* * *
“What is it, Morrigan?” Arawn asked irritated when she called the War Council together.
“I thought the council would be interested in what I found in Alba Longa,” The Morrigan smiled smugly as she threw water from the sacred well onto the table. She dipped her finger into the water and an image of the stone slab came into focus.
Hermes floated above the table and read aloud the words engraved on the stone. “Two halves of the whole will reinstall as Regina to all. The death of one will burn into another.”
“What does this mean?” asked the Celtic war god Camulus.
“It means, brother, the collective power you created has written its own prophecy and solidified it in stone. Nothing can prevent this prophecy from transpiring,” explained The Morrigan.
“It hints at a phoinix. They have long been dead,” Athena said concerned.
A lightning bolt crashed into the stone. Any other rock would have exploded into a thousand pieces, but this rock remained standing. Worse yet, it remained unscathed.
“What did I say, Thor? It will come to pass. It is a future that none can change.” The Morrigan tried to hide a devious smile with a cough.
“What two halves?” asked the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva. “The Power is a single ball of energy.”
The Morrigan shrugged her shoulders and left the council to return to Eversor. She immediately divulged all she witnessed to him.
“Even if the gods find one half and you the other, you will have enough power to take revenge for your wife,” The Morrigan instructed Eversor.
She gave him supplies for his quest in search of The Power, and tattooed a spell on his chest to prevent the gods from finding him.
Back at Mount Olympus, despite the gods’ best efforts, no one could locate The Power. Zeus placed the stone slab behind an impenetrable glass made by Hephaestus and kept it in the corner of the throne room as a reminder of what is to come…