𝔗𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔉𝔦𝔯𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔅𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔡

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔉𝔦𝔳𝔢

𓋹 𝔒𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔩𝔢 𓋹

The Oracle is where she stands in front of. The Princess who appears to be Queen. Her head is high and her eyes are sharp. The way that she does appear it makes her seem like the Goddess of all Queens, the highest of them all. And while she does appear to be that, it is only on the outside that she looks like that. For on the inside she is frightened and she nervous about what is about to happen soon enough. However, she must be strong and within her mind she chants a poem she learned as a child.

'Eldur svo bjartur of fagur,
Mín augu sjá kolsvart,
Gefðu mér þinn dagur,
Þótt dauði minn kemur skarpt.

'Fire so bright and beautiful,
My eyes see black,
Give me your day,
Even when my death comes quick.

Tungur ljósins rís hátt,
Litir dansa hér um,
Með þinn töframátt,
Okkar líf við afhendum.

Tongues of light rises high,
Colors dance around here,
With your magical power,
Our lives we give.

Það er þó satt,
Styrkur gerir ekki neitt,
Ef vonin hefur okkur glatt,
En aldrei verður mér breytt.'

It is though true,
Strength does nothing,
If hope as said farewell,
But never will I be changed.'

The poem was told to her when she was a child. A language that has long been forgotten and even she does not know what it means. What was said to her was that this poem means that fire will always survive and it will kill and take lives to to those that offer. However, fire will never take what is already on the inside. It is how the girl feels now. That even when so much has happened, that there is nothing that can take what she is on the inside, take the part inside her that is the Queen.

Aithne's hand reaches for the door handle and twists it. Before she walks inside, she looks at her friend and her Guard. He gives her a knowing look, yet not a single word is said. Then she walks inside. As soon as she has walked inside, the wooden door slams itself shut which leaves her in the darkness. However, she is not alone. Princess Aithne can feel that there is something or someone there with her. Who or what that is she does not understand. Taking a couple of steps inside the room, into the darkness, she tries to see what is there.

Whispers in a language she does not know are heard all around her. They bring shivers upon her skin and yet the fear within her heart seems to be steady. As if it is dying down, like it leaves her. Her entire being can feel that there is something around her, it makes her buzz with light somehow. The girl does not understand it yet she does not need to understand it to feel it within her and she basks in it almost, as if it wants to show her something.

The whispers become lauder the longer that she is within this dark room. "Come, my child. Fear not us, we will never harm such a Queen" A distorted woman's voice speaks, all around the girl. As if the woman were everywhere in the room. "I'm not a Queen" Aithne states. "Not yet anyway" She adds. As if the air shifts, it suddenly begins to grow colder. "We know. We know all. We see all. We hear all" The woman's voice speaks. Still as disoriented and still dark like it had been when she spoken before. "You allow me in here when I am not a Queen. How can I ever repay you?" She asks.

Whoever this woman is and who 'we' are which she speaks of, Princess Aithne is aware that angering her and them or belittling them would be the last thing that she wants to be doing in there. "All you can do is be the one you are meant to become. My child, you are not like the rest of the Queens. You know that. We know that. You are not descended from fire, you are fire itself. The flames live within you and the power it holds is at your command" The woman says.

"I was reborn. Yet, I do not have all my memories. They were locked from me. I feel within me that I am fire itself and the fire in the flesh. I am First One born in flesh" Aithne says. The honesty comes out of her so gradually. The woman and those who the woman says are there with them compel the truth out of her. Perhaps it is the reason for they are called the Oracle. "Ancient magic preformed by your darkest enemy took your heart and therefore your memories" the Oracle speaks to her.

The woman does not fighter her, nor does the darkness around her. It comforts the girl somehow without knowing why nor does it do much for her to dwell on it. "My heart? What do you speak of?" Princess Aithne asks around herself as she takes a step forward. A dark twisted laugh is heard in the room. "Long time ago. Longer than humans can say in words, the First One, you my child, were captured. It was your heart that fell in that battle and stolen. Kept hidden. Locked where even we cannot see it" The woman says.

