Sapphire’s Delaney Dilemma

Prologue I am not immortal. I will not live forever. My life is not quantified in length of time, not days, weeks, years, decades or even centuries. I, like you, can age, can love, can hate, can bleed and I can and will die. There are those that would wish my death come sooner rather than later. Before my birth, it was foretold that a great war of my people would wage between those that were good and those that were evil. I cannot be categorized as either good or evil. I exist on the fine line that borders both spheres of the realms of that which is good and that which is evil. I am, in all essence, the Switzerland of my people. I am no different from my siblings, my parents, my grandparents and their families before them. We love as equally as we hate. We desire as much as we loathe. We protect as much as destroy. We are the balance. It is a gift to be dual in nature. It is also a curse. We are gatekeepers. The gatekeepers hold the balance of the council of our people. There are three seats to this council, each seat held by the appointed member of a family that has existed longest of our kind; The Delaneys, the Hollorans and the Yates. For centuries the Delaney family and the Holloran family have been on the edge of waging war with one another. They both accuse each other of being devious and attempting to usurp the power of the council. The Yates family has existed to serve as peacemaker between the two, encouraging understanding and patience. For thousands of years we have been successful. However, there will come a time when the Yates family will have to choose their allegiance. When the power struggle between the two families will become so fanatical that many lives would be lost and the balance that had been kept for more than a thousand years would cease. The decision to choose which family that the Yates would support, which family would gain the entire clan backing theirs, will be made by one person in the extended Yates family. There are those that believe that this choice should never be made. It is believed that the council should always hold the three chairs and the decision to change the long-standing tradition of a council that makes decisions for all should never occur. There are those that would do whatever possible to ensure that the decision to merge two families never occurred. There exist people who would make it their life goal to ensure that the person responsible for the decision to ultimately decide whether good or evil will prevail, never makes that decision. On the day of my birth, as is customary with all births in the elder lineages of our people, I was examined by a member of each elder family. It was on that day that the first attempt on my life was made. I bore the mark, the emblem of the council, the crescent moon with the star, on the innermost part of my thigh. A guard of the Delaney family had been an imposter and as soon as he took in the birthmark, he attempted to plunge a dagger through my tiny heart. My own mother ripped his throat from his body and he was burned in the yard as a warning to all those that would try. It had been a useless warning. The Guild for the Preservation of Three would make several attempts to ensure that I would not choose a mate from either clan and so it was decided that my immediate family would leave. My family would leave the lush green of their island home that had been theirs for centuries to move to America, a vast wide nation that someday would be overrun with population and debauchery. It was the most painful move our family has ever made. We were unable to remain in one place for too long, considering we do not age as normal humans and we do not always behave as normal humans do. So every few decades we move on, choosing a new location and new roles in the community where we pick up. Occasionally, we reunite with our extended families. Yet, my family is vigilant in protecting me and so our return to our island is never announced and for the most part, it is kept hidden. I have never met any man of the Delaney or Holloran clan eligible to be my groom. It is said that the eldest son of any family is eligible. Since it is our nature to be prolific in procreating, there exists, to my knowledge close to thirty men between the two that I may choose from. Ultimately, it is decided by fate, a mark of their own that will choose the one from each family that will be eligible to be my mate. The families have kept the true identities of both men hidden. It is plausible that my mate is not even born yet, plausible but unlikely. In the end, it will be my decision to choose when, where and how these meetings will occur and should I decide today that I am ready, then if one family is not ready, it would be shameful. It is my decision, my stipulation that I do not want this yet. I am not ready. I am not sure I will ever be ready. I am Sapphire Rose Browning Yates. I am the Decider. I am also the greatest sorceress my family has ever know for I am the High Sorceress of the Coven Yates