A/N: This is the prologue. I'm very excited for this story. Please remember to vote and COMMENT. Also this chapter contains some spoilers for some previous books in my Saga. Also feel free to ask questions if this chapter is confusing. I tried to make it mysterious, but I'm not sure it worked. Still, please tell me what you thought about it!
Poor Elena Gilbert! She never even noticed the ancient, heartless creature staring back at her from behind the mirror!
Sitting comfortably in front of the mirror, Elena applied her makeup with care and ease. On the surface, she paid extreme attention to the task at hand, but in reality, her mind was lost on other matters.
She was going to a party where she would most likely meet her now ex-boyfriend, Matt Donovan. To think about this possibility made her want to fake a sickness to avoid going. But it helped to focus on the task ahead of her–the makeup in this case. Later on, during the party, Elena was sure she would have plenty to do, since her dear friend Caroline would be there and would definitely ask Elena to be her wingman. She did not mind it, though. It all was supposed to stop her from thinking about how much she would rather not go to the party.
Seeing Matt was not something she felt prepared to do, especially without Henrik's support. In the year since Henrik enrolled in the Mystic Falls high school, he, Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie had become great friends. Now, not even a month after he left for a vacation with his father; Elena realized she probably missed him more than she should… But that was also another thought she was religiously avoiding.
Despite her best efforts, the thought of not going to the party crossed her mind many times. Still, she remembered the promise she made to Henrik. He had urged her to have fun while he was away with his dad and tell him everything once he got back from his vacation. Remembering Henrik did not make going any easier, but Elena knew she had to go. She had promised she would, after all…
How terrible could one party be?
Her parents were supposed to give her a ride to the party on their way to the movies. But they were late, and Elena appreciated the extra time to get ready.
In normal days, she would not need so much time, but on this night, the fact she had the urge to check her phone every two minutes delayed her entire process of getting ready. It was a new vice to Elena. Usually, she could stay for hours without even thinking about her phone. Her two best friends and parents were already used to it, and found new ways to reach her. But, on that night, Henrik Mikaelson was neglecting to reply to her text messages… Which, besides worrying her, also made Elena realize, as her heart twisted in her chest, she could not stop thinking about him…
It was truly unsurprising that when the Goddess blinked, with shining tears in her emerald eyes, from behind the damned mirror… Elena was too distracted with her mundane life to realize everything in her world was about to change.
But, with so many thoughts she wanted to avoid and so many conflicting feelings she wanted to hide from, who could blame the poor girl for being oblivious to the ancient Goddess hiding in her mirror and the tragedy she had bestowed upon her?
Oh Divine Amara! She was the beautiful goddess of Fate staring back at Elena; the ancient creature hidden within the poor girl's mirror.
On the other side of the mirror, Amara sat with her legs crossed on the cold stone floor of the Walking Cave, where she and other gods like her had been imprisoned for over a millennium. In front of her, crimson waters of the Blood Fountain shone brightly, changing colors from dark red to light blue. With a gentle touch of her fingers, Amara could use the weak magic she still had to calm the waters, making them show her whoever she wished to see in the mortal world.
Access to the Fountain was a privilege the other gods imprisoned in the cave never had. Amara had been glad for it at first; thinking it was a kindness her jailor had granted her. But as the centuries went on, she realized it was quite the opposite. Being able to see everything she ever wanted, but never able to reach it, was maddening.
But—even if Amara would rather die than admit the truth—it was also a punishment fit for her crimes.
It had been so long since the last time Amara cursed, or helped to curse, an innocent child, she had almost forgotten how the ordeal made her sick. The ability to ignore the sickness one felt in the face of absurd cruelty—that was judged to be necessary—was perhaps one of the few traits both mortals and gods always had in common.
Unlike some gods, however, Amara remembered the children she had cursed. Especially the child who had imprisoned her…
Pushing a lock of her hair away from her eyes, Amara focused on Elena's actions. Just like the teen, the Goddess also had matters she would rather avoid thinking about. Unlike Elena, however, Amara could not be distracted from such thoughts. Reviving her memories and dwelling on her most uncomfortable thoughts was the price Amara had to pay to use the Fountain. Besides, considering how she planned to curse Elena, killing her loving parents and changing the course of her life forever, it was only fair that Amara should revisit the reasons behind her terrible actions…
Amara watched, with a scream stuck in her throat, as Elena got ready. She still found it strange to see someone else wearing her face. Elena Gilbert was the newest doppelgänger of the Petrova family, a bloodline blessed–or cursed, depending on one's perspective–by Amara's blood.
