Chapter Three- Oracles
Echo breathed deeply, thinking back to her sixth birthday that still haunted her dreams. She had been a perfect princess then, always obeying her servants best wishes and never questioning her mother and father's absences from her life. She was ready to marry the prince she was betrothed at an older age and rule the kingdom as she was taught to. The world would be at peace but when at battle she would fight like her parents, who had only just stopped a battle from raging on that had covered the entire Other Realm in darkness before Echo's birth. At the age of six, Echo was already wary of her fate set by her parents and did not care she had not even been told her real fate by the Oracles.
A cloaked woman who spoke with no manners to a princess sent her for. She was cold-hearted and sarcastic. Echo had demanded a curtsey from the visitor but received only a tight glare from the woman's stretched and wrinkled face. Echo was led away in a small carriage that flew through the valleys swiftly. There Echo was suddenly greeted with kindness from the woman. She softened her face and smiled warmly, telling Echo not to worry about what was going to happen. She said most never remembered their fates so did not let their untimely deaths or unfulfilled lives bother them. Echo did not reply to the peasant and instead practiced simple spells she had been taught by her tutor, hoping to impress him the next day. She knew her fate to be a warrior like her parents, ruling the land how she saw fit and dying a great witch, known by the entire land.
The carriage stopped so fast that Echo scorned the woman for making her fall down, her long dress slightly ripped. The rip sealed up as Echo walked down the small steps of the carriage and she saw before her the biggest building she had ever seen.
The building looked tall enough to touch beyond the clouds and it was so wide Echo saw no end to the walls towering over her. Thousands upon millions of tiny window lights could be seen, looking as if she could see at least five hundred of the many stories above her. She looked back down to see a large door, which was probably the size of her own castle, made of pure silver. Echo turned back to the woman who had returned to her fiery glare as she stepped out of the carriage, almost turning her nose up at the splendour laid before her. Echo heard a distant roar of what sounded like a dragon behind the walls and gulped ever so slightly. She was certain no demon or witch could ever enter the city enclosed in a building uninvited and escape alive. It was said the most powerful and brilliant of witches and demons lived in that building, including those training to be worthy to sit in one of the five chairs of the Witches Council. Rumours had changed to fact as witches everywhere saw the future for one of the Sacred Five was growing short and another witch had to take his or her place to rule. Nobody had been found as such yet but Echo knew if she was worthy, she would decline to be a warrior as she knew that was her fate.
"Show off." A boy beside Echo muttered and saw about three hundred other children were arriving to the entrance also, it being their sixth birthday the same day as Echo's. They were all scheduled for the same time, the Oracles being fast at telling the living their future.
"It's beautiful." A small girl with long brown hair breathed. Echo saw she was very poor and stood a little further away from her because of it.
"Beautiful? It was built to carry every kind of evil demon no spell could put right. No wonder it is so big." The boy muttered again.
"I think it's wonderful." Echo replied, shooting the boy a hard glare.
"What do you know?" The boy snorted.
"I am the royal princess of my land, first to the throne and warrior like my parents." Echo replied, holding herself higher as usual.
"I am prince of my kingdom and also first to carry the crown after my parents die. I don't feel I know of you or your kingdom." The boy said, also trying to look superior.
"The land of Persunin is one of the largest and highly known." Echo retorted angrily.
The boy looked impressed. "Forgive me, I did not know. Your parents helped mine in the Battle of the Darkness. If it had not been for them, I would not be alive today."
"Thankyou." Echo smiled and stared back at the building, finding herself growing more and more eager to know what battles she would win and whom she would marry.
"Follow me, children." The woman Echo had travelled with said loudly and they walked towards the great silver doors. The doors opened slowly but only needed to open the slightest for the entire party to walk inside with ease. The great doors slammed shut behind them and every single witch felt the rush of powers from the building. It was as if there was a witch's stone the size of a stadium concealed inside the building, giving off great powers at all time. Echo followed the group, every footstep ringing down the long corridor the size of an opera house. They turned, first left, then right, then up, then down a long set of footsteps. At one point the children were certain they could hear a waterfall from behind one large door and another they were all sweating and hearing the loud roars that sounded so close it made their ears ring. Finally they reached a door that glowed gold. There the children were led inside, one by one, coming out again within two minutes. Some were crying, some astonished and others forgetting they had ever entered. Echo waited patiently, knowing the first skill of a warrior was patience.
