Keeper of the Future

Chapter 01

Expecting

The prediction was made in mid-August. Preparations were made for journeys to and from the Human kingdom and protection for the Elven child expected by the kingdom of Seikara in little under nine short months.

Naturally, I was first to hear the news; Father had been away on various royal duties of his, and it was I who brought on several of the fortune-teller’s premonitions.

Saiya, the fortune teller was a pretty girl of the age of fourteen. Her mother and her mother’s mother had been fortune tellers, and I have been told by her father (quite frequently) that they all look exactly alike: blonde-brown hair, green eyes, slight.

“Heck,” he’d said, “They even dress the same!” It was true, I found, when I met Saiya’s grandmother. Though quite old, the woman’s graying hair and wrinkles were of no matter thanks to her startlingly bright, twinkling eyes. On top of this, they were all quite partial to orange clothing. You know the stuff: baggy yet flattering pants with a gold colored belt shaped in a “V,” the revealing tops that exposed the mid drift, flat shoes studded with glass beads. But all of that is beside the point.

Our story begins at the dining room of the palace where Saiya and I sat discussing one of the most debated topics in the entire kingdom: the death penalty. My father, Moor, the king of Humans, agreed with me on the topic of capital punishment: “Without capital punishments, the kingdom of Humans would run amok.”

I looked to Saiya for her opinion, yet her green eyes had dulled, seeming empty. After a moment, she said, “Did you say something?” Without questioning her sudden silence, I repeated myself. Saiya had told me on multiple occasions that the stars and other celestial bodies spanning across several universes would align a certain way, causing her to have a vision. She could not control this ability, nor could she foresee it.

“It just seems barbaric to me,” was her sad reply as she scratched her wrist from atop her sleeve. I knew this would be her answer, and I had taken this into account when asking her such a question. This would lead to a heated debate, which my father said must be one of our favorite pastimes.

“Are you taking the Elves into account?” To most royals and nobles, it was common knowledge that Saiya looked to the ways of the Elves for guidance. It was severely less common knowledge—if known by anyone but me at all—that Saiya was, in fact, part elf; her ears were not pointed.

She stared at me curiously for a moment, her delicate fingers flying over her itching wrist. “What? No, of course not.” Her eyes seemed to come back to life, flashing, and I knew instantly that she was not in the right. Another vision was upon her. The signs were classic: a dull, lethargic spell quickly followed by a comeback of vivid color in the eyes and face. At times like this, I am helpless; watching and waiting is all I can do. Any disturbance could upset her and make her unbearable for days (for what reason is unknown), and I discovered this the hard way.

Once, when Saiya was eleven and I twelve, we sat on the outer banks of the river having a picnic of a loaf of bread along with a salad, both of which we shared. We’d met a few days before at a speech of my father’s to the townsfolk. She came presenting a gift of an amulet, one which I keep in my pocket at all times, even till this day. I guess you could say I like Saiya more than a friend. This is what I was thinking when the convulsions began.

It was the first time she experienced a vision in my presence, and I made the mistake of shaking her lightly, which snapped her back to reality instantly. She yelled at me, told me that I was an imbecile, and that if she never saw me again, it would be too soon. She stormed off, leaving me alone in the field.

Which leads me to the point: I was not in the mood to die.

Saiya seemed to shiver all over for a few short moments, as if having a fit. Her breathing was labored and shallow, as a vision washed over her like a wave, her eyes blurring, then closing. I could only imagine what she was seeing behind those lids. It was then that on her wrist, I spotted them. The Elven Birth Words. Saiya had explained them to me before; a fortune teller would receive them, but she would not tell me what happened afterwards. I wondered why, but I did not wish to anger the girl; she was unpredictable when she was angry.

The writing was twisted and scrawling. Upon my looking at it, the writing glowed crimson—crimson like blood. They dizzied me, and again, I wondered how Saiya could withstand these visions—she had them so often—this time because the ink the words were written in seemed to be burnt into her skin. My hand flew to my own wrist, which had sparked and begun to burn like fire. Beneath my sleeve was written one word in English: Keeper.

It was then that Saiya’s vision was over. She stopped her squirming in her chair across the table from me, and the writing on her wrist, which I thought had been burned into her skin, soon faded and left pure, healthy skin behind.

My own wrist did not heal.

--

When Saiya had her vision, she’d seen it in flashes first, then in small “clips,” she had said. Getting the full story out of her took days, and this time it was not because she was shaken at the topic of her vision, I thought. Why did I think this? She stayed with me when she was scared of a vision, refusing to leave my side. Why this was logical to her, I hadn’t a clue. I couldn’t fight my way out of a paper bag. No, she was often away from me—which was rare—scouring books. When I visited her, making conversation by asking what the titles of the books were, she would not give them to me.

By the fourth day, my father had returned, urgently leaving for an “appointment” no sooner than he had arrived at the palace, ordering the servants to take his trunk to his quarters. There was no doubt that this appointment was due to Saiya’s vision. Something was horribly wrong.

Father returned to tell me the news. We’d sat in the library, ushering all others out. We spoke in hushed tones.

The Elves, he told me, were the focus of Saiya’s vision. He went on to tell me that this was a very important matter and that I played a very important part in this; I must listen. Nevertheless, my mind wandered as he spoke. The Elves? I thought, incredulous.

With a small kingdom, the Elves had an organized government, which I’d known before. I had not known, however, that they were a monarchy, or that their king was nearing his two hundredth birthday.

While I listened intently to the ways of these Human-like creatures, I wondered why they did what they did: they gave up their children for someone else to raise for the sake of hiding the meaning of a family. I also wanted to know why, since they gave up their children, each and every mother had a tattoo burned into their skin for each child they bore. Lastly, I wondered what all of this had to do with me.

Father had finished, and I looked at him expectantly. With a sigh, he whispered, “Orin, show me your wrist.”

I froze, horrified, and that’s when it all clicked.

--

A/N: I wrote this last year and came across it; tons of editing and tweaking ensued. I hope you enjoyed, and please read and review! Thanks for looking!