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| Molandra's Plan | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chilandrea stood before her cauldron sitting in the hearth, stirring a great spoon in boiling water. She stared into the swirling waters and saw a woman from the town crying over a sick child. She stirred once again and saw a man praying for his crops to grow. Another stir and a young girl was kissing her fianc� goodbye as he prepared for battle. Chilandrea knew that these people would eventually come to her for help or some comfort. It was the same every week; a dying child, a lover leaving, a worried farmer. She wondered what her life would have been like had she not been taken into the order. Would she still have her sight or would it be just brushed off as random coincidence? Would she now be that same girl kissing her lover goodbye as he left for battle? And would that lover have been Alexander? The thoughts swirled in her head as the water before her. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Would there ever be a time when she wouldn't have to worry about her duties to her order? She didn't think so. Not in this lifetime. The future had always been so mystifying to her, even if she could see some events beforehand. The whole world and everyone's lives in it all seemed to be linked together on a string, every action causing something greater which itself causes something else even greater to happen. There was a specific plan for each being and how they would end up. How would Alexander end up? she wondered. Would he find someone else -- a woman he could be with for the rest of life? Would they have beautiful children and raise them to be great warriors like their father? Or would he continue to pursue me? And if so, what would become of him? Would he end up as a grumpy old man that tells stories of his days of war and the time he knew a priestess? Would he tell children about how much he loved me and how I would not give in to temptation, how I refused him time after time? Will I be miserable in my old age and tell my own child that I always wondered what would have happened if I had followed my heart instead of the rules? | ||||||||||||||||||
| "No," she said to herself. Stop thinking about things like that. She shook her head trying to wipe Alexander from her mind. But what about the vision I saw? Would that become his one and only future? She didn't want that. She couldn't want that. Her feelings for him grew inside her like a disease -- at least, that's how she saw it at first. She hated the fact that her feelings for him were clouding her powers. She hated that he was all she could think about. She hated that he was so suave and casual about obeying her every wish. She hated that he was so sure of his love for her and that he knew she would love him. She hated that she was actually realizing that she had loved him from the moment she saw him in her vision. | ||||||||||||||||||
| She sighed and went on stirring, waiting for the first person to arrive. A knock sounded on her door. "Enter," she said. The woman she saw with a dying child entered in tears carrying the boy in her arms. He was limp but breathing. His eyes were barely open, but Chilandrea could see that he looked around the room in wonder. | ||||||||||||||||||
| "Please," whispered the woman. "Oh, great Priestess. My son... could you help my son?" She held him out before her, kneeling on the floor in front of Chilandrea. "No doctor knows what is wrong. Everything they've given him has seemed to make it worse. Please, Child Priestess, I beg of you..." | ||||||||||||||||||
| "Lay him on the table," Chilandrea said soothingly. The woman did as she was told, placing him delicately on the table beside her by the fire. Chilandrea pulled her veil back to examine the boy, holding her hands a few inches above his frail body. His breath wheezed in his chest, his lips were swollen and bluish, and his eyes were lined with a thick liquid causing them to be difficult to open. Chilandrea could feel his life so weak -- this boy had a short life expectancy. It was only a matter of time before he died, but this strange disease he had at the time was only shortening it quicker. "I think I can help," she whispered to the woman. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The woman was so relieved that Chilandrea was surprised that she could still stand. Chilandrea smiled and went to collect some herbs. Bringing back a handful of some medicinal herbs, she tossed some into the cauldron. Others she ground up before throwing them in as well. She stirred and said, "You must make him drink this once everyday -- but no more than once a day. It will be difficult for him because his throat feels so sore and swollen, but make him drink it. I will give you some for your home, but only give it to him for eleven days. After that, it won't do any more good." She ladled some of the liquid into a small cup, lifted the boy's head and placed the cup to his lips. "What is his name?" she whispered. | ||||||||||||||||||
