The following is an original piece of fiction created for entertainment purposes only.

The Prophecy

By LJ58

XV

"Best you come, Lady Mother," a wolven she didn't know said when she opened the door to the insistent knocking early the next morning.

"What is it now," she asked, rising to find Jacob already gone, and a new tray with a morning meal sitting by her bed.

Considering she had not heard him leave, or the attendants leave the meal, she must have been sleeping quite hard. A rarity for her of late, since it seemed she had been leaping from her bed every other eye blink of late.

"The magic guild has come," the man told her. "The old mages have returned, with nigh a score of their own, and many armed followers, too. They are demanding a personal conference, but I fear 'tis but a ploy to get you out of the city, and in their hands."

She nodded as she quickly washed her face, and tended her needs while the man waited in the outer room before she returned to join him again.

"I suspect, good sir, you are likely right. Still, ignoring them will only give them cause to try yet more mischief. I'd better go and see what they are planning this time," she sighed.

"Marion," Jacob met her at the steps out of their quarters into the crowded courtyard where many of the assembled survivors were already up, and many of them arguing anew. "I tried to let you rest, but…."

"I heard. The guild is wasting little time after I neutralized their pawn."

"Aye. What will you do," he asked quietly as she turned to stare toward the gates, feeling the malice all but roiling over the walls from those men gathered outside.

"I don't know. Yet. Still, we can't stall, else they might yet….."

"Lady," Silver warned her, crossing the courtyard from the temple. "Do you feel it? Something…. Something powerful…..is coming. And I fear even our walls cannot hold it back."

She stared at him, then looked around.

"Aye. Aye, I feel it," she said even as Agatha came running across the courtyard, shoving men aside to join them.

"Lady Marion…. I felt….."

"We know," she said, and looked up even as a second sun appeared on the horizon, but only for an instant before it flashed down, over the walls, and landed before them in a manner that made most of the milling crowd fall back as it settled in the newly made clearing before Marion.

Then the blinding haze faded, and a tall, but stocky man with silvering hair stood before them. His dark eyes fixed on Marion.

"Lord Walker," Silver rasped, staring in awe at the man that appeared before them.

"Father," Marion exclaimed in the same instant, then gaped anew as she realized what Silver had called him.

"Beloved," Agatha cried, looking upon the familiar face long remembered only in misty dreams.

The man smiled as he was greeted by all three, and nodded to them. "Hello, daughter," he smiled at her. "Sparrow," he added, smiling at her with more than affection. "Lord Farwalker," he said before he turned, and nodded at the women. "'Tis been a while. You both have grown."

"But…?"

Marion glanced at Jacob.

"Your sire…..is Lord Walker," Tanya gasped as she joined them in time to overhear the shocking greetings, staring at the tall, rugged man with fading, sandy hair and bright, green eyes as implications dawned on her. "The first Lord Walker?"

"These days, Mistress Evanshire," his smile cooled as he looked her way, "I favor Marcus Drake."

"Lord Drake," Reuben Clarke, king of Xantia appeared to glare at him, for Trinidad was a part of that land, and he was known in court. So he exclaimed, "What is going on here, Drake? What are they babbling about? Since when did you become a bloody mage?"

"Lord Clarke, what they are saying that Marion's sire is the same Lord Walker that first shaped our world nigh ten generations past," Silver told him.

"But….that's impossible," the king sputtered, staring at the silver-haired man. "He is but…."

Marcus only smiled, and embraced his daughter, now ignoring the king. "You've done surprisingly well, my daughter. Far better than I expected of you. I am very proud of you."

"You….don't hate me," Marion asked quietly, feeling like a little girl in his arms again as Agatha just stared at him, her expression filled with longing.

"I could never hate you, child," he called her, and pushed her to arm's length, and stared into her eyes. "I just knew that you had to go into the world to find your own way. Even I didn't know why, but I knew you had to find your own path. Even I never dared dream you would find such a portentous path, though. You've already started reshaping the world before you, and even now, stand on the abyss of a change that will either bring us….."

"I know, father," she said quietly, and glanced around her at the people depending on her. "And that is what terrifies me. But… If you're here…."

"I am here only as a witness, daughter," he told her, and stepped back, holding out a hand to Agatha, who all but flung herself into his arms now with a happy cry.

"Witness," Jacob echoed Marion.

