Nearly an hour later, as each of us were deep in our own thoughts and lulled by the rhythmic sound of the train on the tracks, Ailech screamed.

I was at his bedside first, shaking him awake as he cried out again. His eyes flew open, meeting mine, and I dropped to my knees, the strength in my legs seeping out like they were withering away beneath me. Ailech reached out to grab ahold of me, just like I had been reaching for him a moment earlier, his eyes recognizing me as he came out of whatever dream he had been in.

"The hell was that?" I asked from my knees, dumbfounded by how I had even gotten there.

"Your leg must have fallen asleep, happens to the best of us, Mors," Ailech replied with a look that told me to agree, and though I didn't know why, I nodded, letting him know I had received his message.

"Yeah...that must be it. Are you okay? You yelled." I changed the subject quickly, getting back to my feet and leaning against his bunk.

"Yeah, sorry, full disclosure, that happens a lot. I've had nightmares ever since I was a child. Abby does his best, but there isn't much he can do, just like for yours. That's why I try to sleep as rarely and lightly as I can get away with, it isn't exactly restful for me. Never has been. Though they've been less in the past months."

Ailech sat up in bed, his legs over the side, hands massaging little circles in his hair as he spoke at the ground, his voice muffled. James' watchful eyes flicked between Ailech and me before he spoke quietly, like he already knew the answer and was dreading its confirmation.

"Are they from my father?"

"We can't be sure, but that's always been my running theory. Abby can stop natural nightmares and dreams, he isn't that impotent."

Suddenly Kael joined the conversation, hanging his head off his bunk and letting his hair fall around him like a shroud.

"I feel left out. How come daddy-damned doesn't haunt me too? I'm impressive, I have skills. Elitist asshole."

The joking in Kael's voice made me smile, he sounded like I remembered him. And though I could tell he was trying at it, I still returned the wink he sent in my direction. Nevaeh had been silently watching in the new way of hers, green eyes seeing everything, putting pieces together like some elaborate puzzle.

"I guess I understand why Abby always kept such a short leash on you now. If the Collector is working so hard to haunt you, for so many years. You must be important. He wouldn't use that energy on just anyone."

The heavy silence settled again after I spoke, as the elephant in the room reared it's head again. I decided to take the plunge.

"Tell me the prophecy, Abby will as soon as we get back anyway, might as well give me an extra day to process. I know it won't be good, prophecies rarely are."

Ailech tried to look over to James, but he studiously ignored him. He didn't give up.

"You want to explain our fates to your Pair?"

James snorted a laugh, rather uncharacteristic of him, and shook his head, his choppy, midnight hair crisscrossing his face.

"I only know the crumbs my father told me, not full verses. I mainly got lectured on the meaning, that something new was coming and a war would follow, light would fall and he would reign, all with me by his side forever faithfully under his control, bound to him. You know, the usual bedtime stories. I'm sure he twisted it, since he must have known it was about me. But still, my views are probably more pessimistic than helpful. And some parts of it I've only just figured out recently."

He waved a hand at me and Ailech before continuing.

"Forgive me, but I'm not taking this one. You are the expert apparently."

Ailech scowled at James' tone.

"You sure made it sound like you were an expert when you were going on about fate and freedom earlier."

"Creative truth-telling, young mage. Have Abraham teach it to you," James spoke with a flourish, and though Ailech still glared, he knew he had lost as I focused my attention on him. Looking at him earnestly.

"There it is! That's the 'look into my innocent lil doe eyes and tell me what I want to know, you can't lie to these big grays,' it's nuts. How can a damned Half look as harmless as a lamb whenever you want? That's how she got me to tell her about your mom's anniversary, you know, last October. That exact look. Give up now Ailech, you won't beat that stare."

James smirked at me as Kael held everyone else's attention with his humored rant. That one smirk made a shiver run up my spine. Just that one look and I felt a rush of heat like he was sending his Sign into me, and maybe he was, with his devilish look I wouldn't have put it past him. I could feel the mischief rolling off him. And I still distinctly remembered the night I found out about Ambriel, the night whatever connection James and I had took a turn for something else in my room, something darker and deeper. I was infinitely glad James wasn't in my head right then, and that Levi was thousands of miles away so he couldn't see the images running through my head.

I pulled my mind back to the present as Ailech clearly conceded, rolling his eyes as mine found his again.

"Fine. A prolific prophet lived before modern dates, a great mage who saw new futures each time he closed his eyes and laid down his head. He was feared and loved in equal measure by everyone he crossed paths with, equally brilliant and mad, always knowing what would come to be and telling any who would listen. They say he could only tell his truths in riddles and rhymes, as prophecies cannot be fathomed fully except by ones with the talent."

Ailech paused, looking each one of us in the eye before continuing, like a storyteller making sure he had all of our attention. Which he fully did.