In another universe, perhaps Amara would have thought of Elena and all the doppelgangers before her, as daughters… But after millenniums walking the Earth, Amara could not see the use in loving the closest thing she had to her own children. Besides, she thought it would be rather narcissistic to love someone who had her exact same face. Children are supposed to be alike their parents, but never their clones.
Amara and her soulmate, Silas, the God of Love, had created the first doppelgangers of themselves millenniums before Elena was born. Their original plan was quite simple. But what ignited their cruel plot was simpler still: both Amara and Silas, in all their divinity, wanted to be human. They wanted to love and be loved.
Gods cannot love, but as humans they could experience mortal love… And all its tragedy.
Their plan began when Amara and Silas still lived in the Creation Island, a sacred place for the Gods, where they discarded all their monstrous creations. But to achieve their goal, Amara and Silas conspired with two other gods. The Hollow, Goddess of Order, and The Silence, God of Chaos. They, too, had an unusual and cruel goal. Hollow and Silence wanted, more than anything, to make a child. Half human, half divine. A child made to live forever, never aging, never disobeying, and always destroying everything in his path.
Amara could still recall the day he was born. Hollow and Silence each gave their son a rib they had carved out of their own bodies. The boy was born in a flower field. Fire forged him into existence. In his first breath, he screamed, as though begging not to be alive. All the flowers died underneath his feet as he tried to get up… or maybe his parents' magic had already killed all the beauty of the field to make way for their son. Amara couldn't remember, but she was almost glad the boy had been born with twelve years of age. She shivered at the thought of Hollow and Silence trying to care for a baby. It would have died faster, without so much pain…
They made the boy for pain. It was his only purpose. But the little one smiled… such a sweet little thing… It made Amara wonder if he could change his own Fate…
"He couldn't…" she whispered to herself, looking away from the Fountain. What happened to the boy was among the few memories Amara could not bear to recall…
Since Amara and Silas were so helpful in creating their little monster, Hollow and Silence kept their end of the bargain… somewhat. They gave Silas the secret to making the doppelgänger curse and finding the perfect candidates to carry it.
After centuries of searching, they finally chose two humans—their Adam and Eve, as Silas later took to calling the poor souls they cursed—and transformed them into exact copies of themselves. They then threw the two humans back into the mortal world, their memories of what the Gods had done to them completely erased. The doppelgänger curse spread through the two bloodlines, and every century a pair of doppelgangers was born.
"It worked almost perfectly." Amara scoffed, glancing back at the image of Elena.
Amara and Silas were supposed to inhabit the bodies of their new doppelgangers every century, living and loving each other as humans forever. This part of the plan, however, did not work out so well…
All four gods became human in their original bodies while they still lived in the Creation Island, which they had to leave soon after. None of them were entirely mortal, but they were human enough to be weak. Unable to follow through with their plans, the Gods became trapped in their own bodies.
At first, Amara and her companions thought their new found human nature was a punishment given to them by the Other Gods for their transgressions. But soon enough, Hollow and Silence came up with an alternative explanation, which Silas supported wholeheartedly: it was all the child's fault.
But the Goddess of Fate had her own theories. They all loved the boy, and so he gave them humanity. Love made the Gods human… It wasn't the type of thing Hollow and Silence wanted to hear, least of all from someone who could see the future. Expect, Amara could never see the child's future clearly. She saw the pain, the misery, the love, the grief and loss, the violence and victories… But nothing about his life made sense. He was a being made of hate, anger; yet he was always full of love and care. They made him for destruction, but always loved creating, nurturing, caring… Such an improbable creature, couldn't he have changed the Gods' natures?
His parents disagreed; and moved on with their cruel plans.
Amara had begged Silas to help the boy, to stop his parents. She told him everything she thought he would want to hear. They were human, able to love each other fully. Even if all they had was only one human life together, it did not matter. They could finally love each other… It was a lie, of course, but who would not lie to save a child from cruelty?
