SCORPIO SKY

PROLOGUE

Beauty is the still birth of suffering.

By her kiss, she saved him.

Standing inside a barely lit room within the heavily guarded walls of Montague Manor – the place that served as the seat of the Council – the High Priestess of the Council Anastasia Spica knew that her newborn baby boy would not survive, unless she was able to get him off Libra.  The Scorpius Forces, commanded by their charismatic and fanatical leaders Barrett Antares, had threatened to seize the child.  Anastasia did not know what exactly Barrett intended to do with her child, but she knew that she could not allow her son to be taken; she could not permit him to be used by Barrett in his ultimate gambit for galactic control.  Anastasia had to hide the boy far away from Libra, in a place where Barrett and his followers could not reach him.  Much to Anastasia’s good fortune, she knew of such a place.  She knew the place because it was the world where she had originally been born.  It was the world that the Council had sworn guardianship.  To protect him, Anastasia’s son would have to spend his life growing up many light years away – on the planet Earth.

After wrapping her child in a soft, white blanket, Anastasia wiped a tear from her beautiful, amber-colored eyes.  While she knew that this was the only way to ensure her son’s safety, Anastasia’s motherly instinct was to keep her little one.  The thought of deserting him still ate away at her.  Deep inside, Anastasia hated herself for birthing the boy into such a tumultuous world.  However, Fate had spoken, and while she blamed herself, she knew that it could have happened no other way.  Anastasia had to make peace with that.  After taking one final look into the piercing eyes of her whimpering son, Anastasia closed her own eyes and took a deep breath.  As she concentrated, she whispered a teleportation incantation.          

Powers of Virgo, heed my call

On the wings of Pegasus, I cannot fall

Take these bodies to a land away

A place that is safe for this child to stay.

Anastasia clutched her child close to her bosom, as a bright, white light engulfed her petite frame.  Within seconds, the two disappeared from the Manor.

---

The spell transported Anastasia and her child to a rural-looking area.  Under the cover of the night sky, Anastasia looked around.  To her back, she could see the dense and lush greenery of a forest.  To her right, there was a well-kept vegetable garden.  At her front stood a quaint, Victorian style home – white with royal blue shutters.  A smile crept over her face.  This looked like the home she once knew before being taken to Libra so long ago.  And although Anastasia knew that she always felt safe there, her recollections of her first family were but distant memories now, slowly erased by the passing of time in an ageless, immortal body.  She had since started a new life and her own family, and yet all of that would be jeopardized, if her special child did not survive.  Here, until it was time, Anastasia knew her son stood a chance of a normal life

Retaining a bit of the glow from the teleportation spell, Anastasia crept up the wooden stairs to the door of the house.  She placed her baby, still wrapped neatly in the white blanket, on the welcome mat in front of the door.  Imprinted on the mat was a celestial design, which to Anastasia seemed all too fitting for the child whose very existence would determine the fate of the universe.  As she placed the baby down, it began to loudly whimper and coo.  Anastasia placed her index finger to her lips.

“Shhh.  Quiet, little one.  You’ll be safe here.”

Anastasia then kissed her son on the forehead.  A visible, cool gust of wind rushed over the child, instantly calming him.  He looked up into his mother’s eyes and smiled.  Anastasia began to tear up again.

“My beautiful son,” Anastasia began, “I have done all I can to protect you.  It has been foretold that you will grow up to become a most beautiful boy, so highly desired and gifted.  You will become strong and harness all the power that is necessary to save our world.  I know that you will return to me when the time is right.  I just hope that for the sake of the Council and Libra, you will be ready.”

Anastasia unfastened a silver necklace that she was wearing.  A small amulet in the shape of a celestial sphere dangled from the plain piece of jewelry.  Anastasia placed the necklace around her child and with her finger drew two small shapes, parallel and zigzagged like waves, on the boy’s chest – right over his heart.  The marks appeared for a brief moment and then disappeared.

Realizing that she had no more time to waste, Anastasia mustered the nerve to forcefully knock on the door of the house.  She quietly dashed away from the door and into the forest, but not without taking one final look in the direction of her son.  The High Priestess knew that this was how it must be, but her maternal instincts pressed her into wanting to go back for the boy.  Before she could even move, Anastasia saw the door crack open.  A man, cloaked by the darkness, stood at the door and looked around.  Seeing nothing, his attention turned to the child at his feet.  The man scooped the child into his arms and with a few more furtive glances around the premises, he took the child inside of the house and shut the door.  

Anastasia breathed a sigh of both relief and despair; her child was safe, but such protection came at the expense of a mother’s anguish.  To her, this was a high price to pay, but she knew she would see her son again – and for now, that solace would have to do. With that, Anastasia Spica disappeared into the night.