Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Juliette

--From the Journal of Caleb Martin

Where do we go when we sleep? It must be a place because dreams are too real. More real than here. She said that to me once, and I ignored her.

I suppose it's time to tell you about Juliette.

Juliette had the greenest eyes I have ever seen. The first day she opened her eyes, I could have sworn they were glowing. She didn't panic when she woke up. The others did, even the Fox. They all panicked and beat the glass and screamed. It was terrible. But Juliette simply opened her eyes and looked at me. I had been going over her tests when I felt someone looking at me. That was impossible since I was alone, but I looked up from my desk and found her staring at me from her kiln. The pencil I'd been gnawing on dropped to the floor. Like all the rest, she shouldn't have been awake, but she was.

She was another failure, just like all the rest. At least, that's what I thought at first. There was something earnest about her. She was more serious than the others, much more solemn than the Fox, although he tried to make her laugh. I remember that. She did laugh, once.

But I'm stalling. You really want to know about the prophecy.

Forgive me. That day is... burned into me, and yet the details leading up to it are vague. And I only saw in on the security footage, but...

Why was I at the lab? I can't really remember, but I know it was important. When I got there, something wasn't right. I smelled smoke. But before I could do anything, something on the security camera caught my eye. Loraine and Juliette.

They'd been fighting. That was obvious. And the fire, the fire had already started. I wanted to run and help, but her eyes... even on the black and white screen, I could see that Juliette's eyes were glowing. So I watched and listened, and Juliette prophesied the future.

The fire flickered behind her, and smoke curled around her, but she stood perfectly still and spoke.

"I have foreseen you," she said to Loraine. "Eternal Mother of ghosts. You rule a nation with fear of your waking, walking, silent dead. You've hunted the Unseen, but they evade you. Beneath your house are coffins—kilns in row upon row upon row.... like a garden of ghosts. But the Fox will return, and when he does, Perseus will arise and destroy you. Perseus will rise up from where the water star fell and bring your doom. But... but three... I see three kilns: three coffins. There will be three coffins at the end to end the evil that you, Henrietta Loraine, have created and to wake the ghosts. Algol is falling, a country in decline with starving people ever watched. Perseus, the brightest stars, is coming. That monster Cetus will die."

Then I ran for her, but when I got to the lab, I was too late. Loraine had already shot her. I tried to get her out, I did, I swear it. But Loraine was too strong, so I ran. That's when I became the Fox.

I don't know how Juliette survived or how she escaped the fire. But she did. I saw her once, years later. She was happy. She had a family, three children, and a husband. From what I've learned, the First Prophet and Seer died peacefully years later at a good old age surrounded by her family.

But I'm stalling once again.

Understand that Juliette's Prophecy has remained seared into my mind. I've pondered it, meditated on it, tried to discover its secret, but failed. Until you three were born.

Don't you understand? Everything I've done, I've done to keep you safe. The day Miranda and Mica were born, Miranda's eyes glowed just like Juliette's, and I knew. I knew who you were, and I knew who would end up in those three coffins.

But how can I let Perseus die? How can I let my own children die?