Four Fatherless Men

Megarna gazes down at the scrawny young woman knelt before her in the dingy, smoke-filled hut. 

‘You have the rare gift of prophecy child. A gift our coven needs. Tell me what you see.”

The young woman, with a certain amount of trepidation in her hazel eyes, coughs nervously before finding her voice.

“I see four men. An Elf, a Half-Elf, a Halfling and a Human. Tied together by fate.”

A scruffy black moggy hisses from atop a roughly made wooden shelf and Megarna responds directly.

“Yes, yes, I know that she’s being vague.”

And then back at the raggedy, young woman.

“Go on… And do better!”

The younger woman bows deeper over the bowl of smeared animal blood and rune-marked knuckle bones, her eyes rolling back further into her head.

“These four men, raised without knowing their true heritage, without knowing their true names or even their true Fathers. Tied together by a past they have no knowledge of and bound by a purpose they cannot comprehend… I see a war. The greatest war this world has seen in over a century. I see these four men leading armies. Armies of Humans, Elves and… Even Halflings. A war against a seemingly endless wave of red-eyed demons!”

The thin-backed, black-clad old woman leans closer, her long, yellow stained teeth bared. 

“Tell me more. Tell me how we can break their spirits? Tell me how we can most easily defeat them?”

The young woman quails.

“I… I don’t know. My visions are clouded and I can’t properly decipher all the myriad possible outcomes.”

Megarna spits.

“You’re pathetic! Useless! Your paltry gifts are barely worth the bother of recruiting you. Our last Augur was worth twenty of you.”

Eyes snapping back into place, the young woman finds a little courage.

“Your last Augur? Where is she? What happened to her?”

The old Witch scowls.

“Viccissa was her name. She was talented, far more talented than you but she betrayed the coven for her own selfish needs. Worse, she betrayed me, and so I had her hunted down by our assassins and slain.”