"All those years ago, when I blundered…. Aye, I blundered badly," he admitted before the people around him. "Just look at the mess I made of the world. I pondered and meditated for years on years about how to undo it all without creating an even bigger disaster. Then….an old man came to me. A wiser man than I, for all he was but a level two mage. Still, he had a gift for foreknowledge."

"What did he say," Marion asked when he fell silent, smiled at Agatha, and then looked her way.

"Suffice to say, for good or ill, you are the future of our world, lass," he told her. "He told me that if I acted again, life as we knew it would end. Still, he gave me hope that one of my offspring would one day rise to offer aid to the world. Only you, my last surviving child, have the potential and the wisdom to do what must be done. Now, you just need to do it," he told her with a smile.

Marion gaped.

"But I don't….?"

"Stop. Do not limit yourself from the start," he warned her. "I made that error, and look around us," he said, gesturing expansively with his free hand. "Do you see what I made of my folly? Don't be like me, Marion. Be yourself. Because you, my child, have the one thing I never had."

"W-What?"

He smiled.

"Hope. Look at you. Standing in Nordstrom, welcomed by the wolven whom you have already redeemed. On a mountain you laid low. But…more importantly, you stand here with people gathered around that believe in you. Trust you. Even at my best, I was only ever feared. You are loved and trusted. That, my girl, is all the difference you need to find your own way."

"Hope," she murmured and looked around.

Jacob smiled and nodded as she looked his way.

"I knew you were special the very day we met, my lady," Jacob called her. "I have never lost that feeling."

"Nor I," Agatha told her knowingly, content to be back in the arms of the one man she had always loved, and always longed for despite all that separated them. Never mind, theirs had been a platonic relationship at that time. For her, it was more than enough.

"Nor I," Mira said, coming up beside Marion. Tylva was close behind her.

"But, you….?"

"Mistress," Miranda still called Marion in spite of the fact she was now technically free. "From the day I met I sensed your spirit, and I was envious. Even at your worst, you were better than those around you. Even when we all shamed you, and some tried to ruin you, you stood above the role that we would have forced on you. When we came to Valdor, I learned belatedly just how great you could be, and in spite of all that has happened, or what might yet come," the former princess smiled at her, "I am proud to have been at your side. I am happy to have known you, and learned my own lessons that I know I might never have learned without you to guide me."

"Mira…."

"My mate speaks her heart, Lady Maker," Tylva spoke up from beside his young bride now. "You truly are….our Great Mother."

His simple declaration told all around them of Lady's status, and not one man spoke against them.

The king knew of her mishap and misadventures by now, and while the Paigantian king was not suspected of treachery now, Lord Winters was looking at the K'Zir lord present with a great deal of disdain, and contempt. So far, there had not been overt violence, but only because most of the men in the walls knew the wolven were watching, and that their lives yet depended on cooperation with the magic guild still waiting to assault them all in their efforts to reach Marion.

Marion looked around and sighed.

"I think I finally see my own mistake now," she said and turned toward the gates.

"Lady Marion," Tanya asked as she narrowed her eyes, and took a step toward those gates.

"Open the gates," she declared as she strode forward, all of them following her.

Only Jacob and Mira stayed close to her side.

Even Tanya held back, sensing something was swelling in the young Maker, and she feared what it might be, and how it might be about to be unleashed.

"Great Maker," the white witch turned to Marcus. "What is happening," she asked fearfully.

The High Priest Silver standing to one side only smiled at them as he seemed content to let the younger people swell around him to join the Maker on her short trek to the gates just starting to open.

"Pay heed, young witch," he told her when Marcus did not immediately reply. "You are one of the privileged few that may one day be able to say they saw destiny unfold this day."

"Destiny…..unfold."

"This," Marcus said, pulling Agatha to her side, "Is the moment I have never been able to see beyond," he admitted.

She stared up at him, surprised at his declaration.

"Nor I," the wolven priest admitted.

"It will be very interesting to see why," Marcus agreed as he started forward only then with Agatha at his side as the crowd surged after Marion toward the gates.

~P~

"My lords," a servant quickly roused the major guilders that had come to the plain at dawn. "The gates open."

"Finally," Douglas Saunders smiled. "We shall now see just how great this new Maker is, and what might be done with her."

