Prophecy...?

“First of all,” Ravyn started, “I want to know why you are riding out this storm in you house!”

The big womans shoulders rocked with amusement as she boomed out her answer, “BECAUSE YOU WERE COMING TO SEE ME, OF COURSE!”

I interjected, “But how did you know we were coming here, I mean...”

The withering looks from both women stopped me in my tracks.

Ravyn just shook her head in amusement before replying to the larger woman. “I should have known you would have been told of our arrival.”

As the storm howled outside, Ravyn gave her a brief synopsis of who we were looking for and why we needed to find her quickly, without providing any incriminating details, except for the mother’s name.

When the tale concluded, T’tubah looked from Ravyn to me and back again before speaking. “So, you mean to go searching for this woman and her baby in this storm, do you? The Spirits have spoken to me about this storm for a long time now, telling me that there is more to this storm than the hand of Mother Nature at work. I think this task will be harder by far than you realize.

“I do however, know of this woman who you are looking for, she was from this neighborhood and recently returned. She did give birth a few months back. She’s been looking for work. She lives about three blocks down the street and around the corner, she’s staying with her mother, from what I’ve heard. That baby, Alexa, was brought to me for a blessing only last month...”

As she was speaking, the large woman shuddered and went quiet, both Ravyn and I looked at each other, and then back to her, with Ravyn moving quicker than I to steady the woman on her feet. The wind was howling, things were crashing against the house on a regular basis, but it became still and quiet inside the house. She straightened back up and looked over at me, her eyes glazing over with a whitish film. A voice came echoing from her mouth, a voice that was at the same time familiar, but distinctly...different...

“Amidst Despair and Discord, the Daughter of Death has come!
From Darkness she was born, Descendant of Slaves now seeming free.
Conceived from Greed and Deceit, the Daughter of Death has come!
Through her Dance and her Deeds, Empires fall and the Mighty flee.”

T’tubah shuddered again, and would have fallen had Ravyn not already been holding her as she came out of the trance that had taken her. The crushing sounds of the torrents outside of the house resumed almost immediately, the spell now broken.

“What the Hell was that?” I asked.

Ravyn shot me another look, but guided the now exhausted looking woman to one of her sturdy kitchen stools. After she sat for a minute and gathered herself, T’tubah herself answered.

“The Spirits sometimes speak through me, asking me to be their conduit. They come and go as they please.”

“I can see they also don’t take much time to find ways of speaking plainly.”

More withering looks, this time from both women.

T’tubah spoke up again, “When the child was brought to me for that blessing, a similar event happened, one of my more powerful Spirits came forth and conducted the ceremony. That was the first time that had ever happened. It was then that I felt this child was going to be very important. Hers will be a life filled with turmoil and conflict, that great forces would battle over her. She will be a Catalyst, an agent of change, if she survives long enough. If you truly seek this child out, you must know all of this, and more...that humanity only sees such Spirits as hers born once every fifty to a hundred generations. She will be the first female Catalyst in a very, very long time.”

“What do you mean by a ‘Catalyst’? Who were some of these others before her?”

Ravyn spoke up, her voice sounding small againt the raging storm outside, but still very clear. “She means that this child of yours could be like some of the other great figures who have shaped human history, like Siddhartha, Mohammad or even Jesus of Nazareth.”

“Whoah...are you serious?”

T’tubah nodded. “This world is in dire need for such a person, but there will be powerful forces who will not easily suffer her to live to fulfill that promise. That, my children, is why I was waiting for you, for someone, to come to her aid.”