She sank back into the chair. "How important is the Prophecy that forked?"
"It is a core Prophecy. There could be none more important."
Decades. It wouldn't take years, it would take decades. A core Prophecy touched almost everything. Her insides fluttered. This was like going blind. Until the tainted fruit of the false fork could be culled, they couldn't trust anything.
She looked up into his eyes. "You do know which it was that forked?"
He smiled proudly. "I know the false fork, and the true. I know what his come to pass."
Well, at least there was that. She felt a ripple of excitement. If Nathan could tell her which fork was true, and which was false, and the nature of each branch, it would be valuable information indeed. Since the Prophecies were not in chronological order, there was no way to simply follow a branch, but this would be a very good start: they would know right where to begin. Better yet, they had learned of it as it happened, and not years later.
"You have done well, Nathan." He grinned like a child who had pleased his mother. "Bring a chair close, and tell me of the fork."
Nathan seemed drawn up in the excitement as he pulled a chair to the side of the desk. He flounced down in it, squirming like a puppy with a stick. She hoped she wouldn't have to hurt him to get this stick out of his mouth.
"Nathan, can you tell me the Prophecy that has forked?"
His eyes twinkled with mischief. "Are you sure you want to know, Sister Margaret? Prophecies are dangerous. The last time I told one to a pretty lady, thousands died. You said so yourself."
"Nathan, please. It's late. This is very important."
The mirth left his face. "I don't remember the words, exactly."
She doubted the truth of that; When it came to Prophecies Nathan's mind saw the words as if they were written on a stone tablet. She put a reassuring hand on his arm. "That is to be understood. I know it is difficult to remember every word. Tell it as best you can."
"Well, let's see." He looked at the ceiling as he stroked his chin with his thumb and finger tips. "It is the one that says something about the one from D'Hara who would shadow the world by counting shadows."
"That's very good, Nathan. Can you remember more?" She knew he probably remembered it word for word, but he liked to be coaxed. "It would be a tremendous help to me."
He eyed her a moment and then nodded. "By winter's breath, the counted shadows shall bloom. If the heir to D'Hara's vengeance counts the shadows true, his umbra will darken the world. If he counts false, then his life is forfeit."
A forked Prophecy indeed. This had been the first full day of winter's season. She didn't know what the Prophecy meant, but she knew of it. This one was the matter of much study and debate down in the vaults, and worry over which year this Prophecy might came to pass. "And which fork has the Prophecy taken?"
His face turned grim. "The worst one."
Her fingers fumbled with a button. "We are to fall under the shadow of this one from D'Hara?"
"You should study the Prophecies closer, Sister. The following Prophecy goes on to say: Should the forces of forfeit be loosed, the world will be shadowed yet by darker lust through what has been rent. Salvation's hope, then, will be as slim as the white blade of the one born True." He leaned closer and whispered. "The only one of darker lust, Sister Margaret, would be the Lord of Anarchy."
She whispered a prayer. "May the Creator shelter us in his light."
His smile was mocking. "The Prophecy says nothing about the Creator coming to our aid, Sister. If it is protection you seek, you had better follow the true fork. It is in that way He has offered you a glimmer of hope for defense from what will be."
She smoothed the folds of her dress on her lap. "Nathan, I don't know what this Prophecy means. We can't follow the true and false forks if we don't know what it means. You said you know those forks. Can you tell me? Can you tell me a Prophecy on each fork, one that leads each way, so we may follow their path?"
"Vengeance under the Master will extinguish every adversary. Terror, hopelessness, and despair will reign free." He peered at her intently with one eye. "This one leads down the false fork."
She wondered how it was possible for the true Prophecy to be worse. "And one of the true fork?"
"A close Prophecy after the true fork says: Of all there were, but a single one born of the magic to bring forth truth will remain alive when the shadow's threat is lifted. Therefore comes the greater darkness of the dead. For there to be a chance at life's bond, this one in white must be offered to her people, to bring their joy and good cheer."
Margaret pondered these two Prophecies. She didn't recall either. The first seemed simple enough to understand. They could follow the false branch, for a ways, anyway, from this one. The second was more oblique, but seemed as if it could be deciphered with a little study. She recognized it as a Prophecy about a Confessor. The reference to "one in white" meant the Mother Confessor.
"Thank you Nathan. This will make the false fork easier to follow. The other, the true fork, will be a little harder, but with this Prophecy to lead the way, we should be able to reason it out. We will just have to look for Prophecies leading away from this event. Somehow she is to bring happiness to her people." She gave him a small smile. "It sounds as if maybe she is to be wed, or something of that nature."
The Prophet blinked at her, then threw his head back and howled. He rose to his feet, roaring in laughter until he coughed and choked. He turned back to her, his face red.
