10 Child of Heavens (1/2)

(Elimason Village)

Outside the capitol a few hundred kilometers to the west a small territory of a count was located, it consisted of no more than a simple village with roughly a thousand inhabitants. The ruler of the land was the count of house Brantfield, one of the many vessels under the noble duke family of Sepetine.

The count was a handsome middle age man with many female admirers among the village people. However, despite this and unlike many other nobles, he was faithful to his late wife Lady Girena who bore him two children. The eldest was the fourteen year old Rakan Brantfield and the youngest was his daughter who was only eight years old.

The family lived in a small castle on a gentle hill overlooking the village below, it was only about the size of a slightly large mansion and was decorated plainly with only the statue of a griffin guarding the gates. Inside the castle, the count was receiving a very important guest and was respectfully talking to her but there was an odd trembling in his voice.

”Thank you for coming this way, I am honoured to meet one of the famous ladies of the 'All Seeing Eye'.”

The count was in the bedroom talking to an old woman who was standing across from him, the woman was old, and the ravages of time were plain to see across her face. Her facial features seemed to blur and shift the longer one gazed upon her.

The colour of her eyes would constantly change, and the count had lost track of how many colours he had seen. To be honest with himself, the woman before him scared him a great deal. If not for his ambitions, he would not have dared to invite this creature into his home.

The 'All Seeing Eye' was an ancient and elusive order of fairy halflings who each had the ability to read potential futures by looking at a person's mana circuits. It was almost impossible to invite them into your home as the members would traverse around the continent, many had tried to capture them but none succeeded.

Laying on the bed was the man's daughter who slept soundly as if the surrounding noise was nothing more than air. She was a little beauty with soft pale white features and a delicate body that curled up within a soft blanket. Her hair was wavy with brown curls, the spitting image of his late wife. For the sake of no accidents occurring during the reading, the count slipped a small dosage of Nightingale extract into her tea to send her into a deep slumber.

The crone he summoned had once told him the future of his eldest child, who was predicted to assume the role of the leader of House Brantfield once he passed away. This was insufficient for the count as he had dreams of his house rising in the ranks of nobility, eventually becoming an upper level noble in the kingdom.

His daughter was now his only hope and if her future was also useless, he would simply trade her off for some benefits from a political marriage. The count was raised to be a cold, calculating ruler from his father and only his wife was able to bring joy and light into his life, when she passed away his heart was buried with her.

The only dream he had left was to fulfill the wish of his father and raise the glory of his house. His children no longer meant anything to him under than benefits and costs. He nodded slowly at the crone to begin the ritual and she took a strange patterned dagger and slashed both of her arms.

Blood dripped to the floor and began to form a strange rune, it formed a pentagram with two red eyes gazing from the floor. The count looked at the eyes and then turned to see the witch in action, the previous witch did not allow him to view the ritual, so he was quite curious about it.

The old woman stared at the count who stepped back and shuddered in fear as her eyes had turned completely white. She brought a wrinkled hand to the child's face and gently stroked her head while whispering a language that count Brantfield could not understand. The crone removed her hand after a few minutes and her eyes turned back to normal, the little girl slept peacefully and was unaware of what just happened. ”Well what do you see?” the count hurriedly asked.

The crone paused for a moment as if gathering her thoughts and replied,