Author's notes: This is the beginning of the story and I get it, it's weird to post this on Tumblr now but who cares. Someone here might enjoy it. I'm gonna do it anyways or repost on a new blog. Oh well. I'll add some media here as well. lol you can follow the story tags to follow the story.
Pre-colonial Sugbo/Cebu City; 1535 CE
In this new land, he had been surrendered to the spiritual leader of this place. She had been given his lamp. A woman of her stature and power, she looked upon him and he had asked her what her three wishes were. Her expression was inquisitive and stalwart. What surprised him was that she could see him and he knew that she was also spiritually powerful. She was the bridge between this Earthly realm and the spiritual world. What could a woman such as herself even have to wish for? She was known as the High Priestess Hiraya, a Babaylan with true and powerful gift of sight she was seen as a descendant of a powerful line of spiritually and psychically gifted people. He had traveled hands and lands for centuries; this was one of the few people in his lifetime that did not flinch at his presence. Her dignified and serious appearance made her somewhat used to dealing with entities with more power than herself. When she stared into his eyes, as she meditated, she gave him a prophecy. In the far future, where he would end up in a another new and foreign land he would find his freedom, but it would come with a steep price. She told him that there would be a wisher who would use his last wish for his freedom at the price of marriage to his granddaughter and after five years he would find his freedom out of this lamp.
This woman would bear her face and would also be a powerful seer like herself. He asked her to describe this woman in much more detail, she simply said that while the young woman was sickly, she would be a willful, intelligent, and determined woman. She warned him this, to understand his true feelings for this woman when the time came or she would become his downfall. He asked her what she meant and she said that his love for her would grow beyond even what the contract asked of him and to understand it before the woman herself would come to understand her own power. Otherwise, it was her tremendous power that would bring him disaster, as she would be descended from lineages of those with great power that bridged worlds. She did not ask him wishes, she merely said that when that young woman that bore her face would come that he should grant her wishes instead. He laughed at the thought of a human woman in the far future being in the way of his freedom, even his cause to disaster. No human in this world could match his power, he was the one who put monarchs and empires on the map. He raised empires and felled many others. He was not afraid of a prophecy and yet, he knew that this woman was the real deal. She could see everything and anything, she forfeited her own opportunity to pass it onto this future woman that she would never see.
She shook her head, telling him that she did not need any wishes for the Diwatas had given her all that she had needed. For that young woman, she needed it more than she did. This would mean that this woman would be getting more wishes yet would this woman from the distant future even know? He was told by Lady Hiraya that this young woman could be someone already fated to love even if he did not believe it. That even though he had such power that he was still within a gilded cage. Though powerful he was at the whims of the wishers that he had deemed worthy. She shrugged and simply meant to say that no amount of power he held could free him and that only a wisher would be able to free him. Yet that freedom would still cost him, to the point that he would need to act with discretion otherwise it would end poorly for him and this young woman, there would be no magic that could force her to love him. For that required real work, this was his only chance at any kind of real love. If he would pass this one, he would not find another. He looked at her curiously, he had never thought of taking lovers or even had thoughts of such trivial things. A human woman at that. Although his freedom would one day come, it would come with a steep price. He knew how mercurial humans were and he did not look forward to the moment where he would have to live with this human woman for five years to gain freedom. What a strange future that would be, where he would come to love this woman on his own with no magic, no powers. Yet deep down, he also feared it. This was a human woman that could not be forced to love and if she so wished, she could make their five years of marriage a living torment. He put the consuming thoughts aside, looking forward to the day he could finally be free.
