#the destiny sisters
Mind and Might - Prologue
Our twin hearts pound in our chest as our wings strain to carry us beneath the clear, moonless night. Death comes for us as surely as the stars continue their silent paths across the sky.
Creed has killed our nephew, Khan the Hoarder. He killed our uncle, Nash the Hunter. They did not heed our warnings, and they paid with their lives.
And now our cousin comes to kill us.
There is a spasm in one of our left wings, and the uneven load causes our other three wings to fail as well. We have pushed them beyond their limit trying to escape the inescapable, and we land hard on the desert sand below.
We are not alone for long. Creed’s wings flap as he lands, creating a localized sandstorm in the process. The pride emanating from him is palpable.
“Ah, the Destiny Sisters at last,” says Creed. “Good evening Vy. Good evening, Bea. I’ve been looking for you. It seems you’ve somehow wandered a long, long way outside the borders you and those other traitors agreed to.”
“Bold of you to call us traitors when you’re the one killing the last of your own kind,” we reply in unison.
“You have only yourselves to blame,” Creed spits back, malice dripping from his voice. “The moment you and the others betrayed what you are and entered into this farce you call peace, you sealed your own fate.”
Creed’s face twists into a hungry grin. “But then, you know all about fate, don’t you cousins?”
“More than you ever will,” we reply.
A jet of fire lights up the scene as Creed roars in fury. “Then why choose the path of blindness and a slow death by atrophy when it came time for us to make our choice?” Creed bellows. “The others I understand. Khan just wanted to be left alone to admire his ridiculous pile of trinkets, and Nash only cares about his fun at the top of the food chain.”
“But I expected more from you,” he says, a quiet sadness now creeping into his voice. “You were supposed to be the wisest of us all. If the two of you had sided with me, Khan and Nash would have been outnumbered, and they would have listened to reason.”
We stand on our feet. Our limbs and tail are strong and ready for a fight, but it makes little difference while our wings are still useless and spent. “It was your sense of superiority and entitlement that made you deaf to reason,” we say.
“Am I not Creed the Proud?” he roars back. “If I don’t speak up to uphold the pride of our kind and all those who look to us for inspiration, then who will? We spent an entire age of this world enduring wars and attacks from those who should be little more than insects to us. And when our enemies finally wore themselves down into broken fragments, it should have been the hour of our great final victory over them. The dawning of an age where they would have to scrape and struggle against us! And instead you accept a truce?”
“You imagine a future that would not have been, because you lack the sight we have been entrusted with,” we say. “You say that we should have been the wisest of our kind. Do not delude yourself, Creed. We Destiny Sisters ARE the wisest of our kind. And if you were wise, you would listen as we tell you what you are blind to under your own nose.”
“And what is that?” Creed asks derisively.
“That the Primafolk are far more important to this world than you realize,” we say, “and they were at their breaking point. If our kind had pressed our advantage while they were at their lowest point, it would not have caused their subjugation. It would have caused their destruction. Followed by the destruction of us all.”
“You speak nonsense,” says Creed. “Excuses invented by the weak.”
We do not argue. Creed knows we speak only truth, but is too proud to admit it. Instead, we let our flame speak for us. Black flame with the sheen of a hundred colors washes over Creed, and for the first time since he began hunting us, Creed looks truly afraid. He was not expecting this.
Creed’s body is unharmed of course, but his eyes cloud over with the same color as the flame. He whips his head wildly from side to side as he sees the vision we have shared with him. When it is over, his eyes return to their natural golden color.
“I see,” he says. “It appears there are powers at play greater than I had realized. Powers that even our kind would stand no hope of defeating, though it wounds my pride to admit. You’re right, cousins. The Primafolk must survive.”
“Yes,” we say. “You finally understand.”
“And yet, there’s something that bothers me,” he says, narrowing his eyes. “Vy used her Obsidian Flame to show me this vision, but where was Bea’s Opal Flame? In all the centuries we’ve known one another, I’ve never seen the black without the white. Could it be you’re holding something back from me?”
“You underestimate how far our sight extends,” we say. “We knew you were coming to kill us and take both of our flames. Every destiny has two sides, and it is impossible for any being to possess both at once. So we have already entrusted the Opal Flame of Destiny to other caretakers.”
“Is that why you’re out here in this worthless desert?” Creed asks with spiteful laughter. “You know I’ll simply find whatever gullible worms you’ve doomed with your gift. All you’ve done is ensure your allies will die, and I’ll still claim both your flames.”
“No, you will not,” we state as simple fact. “You will hunt high and low for the Opal Flame for a hundred years, but you will not find it until it finds you.”
Creed’s hungry grin then returns. “So you violated your own borders to grant one of our kind’s greatest weapons to our oldest enemies,” he says. “I can think of no greater act of treason.”
He steps towards us, slowly and menacingly. His sharp teeth illuminated from behind by his own crimson red flame. “A hundred years you say?” Creed asks, closing in. “Perfect. That will give the Primafolk enough time to recover and prepare so they can actually survive the coming war.”
He looms over us, and we lay both of our heads down to the cold sand, resigning ourselves to the fate we could not escape.
“You know what?” Creed taunts. “I think I’ll even give them a little help to make sure the fight is worth my time.”