| "Angus," replied the woman. | ||||||||||||||||||
| "Angus," cooed Chilandrea. "Angus, be a good boy and drink this. It will make everything feel better." The boy tried with all his might to drink the liquid, but he got more on his shirt than in his mouth. "It's alright for him to spill a little," she said laying him back down. "Just as long as he drinks some of it, it will do its job." Chilandrea turned back and ladled more of the liquid into a large bottle and corked it for travel. When she turned back, the woman smiled, strapped on the bottle to her side and picked up her boy. As she left, Chilandrea saw a figure lurking in the corner. "Who's there? Announce yourself!" | ||||||||||||||||||
| The figure stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself. "It's only me, Chilandrea," said Alexander. "I'm not intruding, am I? I just wanted to see the wonders of how you work. The townspeople all gossip that you do wondrous magic." | ||||||||||||||||||
| "I thought you were to be avoiding me at all costs, Sir Alexander?" | ||||||||||||||||||
| "I was only curious. Is that against the laws of your order as well?" | ||||||||||||||||||
| "No," Chilandrea replied. "I fear I'm going to be terribly busy today, sir. If you wish to observe, you may stay, but the magic I will be serving to certain people may not be as simple -- or as clean -- as what you just saw. Some even involve animal sacrifice and such. Are you up for it?" | ||||||||||||||||||
| "I only came to see the one, Lady. I will not hover over your shoulder any longer. Good day." Alexander left her room and Chilandrea stood in amazement again. He was too simple and calm to be true... wasn't he? | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Molandra had sent a letter to the Lord of Taerthondai telling him he had been chosen as Chilandrea's Promised. She had already begun the planning for the holy wedding. It would take the Lord at most a month to prepare for his journey from his home to the castle to live. After his departure, it would take almost another month for his journey itself. Molandra knew that he would be most overjoyed to hear of his engagement. She was pleased with Chilandrea's choice to marry instead of giving her torment the chance to ruin her. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Molandra could sense that Alexander would cause some trouble. It wasn't just because of Chilandrea's vision, but she could sense it from his recent presence in her room when she arrived. She could even sense it by concentrating on his name. He was resentful of his brother and this marriage would cause his resent to grow. If he was as persistent as Chilandrea had said then the marriage might even be postponed because of his outrage. Yet if his recent promise to Chilandrea was honest and sincere, all may go well. | ||||||||||||||||||
| This thought comforted her, but the foreboding ache in her stomach would not fade away. There was nothing she could do to interfere with to change the outcome of his fate, for it was all in Chilandrea's hands. She also knew that fate was a fickle thing and very difficult to change. Some visions were only to ensure fate would not be interfered with, like a decoy to lead one into the inevitable fate laid out for them. Others were true. Yet there was no way to decipher between them. Molandra's latest visions paralleled Chilandrea's with pain, sorrow, and slaughter, yet there was an addition. Her vision went far into the future with women wearing breeches, black stone pathways, large castle-like structures spanning the land, and all people riding atop or inside huge wheeled creatures that traveled faster than any horse she'd ever seen. The order of Priestesses had gone into hiding in this time, and all life was fast and chaotic. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Molandra recorded this vision like she had begun with all her visions in a large leather bound book used by every All High Priestess before her. Not only were visions written in this book, but all information about their order and the histories of important and powerful beings. Besides her visions, there was only one powerful being to record in the book: Chilandrea. She wrote about Chilandrea's entire life and felt it was crucial for future generations to know her story. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Suddenly she knew how to take care of Alexander and his impending intent to destroy the wedding. His job and loyalty to his king would prove beneficial to the wedding. What else would take him away from Chilandrea long enough to allow it to continue? She would create an army of illusion to cause war in the country and Alexander would be sent to defend against it. The army would be real enough to keep his troops busy for the wedding ceremony to complete, and once it was done they would disappear, causing Alexander to retreat in confusion and return to the kingdom to find Chilandrea married. He would not touch her after that and his love would fade. It was the perfect plan. | ||||||||||||||||||
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