Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

A beautiful blonde woman threw herself to a sitting position on her bed. Her sheets were soaked with sweat, and her normally gorgeous hair fell like strings around her shoulders. A moment later, nausea overtook her, and she quickly leaned over the side of the bed to release her stomach contents into a bucket she kept by her bedside for such an occasion.

Two men in armor opened the door with a loud slam and entered the room, followed by a tiny woman in a maid uniform. The woman's eyes were glistening, and her face was painted with worry. "Lady Adellia, are you okay? Please speak to me. What is wrong?" The kind maid looked rapidly between Adellia's face and her swollen belly.

Adellia put on a brave face and rested a hand on the maid's shoulder to comfort her. "Fear not, my dear. Just a bad dream. Also, I am afraid it will soon be time for the twins to make their appearance." Adellia placed a hand gently on her stomach and felt a pulsing, squeezing sensation near her pelvis. It did not quite hurt at the moment, but there was a rather intense pressure.

These feelings had been occurring for a few days, but they had become steadily worse since yesterday.

"Oracle. We shall fetch the midwife. Until the time of the birth, she shall stay with you." One of the armored men stated flatly.

He was completely unphased by the woman's beauty. In fact, he would often glance at her left hand, which held a demonic symbol that one could easily mistake for a tattoo. Every time he looked at it, his expression would momentarily contort in disgust.

Adellia smiled lightly at the guard and nodded her head in understanding. She did not miss his glances but could do nothing about it. Such was her fate as a Marked One. Even though the Kingdom of Arcadios relied on her ability, granted by the Mark of Prophecy, she was still treated like a stain on her race.

She was the current Oracle, descended from a long line of Marked Ones who held the Mark of Prophecy. The very reason she was pregnant now was that the King had ordered her to attempt to start raising the next in line for her position.

Every Oracle's job was to grant Arcadios prophecies that would help it avoid disaster. In addition to that, it was also their job to sire at least one child who shared the Mark of Prophecy so that the kingdom would always have an Oracle to rely on.

"I am sorry to bring you into a world where, even though you are relied upon, you are despised," she whispered to her belly.

The maid looked on in sadness and sniffled.

"My lady…." The maid paused and looked to ensure that the guards were not paying attention. One had left to fetch the midwife, while the other had already stepped back out of the room. "What will we do if they don't have your mark…"

"The kingdom will do what they have always done. Any children without my mark will be…cleansed," Adellia said while squeezing the sheets.

She had specifically identified the father of her children as someone who had the highest likelihood of helping her produce a child with the same abilities.

Something she had not expected was to conceive twins. It was not that her visions were wrong but that it simply did not show her the second child. When she identified the beastman who would help her give birth to a child with her power, she simply saw herself pregnant and feeding an infant with her mark on their hand. She was never shown a second child, and this terrified Adellia.

"Mylene…" Adellia said in a hushed whisper. "I need you to do me a favor. It is the most important and likely last one I will ever ask of you."

"Anything, my lady."

"You have family who serve in the Petra house, yes?"

"I do. My husband's cousin is a head maid there and her husband is a guard."

"When my child is born…I need you to use your dark magic on my baby. One will share my mark. I have seen this…but the other…I never saw them in my visions. What I need you to do is to curse them with sleep, blind, and paralysis."

Mylene gasped as she struggled to contain a small yelp. She quickly looked towards the door to ensure the guard had not heard her or their conversation. Once she verified they were in the clear, she spoke, "My lady…that could kill the infant. Maybe even permanently disfigure them."

"I know. But there is a chance they could survive, and if they do, then we can make it seem like they died in childbirth. Maybe, just maybe, they can survive and live some kind of life elsewhere."

Tears fell freely from the woman's face as she thought about losing one of her unborn children. She had quickly fallen in love with the life inside her and wanted nothing more than to experience the joys of motherhood. Though this life was far from ideal, her children had become a light in her life, a future worth seeing. Adellia locked eyes with her maid who looked conflicted.

"If it fails, and my child dies, I will not blame you, because, if we do not try, the Kingdom will execute them anyway. I would like to give them a chance. Of course this is on the basis that your husband's cousin would be willing to actually care for a Marked One."

Mylene gulped and thought in silence for a moment before steeling her resolve. "Don't worry my lady. My husband's uncle was Marked and he was very close with his daughter and my husband. She will no doubt take on this child. She cannot have one of her own anyway."

"Thank you, Mylene, thank you." Adellia continued to weep until there was a knock at the door. An elderly woman with a sour face entered and behind her was an elderly man in white robes.

He was one of the many people who attended to the Oracle and wrote down her prophecies. Adellia never cared to learn anyone's names other than Mylene because of how she had been treated her entire life in the castle.

"Oracle. I hear you had a 'bad dream'. I came to make sure that, if you saw a prophecy, it is recorded," the elderly man grumbled.

He had a collection of parchment under his arm and placed them on a desk next to the entrance of the room.

Adellia thought back to the dream she had and remembered the terrifying smile on that unknown man's face. She remembered the flames of war and the dead laying in the mud. The Oracle then thought about her sad life in the castle. A life full of solitude and devoid of love, kindness, and common decency.

She looked at the elderly robed man and gave him a gentle smile. "Fret not. It was only a dream."

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