tamingthemuse | Prompt 70 - Arcane - "Meeting In The Desert"

Title: Meeting In The Desert
Fandom: None-OC
Warnings: Religious overtones
Summary: The conjunction overhead, the stones are cast and the future is scryed for the effects of one child on the world.

A/N: I know what you're thinking--'another Bible story? does she have any characters of her own?' This is not your normal Bible story, however. Remember, a magus in Biblical times was also a wizard, right? :)

He cast the ancient stones passed on from his father’s father underneath the new star that rode high in the sky. They landed in a pattern that was new to him; in his studies of arcane knowledge, he had never seen the stones predict such changes that were to be wrought, both now and in the future.

He turned to his companions and spoke quietly to prevent the servants from overhearing their conversation. “This child will be powerful. More powerful than any other child ever born.”

“What else do they say, old one?” the youngest of them asked eagerly, leaning forward on his haunches.

“He will change the fabric of time altogether. Armies will march, nations will rise and fall, wars will be fought and lives lost for his ideals and his name. He will bring upon the world so much hope and so much death.” He hated the mystical singsong tone of his voice but the stones had never lied in a thousand years.

“Surely we must kill this child then if he is to be the destruction of all that we know.”

Casper turned to his dark-skinned friend and companion of many years, horror painted on his features. “That is abomination, my friend. We cannot kill—it is against everything that we are taught. Everything that we believe in.”

“If he is to change the world in such a way I could do so, no matter what vow I took.”

Casper took his wand from his sleeve and cast a glamour around the three of them to hide them from prying eyes. He reached for a bowl and poured water into the basin, then began to chant low and instinctively as he threw herbs into the water.

Four heads leaned over the bowl to look at the scenes of what was to come.

Blood. So much blood, shed for an ideal and not a reality.

Pain. For the child, for his family, for his followers, both now and in the distant future.

Chaos. Wars that led to other wars, men marching into battle for reasons they could not understand.

Division. Their world, their lives, divided inextricably from those that they served to protect from the harsher ideas of the existence that they led. Hiding from those without their powers in castles built and protected by the same type of spells that they themselves used.

Melchior looked up into the faces of his elders. “I have seen enough.”

Balthasar sat back onto his heels. “As have I. I will not strike down a child, no matter what havoc his life may cause. I have seen nothing here in the scrying that indicates that he will bring hope, however.”

Casper waved his hand over the bowl again, his low chant a susurrus in the wind that whispered around their heads. “Look again, my friends.”

They leaned in once again to see many wonders brought by the man the child would become. His fingers alone held magic that was unknown to them, magic that they would eventually access, train, and teach control over. Healings that were unexplained, quickenings of bodies that had lay dead for many days, miracles that could only be attributed with one of their gifted.

Laravandad was unrelenting, however. “I would still kill the child. Renounce my vow and slit his throat to keep the world from such suffering as his life will bring.”

“Have you forgotten our vow? Never to interfere into the lives of those without the gifts we possess? Never to take life unnecessarily? Never to kill one of our kind? Does this not matter in the great scheme of things, Laravandad?” Casper glared across the bowl at the implacable face of one of his oldest friends and disseminated the scrying with a wave of his hand. “You have seen that he comes to us at eighteen to learn our teachings. You can be instrumental in changing what may be. We all can.”

Laravandad was stolid, stubborn, but Casper could see in his eyes that there was doubt and where there was doubt, he could easily sway. “I could.”

“We shall go and see this child. At the least to physically ascertain his place in the Magi.”

“That I will not do.”

Casper turned to his friend and stared at the set of his mouth, the pouting lips. “You would not accompany us?” he said, more than a little surprised.

“I would not. I have no desire to see a child that will warp the fabric of reality more than it already has been. I will remain here and await your return and report.” Laravandad sat down, crossing his legs beneath him and toying with his wand. “It is my right to refuse. We all came of our free will, did we not?”

Casper sounded more than a little tired and somewhat upset at the thought of leaving Laravandad behind. “As you wish. We will leave you with servants and most of the camels and return here forthwith.” He looked up at the sky and the bright conjunction of stars overhead. “We need to go directly before the conjunction moves and we can no longer find our way.”

Melchior looked up, always eager for adventure and more than eager to please. “I suggest that we take gifts. Is it not customary to bring gifts to a birth of a new magus?”

Casper patted his young protégé on his head. “You are right of course, young one. What will you bring?”

Melchior thought for a moment. “I will bring him incense to increase his visionary powers.”

Balthasar’s deep voice sounded next. “I will bring him gold to cover the expense of his training. I have more than enough.”

Casper thought of the many things that he had seen in the scrying bowl before he waved his hand. An image of three crosses on a barren hill was seared into his memory. This child would have a difficult road ahead and a death that he would wish on no man. “I will bring him myrrh for his burial.”

As he clambered to his feet, Laravandad’s hand reached out to grab his arm. “Did you see something that we did not, Casper?”

Casper turned and looked down into the face that was dear to him. “Let it be known that this child, this man, will have a hard road ahead of him. There will be those against him from the outset and many killed to prevent his rise to power. There will be a horrible death in his future—but in doing so, he will bring us to the light. He is…there are no words as to what he is. As long as we teach him wisely and set him on the right path, only The One knows what he will become.”

“Do you believe that he has been sent by The One?”

Casper didn’t know who had asked the question since he had turned his back, but he answered them all as honestly as he could. “Only The One would do such a thing to a helpless baby. Come, we must prepare to travel although it is night. The stars continue their motion and the wheel turns, but time awaits no man.”

He headed toward the camels with a heavier heart, the footsteps of others sounding behind him in the shifting sands.