But Silas was not satisfied with such prospects. He wanted—needed—more power than any human witch could have. How else would he make sure Amara could never leave him?
"Maybe he knew…" Amara pondered, letting her fingers dance around the waters of the Fountain. "Deep down… Silas knew I would never love him…"
Even before Amara had a human heart, she had lost it to a mortal witch named Qetsiyah. It was a choice. She chose to love someone who wasn't her soulmate. It was a transgression, a sinful one. But that was the beauty of it. Amara, for the first time in her Divine eternity, could chose, to go beyond what her Divine nature dictated. In her love for the witch Qetsiyah, Amara, the Goddess and guardian of Fate, went against her own destiny. Despite all the hurt she had caused to others–Silas, the child, the doppelgangers, even Qetsiyah and herself—because of her love, Amara would never have chosen otherwise. Her love set her free, even if it was also one of the reason for her eternal imprisonment in the Walking Cave...
Yet Silas could never let go of Amara, and she knew it. He was the God of Love, Desire, after all. Silas never gave up on what he wanted, and he wanted nothing expect Amara and her love. For the keeper and self-proclaimed champion of love, Silas was far more ruthless than even Amara could have predicted.
Without Silas' help, all Amara could do was watch the terrible things the Gods did to the poor boy… It went on for ages. Hollow and Silence's new plans then involved killing the Other Gods and destroying Fate, so they could regain their full divinity. Both goals involved using and abusing their son.
Still, after ages of torture, when the Gods were close to achieving everything they wanted, the boy rebelled. He grew up and fell in love with two humans. The boy built himself a family that gave him the strength to challenge his parents, to crawl his way out from within their claws. He could never be completely free from their influence. He would always be Hollow and Silence's son. Their cursed blood flowed through his veins. That was the tragedy of his family, the Mikaelsons, the curses in their blood. But they were happy enough, at least for a while, before the Gods almost destroyed everything they held dear...
Now, a millennium later, Amara planned to bring misery to the boy's family, his children, once again. This time, however, her plans would be more subtle, harder to decipher, and almost impossible to stop. Her curse, the car accident that would happen later that night, killing Elena's parents and forcing her to meet the Salvatore brothers, was only the first step. It would be a game, a macabre game of divine chess. Amara's first move was cruel, yes, but necessary. Besides, once Silas, Hollow and Silence played, their moves, their unrelenting cruelty, would make Amara's curse seem like a blessing.
Not to mention the mortal players, enemies of the Mikaelsons: the de Martels, New Orleans witches, Hunters, Dahlia, Esther, Kai, Cade, and so many others... their powers are inferior compared to the Gods', but they will be their pawns, their weapons against the family responsible for their imprisonment. Amara just started the game, but if her visions of the future were correct, she would be free before it was finished...
Amara sighed, watching Elena get up. The girl glanced a final at the mirror, still unaware of the Goddess, and left her bedroom; marching unknowingly to tragedy's stiff embrace.
The sight made the Goddess sick. She stood up, leaving the Fountain behind. There was no going back now. Around her, the floor of the Walking Cave trembled. The waters of the Blood Fountain muttered. The world cried silent tears for the tragedy to be. But the Goddess had no more tears to cry.
Resigned, she strolled back to her cell. Amara could not see how the Mikaelsons' story would end. She knew there would be pain, suffering in it, but also so much love, happiness even... For the third time in her eternal life, Amara prayed quietly—to whom or what, she did not know. Yet she still prayed and prayed... for the story of the Mikaelson family to have a happy end.
Hearing the winds of fate changing, the Fallen Gods crawled out of their divine hell.
There was relative peace for over a thousand years. But, every few centuries, one of them would slip out of their prison cells in the Walking Cave and stroll around the world, causing pain and suffering in their search for Mikael and his children. They could not stay out of their prison for long, and they were never powerful enough to change their situation.
But now, with Amara's curse, the walls of the cave shook. The Gods' cages were never meant to hold them forever; they cracked and crumble under Fate's gentle touch.
Soon, the Mikaelsons would have to face the Gods' wrath and love.