the forgotten cave. For six months, he would guard its secrets. Only Lorn and the Mare would truly know what he was doing. For Raiden was very busy.
He would use the pool of the present and the future to march into war, to change the courses of battles that were supposed to be surprise routes.
He would use the pool of the past the follow the steps of Arioch and Moloth from the beginning. And what he discovered terrifies him – Moloth and Arioch were not fighting to conqueror, they fighting for something else. Something that chilled him straight to his core, that holy place which breeds hope in its warmth. The idea along froze him in place. It was the sheer possibility of its completion that quenched his fire and then later stirred him into action. Since he knew what the Twilights were after and he knew no one would believe him, he had to do something, or no once would do anything. So he fought all the harder.
But one day, six months to the day after the Stallion of the Mountains was born, something changed.
It was the last time Raiden would ever see to use the pool.
He tapped his horn to the black glassy water.
The image he saw was a battle unfolding, and in the end, the Sun set beyond the mist. A second would rise to take its place, but first would come the night – and this night had no moon.
Raiden pulled back shocked. He was no friend of Solaris, yet he still felt loyal to the herd. Not all had betrayed him. And there was still Lorn, his foal, Gareth….What had the Mare said before? These could be things that were, things that are, things that would be, and things that might be. Surely this was a might be.
But, be it fortunately or unfortunately, this was a would be. Yes, my dear friends, this was a would be, right up to the place of the light in the sky and the horn that struck the blow.
What Is Now and What Will Come
Reflects that Which Has Been Done,
Yet What May Be and What Becomes
Sets upon the setting Sun.