by Petra Landon
The First Wizard hesitated, taking in the avid curiosity of her audience. It was early, just past dawn, yet the Pack Room was full. The team involved in the investigation, including Jason and Sienna, as well as Faoladh, were present. As was Atsá, asked to sit in by the Alpha. With their investigation delving deeper into the past, Raoul had requested Atsá’s presence. Atsá’s knowledge of the complicated history between Chosen factions might prove useful. Roman Durovic had shown up, too, only to be greeted calmly by the Alpha, much to the First Wizard’s astonishment.
“Your perspective will help us, Aunt Minnie.” Sienna addressed the First Wizard familiarly, for the first time in this company. “This team has uncovered a fair bit, but we need more to understand what drives her. You’re the person who knows her best.”
Lady Esmeralda sighed, unable to withstand an appeal from her beloved niece.
“She was smart and beautiful, with a great sense of humor. We were close growing up, as twins often are. For as far back as I can remember, we had ambitions to join the GCW. We worked very hard for our dreams and we were both successful.”
“When did things change?” the Alpha prompted.
“A few years in, we had a difference of opinion on the role of Guardians, as we both saw it. This was well before the CoC, when Faoladh had begun his early drive to convince us that a formal framework for Chosen co-operation was necessary. But that difference was not just between us — it was a fundamental clash within the GCW. A significant faction of influential Guardians at that time felt that a body like the CoC would dilute the GCW’s powers. They believed that the CoC would take away some of our influence and the freedom to draw up our role as we saw fit, both within the Wizard community and in the broader Chosen diaspora, as we had done for centuries. Faoladh knows the history of this.” She glanced at him as she said the last bit, and he gave a sharp nod to acknowledge it.
“The GCW was a significant impediment to the creation of the CoC” Faoladh said briefly.
“Bethesda happened to agree with that viewpoint, while I did not” the First Wizard continued. “In those early years, I was the minority in the GCW. We believed that Chosen co-operation was critical to our very survival, as Faoladh was advocating, and that the GCW needed some checks and balances. Even then, though rare, we had instances of Guardians going rogue. I felt that the Guardians had forgotten history. The very reason the GCW had come into existence was to provide a check on unbridled power. And now, we were suddenly opposed to even minimal checks on our own powers.”
“The Black Mage” Atsá murmured into the ensuing silence.
“Yes, her” the First Wizard admitted. “The only way to check a rogue Guardian then was for his own peers to band together to stop him. And very often, the GCW was unwilling to admit to divisions in its ranks, choosing instead to let a rogue Guardian go his own way, as long as there was no direct challenge to the GCW.”
“Like a Guardian called Azevedo, perhaps?” the Alpha suggested.
Forewarned by the Alpha, for once, Tasia found herself anticipating the Guardian perspective on her father.
Lady Esmeralda looked startled. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time, Alpha. What makes you bring it up now?”
“Azevedo is believed to have defected to work for the same Vampires that Lady Bethesda is allied with. It’s too strange a coincidence, wouldn’t you say, First Wizard?” he said evenly.
She looked flabbergasted by his words. “Are you saying that Gabriel Azevedo went to work for the Lombardis?” She was incredulous.
“I confirmed this, First Wizard.” It was Jason who answered.
The First Wizard shook her head in consternation. “Then, I agree with you, Alpha. This cannot be a coincidence.”
She shot him a look of helpless bemusement. “Forgive my confusion. It’s just that Gabriel and Bethesda — I find that hard to believe. They had nothing in common. He disagreed quite vehemently with Bethesda’s view of the Guardians’ role.”
“You knew him, Esmeralda?” inquired Faoladh.
