Ciara started to dream of a grassland where none stood other than a single woman. She thought that the sky was blue and that the grass was too real. “I’ve fought dreams as well. I didn’t know you were a dream master, Woman, or should I say Matriarch of Cheery?”

“You remember me,” the woman giggled, “I expected that from you, War Maiden.”

“Speak,” Ciara demanded. “Why do you bother my dreams?”

“I just want to talk. You and he are the ones alive.”

“Why do you live then?”

“I joined with them. Do you really need to ask?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I didn’t need to. But I want to affirm that you are indeed a part of them. Tell me, I demand to know why you break the world. I DEMAND why you want to break the peace!” Her voice was seething with energy. Her tone resembling a volcano’s churning.

“Me?” She laughed with a high pitch. “I do not choose to break the world. The above are those who choose it. You a stray savior, Ciara Alician. You will not rest until the day a blade finally struck your heart.”

She glared. “I am a Salvatore now! This is our world now and I will not stand by when you crush my new home!”

“No, you mistake me,” she waved her hands, “I am not the one breaking the world. This is merely the way it was. Once the forest burns, the last tree suffocated by the smoke, will burn as well. You should know this by now. The world has an end and each end must be met. When they asked you to join them as a war maiden who fought gods and demons. You should have accepted, War Maiden.”

“No, I will not be a tool for them. Or do they want me to come out of my burrow and destroy them? Do they think that I can’t?”

She waved her finger. “I am sure that they will be pleased to see you rage against the heavens itself. I am merely the messenger, War Maiden.”

“The messenger?” Ciara sneered. “I saw you in a tavern with my husband! I saw you in my many lives and saw you interfere and lead his course!”

“Indeed,” she said,” I did fall in love with a young man who was lost. Yet his stubborn will was charming. I wanted to protect him but a certain woman warped reality to her bidding. Have you thought about it, War Maiden? Have you thought why a man who had nothing would follow you for years, spend time in loops, to chase you through all timelines and even in the world?”

“He loves me.”

“And you believe him?” She chuckled harshly. “Oh you poor fool, the world favored you, and it blessed you. Take it like this, a lonely woman saw a young man fascinated at her, she fell, wished, and when it happened. She rejected and threw punches at him. Telling herself that it was a lie, however, the charm has happened, no matter what, the charmed will never break free. So understand why he wanted to kill you, why his rage boiled to the point of forfeiting most of his humanity. For the sake of you, oh, War Maiden, you haven’t thought that he might be under your spell?”

“He LOVES me.”

“That’s what you want so he follows. The man has his stillborn child killed, he stills clings to you. You killed him and throw his soul not bothering where it would head, and still, he crawls back to you like a beaten wife. You almost murdered the son he nourished from birth and suddenly everything is fine. He crawls to you like a worm and now you have twins! What a happy family! A twisted family birthed from the warping of charms. You hurt the man, again, again, and again, and yet he does not let go. If that is not insanity then what is it? Can a man who calls himself sane able to forgive someone like you who made a mess of his life?”

Ciara gritted her teeth. She stared at the woman before. “Why do you cry when you speak, Alcina Cheery?”

“A decent man should not be subjected to this torture. You should know he is a good man. A wanderer who was lost and yet you force him out of your own wishes. I heard that those who are chosen bend those around them.”

“You lie, Cheery!”

“I do not lie,” she shook her head, not bothering to wipe the single tear that runs across her cheek. “I simply told the honest truth about you. I may have loved him. But I am simply a messenger who speaks the words of those who watches through ravines of the sky. Ciara Alician, you will not interfere with the troubles of this world. Those who write the wills of this world will come. This world will burn, you may protect those who you love, but the moment you act, the world will crumble. You already broke those who are favored and only one remains. Their battles will be fought and you shall not interfere.”

She spoke with a voice that ripped space. Her eyes were cold and her face was stolid. Ciara thought that barmaid of a tavern has certainly revealed her true colors. From the start, the beginning, the lass was a Watcher that provoke a spark to her destiny. Or was it all accidental.

“You want me to watch the burn? Is that what you want?”

“That is the writ of the Watchers above,” she said flatly. “The world may burn or it may not. Know this, that you cannot interfere any longer. You have burned too many worlds for your wantings as a savior. The Watchers will not allow any meddling. This world will be judged by those who are placed on the wheel. You and he are not part of the destiny that runs here.”

Ciara bit her lower lip. Her eyebrows met and the power that she contained was swirling around her. The messenger’s face remained flat, she looked at the War Maiden, trying to form words, nonetheless, stopped, and looked away.

The dream shattered.