A prophecy of the dragons

It happened in accordance with the prophecy.

However Flora didn't believe in prophecies so it had to be a different explanation.

She knew the prophetess with the gold covered eye for a fake. The forest around her hut was so thick that only a fool would avoid the only path leading to it.

Flora smiled tightly, didn't her mother call her that for denying her calling?

It was the light bouncing of her fake eye inducing awe in the eyes of the visitors giving weight to her mumblings.

The special mushrooms she grew behind the hut made her utter nonsense reverently scribbled down by the visitors. The poor souls who couldn't afford a scribe paid dearly for witch's assistant's's notes.

"And so the Valach lord's son would join the far away flame under the wing of the dragon. The blaze of their union will burn your castle, my lord."

Flora remembered the astonished look on Tamas' face until the prophetess continued, her only eye glazed by the mushroom's venom.

"In marriage my lord. Marry he will the flame with liquid green eyes and ragged beard." and she collapsed on the floor.

Flora knew the witch ate too many mushrooms, as she didn't seem to control her cravings.

The audience didn't though, and for a moment a deafening silence filled the hall. Until Tamas's booming voice broke it while he struggled to utter between bouts of laughter:

"And so Ioannis' scrawny spawn would marry the bearded lady, it's only fitting."

She sighed in frustration as she couldn't imagine how the witch knew about Duncan's arrival and how could she see, with her only eye through the careful disguise Stan donned.

Flora sat and reveled in the freshness of the water lapping at her feet. She picked a pebble and threw it in the water and watched in satisfaction how it jumped three times reflected by the blue surface of the lake.

She remembered her mother daring her to make the pebble jump higher.

"There is a new baby in the castle, a son or maybe a daughter." her mother winked at her. Flora ignored her then, focused on perfecting her pebble throw. Why did she care if the castle had a son or a daughter? She would never see them and they would never see her.

She should have listened and now she struggled to remember what else her mother might have told her.

Oh, yes how they laughed about the man in skirts with red hair and unkempt beard. An expensive sellsword, they found out of his affiliation with the dragon while tending to his wounds.

There must be an explanation for how the Scottish mercenary and the only female in the brotherhood fell for each other but she didn't have time to dwell on it.

The prophetess did all she could to alert Tamas, and now his castle lie in ashes. There will be retaliation and she knew she must hurry. If she was lucky she might persuade Dochia and Duncan to come with her and save the witch from Tamas' wrath.

The prophetess was her mother.