"Echo." A voice called and Echo rose to her feet, brushing down her clothes though no stain had remained from the dirty chair she had sat on. She walked into the room with her chin up; though petrified she would become a warrior but no make her parents proud.
She walked into the room, seeing a grand round table with a mysterious orb hanging in the centre. The five occupants of the table turned and one spoke softly.
"Welcome. You are the future queen of your land, true?" The man sounded husky and looked extremely old. Echo wondered if it was he who would soon die and be replaced.
"Yes." Echo curtsied at the Witches Council deeply.
"Walk through that passage way and await your fate. Do not fear them, they will not change your fate even if you anger them."
"I would never anger the Oracles!" Echo replied, shocked.
The man smiled. "I suppose not. Walk on, we shall meet again soon no doubt."
Echo wondered what that meant and walked slowly passed the table and onto a plain looking door made of stone. Along the sides and above the door were impressions of some kind of language Echo had never seen before. She thought she knew all languages, like all pure witches should, but this one was completely different. She walked on and the stone melted away to reveal a room, shrouded in darkness.
Echo stepped in and immediately the stone was replaced, leaving her scared of the complete darkness fallen on her. Lights suddenly flickered and she saw herself staring at two people. They looked like normal humans, in fact exactly like any average humans, but Echo felt another rush of complete power- power so great not even immortal witches could endure it. Echo remembered her manners and curtsied once again at the Oracles.
"No formalities, you are not looking at your equals." The man Oracle snapped.
Echo stood up again and felt her face burn. "I'm sorry."
"Ignore him, I do not want you fearful." The woman stepped forward. She walked around Echo slowly, as if studying every part of the child. "A princess to a land once swept in darkness, now glowing in rebirth. I know of your parents, yes, the warriors of the lands will never forget their names."
Echo felt a swell of pride from that and she smiled.
The woman Oracle kneeled down next to Echo. "Your future is a great one, a life you will not expect and yet love."
"What will happen?" Echo asked, shaking slightly.
"That is not my place to say, though I will tell you that your death will be untimely to you."
"When will I die?" Echo asked.
"That does not matter. What matters is you are not destined to marry the one betrothed to you. In fact, you will not even marry but fall in love with a commoner instead; your worst fear."
Echo snorted. "I will do no such thing!"
The man stepped forward and stared at her harshly, sizing the six-year-old before him with great disgust. "We are the holders of your past, present and future, you cannot stop us no matter what!" The man turned from Echo and a whirlpool appeared at Echo's feet. She gasped but saw an image appear, a picture of her future self, laying dead. Echo was horrorstruck but could not look away from her own fate. She saw a man holding her in his arms, crying loudly. Echo stared at the man and wished she could see his face, see the commoner so she could make sure she would never fall in love with him. She felt her own feelings at her death. It was that man's fault she was dead and for that the six-year-old Echo hated him. She had died to save him, the pathetic commoner's life as if it were important.
"Yes, you will die because of him." The male Oracle said.
"You will die, blinded by love and forgetting you were not destined by your parents to be with him." The female Oracle continued, a tight smile on her lips.
Fire blazed around Echo and she was caught in a great inferno. She fell to her knees and cried, hearing the Oracles circling her, whispering, laughing and describing her foolishness to save the man because of love. The fire grew until she was curled up tightly, feeling the fires of hell surrounding her and ready to bring her down with them.
The fire disappeared and left Echo crying silently on the floor. She heard a voice.
"You will never become a warrior like your parents."
Echo looked back up at Pepper, feeling the memories burn her as if they were the fires she had been surrounded by.
"I will never become a warrior, Pepper. I will die young and all because I angered the Oracles." Echo felt tears running down her face, not knowing how Pepper would reply to such news. Pepper had not been told about the Oracles' predictions before. She thought Echo was a rebel because she hated her parents, not because she saw no point in being a princess if she was not going to battle like the warrior she was supposed to be.
Pepper enveloped her friend and was glad she knew nothing about her future, forgetting everything the Oracles had told her when she was six. Echo was hateful towards her parents, not because of who she was, but because of what she would never be.
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