The small cast iron door squeaked as he opened it. Inside was a pile of unburned split logs that were white and pristine. In a place like this, wood of that quality must’ve been hard to come by.
“Is this another demonstration?” I asked.
He nodded, then smiled. “You’re catching on quickly. Do you know how to light the logs?”
“Yes.” I hesitated. “But are you sure you want me to? It can’t be too easy to find more.”
“I appreciate your concern, but for the purposes of the demonstration, I’ll give up my heat for one night. Can you light them?”
Fire spells were fairly simple—especially for me as I was great at destroying things. Not so great at fixing them, although I was getting better. But since he wanted to see my fire spell, I indulged him.
“Ignite,” I whispered, sending my power into the pile of wood. Blue and amber swirled around the logs until a single flame flickered from the bark. As the fire gained strength, it spread, growing larger and faster than I had expected, which was odd.
Since Theht had intruded on my mind, my powers had been growing weaker, but since we’d arrived here, they seemed to be getting stronger.
I stood and took a step away from the stove. Lucretian shut the door and stood beside me.
Eying him, I wondered why he’d made me create fire. Shouldn’t he have wanted to see something more advanced? Something that showed my skills as a practitioner? Plus, I still had a million questions for this guy. Like how could I reverse a prophecy?
Kull and I had both seen visions. I’d seen him lying dead at my feet after I’d destroyed the world, and I couldn’t deny how real the vision had felt, almost as if I’d already experienced it. He’d been shown a vision of himself stabbing me through the heart with Dracon’s sword. We knew one or the other was supposed to happen. Currently, I wasn’t very fond of either ending.
“You must be wondering why I’ve made you create fire,” Lucretian said, “which is understandable, but all will be revealed soon. First, you must understand the prophecy if you wish to overcome it.”
Overcome it? “So there is a way to beat the prophecy?”
“No, you will never be able to erase the prophecy altogether, but it can be manipulated.”
My heart leapt in my chest. He was the first person who’d ever given me hope that I could overcome the prophecy. Everyone else had told me that they couldn’t be beaten at all. Ever. But now the very man who had spoken the prophecy was telling me the opposite. This was the best news I’d heard in forever—if it actually worked out.
“So how do I manipulate the prophecy?” I asked.
We walked around the telescope once again, leaving the heater behind. Gears clicked as we walked past the machine pointed toward the stars. Somewhere up there, I knew an asteroid drew closer to our worlds.
“Recite the prophecy,” Lucretian said.
“Don’t you know it already?”
He gave me a dark look, and I decided not to argue. I cleared my throat. “‘Marked by death from the beginning—she will come in flame and ash, wielding the fire gifted to her of her fathers. She will cross worlds and mend the rift. She will bring death to the unbelievers, life to those marked by the ancient one. Her life will bring death, for she is the Deathbringer.’”
“Good,” he said. “Now tell me what it means.”
What? Why did he want me to tell him what it meant? Shouldn’t this conversation have been the other way around? Shouldn’t he have been telling me the meaning? But I would play along, hoping to eventually get some answers.
“Fine,” I relented, “the first part, ‘Marked by death from the beginning’ probably refers to when I was almost sacrificed as a baby. Since I was almost killed by the Caxon in order to bring Theht back, it makes sense. I was marked by death.”
He nodded. “Keep going,” he said.
“Okay, the next part, ‘…she will come in flame and ash’ I imagine refers to my ability to use fire. It’s always been an easy spell for me to use—it comes naturally.” Which, now that I thought about it, made me the perfect Deathbringer. Wasn’t I supposed to destroy the world with fire? “Then the next part, ‘fire gifted from my fathers’ must mean that I get my powers from my ancestors. Then there’s the bit about mending a rift. I’m still not sure what that means. ‘Bring death to the unbelievers, life to those marked by the ancient one,’ I suppose refers to all the people who will die because of me. The second part about life is something I still don’t understand, either.
“And then there’s the last part, ‘her life will bring death.’ That’s the part that bothers me the most, but I can only assume my actions will somehow lead to a lot of people dying. Did I come pretty close?”
He gave me his grandfatherly smile. “Yes, you’ve thought about it quite a bit, I see.”
“Yeah, I’ve thought about it too much, actually.”
“Yet you do not understand all of it. There are still some mysteries left.”
I saw where this was going. “You’re right, there are. If I were to understand the parts that don’t make sense, would I be able to manipulate the prophecy somehow?”
He didn’t answer immediately. The machine’s gears clicked, and the giant scope atop the metal ball rotated a fraction.
“Understanding the parts of the prophecy you don’t yet comprehend will not help you to beat it, I’m afraid.”
My shoulders slumped. “Oh.”
“If anything, you should fear the occluded verses more than the others.”
Great. Just when I thought I had enough to worry about. So far, I wasn’t sure how this man had helped me at all. “Then why am I even here?” I said, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. Pretty sure it hadn’t worked.
“Patience,” he said. “I will help you the best I can, but
