Kidu woke while it was still dark. The cold of the camp without a fire chilled him and disturbed a vague dream that was so vivid and loud just a moment ago. It was now less than a blur, replaced by a quiet dark where the only sound he could hear was himself breathing heavily through his nose while he clenched his jaw. 

He was mildly pleased with himself for surviving the night and not being eaten by the wolves that he was sure were roaming in the Irmangard Forest. The fire was just a smoldering wisp of smoke by now, with the faint smell of char. He felt for his iron and flint and started another fire. Dawn came soon after the fire started burning. 

He broke his fast with a crusty end of a loaf of bread, a small block of white mealy cheese, and a strip of dried smoked elk. Not what he was as accustomed to, but it would have been rude to refuse from the pantries of the Queen Mother. There were no elk in the Scales, nor did anyone eat cheese. At times visitors from the south would bring wine, mangoes, figs, and a variety of cheeses. Everything was thoroughly enjoyed from the south, except the cheese was placed in the pantry, probably with all the cheeses across the years. He longed for a hot bowl of cracked wheat porridge with bits of fried mackerel, topped with fresh chives. 

The elk proved to be too tough for him so he tossed it aside, leaving it for the birds. As he nibbled on the cheese, a squawk came from above. The sky was still a bit dark, but light enough for him to see birds circling in the air. 

He hoped the birds were circling near water, so he walked toward the general direction of the birds and discovered some deer tracks.  The deer tracks led to other tracks.  He saw the prints of rabbits, ground hogs, and foxes.  The ground started to be moist, and then he saw large prints from something larger than a fox. It reminded him of jackal prints that he’d seen in the Scales.  More and more, until it seemed like a pack of jackals had recently passed through, possibly hunting deer.

The animal tracks all moved in the same direction, something that he had never seen before. He scanned for wolf prints but other than the wolf scat he saw yesterday, he hadn’t actually seen any prints. 

Then he heard the singing of jackals, a sound he could not forget. It was like a higher pitched whinnying of a horse. He followed the sound past a wall of shrubs. Kidu pushed his way through the shrubs, and in a clearing gently kissed by fog was a pond, its water as still as a mirror. He found the singing jackals. A pair of them drank from the pond. Behind them were several white tailed deer, grazing on grass and fallen acorns. A brown rabbit scurried between the deer, stopping and going to satisfy its own curiosity. Birds sang from their perches among the trees and shrubs. 

Beside a fully bloomed white dogwood tree was a small cabin with a soft glow emanating from the window. It had a steep roof and a narrow stone chimney, from which a delicate stream of smoke trailed. A white chair was positioned by the plain wooden plank door, adorned only by a simple painting of the sun and moon. 

As he approached, he was wary to not disturb the animals, but what astonished him was how the animals ignored each other. He knew the jackals from the Scales to hunt antelope, so it was surprising to see the pair ignore the deer and rabbit. Just as surprising to see the deer look at him in return without any caution. 

Kidu remembered the Queen Mother’s instructions, to find the white juniper bushes with the red berries. They grew in the heart of the Irmingard Forest by a pond. Perhaps this was the pond, but he did not see any juniper bushes. 

He approached the cabin and studied it for any traps or but found it to be simple and defenseless. It had no pathways leading to it. Nothing about it made sense. He perked through the window and saw a hunched figure hooded in black by the candlelight.

Kidu knocked on the door but it pushed open on the first knock, the creaking of the door announcing his arrival like a loud yawn. A lady in a black hooded shroud sat at a table with a single chair with a thick book with green covers opened in front of her. On the table were several candles, with two of them lit. Long strands of white hair flowed from the hood. 

"You are not quite whom I expected," she said in a deep measured voice, with age in her tone, "but you are whom I have hoped for."

“Are you here alone?” Kidu asked. “Are you the witch that helped the boy king years ago when he was ill? I come searching for the white juniper bush.”

“Will you not mind your manners and introduce yourself when you enter my house?” she asked, turning a page of her book. 

“Forgive me. I am Kidu e’Rengu from the Scales, of the House of Angshar.”

“Far away from home, aren’t you?” she replied. 

“Yes, this is the furthest I’ve been from the Scales.”

“Ah yes, the Scales. That is what I meant of course. There is a chair outside my door, young Kidu. Please bring it in and sit beside me.”

Kidu retrieved the white chair and set it against the wall, away from the lady and the table. “Will you tell me your name now, my lady?” he asked as he sat down. 

She lit another candle and pulled her hood from her face. She had fine, sharp features and a delicate nose and cheekbones, the long wrinkles running down her face. . Her long hair flowed as white as the snows from back home. She studied him through her pale grey eyes, then sat straight with her chin high.  "Yes, I will tell you my name, for it is a blessing to know it. I am Sefene, and you are the Southern Star. I have been waiting for these last few years, but did not know I had been waiting for you.”

“I don’t know about that,” Kidu said. “I was sent by others, to find the red berries from a white juniper bush that is said to grow here. It has healing powers for a very specific ailment.”

"You search for a myth, for no such plant exists," she said. “The boy king was not cured by such a plant.”

 “You are the witch then,” Kidu said. “If not by the medicine, then how was the boy cured?"

"I cured him," she said.  "I knew how to cure him for it was I who cursed him. I created the ailment and also the story of how he was as cured.”

“Why would you do this?”

“There is a man, older than you, who has this same affliction. He is the one I have been waiting for. I knew he would be day discover the story of the boy who suffered like him, and he would come to me to seek to be healed. I could not go to him, so I needed a way for him to come to me.”

Kidu remembered something Menquist had said. Sometimes the easiest way to get something done is to create a prophecy and eventually someone will come along and meet it.  That’s how false things are made true. 

“Edmon,” he said. 

“Edmon,” she repeated. “So that is his name.”

“What do you want with him?“

"The world is a very big place," she said.  "Snowfall blankets thousands of mountaintops.  How many rivers does it create?  How many lakes and streams? How many generations does it take for the streams to carve into the hard rock of the earth? And yet from different timelines and parts of the world two streams have converged into you, Kidu of House Angshar.  Even Rengu could not have foreseen you coming to me."

"You know my master?"

Sefene smiled.  "I have a gift for you, and as chance would have it you are the only one that can receive it.  I had waited for one of the children of the Gai’ethren to come to me, to whom I would have willingly imparted very old knowledge before I perished from this age.  Instead, Kidu e’Rengu it is you who come to me.  Gaia is wiser than I have ever imagined, and I long to return to her.  You, a most magnificent blend of fate and chance…none of the lorecrafters could have foreseen you in all their plots.  In one hand you will hold the wisdom of the ancients.  In the other you will hold the secret of the cosmos.  Manifestations and mysteries.  Through both hands is the passageway to your heart.  Your heart will lead you to eternity."

“Are you…a Soothsayer?”

“All I say is sooth, though I am not what you may think. There are many who claim to glimpse into the future, but alas the only truth I offer is from the past. Come, child. Kneel before me.”

Kidu saw an image of himself kneeling on both knees before her, as if watching someone else. Before he realized it, he was on his knees. 

"Before I return to the Elder Tree, I now give you this gift in the way only I may give," she said.  She kissed his forehead and lifted his chin. She breathed a deep breath into his mouth.

He inhaled deeply and immediately his head felt light but his fingers felt full.  He looked at her and the light of the candles danced in her eyes like glass.  Her face glowed like the moon.  Her wrinkles were gone, and her white hair glistened like silver. 

"Return to your friends," she told him.  "Tell them you did not find what they asked of you, that the life in the forest has dried and dwindled into the dream of yesterday.  For when you return to them, that is what will come to be."