“Yes” she confirmed. “He was not very Guardian-like in many ways, Faoladh. Stayed away from the politicking in the GCW, and was well-liked by his peers. Once upon a time, I counted him as a friend. He was an intelligent and powerful Wizard, and a good man. He wasn’t enamored of the rising ambition prevalent in the GCW then, of becoming not only the mainstay of the Wizard world but eventually policing all Chosen. He never hid his dissatisfaction with the GCW’s ambitions. But still, it was a huge shock when he rejected us to walk away. I lost touch with him, after that. I heard that he went to work with the Clan, but frankly, I discounted those rumors. The idea of Gabriel working with the Vampires is mind-boggling to me.”
“You don’t know what could have driven him to ally with the Vampires?” Duncan asked her.
“No.” She shook her head, clearly flabbergasted. “The man I knew would never have gone to work for them. But I will say this — Gabriel Azevedo was no rogue Guardian. He committed no crimes while he was a Guardian. All he did was walk away from us. That is not a crime.”
There was a short silence as her audience digested her words.
“What soured the relationship with your sister, First Wizard?” the Alpha prompted, as the dust settled down.
She sighed. “Relations between us became strained as things heated up in the GCW, but we were sisters at the end of the day, and that was a bond that nothing could break. Sco … the Oracle believed in Faoladh’s vision more than he believed in his wife’s view of the GCW — that caused some stress in their relationship.” She directed an apologetic glance at Sienna listening to her as raptly as the rest of the room.
“But again, nothing that hinted at what would come later. She started disappearing for weeks on end, and no one knew where she was. This is not something that affected her fellow Guardians, as much as drove her husband crazy with worry. Guardians, and she was a senior one then, have a lot of freedom when it comes to what we want to work on. Barring a few remarks on her frequent disappearances, that was it. Then came the news that Faoladh had succeeded in his mission and that the CoC was to come into being.”
“She was opposed to the very idea of the Council, and yet threw her hat in the ring to represent the Wizards?” Luis questioned from a corner of the room, as the First Wizard paused.
Lady Esmeralda shook her head. “Her faction dominated the GCW. And they did not intend to go down without a fight. At first, they insisted that a Guardian should sit on the Council to represent the Wizards, but the other Chosen factions opposed it. So, they circumvented it by nominating a First Wizard who would represent their viewpoint on the Council. There was push back on this, too. Faoladh played a major part in pushing back the GCW proposals.” She glanced at him.
“Yes” he agreed. “If we had given in to the GCW, the CoC would be toothless from the very beginning. It had been agreed, in principle, that the representatives on the CoC would advocate for greater co-operation. These Guardians wanted to isolate themselves from anyone that might challenge their influence over the Wizards. The First Ones, and even the Vampires, agreed with me, thus putting the GCW on the back foot on this issue. We insisted that a new position for First Wizard be created, with an office independent of the GCW. But we compromised by acceding to their demand that the Guardians would elect one of their own to this independent position.”
Faoladh glanced at Lady Esmeralda, throwing the ball back into her court again, as they recounted the old history.
“Bethesda became one of the candidates from the faction that believed in a muscular GCW. I wasn’t interested in throwing my hat in the ring at first, believing that there were other Guardians who could represent our views better. It was the Oracle who eventually encouraged me to represent the pro-CoC faction” the First Wizard continued. “As the election drew nearer, the campaign became uglier. By the end, all other candidates had dropped out to leave Bethesda and I facing each other. While Bethesda had emerged as the consensus candi
date of their faction, many Guardians had slowly defected over time, convinced that the CoC was not the enemy that it was being made out to be. The more the proponents of the faction demonized the CoC, the more supporters they lost, as the Guardians realized that the GCW was starting to marginalize itself amongst the Chosen by advocating against the wishes and hopes of a majority of our kind. My relationship with my sister soured. More so, because her husband, a well-respected and influential Guardian himself, publicly threw his support to our cause. When matters became so acrimonious and dire that it seemed like the GCW, and with it the Wizards, might split into two, the Oracle called a special session to pick a First Wizard, without dragging us through a polarizing election.”
She hesitated, her glance encompassing the room. “I cannot disclose what happened in that meeting. It is Wizard and, more importantly, GCW business, but at the conclusion of it, I was put forth as the consensus candidate for First Wizard, and Bethesda was summarily defeated.”
