I knew, standing alone under heavy scrutiny by un-important people who thought themselves otherwise, that I was undoubtedly in a lot of trouble. I knew, standing close to Hilde, while she curtsied and made sweeping motions, proclaiming me as something, that I needed keep my cape drawn around me. I knew that I should not look at anyone, lest they see the red of my eyes during the daylight. I also knew that the big man on the dais was not a nice man. It was this man that spoke to me. He said that he ordered me to remove my cloak and bow before him. I did not move. He growled and yelled it at me, already losing his temper with me and turning a shade of angry red under my silence.

I knew he wanted to get his way, and was a very cruel and bad person. So I remained motionless. The clanking men who stirred were not nice either; at least, they didn’t seem to like me I felt. I thought, maybe I should tell the people, and the hidden people who were not what they appeared to be, I thought I should explain why I did not move. Maybe it would be better if I explained to some of these people why I refuse to move I thought, beginning to fidget under their scrutiny.

“In this room of hidden communities, un-important citizens and cruel people, I am the only one who knows what will come, should you look upon me. I will not bow because you are a cruel person and you do not… deserve my bow. I am not one of your kind and I do not bow to humans such as yourself. Especially your breed.” I roll accent into it, using my tone and pitch to make it sound something different to my real voice.

The man on the dais was very, very anger now, he spat out at me, calling me a fool, commanding me to kneel and show myself. Again, before my eyes I saw what would be coming in mere days if they laid sight upon me. Images of the screams, the delicate touches. The word… the animal’s name, I could not stand that creature’s name.

The clanking men were beginning to move. So I spoke again, speaking carefully, letting my voice come without the fake accent I try to roll into it, and letting them hear my music. Hilde says it make her feel at peace inside when I talk. I think hopefully this will impress them; a child of nine years and four feet is not very impressive alone. “You would ignore my warnings of war? You would ignore the warning I send you, mere days before it begins?”

“There is no such war, peasant!” The big man answers, face purpling with anger.

I fight the urge to look him in the eye, keeping my head carefully lowered. “Do you see what is to come? Is your stone hill able to see outside of your stone walls, as my grass hill is? Who whispers lies to you? I know the hidden people lie, the hidden ones who spy as I speak, who rise up in alarm as I speak, worried I will reveal their intentions and names which I do not know. Hilde should not become unmoving the way you would force me to make her.” I know I reveal too much then, reveal that I know Hilde’s fate… what I must do, she has several years yet, years in which she will be free, then… then she will meet Him and He will like her and I will send her to Him.

“You dare to threaten my daughter! Guards! Seize the peasant and disrobe him!” The clanking men move toward me. Note to self: all men who clank are called guards. They kick my legs out from under me and rip my cape off, tearing it at the clasp. I am annoyed that they have broken the clasp; it took more time to save up for then my hill. I do not move as the people stare at me, silence settling as they are unable to fully comprehend my beauty. I had fed this morning on a man almost unmoving and I wish I had not, save the fact that I know it will be a few weeks before I can feed on men again. My beauty stuns the court into silence and the guard-men are very still, holding onto me yet not sure what to do.

All is silent. Save for my soft breathing. I let my eyes flicker up, and I glare at the big man, knowing my red eyes unnerve him. “You will lose the war. And most of your people will become slaves. In one months time your eldest son, who will be king by then, as you will be killed within a week of now, will also be killed. Your family is not a very big loss, but there are very few more after that. Hilde and your youngest son escape… I will not say how, but he is caught and put into slavery. But seven years from now… I will kill her. She already knows I will be the one to kill her. Your lust of small children will be your undoing. Already the one who sires My Destiny is jealous that I tell you these things, jealous that I… sing as it were for you. Already have you made me an object of war…”

There is a long silence and I close my eyes as slowly the room fills with nervous laughter from the un-important people. “And, who kills me? Little fortuneteller. My daughter tells me of such beauty unheard of, she whispers it in my ears, child…” the man on the dais chuckles.

This I knew, I knew he touched her wrongly, but I still feel sick from his boasting. He rises from the dais, greasy haired and prune eyed, wrinkled and deformed by years on the battlefield and wearing old battered clothes. Scars run all over him, he repulses me, and had I the power I would bring his death now, before he touches me. He walks toward me and the guards hold me still. I do not move, I do not need to see what is coming, I do not want to see, for I can imagine ample enough.

“And she tells me, to take something else. So I bring this beauty she whispers of, just to see. And it is spiteful of me… and we must punish the bad little boys, now mustn’t we?” he whispers, like some cute little secret between us.

I am the one who is going to kill you, I think, I am the one who will use the pretty silver dagger on your dresser, that you intend to use on her, intend to make me watch you cut her, make her impure for Him. I will take that dagger, when you think I am tied down, I will take it and I will wait for you, and I will slice into your heart, shattering it like a million pieces of glass. But I will take no substance from you. And that is very bad, because you will become a shiver. That is all you will be, just a shiver, not even a memory. Oh, but you think I am harmless like Hilde, that I am the most breakable thing you have ever seen. I am delicate… but nevertheless I will be the death of you.

I look at the big man’s eyes, from inches away, and I know, I know that my life right here, my life is worth more than his. As if sharing a big secret with him, I whisper back. “When you die, you sound like a piglet.”

He raises a hand, and brings it down on my face. I scream in pain before I hit the stone floor and the world becomes black.

______________________________________________________________________________

I awaken slowly to a swollen cheek; I know the whole side of my face will be colored blue even without powers of prediction. It is dark out and I miss my hill almost instantly. I am lying on soft silks; my body is covered by a thin sash resting over my hips. I sit up, noting the chain on my ankle to the bed. My long brown hair spills around my body and the sheets; I know how appealing I must look. There is no light in the room, but I see everything through my lavender eyes, hues of purple color the dark time. But I see through the purple as if it were the clearest day, I see better then I see during the day. I draw my legs to my chest and look around the room for something I can use.

I find a thin piece of metal on the floor for picking the lock of my chain. And I see the wine. I know wine will not help what the big man has planned to do to me, so I ignore it and pick the lock of the chain with strange ease. I have never picked a lock before, yet my fingers know what they need to do. I sit for a moment, pausing to think. I know I have a small amount of time to think before the big man will come.

I can go out the window and climb my way down and run off into the night.

I can wait here. Wait for him to come and break my delicate body, break my bones and threaten my friend until I finally kill him.

I want to go with the first option. Truly, I do. But Hilde will need me and I do not tamper with what I have seen in the next year. I go along with it and use it for I know that all the information I will gain has already been given to me. And I know that at some point very soon I will lose my power of prediction.

I sigh and clamp the chain back on, tucking the metal piece in the fold of the bed, where it will remain.

I would sit and cast my thoughts aside, to see everything that is in store for me through to the end.

I shiver softly and draw the silk of the bed sheet around me, until all of me is covered save for my head, and then I promptly curl up.

It is mere moments that I spend in this position before the door slams open…

~ To be continued…

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Sweet notes: Ack… I can do better.

# Glossary #

Alasa: The people who lost the Lyrebird war. They live in mountain country. Bordering the Rasen to the south.

Rasen: The people who won the Lyrebird war. Their country is bordered by mountains and the sea. They originally started off as a tribe and grew.