They all left the luxurious tent where they were resting, awaiting the response to their ultimatum, and found the Maker had not come alone after all.

"Rabble," Tilgar huffed, dismissing all those around the young woman.

"Woman," Douglas called out. "Are you ready to yield…?"

"Enough," Marion shouted, and flung out her arms, the energies of the Cosmos itself began roiling around her as even her companions were forced back as the very air around her began to shimmer with heat.

With raw power.

"What is she doing," one of the younger guilders that had joined the elders cried.

"For generations, Makers and Mages have swayed the path of history," Marion declared as Moshim found himself stepping back. His dark face suddenly paling as if sensing what was coming.

Meanwhile, her very words made the very air tremble as Marion stopped only a few feet from the guild mages.

"For generations, selfish mages have demanded worship, honors, and profit without due."

The ground shuddered as the air continued to shudder, and the wave around her seemed to be growing exponentially. Then Moshim and Douglas both spotted the newcomer who shone as brightly with power as the Maker.

"The Great Maker…. My father!…."

"What," the mages hissed as Marcus gave a curt nod their way as Marion glanced back at her, though her expression remained beyond somber.

"Even he was trapped by his own power. Too long has magic been a tool misused, and exploited for the benefit of a handful while the rest of the world suffered."

"By the gods," Douglas suddenly intuited her intent. "Nay! Stop her!"

"I say enough," Marion shouted, and thunder rolled across the sky as the ground heaved, and the air turned molten in their lungs.

All the gathered mages flung their combined might at the woman, belatedly sensing the danger she did indeed represent.

Even as the raw magic lashed out in blazing spheres of potent energies, they struck the shimmering wall around her, and the combined might simply popped like fragile soap bubbles.

"Let….. All magics….. End," Marion cried, her arms still flung out. "Let this world…..be a natural world! Devoid of unnatural enchantment, with all men sharing the same potential! The same strength! The same mortality!"

The thunder exploded overhead as her arms dropped, and a wave of concussive force erupted from her very flesh as the mages were flung back, the ground shook mightily, and in the wake even Marion was flung to the ground herself as she gave a last, wordless cry, and stared up at the very blue sky that was suddenly as clear as she had ever seen it.

The mages, only then recovering, rose on trembling limbs, and stared at their empty hands. It was obvious they were trying something. Only they could do nothing. Nothing but stand there, and stare at empty, and powerless hands.

"Marion," Jacob gasped, rushing forward to help her up. "Are you all right?"

"I think so. Did it….work?"

"You tell me, you mad, mad woman," he chortled, lifting her with care.

She closed her eyes and stood there in the shelter of his arms.

"It's….gone. I…. I don't sense anything. Magic. Powers. Nothing. It's all….gone."

"Not gone," the high priest informed her with a knowing smile. "Transformed."

"Transformed," she frowned as the tall wolven walked forward beside her father and a smiling Agatha.

"Aye," her father grinned. "You did something even I never thought of doing, my brave, daring lass. You took the decision of fate out of a few hands and put it squarely back into the hands of every human soul in the world. The magic, lass, is now a part of us all in that respect. Every man, woman, and child in the world now has a chance to make something of themselves. To shape their own destiny, by their own hands." Marcus Drake paused to smile. "You did a very good thing. A very selfless thing."

Marion smiled.

"It was the only thing I could think of that wouldn't hurt anyone," she said quietly. "The only thing that did not make someone….somewhere….suffer."

Jacob kissed her brow as he held her, his sharp glance at the recovering mages daring them to act now. Especially with a growing presence of armed wolven, and assembled warriors behind them in the open gate.

"I guess…. I can get back to my life now," she said with a faint laugh. "I'm just an ordinary woman again now."

"Nay, Lady," Jacob told her with a smile. "You'll never be ordinary."

"Nay. You are, after all, Lady, the Great Mother of a new world. The Maker who has changed the world, and given it new life. New hope. Just as the prophecy told us. You will ever be remembered by those that know as the Greatest Maker of all," Silver told her.

Marion found herself blushing at that even as one of the mages, Douglas Saunders, came rushing up to her, stopped from assaulting her only by one of her usual bodyguards who still remained at their post.

"Undo it," he wailed. "You must undo this madness! The world needs magic! I need my magic!"

"Too bad," Jacob drawled. "Guess you'll have to find an honest job now."

