Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #19 October 2015 | Page 30

Quest for Knowledge (Volume
1 of the FirstWorld Saga) A
Prophecy Fulfilled & Ju (Part
One)
The time of The Sundering approaches in the past. Simon has gone back in
time and is about to meet Manfred, but
mustn’t mention the war.

A Prophecy Fulfilled

children, but there were a few youths and the odd old
man. The men of the tribe were away hunting. Please
something different from half-raw venison, tonight.
Mandred paused in his incantations and looked at
Manfred. “Today is the day he will come. My work
here is almost done. Soon I will go to my eternal
rest and you will be none the wiser. Great events are
unfolding under your nose and you can’t see them.”
What is the idiot talking about now?
“What are you talking about? Who will be
coming? What great events?” Manfred humoured his
so-called colleague, although it seemed they were on
different teams. I hope he brings something good to
eat with him.

“The future hero will return today. Dammar
has predicted it. You remember the Hero, don’t you?
Manfred was cranky. In fact, he couldn’t
No, you don’t. Hah! You missed his last visit, like
remember when he last wasn’t cranky. They had
you miss everything important. You were away with
been living in this primitive backwater with a tribe
the hunting party.” Don’t remind me. That was a trip
of barbarian humans for so long that he had forgotten
what a hot bath and a cold beer felt like. What made it I’d rather forget. I never believed Mandred about the
worse was that Mandred seemed to love every minute Hero. I thought he’d been breathing too much of his
of it. He seemed to go out of his way to make Manfred herb smoke, or needed an excuse to explain the Chief’s
unhappy and make the members of the tribe hate him. daughter’s pregnancy. Well, we’ll soon find out, I
suppose.
Curse him. What’s he doing now?
The two wizards were identically dressed in
bearskin cloaks and they were both bare headed, displaying long, flowing white hair and matching beards
that hid most of their facial features. Mandred muttered incantations under his breath, pausing now and
then to scatter herbs, from a pouch at his waist, into
the embers of a fire he carried in a black, intricately
carved bowl. The burning herbs released a sweet,
pungent odour that made Manfred feel light-headed. Manfred’s hands absently played with a string of
bear’s teeth beads that hung from his neck. Nothing
important ever happens here. Curse Adapa and his
plans. Dammar has the right idea. I should go off and
do my own thing too. What does he expect to happen
here in this boring backwater?
A group of the humans began to gather to
watch Mandred’s antics. He was always the centre
of attention. They were predominantly women and

Mandred balanced his bowl in one hand and
reached inside his cloak to withdraw his staff. He
scratched a large circle on the sandy ground and
placed his bowl of herbs in the centre. What is he
doing now? Oh well, at least it’s something to watch.
Manfred yawned. Mandred checked the position of
the sun and stood at the perimeter of the circle, facing east. He began to move slowly to his right, while
drawing an imaginary circle in the air with his staff.
He progressed slowly around the circle in a clockwise
direction, stopping at each cardinal point where he
spoke theatrically in a loud voice. “May the Balance
protect us from all evil approaching from the south.”