Page 1 of Legend of Scorpio
PROLOGUE
“There isa disturbance in the astral forces,” declared Sage as she dropped some herbs into the pot of boiling liquid, which she stirred with a long-handled wooden spoon. She was always brewing concoctions. Tinctures for healing. Potions for good luck. Fragrant stews that foretold a future of a happy stomach.
Aries, working out in the corner of their apartment, paused his bench pressing to eye his wife. “Another asteroid?” He and the team had recently acted to change the course of a hurtling rock so it bypassed Earth. Successfully, of course, although its adjusted trajectory baffled NASA observers.
“No, not a meteor. What I’m sensing is already here but has been hidden for a long time. According to my portents, its emergence will cause chaos.” Sage frowned at her brew. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say…” She shook her head. “No, impossible.”
“What’s impossible?” Aries padded over to his wife, wiping his sweaty brow with a towel.
Sage’s lips pursed. “There are only twelve. It makes no sense.”
“Only twelve what?” He’d gotten used to his wife’s somewhat cryptic replies. Being a mystic, Sage saw the world differently than others.
“The twelve Warriors of the Zodiac are eternal and unchanging.”
“I hear a ‘but.’”
She raised her gaze to his, her eyes swirling with colors as her powers flooded her petite body. “But I see a thirteenth.”
His turn to frown and mutter, “Impossible.”
“Agreed, and yet I see it. A thirteenth warrior will soon rouse, and in its wake: destruction. Death.”
At that announcement, Aries stiffened. “Not while the twelve stand. Tell me what we must do to counter this interloper.”
Her voice took on a monotone as she stated, “Find what was lost and make it whole. True love’s kiss shall show the way. Join them under the nimbus of the eclipse.”
Aries drawled, “Is this your way of asking for a smooch? Because you know I don’t need a prophecy to give you one.”
Sage blinked before focussing on him. “This is not a joke. Something dangerous is coming. The threads of the future show it only being stopped by an object of power, long broken apart with its pieces lost. Those fragments must be found and reassembled during a solar eclipse.”
“Where does the kiss come in?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’d better find out, or the world is doomed.”
“Where do we start looking for these missing parts?”
Sage bit her lower lip. “Let me see what my casting stew has to say.” She dropped in more ingredients and stirred, the fragrance changing with each addition. Yummy-smelling, but he knew better than to taste. Only an idiot would eat powerful magic.
With Sage busy, Aries nuked some pizza pockets for dinner. He didn’t bother making any for Sage, as she would only eat once she achieved?—
“The first piece of the relic will be located by a woman.”
“You do know there’s a billion of that sex populating the earth?”
Sage cast him a dark look. “I wasn’t done. She is a scientist, currently doing some research in Antarctica. She’s about to make a discovery that will put her in danger.”
“I’ll gather the team and head out immediately.”
At his statement, Sage shook her head. “No. Only one can go. If you send any more, the mission will fail.”
“A single warrior?” Aries frowned as he thought over his options. Libra’s wife just had a baby, so that would be cruel. Leo was most likely on another bender. Capricorn had last been seen roaming the mountains of Tibet, finding himself. “I don’t have anything on my schedule.”
“Not you.” A flat reply from Sage. “It should be Scorpio.”
“He just finished a mission and is supposed to be on a break. We could send Cancer.”
“It must be Scorpio.”