Chapter 25: Of Souls and Prophecies

Boragepelt made her way over to Leafpaw giving me the opportunity to chat with the Starclan cat Dawnfur. I slowly padded up to her while observing Leafpaw, Boragepelt, and Quietstep.

"Your child really is a wonder. She's gentle and kind, all good traits of a medicine cat."

"What brings you here Darkforest cat?!" She spat.

"If you can't tell, we're in the Darkforest, which makes you a Darkforest cat as well." I responded calmly hiding the rage I felt for her looking down on me.

"I was accepted into Starclan. I'm only here for my daughter." She responded aloofly.

"That doesn't matter. Once you're here, you can't go back. You can't get your daughter over there. You haven't even bothered to ask why each of us is here, and on top of all that, you seem to have a particular hatred for me. Why is that?" I ranted.

She stared me down with a measure of hatred before responding. "You're a cat who was tossed here for murder, the council talks of you as the Queen of Darkness, and on top of that, you seem to be trying to recruit enough cats to outnumber the clans. Why should I trust you?"

I stared at her with confusion. Queen of Darkness? I guessed I was a queen in the Darkforest, but that didn't deserve a title.

"I don't know what you mean about Queen of Darkness. I honestly just brought cats together because it's lonely here. It's all too easy to let the forest consume you, wandering mindlessly in starved dry agony. I don't believe any cat deserves eternal suffering despite Starclan thinking otherwise. I believe in redemption. If you truly believe I am irredeemable, then you should speak to Frecklewish when she gets back. She's one of the cats I murdered, but she ultimately forgave me. The world isn't so black and white as to have true good and evil."

Dawnpelt huffed at my speech and stared me down for a couple heartbeats before speaking. "If you really must know, the Queen of the Darkness thing is from the Council. I swear it's the only thing those dustbrains ever talk about. The Grand Prophecy will bring the end to all prophecy. The Tiger will stalk the land once again, poisoning the clans. The dead will rise to fight once more. The fires of change will sweep through and burn out. The Queen of Darkness will walk hallowed ground. The Mother of Murder shall meet the three who hold the power of stars in their paws, and the last prophecy will end with the skies splitting. Bunch of nonsense if you ask me, but prophecy is what Starclan is all about. I do not trust you because you are a doom bringer."

I had to sit there and ponder her words for a second before responding. "I know this is just a loophole, but nowhere in what you just said do 'I' actually bring doom. The things I'm getting from that is that somehow I'll get into Starclan, however briefly, I'll meet three powerful cats, the skies will split, and no more prophecies will occur afterwards. I'm not brushing you off. Maybe somehow I will go mad and become a doom bringer, but I'd rather consider that somehow it's a good thing. Maybe the end of prophecy is good."

Her eyes flicked out to briefly stare at her daughter before meeting mine again.

"Maybe… Maybe. My daughter never deserved to be sent here. The only cat she ever killed was a kit killer and my murderer, but somehow Starclan took offense. Apparently, she denied the path of prophecy which made her a heretic. That cat, my former mate and her father, was supposed to take over the clan and cause an age of chaos until another prophecy cat appeared, but then the prophecy was denied. My daughter saved the clans from madness, and they rewarded her by sending her here. I wouldn't mind the end of prophecy if it means no cat is cast out like my daughter."

I could see her drooping after that reveal. It really did sound like her daughter was just a victim of Starclan. What madness binds them to try and follow a bad prophecy? If they see something bad in a prophecy, why would they just pelt headlong at it? There were no answers. Only a cat with no regard for the living would guide them on such a violent path.

Something about Dawnpelt's soul was bugging me. It was something I'd only ever noticed in amalgams, but I initially assumed it was just damage from the process of breaking an aspect off a Starclan cat, but Dawnpelt held that same scarring as well. The best way to describe it was, she seemed to have had something nibbling at the edges of her soul. It wasn't that the thing seemed to be totally consuming her, but if a soul didn't grow back over time due to something like apathy, I could very much imagine them becoming an echo or vanishing all together.

"Dawnpelt? Have you noticed anything strange about Starclan? Your soul, it's been wounded somehow. I don't know how to describe it other than, something has been slowly eating you."

Dawnpelt looked at me with alarm. "Something's been eating my soul?! It must be here! I can't let it get my daughter."

I had to shake my head at her. "No. Whatever it is, is in Starclan. No cat thrown here directly has that kind of damage. Our souls also seem to heal over time and age us if we're young, but my kits I saw in Starclan, they're just as young as when I last saw them. If I had to guess, something over there is consuming the growth souls have over time. I worry for the cats who have grown apathetic. Their souls won't grow and whatever that thing is will still take from them until they are nothing, faded, gone. Maybe I'm wrong and Starclan has different rules, but I'm worried I'm right."

"Then, what should we do?"

I, unfortunately, had to give her the bad news. "There isn't anything we can do. We can't get over there to tell them, not that they'll listen to Darkforest cats. We have no idea what is eating them. We can't do anything about it ourselves. On top of that, I don't think they're totally unaware of it. I met another Starclan cat, and he told me about the pulses. I don't know what they are or their origin, but that is the likely culprit. He also said the pulses appear to be how Starclan influences the living world. It's a bit more complicated than just a soul eating monster."

Dawnfur dropped, somewhat depressed. "I have family over there. I don't want them to fade."

Something from Dawnfur's telling of the Grand Prophecy occurred to me. "Dawnfur! The prophecy states I'll enter Starclan somehow. What if the reason I'm there is to remove the soul eater? Even if it's not, we can make it so. If I somehow become this Queen of Darkness able to compete with Starclan, I can just remove the threat and leave. Nothing in the prophecy said I couldn't."

Dawnfur sat up straighter at that. She seemed to be taking my measure again.

"Fine. If my daughter can defy prophecy, we can make the prophecy how we want it. I'm going to make you into what you promised. You aren't allowed to back out. Use whatever powers you've got and bind it in a promise. You will do this for the cats here and in Starclan."

I really didn't want to do what she suggested, but I was trying to make myself the hero. If destroying the soul eater means saving my kits from fading, I'll do it. I swore on my powers and soul that someday I'd get rid of whatever was consuming the souls of Starclan if only to save my own family.

I could feel my promise take effect. My powers seemed tighter, closer together, but there also seemed to be something around it. Something sharp and thin surrounded my soul and powers. It was a barrier and a means of my own demise. It was my promise. I could feel a string of fate stretched out into the distance. It really wasn't a string but a faint instinct. I could feel there was a path forward, but the feeling didn't tell me what it was or where to go. My promise was a binding and a blessing I planned to keep.