Year 831:

“War is coming.”

An old woman stands in the middle of the room, her blackened and dirty cloak draping over her hunched figure. All the chatter and laughter comes to a stop and all heads turn, curious stares fixing on her glowing cane. Knowing eyes pierce through the murky shadows of her hood that even the light from the hearth can’t disperse.

“The realms are at peace. There has never been a greater time to be alive! All is well with the world. Go home and be merry! Celebrate the New Year with your family and drink away your woes. I shall have my squire show you out.” The king signals a young man who walks over to the woman and gestures for her to follow him.

“You are a fool to think that the peace will last; an arrogant, drunk and stupid fool.” She turns, her gaze fixing on the woman sitting at the right hand of the king. A wrinkled and frail hand appears out of the folds of her clothes as a bony finger stabs at the queen. “Your child will be born beneath the coming blood moon. It is your child that will bring about the war of ages; a war that will divide brother from brother, son from father and mother from babe. This child will tear our world apart. That child is better off in the grave than alive.”

“You dare threaten my wife and unborn child in my own home!? Get out, you old kitchen wench, before I have you strung up!”

“And you still believe the child is yours. Why do you think I did not address you when I talked of that wretched thing within your wife’s womb? You could bed one hundred women and not one of them would bare you a child. It is not yours, my king. You are infertile.”

The room stills to the point that it gives the illusion of death and all eyes turn and pin themselves on the queen as she places her hands over her pregnant belly. A muscle in the king’s jaw ticks before he points his finger at the hooded hag. “Get that vile woman out of my sight.” Men in white and silver armour move forward, hands on the hilt of their swords.

“War is coming, my king. And there is nothing you can do to stop it.” She lifts her cane and slams it back down on the polished stone floor, disappearing in a wisp of lime green mist.