“Was she bitter, Esmeralda?”
“Yes, and naturally so. Although at that time, I felt that she was more disappointed than bitter. I tried to reassure her that as the Wizard representative to the CoC, I would not allow others to interfere in GCW matters, but she didn’t want to listen to me. Not then. Emotions were running high in that room, and I believed that I would be able to assuage her concerns, once everyone had cooled down. It was not to be. The next morning, she was gone.”
“How did you discover the disappearance?” Roman Durovic, who had remained silent so far, inquired.
“My brother-in-law gave me a call. He was distraught, told me that she’d left behind a rather incoherent and angry letter for him. I tried to calm him down. I was sure that Bethesda would be back once she’d cooled down. We agreed that Sienna must be protected from this.”
“Did you have any communication with her after you were elected First Wizard?” Duncan inquired.
“No direct communication, no. Later, messages were exchanged between us with some Guardians as intermediaries. These Guardians believed in her innocence, but also appreciated the difficult position I found myself in. As allegations mounted up against her, my fellow representatives on the CoC started pressing me to do something about the situation.”
“What about The Prophecy?” the Alpha inquired. “I respect your position on GCW business, but prophecies belong to all Chosen.”
The First Wizard glanced at Faoladh, who shrugged in response.
“We believe this is essential to our investigation, First Wizard” Duncan added. “It is not mere curiosity.”
Sienna tried to signal her aunt.
“No one in the room will discuss what you reveal here, First Wizard” Jason spoke up, his eyes on Raoul. “The Alpha has given us his word.”
“I give you my word too, First Wizard” Roman chimed in. “I mean to assist the investigation and we cannot unravel this without understanding what drives Lady Bethesda.”
The First Wizard glanced at Sienna’s face, to give in. “The Oracle predicted that something, an event or possibly a catastrophe, would bring three half-sisters, each powerful in their own right and born of different fathers, together to bring about great change in our world.”
“What kind of change?” Faoladh inquired immediately.
“Something to do with breaking from centuries of Chosen tradition. Like all his prophecies, the Oracle foretold it in the Ancient tongue that seers are known to use. My Ancient is good enough to decipher general intent but not to comprehend the nuances” she remarked apologetically.
“Change a Chosen tradition that has survived centuries” Faoladh repeated thoughtfully.
“That is my interpretation, yes. I did briefly discuss it with some of the others present that night, but as you can imagine, we had other matters of more importance to focus on then. That night, this prophecy was just the sideshow. Sorry, I cannot be more specific than this.”
“What about this event The Prophecy foretells?” the Alpha asked her. This was the first they were hearing of it. So far, they’d only been aware of the three powerful half-siblings.
Lady Esmeralda reflected on the question. “As I understood it, the event will facilitate an alliance or a union of the three half-sisters.”
“Have you seen the GCW record of this prophecy, First Wizard?” Duncan inquired perspicaciously.
The First Wizard shook her head. “I doubt that it includes the Oracle’s interpretation.”
She cast a quick glance at Sienna. “Things got a little crazy the next morning, and a year later, he was gone. No one took this prophecy that seriously, not then.”
It was clear that the First Wizard wasn’t completely convinced that they should take it seriously now.
Atsá cleared his throat. “Does an official GCW record for this prophecy exist, First Wizard?”
“Yes.” Her answer was immediate. “There’s a separate office in the GCW that is responsible for tracking and keeping official records on prophecies. Not just those predicted by Wizards, but also ones foretold by other Chosen. The Guardians responsible would have created an official file on The Prophecy the morning after the Oracle made it.”
“Were you interviewed for your interpretation of the Oracle’s words?”
“I was” the First Wizard said slowly. “You seem to know your GCW guidelines well, Were-Alpha.”
“I have some knowledge of how the GCW historically documents prophecies” Atsá acknowledged. “My people have a long history of seers.”
