“You were born in a pool of black blood,” she says to him. “Screaming like any mortal child would. Your mother held you close, her hands around your little neck, and thought about killing you then. But she hesitated. Your birth wasn’t an accident, you were wanted, oh yes, all she wanted was the son of a shaman. But she couldn’t be sure which prophecy you would fulfill. Was it the one that she wanted? The one to raise the Old Gods? The one to destroy Death? Or the one that would make Death stronger in the end? The prophecy was a secret at that time, but your mother feared Antero Vipunen, who
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