"You pompous fools! The way you Sisters strut around as if what you do is meaningful, as if you even knew what you were doing! You remind me of a yard of chickens, cackling to one another as if they thought they understood higher mathematics! I cast the grain of Prophecy at your feet, and you cluck and scratch at the dirt, and then peck at gravel!"
For the first time since she became a Sister, she felt small and ignorant. "Nathan, that will be quite enough."
"Idiots," he hissed.
He lurched toward her so quickly it frightened her. Before she knew it, she had released a bolt of power. It dropped him to his knees. He clutched at his chest as he gasped. Margaret recalled her power almost instantly, sorry she had reacted in this manner: out of fear.
"I apologize, Nathan. You frightened me. Are you all right?"
He grasped the chair back, drawing himself up into it as he gasped. He nodded. She sat still, ill at ease, waiting for him to recover.
A grim smile spread on his lips. "Frightened you, did I? Would you like to be really frightened? Would you like me to show you a Prophecy? Not tell you the words, but show it to you? Show it to you the way it was meant to be passed on? I have never shown a Sister before. You all study them and think you can decipher their meaning by their words, but you don't understand. That is not the true way they work."
She leaned forward. "What do you mean that is not the way they work? They are meant to foretell, and that is what they do."
He shook his head. "Only partly. They are passed on by ones with the gift, ones like me: prophets. They are intended to be read and understood through the gift, by ones with the gift, ones like me, not to be picked over by the likes of your power."
As he straightened himself, pulling the aura of authority around himself again, she studied his face. She had never heard of such a thing. She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, or just talking out of anger. But if it were the truth...
"Nathan, anything you could tell me, or show me, would be a great help. We are all struggling on the side of the Creator. His cause must prevail. The forces of the Nameless One struggle always to silence us. Yes, I would like you to show me a Prophecy the way it is meant to be passed on, if you can."
He drew himself up, peering at her with burning intensity. At last he spoke softly. "Very well, Sister Margaret." He leaned toward her, his expression so grave it nearly took her breath away.
"Look into my eyes," he whispered. "Lose yourself in my eyes."
His ga
ze drew her in, the deep, azure color spreading in her vision until it seemed she was looking up into the clear sky. She felt as if he were drawing every breath for her.
"I will tell you the Prophecy of the true fork again, but this time, I will show it to you as it is meant to be." She floated as she listened. "Of all there were, but a single one born of the magic to bring forth truth will remain alive..."
The words melted away, and instead, she saw the Prophecy as if seeing a vision. She was pulled into it. She was no longer in the Palace, but in the vision itself.
She saw a beautiful woman with long hair, dressed in a satiny white dress: the Mother Confessor. Margaret saw the other Confessors being killed by quads send from D'Hara. She felt the blinding horror of it. She saw the woman's sister die in her arms. She felt the grief of the Mother Confessor.
Then, Margaret saw the Mother Confessor before the one from D'Hara who had sent the quads to kill the other Confessors. The handsome man in white stood before three boxes. To Margaret's surprise, each box cast a different number of shadows. The man in white robes performed rituals, cast evil spells, underworld spells, late into the night, through the night, until the sun rose. Somehow, Margaret knew that as the day brightened, it was this day. She was seeing what had happened this very day.
The man in white had finished with the preparations. He stood before the boxes. Smiling, he reached out and opened the one in the center, the one that cast two shadows. Light from within the box bathed him in its brilliance at first, but then in a flash of power, the magic of the box swirled about him and snuffed out his life. He had chosen wrong; he forfeited his life to the magic he sought to claim.
She saw the Mother Confessor with a man. A man she loved. She felt her happiness. It was a joy the woman had never experienced before. Margaret's heart swelled with the bliss the Mother Confessor felt at the side of this man. It was a vision of what was happening at this very moment.
And then Margaret's mind swept forward in a swirl. She saw war and death sweep across the land. She saw death brought by the Keeper of the underworld. Death brought to the world of the living with a wicked lust that choked her with terror.
Again the Prophecy swept her forward to a great crowd. At the center was the Mother Confessor, standing on a heavy platform. The people were excited and in a celebratory mood.
This was the joyous event that would bring the fork of the Prophecy, one of the forks that must be passed correctly to save the world from the darkness snatching at it. She was caught up in the festive mood of the crowd. She felt a tingle of expectant hope, wondering if the man the Mother Confessor loved was to be the one she was to wed, and if that was the happy event the Prophecy spoke of that would bring joy to the people. Her heart ached that it was so.
But something wasn't right. Margaret's warm delight cooled until her flesh prickled with icy bumps.
With a wave of worry, Margaret saw that the Mother Confessor's hands were bound, and there next to her stood a man, not the man she loved, but a man in a black hood. He held a great axe. Margaret's worry turned to horror.