Prologue
Lightning cracked across the sky and thunder rumbled through the air on what was set to be the most fortuitous of evenings.
The sky appeared pitch black until the electricity crackled across to illuminate its purple clouds and backdrop, with the stark contrast of pure white stars and moon. They shone down upon a heavily cloaked man like his own, personal spotlight.
He pulled the thick material draped around his shoulders over his head to shelter his golden curls from the vicious downpour that had become an onslaught. His sandals slapped against the sodden path beneath him that had become little more than sludge with no plausible direction. Though the journey may have been difficult, and the destination somewhat unconventional, the affliction he sought to cure was impossible and less than conventional itself.
A quaint, clay-walled house stood in the corner of the storm-battered village he wandered through. It was just a little worse for wear, a little less maintained than its numerous neighbours, but it hid a multitude more secrets than any of them could possibly fathom.
And the acts partaken upon within? Far more chaotic.
He reached the building’s wooden door and rapped upon it with soaked and frozen knuckles. A shiver ran through his body as he did so; one part fear, another from the frigid air, and the final part sheer anticipation.
The entranceway swung open with no physical intervention, apparently of its own accord.
Two voices from within the dimly lit room called to him, welcomed him in chorus and synchronicity to entice him inside and discover the answers he’d previously questioned with an agonising futility.
The man accepted their melodious invitation, but it made his first step onto the tiled floor no less hesitant. He knew power demanded respect, and he was set to be in the presence of some of the greatest power in the ancient world.
The owners of the house were three, eerie sisters of pallid complexion and eyes darker than the abyss that was Tartarus. They all had the same luscious locks of raven black that gave them the appearance of bewitched triplets, yet only two thirds had the power that copious mortals would seek out.
The last third was hunted and lusted after by a drunken and horned beast of legend and notoriety.
The young man removed his hood and watched the women with blue eyes that were filled with warranted and justifiable trepidation.
Though many wanted to hear them, the sisters seldom gave answers that filled listeners with joy, for they spoke only the truth in riddle, and the truth rarely gave a person everything they wanted. Balance of all things had to be maintained with human and mortal compromise.
Though for their latest visitor, that may not have been an issue, for he was more than human, and most certainly not mortal.
Two of the triplets ushered him forward in a mirrored, wordless gesture from where they faced each other in a sideways stance.
The third sister stood full-square and faced the man, with eyes that refused to blink as she tracked his every step towards the mysterious women. “Stand betwixt them,” she commanded as she and her in-sync sisters all pointed to the same patch of broken, boarded floor in the back room.
He followed her instruction and took his place on his designated spot as assigned by the witchy siblings he’d called upon.
The two linked hands around him and remained mute whilst their sister acted as their voice. “What answers do you seek?”
He cleared his throat and looked down at their arms sheepishly. It was undeniable that their proximity made him feel uncomfortable to say the least. Had he known it would involve such an act that verged upon intimate, then he may not have even considered that path to find a solution.
But ultimately, he was forced to bite back his disgust; it was not he whom he had to think of after all.
“I seek an end to my predicament,” he began whilst he continued to glare out the corner of his eye at the pale and near-skeletal arms that enveloped him, “and that which has afflicted my siblings also.”
A gust of wind blew through the building and surrounded the four stood within a bitter whirlwind that caused only one whom had not expected it to gasp sharply. It ruffled through the space that encircled them and whipped through their hair and clothing whilst it whispered phrase that carried a will of its own. The words were too quiet to tell if it was one of good or ill, for they could only be understood by those who’d been gifted with the ability to hear them.
The duo’s hands clenched within each other, so tight that their knuckles cracked in unison, then the rest of their bodies followed suit. Their spines stiffened and they threw their heads back, as though they’d been struck by one of the bolts of lightning that tore through the sky.
The gale became even colder, one that was bizarrely frigid and had never been felt by the man before that night. In fact, gale was perhaps the wrong word to use, it was more akin to a frosty cyclone that had whipped around all those in the room and effectively trapped them with the make-shift circle.
The women gasped for air whilst their rigid, emotionless faces pointed skyward where they stared with empty eyes. Whatever they saw in the infinite cosmos above them, they did not require their physical sight to gaze upon it and read its mysteries. Their irises turned white and their pupils became clouded until their ocular organs were blanketed entirely. “You search for an end to your affliction, Erotes?” They queried in a unison that created an eerie echo.
Perhaps the question had been rhetorical, the man was unsure as to what the intention had been behind it, but he chose to give a simple answer anyway, “yes.”
They inhaled deeply and their eyelids flickered whilst the messages they scoured for implanted themselves within their craniums. Their facial muscles twitched involuntarily as they processed the information that they would decipher for the man’s inquiry. “The powers of love cause strife and no relief,” they chanted, with an undertone that gave it a ghostly authority, “a curse and a blessing for sure.” They muttered, mostly to themselves but also loud enough for the object of their search to hear their disdainful comment.
He looked at them out the corner of his eye once more with equal displeasure, but thought it wise he remain silent when the mystics were at work. Though his stomach clenched with anxiety, he knew that he and his cohorts had run out of options.
The soothsayers moved their heads to a more comfortable position where they faced forward to gaze into their double’s eyes, directly through the blond man between them. “You cannot play with hearts; you must not bewitch their soul. For complete separation of oneself and kin, you must be given a heart freely by mortal of eras yet to be.” They released their grips upon one another and waved their hands as though it conjured more inspiration for them. “The saviour that will hinder your demise shall yearn for only one, and they must prove themselves to be genuine, or perish should the connection be severed.” The twins let out a final gasp of desperation, then crumpled to the floor.
Exhaustion had consumed them entirely and sleep attacked them instantaneously, in the exact spots upon which they had stood only moments prior.
The third sister ushered the baffled being towards the door they had entered through to force them to leave the house. She sounded panicked and vulnerable without her all-powerful sisters for protection.
He eagerly obliged, he did not want to add to the chaos and anxiety within those walls, but the confusion within his own mind swirled incessantly.
Only time would tell what the words that had been burnt within his brain truly meant, but it would be a journey that one of his siblings would find to be filled with both joy and agony.