It confuses the girl to learn that her heart has been stole and is locked tightly away where even the all-knowing do not know where it is. Her hand travels to her chest to feel that the heart within her chest is still beating and she can feel it. Her heart is still there. "The heart of the world was taken from you. The heart which speaks of who you are. The heart of the beginning and the end. If you wish to claim your heart, you must venture into the dark and seek out the darkness to defeat" The Oracle says.

"Beware of the dark for it hides much and it destroys. Your future speaks of a world of your own making. Fall to the dark and it shall all fall down. Rise to the light and the world will light up with you. The darkness will never give up. Forget this not, my child. Dangers are upon you and your trust will be tested on the way. Trickery beyond your understanding is what will be thrown at you. What we gift you is the sight. The sight to see the blue in light" The woman says to her.

"Our gift does not come without a cost and all we ask is one thing in return" She speaks. Aithne thinks of her words and tries to let it all sink in and she does all that she can to memorize every single word that this woman has told her for she knows that it will help her on her path. Which path? That she does not know just yet but does know that soon enough she will know. "What will I gave to give you in return?" Princess Aithne asks with confidence. She is the Princess and future Queen, there is nothing that she cannot give them.

"We see your future and we see the choose you make. Light or dark. We see it. Your choose will affect the world but not us. We ask that when you have made your choose that you take this dagger and drive it into the chest" The woman speaks and then something floats towards Aithne. This subtle light follows along with it. Allowing her to see. A dagger created out of metal which she does not know floats towards her. Reaching towards it, she grabs the handle.

"What chest?" She asks as she eyes the dagger. The light however, is gone as soon as she touches it and she is left once more in the darkness. The same darkness that she finds annoying, and yet she is not afraid. That has been taken away from her. "You shall know when your choice has been made. The chest will appear to your eyes" The woman speaks. "Your gift is the sight, and you shall receive it when you need the most. The sight shall be used with respect and it will guide you" The Oracle tells the Princess who is still as confused as she was before.

All of it is overwhelming. However, she knew that coming here would be overwhelming and has done what she can to prepare herself. "Thank you. I will repay you when the time comes. I promise you that" The girl says. The Oracle has been kind to her and her future is no longer blank but rather she has a purpose and now she knows why she does not have the memories that she has been searching for for so long. "Yes, you will" The woman says softly but her voice is still as dark and twisted almost.

"I was told that this would be another world, but we are in the dark. I wish to know if there is another world here or if the dark is what we are meant to be in for the time being" Aithne states after a couple of minutes of silence. Her words make that dark laugh be heard once more. "The world is of your own making and if you wish to see it. You must answer one question and one question alone. We know you cannot answer for your memories cannot remember the answer" The Oracle tells her in almost a cruel tone.

"Ask the question before you admit my defeat" The Princess speaks. A gust of wind blows at her, the cold breeze sending these shivers running through her entire body. "The question we ask is; who does your desire run towards?" The Oracle asks the Princess who turns into deep thoughts. "You mean which man do I feel desire for?" She asks and a sound comes from the woman, an agreeing sound. Aithne thinks of it for a moment. She cannot remember and she does not know the answer to the question.

The seconds pass by and they turn into minutes. She remains silent as she tries her hardest to think of it. In her childhood, and while growing up, she has never felt any desire for any man. Perhaps it is because she has never been around many men in her life. Her only friend, Edmon is the only man that has been with her since she was born into this body, and she thinks of him as only as a friend. Never has she ever desired the man she calls her friend. In truth, the Princess does not know the answer to that question.

Just as they said that she would not know. Perhaps she should have listened because that woman is the Oracle and she knows everything. Said so herself. "The man you desire is the only man the First One has ever loved and the only one that the heart has called for. The past hides much, but so does the future and even the present. You cannot answer what you do not know. We allow you to be here, yet the world shall never be revealed to anyone unless she is the Queen. You believe yourself to be Queen. You are told you are the Queen on the inside and indeed you are, my child" The woman says.

"A crown, a ceremony is not what makes you a Queen. It is the vow that you make when you take the title as your own. We shall meet again after this day. Only once. When you are the Queen. You will come inside these walls and see another world. You will meet us all" The Oracle says to the girl who finds it unfair. A sigh leaves Aithne's lips as she looks round in the darkness and then she sits down. "Then in the darkness, I shall stay" She speaks softly.