"Indeed," Tanya murmured quietly from beside Dominic. "'Twould seem many of us are out of jobs just now."

"Just find new ones," Agatha advised her as she stood beside Marcus.

Tanya sighed, but Dominic only chortled.

Their son, not far away, was heard to chortle, "Mother? Work?"

She wanted to slap him.

Even as the High Priest Silver lifted his hands, and declared, "Our Lady, the Great Mother, has saved us all! Just as the Great Maker long ago foretold."

The city erupted into cheers, and howls of triumph.

Except for a few men that eyed one another as they absorbed the implications of what they had just seen, and heard.

~P~

"I am glad you gentlemen chose to join us before you departed," Marion said as she eyed the kings before her.

She merely nodded at the Amazon queen, who remained cooperative because she took her honor seriously.

Unlike the assembled kings who had already been overheard plotting to send for fresh legions to seize the potentially profitable city of Nordstrom now that its magic wards were a thing of the past, and none had any powers to hold them back.

"This had better be good," the king of Valdor, Lord Ericson growled. He was one, she knew, that had tried to dispatch messengers to send for more forces.

"I had a final vision ere my magics fled with the rest of those in this world. A singular vision that may guide us, or damn us. The decision is not my own, though. It now rests in your hands."

"Our hands," the stocky king of T'Goll huffed, yet to fully decide just what part of the blame should be considered for his daughter's fall from nobility, and how it should be visited on her head.

Something he kept to himself, since he was still in the heart of a wolven city, surrounded by her champions.

"My lords," she nodded to them. "You are the leaders of the greatest kingdoms of the land just now. You have a power that now dwarfs that of the men you lead or govern. I have foreseen that some may exploit the loss of magics for their own gain. I know that to be a truth. Please heed me when I say, my vision showed me what would come of that madness. The world yet in flames. Hunger, disease, and the rise of open revolt that would shatter what little peace we now enjoy. Lands in turmoil, and your own thrones toppled by madness. A nightmare that might well yet end our very species on this world."

The men absorbed her earnest words as she nodded to each of them.

"Now, that vision was my last. I do not have any more power. Any other foresight. I can only see where this current path will end. I ask you, as a woman, and soon-to-be mother, to give my children a world where they grow up in peace and prosperity. Give our people, all our peoples, a chance to find a different way. A better way. We are, after all, at heart, all the same. All human."

She saw the doubt in many of their faces.

Several of the gathered kings, however, looked undecided. Even doubtful.

"And, my lords," Queen Evelyn of Crelandia spoke up just then. "Before you damn yourself, recall that even without magic, the wolven are still likely the strongest, fiercest, and most implacable warriors yet left in all the known lands. And that they are now sworn to the lady's cause. Do you truly wish to anger them from the start?"

Every lord there now looked more than convinced.

"Your words, lady," King Ericson of Valdor said quietly to Marion, "Make much sense. We have known too much war of late. Too much suffering. For the sake of our people, we will consider your wisdom. You have, after all, shown us all much to ponder in the past few days," he remarked pointedly.

"Thank you," Marion curtsied to them all as she rose. "Your consideration is all I request, my lords. Thank you for your time. I shall leave you to your own advisors now."

"The woman is beyond clever," the king of T'Goll murmured thoughtfully as she departed.

"Indeed," the Valdoran king agreed. "She would make a worthy queen."

"Aye, of Xantia," Lord Clarke declared.

"You mean of Daviq."

"I bloody well think not," the Valdoran liege spat. "She came to Valdor, and 'tis Valdor that should so honor the lady."

"Nay, she is bound to T'Goll," Anthony declared. "She shall be mine! She is mine!"

"You're already wed, you old letch," Eric IV swore.

"As if you've never taken more than one bride," Anthony shot back as the men continued to argue.

The Amazon queen only sighed, and followed the former Maker out of the conference room.

~P~

"'Tis over now," Jacob asked quietly as he came to join her when Marion walked out of the private conference.

"I hope so," she told him, letting him embrace her. "Suddenly, I feel so weary, Jacob. I just want to rest. Two or three months, I should think," she murmured, leaning into his arms.

"Your wish is my command, lady," he murmured, kissing her lips.

"Lady," a voice called out of the night.

"Oh, bloody hell," Jacob complained as he turned to see several men approaching them.