"His power matched his prophecies, until one morning he awoke deaf and dumb and blind. He stared out blankly for twenty-nine days, not eating, hardly sleeping or drinking. Slowly on the twenty-ninth day he regained his sight, but then he just stared into his fire, tears rolling down his cheeks. The next day he could hear again, and he went to the highest mountain and screamed wordlessly into the abyss as the wind howled past. When finally he could speak words, he recited his prophecy 6 times. By the end he was out of breath, gasping like the words wouldn't let him pull in air, only speak them over and over again, his mouth dry as parchment. He managed three requests to his rapt audience when he had finished, then died the next morning."

Ailech sat back abruptly. Stretching his arms behind his head into a pillow against the wall and chuckling, breaking the spell his story seemed to have cast over us.

"Man, you guys have seriously got to get hobbies. If that story was enough to have you all at the edges of your seats, you're no better than toddlers around a mother's skirts. Don't your kind share stories, legends, fables? Storytelling is what separates us from the apes, you know."

I glanced around, seeing that Ailech was right, all of us were leaning forward, even Nevaeh, as if we were captivated by the story. I realized the only stories we told, the only stories passed down, were the horrors Halflings and Fallen had inflicted on the world.

"Yes, yes, you're a great wordsmith. But your kind stopped teaching us all of that a long time ago, so no, we don't share you penchant for storytelling, and yes, we are interested. Now tell us the prophecy, that's what I thought all this buildup was for."

Ever unimpressed, James rolled his wrist at Ailech, encouraging him to continue as he lounged once more, the picture of disinterest.

"Don't you want to know what the wizard asked for? His final three requests? It makes a lot more sense now than it did when Abby first told me when I was a child, I'll admit that."

"Prophecy first, then dying wishes."

James cut in again, sounding annoyed, though only mildly.

Ailech rolled his eyes again, before reciting the words I'm sure he had memorized since the first time he heard them.

"Two will be allowed, the first of their kind. Two will be broken, spirit, body, and mind. Two halves made whole will survive tides of war, yet each will die new, razed twice before. Forged by blood, both lost and found, new weapons are realized in silver chains bound. The price for their lives, the greatest yet known, from which where they end, all fates will be thrown.

Three will change all for high or for low, equally sharing both dark and light in their ghost. The battle for worlds, gray tones shall it mark, the winner forever when one chooses dark. Their power for Heaven or Hell cuts the same, three beings unclean, all before hath forbade. Two will fall and one will rise a sacrifice given of the victorious side.

Twisted and tormented, one shackled and trained. Burning and frozen, one life willingly laid. If dark or death comes for one then shall it take all, for bonds of dust and blood cannot raise what will fall. All will watch which side may suffice, for no man can predict whether fire or ice. Created and destroyed, they will three be one knife, but for darkness defeated, each must lay down their life."

There was a long, heavy silence in our cabin. The train chugging steadily along the only sound. I didn't know what I had expected. Something more hopeful? Something less vague? Directions or clues. Some promise that we would win. Or instructions on how to win. I knew prophecies were difficult to understand, if they even could be, but Abby had kept this such a secret, I assumed it was because it would be meaningful, but I understood none of it, Gift or not.

"Wait, so you all die. That's clearly stated, like numerous times, like you will all definitely die. But if you die, you fail. But if you don't die, you can't win?"

Kael sounded exactly like I felt, except maybe more frustrated.

"What did your father tell you?" Ailech asked James as he shrugged off Kael's words.

"They all die, they lose, they fail. They try to win but are too weak. One dies and it kills the second. The second dies and the third is already gone. And if just one turns, if one chooses true power in darkness, then the dark wins. He only needs one of us to die or one of us to turn to him, and he wins all, a domino effect. I never knew who the third was until I met you - and even then I tried to deny it, you don't really fit the bill, or my father's style, but apparently there is more to you than we know."

James looked at Ailech predatorily, like he wanted to string him up to learn his secrets. But then he tore his eyes away, that shelf standing out in his jaw as he worked it over.

"Air, ale, and ash." Ailech spoke into the silence again.

"That's what the prophet asked for. Air to breathe, ale to drink, and ash to wear in mourning. He was found the next day, drowned in his ale. Some say that is as important as the prophecy. Some say it was still a part of it. You can guess which omen each of us are."

Dang, prophecies are hard to write?!?
But thanks for waiting for this chapter. It's spring break next week and though I'll still be working & at the GA, I should have more writing time (cross your fingers) to clean up this chapter and move on to bigger and bloodier...I mean better...things!

What do YOU think the prophecy means? Each section has a different angle. Some easier than others, some multiple.

My mother-in-law has told me that I'm not allowed to kill any of the main characters. But I mean, she'll forgive me, right? She's family.