1. Prologue

"In the realm of light, a flower bloom,

A bearer of fate shall loom.

Born of Stone"s bounties, fair and sweet,

Her journey through shadows, she shall complete.

Across the realms, her steps shall tread,

Seeking the entrance, where darkness spreads.

Her heart shall embrace the spirits" cries,

Uniting the realms, where darkness lies."

They"ve always been vague. Deciphering it will take time. Patience. I suppose I do have an eternity.

I click my tongue in thought. "What of her Mother?" I ask Mantis, the one without eyes. He often gives more information than the others. It"s still in riddles, but information all the same.

"Both mortal and Divine?" Mantis answers my question with another.

He grins as my brows push together in confusion. Could the girl have a Mother that is both God and mortal? It would not be the first time a God lay with the lesser.

Or perhaps the Goddess of the harvest has played another one of her tricks. For she is not a mortal, and her daughter is fated to be powerful, that much I know. A mere mortal or even half could never amount to such.

I will play a trick as well. For if she truly is in the mortal realm, if my visions of her destruction are correct, then it"s only a matter of time before the two halves of power meet.

A naive, malleable Goddess in need of guidance. I turn from the seers, done with their services. Their whispers follow me to the door.

Hades thought he could keep me from getting my revenge. How wrong he was.

For you cannot escape your fate.