The Darkness Deepens, Prelude

The Prophesy

She will be born holding both halves of her soul, and she will be born dead

But on the seventh day of the seventh month her Vinculum will be broken.

The bright shining star of her Life Stone will fade.

Her grief will be such that no one can comfort her

It will come to pass that all will think that she is Forsaken.

Her life Stone will burn with a cold darkness that rivals that of midnight.

And then insult will become injury and the beginning of the End will begin

She will be sent from among us, unwanted and shunned.

Her task complete she shall wait at deaths door for her love.

And Death shall look upon her with pity and turn his head away from her,

only to grab for her beauty from the folds of his cloak.

The one who breath’s yet is dead will come for her.

The Great Revelation will be upon us all,

And that which we thought we knew will prove false,

And it will come to be, she that walked in darkness with show us the light.

========================

Prelude

         The twins were born at the stroke of midnight.  The midwife was cold with the knowledge of what the children were.  She knew that her Ladyship had tried for many years to have children, and just when all hope was gone, she had conceived.  Fate was indeed cruel the midwife thought.  It was simply not fair but the signs were clear.  Even as she stood looking at the horrible look of grief on his Lordship's face she could see the markings becoming clear.  The Life Stone burned bright in both of their ears.  There simply was no doubt.  The twins, a boy and a girl, were Chosen.

         The midwife moved to set the babies on their mother's breast, thinking to give her a few previous moments with her children before they were taken from her.  The woman was experienced at this and knew that somehow the Chosen would know and arrive shortly to take the newborns.  A large body blocked her from the bed.

         "Take them out of here quietly, do not let them cry.  She does not realize that she is finished and waits for the sound of a child's cry to tell her everything is well.  Take them and wait outside for the Chosen, do not let them come here.  I shall care for my wife.  She is not to know about them.  I shall make a grave for her children and you shall tell her that they were born dead.  Do you understand?"

         The old midwife simply nodded, knowing that his Lordship was only trying to spare his Lady the pain of wondering and never knowing what happen to her young ones.  She hurried out of the room holding both babies to her chest to keep them quite.  She had not even gotten to the main floor of the castle before she ran into the Chosen.
         "A Chosen has been born this night.  Blessed are those of this household.  If it pleases his Lordship, I will offer safe passage to the young Chosen back to The Island.  Blessed be the mother of the Chosen…”

         "Yes, yes, I have heard it all before.  You don't get as old as I am and have delivered as many babies as I have not to seen your kind before.  Where is your wet nurse??  I knows you are not going to be given the little ones what they need."

         The Chosen looked at her.  A look of slight annoyance cross his face and was gone so quickly that the Midwife wondered if she had not imagined it.  He was a handsome man she thought.  But then again, one expected the Chosen to look their best at all times.  He looked as if he had just walked out of court with his fine clothes all pressed and spotless.  She tried to remember when she had seen a Chosen not looking immaculate and could not remember a time.  Even in the middle of the night, he looked fresh and well rested.  While the midwife looked the Chosen over and ponder his appearance a woman entered the hallway.  She was wearing the robes of a Chosen priestess.  The midwife gave the children over to her without a word.  She knew without being told that this was the wet nurse.  As she handed them over she kissed each child on the head and mumbled a small prayer of safekeeping.  Without another word the Chosen turned and left the castle.

              Seven months has passed since the night that the twins were born.  Both were healthy and both seemed very alert.  It was during this time period that the boy started to take ill.  The healers were called, but they could find no illness to cure, they suggested it was a magic illness.  It appeared to them that something or someone was sucking the very life out of him.  The mages were called.  All agreed that is was mystically in nature, but not could find a way to stop it.  The girl child was removed from the crib they shared, in fear that she would become ill with the same thing.

              The boy would lie in his crib and simply whimper his discomfort.  It was finally decided to allow the twins to be together in hopes that his sister might be able to help comfort the small child in what they feared would be his last days.  As soon as the girl child was laid in the crib with her brother she reached out for him.  Their hands meant and he grew quite and final started to rest.  Her presence at least soothed him.  He even began to get better in the days that followed and the mages, healers and priestess alike knew that somehow the girl child was innately using a magic that was within her to try to fight that which had affected her brother.

              On the seventh night of his illness at midnight the young boy simply sighed and was no more.  All knew what had happened as the howl of torment rose from the nursery.  None had ever heard such a pain filled cry.  It was a pain they all knew as they ran to the nursery that they would not be able to ease. 

              Then the priestess arrived they found the girl child clutching her dead brothers hand, it took them only moments to understand what had happened.  As they looked on and the girl child wailed her torment, the child's Life Stone turn a pure black.  Blacker then any they had ever seen before.  Some simply turned and walked out, others simply began to cry for the poor young girl who didn't even understand what she had lost, but knew even in her infant mind that the loss was greater then any she would ever know in her life.

              It was days before they could get the baby to begin to eat again, and then it was only because spells were cast and she was forced to take substance.  Those around the child found themselves going from a profound pity for her to a mild annoyance to and out right hatred of the girl who was always crying or whimpering, or somehow letting everyone know she was there.

              And so it was that an infant Chosen became a Forsaken without ever even knowing she had been Chosen.

         The Head Mothers worried for a long time over the girl child, her magic at such a tender age had been stronger then theirs.  What would become of a child who’s instinct was so strong.  They tested her repeatedly after her brother’s death, but she showed no signs of the magic she had used to try to save her brother.  And they feared what she could become as she grew, they had seem the proof of the Vinculum when the boy child had died and her diamond stud turned to the blackest diamond any of them had ever seen.  The two had been linked and she would wear her sorrow for the rest of her long life.  The Head Mothers had great debates about the child.  Should they let her live?  She would only be half an elf at best, but the magic she had wielded even if for a few days was enough to decide their minds.  They would let her live.  Finally they left the child in peace.