The Navajo people had produced many Chosen, a disproportionate number of them Shifters. A few Shifters with Navajo blood in them had even been acknowledged as seers, a rare phenomenon since seers had historically self-identified as either Wizard or Ancient.
“Atsá.” Raoul glanced at the venerable Were-Alpha. “Perhaps you can explain how a prophecy is documented.”
Few Shifters understood the importance of nuances in foretelling a prophecy or how one was documented. Faoladh was the first Shifter in their long history to envision and work for a Chosen world with equal representation from all factions. Before him, Shifters had always isolated themselves in their were-packs, uncaring of the state of affairs in the wider Chosen world.
“The GCW guidelines on prophecies are very stringent” Atsá explained.
“Historically, the GCW has been the main repository of all recognized prophecies in our world. These guidelines distinguish between recognized seers and Chosen without a proven record of predicting prophecies.”
“Since the Oracle was an established seer, the GCW would have been diligent about following procedure” Faoladh pointed out.
“You’re correct, Faoladh” Atsá concurred. “For the Oracle, it would have been a fairly straightforward process. The GCW would conduct extensive interviews with all the witnesses, which in this case would be the large numbers of Guardians in the room that night. And it would have the seer provide an in-depth interpretation of his prophecy.”
“Usually, a seer’s interpretation makes it into official records a few months down the line, sometimes a year after the prophecy is foretold” Atsá continued as the First Wizard seemed to silently concur with the Wyr’s interpretation of GCW procedures. “The witness interviews are conducted immediately, while memories are still fresh, but the seer is given wide latitude to document his prophecy. Often times, a seer needs time to comprehend and interpret the nuances of the events from his visions.”
“Visions!” Elisabetta looked startled. “Doesn’t a seer predict based on a single vision?”
“Rarely” the First Wizard answered the Shifter. “For the more complicated ones, seers are known to see flashes and snippets over years, sometimes a lifetime, until they’re finally able to tie it all together into a cohesive prediction. Predicting the future is a dicey proposition and uncertain science” she continued as Elisabetta stared at her. “That is why very few seers attain the kind of reputation that the Oracle enjoyed amongst his peers.”
“Very few prophecies come true as they’re foretold, Elisabetta” Faoladh reiterated. “Not because seers lie, but because they’re not adept at piecing together what they see into a coherent omen. It takes experience, instinct, as well as deep and broad knowledge of Chosen affairs, the past and our history, to interpret future events correctly. The building blocks of any prophecy for a seer are merely a disparate set of visions that usually feature people and events in places the seer doesn’t know and cannot identify. A successful seer is one with the rare combination of intellect, knowledge, experience and instinct to get it right.”
Jason cast a sidelong glance at Sienna. Until Sienna had recounted her experience with visions, he’d never given much thought to seers or prophecies. Now, he realized that perhaps her visions were not as unusual as he’d assumed. Though she had experienced flashes of just one vision all her life, things could still change in the future. Sienna was young for a Chosen. She might yet grow into a seer as famous as her father and make multiple prophecies about important points of their history that would one day come true.
“If I understand Atsá correctly, the GCW records should have witness statements but might not necessarily include the seer’s interpretation.” The Alpha summed up the discussion.
“The seer’s interpretation is rightly given the most weight” the First Wizard explained. “That is why a seer is given as much leeway as he wants to write down his thoughts. In this case, though, circumstances and events got so crazy the morning after that I’m not sure the Oracle ever did complete his write-up for his last prophecy.”
Atsá shot a glance at the First Wizard but remained silent. The Alpha caught that look. “Something on your mind, Atsá?” he prompted.
“The timing of this prophecy is interesting” Atsá said slowly. “The Oracle made it on a night when the Wizards faced more immediate concerns. That night, they were facing the possibility of the Wizards splintering apart. Yet, the man who brought them together to broker a truce took the time to first predict a prophecy.”
His words died away even, as the import of what he meant hit the others.