"We mean nothing of any harm, Sir Butler," the lanky Valdoran told him. "We just thought you and the lady might wish to know the kings are now arguing over who will take the lady as their bride, or….aught else."

"Aye," Queen Evelyn nodded as the old Ka came from behind her, looking somber.

"Honorable Lady," X'm'n-ka of the Franks nodded. "I offer my humble protection do you wish to slip away and depart this madness ere one of those foolish men starts what can only end badly."

"You're not looking for a bride yourself," Jacob growled.

"I have nine brides, and seventeen consorts," the old Frank smiled hugely. "I wager, did I bring home another woman, even the Great Mother of legend herself, my wives would make my ending a long, and painful affair," he chortled. "All the same, I would offer you aid, did you wish to escape any more folly on my….peers' part."

She looked around the small group that had dared approach her and smiled at them.

"Gentlemen, I appreciate your concern. I might not be a Maker any longer…."

"Lady, you will always be a Maker," one of her bodyguards told her. "For even now, you are Making things happen by your very presence."

"I suppose," she sighed. "Only now is a time for wit, not blind flight. Jacob, while the kings argue, let us go and see Lord Farwalker."

"The high priest? Why….?'

"We shall do as Mira and Tylva did, and undermine their ploy by simply wedding before they can act. Then, we shall be most happy to travel. On our wedding trip," she told the ka. "Come along," she told Jacob. We shouldn't dally."

"Now, hold on, Marion," he sputtered. "Don't I get a say in this….?"

"Aye. You get to say, 'I do,'" she informed him knowingly, taking his hand, and tugging him along, though he didn't truly resist.

"She's got the heart of a Frank," the ka chortled, following her to see the sport.

"You mean an Amazon," Evelyn told him as she smiled after the pair.

By the times the kings emerged, having reached an accord that they simply make their offer, and make the woman choose one of them, they found the city already celebrating the Great Mother's union to a wolven prince.

Not one of the kings didn't curse.

Not one of them didn't offer their loyalty to the lady, and to the wolven of Nordstrom. They each pledged to uphold a new peace treaty they would soon gather to negotiate as equals in the eyes of heaven. Marion, meanwhile, quietly left the city with a small party of followers, and vanished from the region soon after.

~P~

Shrill laughter sounded as the couple walked through the meadow, their two children playing as they ran through the newly budding flowers that declared a new season was upon them.

"I think, my lord," the smiling woman told the tall, stocky man beside her. "That I am breeding again."

"That, my little bird," he called her fondly, "Is the best, and only magic I care for these days. What do you think the boys will think of another sibling?"

"Robbie, I don't know. Adam, I'm sure, will adore a younger sister," Agatha told him.

"Or brother?"

"I think Robbie soured him on brothers," Agatha giggled as the two boys ran through the flowers, playing at a game that made sense only to their young minds.

"Did I tell you I got a missive from Marion yesterday when I went to town," she was told.

"Nay, you did not," she said, eyeing him archly. "And you didn't say a word?"

"You were tired, and I did not wish to fret you."

"How could one of Marion's letters fret me?"

"She's reached the Great Sea, and she and Jacob have decided to cross at least as far as the Western Isles. She is considering journeying beyond, too."

"That old fool Clarke did us little favor when he declared he would take her as his own either slave or free."

"I believe the heads of his assassins that were delivered back to him helped change his mind. But my lass isn't one for taking chances. She refuses to return to Xantian lands so long as he remains king."

"I miss her babes. They were such delights."

"You mean they helped divert our own," Marcus chortled.

"Do you think….she'll find anything? Out there, I mean?"

Marcus slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled the young Frankish woman to his side as he looked out across the meadow surrounding his estate.

"Sparrow," he said quietly. "If anyone can, she will. Aye, I think she will," he nodded and looked back into her dark eyes. "Wanting to join her?"

"Nay, milord," she smiled and returned his embrace. "I have all I need here," she told him and looked up to accept his kiss.

Just as both her sons came running up to declare, "Eeewww, they're smooching again."

"Why, you little monsters," she growled playfully, turning to run after them. "I'll smooch you, too! Come here!"

The two young boys screeched, and ran in circles, delighted at the new game.

Marcus smiled and watched them, and for the first time in a very long time, even he had hope for the world. It was, he realized, a heady sensation even after living for so very long.

End…..?