The Weight of Knowledge

The year is XXX41

Amphigur I usually had three moons; tonight it has a fourth.

The silver moon called Saturn's Tooth revolves around the green planet in sync with its sisters, the scarlet Demeter's Fruit and Odin's Eye, a gray orb battered by asteroids. Every trip around Amphigur I the moons make, the Siblings as the Amphigurians call them, has gone unobstructed. Gliding from north to south or south to north, depending on what side of the planet any stargazer resided on. 

Tonight, however, an explosion rips through space itself, spitting out a swollen sphere. Despite being the same size as the Siblings, this is not a moon of rock and soil. It's made of metal, a spacecraft capable of interstellar travels. The symbol of the Emperor stares down at the planet like the eye of God, a golden iris surveying those below.

Tabitha Modeus, formally Tabitha Elzebub, gasps as she sits up in bed. Awoken from a terrible vision, she watches her husband leap out of bed.

Drawing a dagger that had been hidden under his pillow, his eyes sweep every shadow of the room. His shoulders relax when his brown eyes rest on his wife.

"You had a vision," his voice is a baritone that startles Tabitha. Tucking the dagger under his pillow, he crawls across the mattress to her. Cupping her chin with one hand, he sweeps the space above her brow. Massaging her skull, she realizes what Solomon is doing.

"I didn't know it had opened." she mumbles. Gently, she brushes his hand away; a dark blue light illuminates his face. 

On her forehead, or just inches from her forehead, is a vertical oval. Indigo in color, glyphs written in a foreign language form what could be eyelashes and an iris. Exhaling a shallow breath, then inhaling deeply, she soothes her aura. Slowly the symbol on her forehead folds into a simple line, blinking like that of an eye. 

The mind's eye.

"Anything I should be worried about?" Solomon slumps down on his knees, clutching the hand of his wife. Worry fills his eyes, yet duty keeps his body stiff. She could see the restlessness that stirred within him, a vigilance that the war had trained into him.

"What?" she croaked. 

"Did you see anything I should worry about?" he repeated. "In your vision?"

Her eyes left his, dropping to their interlocked hands. "You know I can't tell you that."

As a worldseer, or a mage capable of predicting the fates of inhabitants lightyears away, she belonged to the Emperor, and thus her visions belonged to Her Radiance as well. Tabitha's mind's eye, which allowed her to survey the lives of planets she never knew, had been trained to awaken when a threat to the Emperor appeared. Though, she never would have assumed the threat would ever be here on Amphigur I. 

"Right." Solomon sighed. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her into an embrace. The bulge of his muscles were lined with scars and tattoos. 

Tracing a gentle finger over the tattoo on his heart, a large bear from an old legend, Tabitha rested her head on his arm. They sat there a while, in silence.

She wished she could tell him. In fact she should tell him. He was a part of her vision. All of Amphigur was. And so was their son, woven so deeply into her vision. It frightened her. Scared her. She hated this.

This sensation of powerlessness she often felt. Bearing the weight of knowing the outcome of every situation, yet forced to restrain her tongue. For if she even uttered a word about the future, time would be altered. And time did not like to be altered without punishing those who dared against it.

A knock came at the door, urgent thuds that made Solomon jump.

"Lord Solomon?" a voice came from the other side of the door. "I… have news for you my lord! Urgent news."

Disengaging from their embrace, Solomon barked, "What news?" sliding out of the bed, he rushed to his robe, hung by a hook by the window. 

"It's the Emperor." the voice squeaked. "Or at least a ship belonging to Her Radiance. It entered our atmosphere just moments ago."

"Has Her Radiance made communications yet?" unfastening the belt on his robe as soon as he tied it, he thrust the robe back onto its spot on the wall. Rushing over to the wardrobe, he thrust the doors open. A platoon of his uniforms were filed neatly, hanging as they awaited him. He settled on a green tunic paired with navy blue trousers. A column of gold buttons brandished the Modeus Family emblem: a heart with a fist rising in front of it. Tabitha could imagine the ancient word that was etched at the emblem's bottom, "Affect."

As Tabitha watched Solomon begin to change, the squire, or what she assumed was a squire by the awkwardness in his youthful voice, answered his Lord's question:

"Well, no. Emperor Haethora has sent two of her messengers to negotiate with you?"

Solomon turned to the door, fastening the buttons on his pants. "Negotiate? What do they want to negotiate?"

"Their officers wouldn't say, milord."

Solomon grumbled something only his wife would hear. "Of course they didn't." then to the door he announced, "Ready Commander Mathers. Tell him to bring a squadron to the meeting hall in the next fifteen minutes."

"Aye, sir." footsteps receded down the hallway.

Solomon turned to his wife, his brow arched in curiosity. "Is this part of your vision?"

Tabitha pinched her lips together. She shouldn't tell him. The offense was punishable by death. Against all judgment she nodded slightly. Her bonnet had come loose, hanging over her eyes.

"Well," the Lord of West Amphigur sighed deeply. Sliding his boots into a pair of brown loafers, he eyed his reflection in the mirror. "I'm sure all goes well then?" 

His question was meant to be answered, though his tone implied it was supposed to be rhetorical. Tabitha gave an answer that pained her.

"All goes well for those under the Emperor's rule.'' This was a quote often sighted as propaganda to influence citizens to remain obedient. She hoped her lie offered her husband comfort that she couldn't offer, though it pained her to lie.

Light forgive me, she prayed silently.

Solomon said nothing, just a dissatisfied grunt. Smoothing a beret over his head, he bid her farewell. "I'll be back as soon as I can, my stars."

"I'll be here waiting, my world." 

Solomon crossed the room to kiss her, once on her temple, the next on her lips. His thumb swept her cheeks, brushing the lump forming in the throat back into her unsettled stomach. 

He left shortly after, checking his appearance in the mirror once more, his dark skin reflecting the red light of Demeter's Fruit. 

As soon as he left, his footsteps receding as the squire's had, Tabitha collapsed onto the bed and sobbed.

"Goodbye, my love." her sobs would never reach Solomon for she alone bared the weight of the future