The Prophetess was ready. Her sight had served her well. She did not avoid all obstacles, some she met full on. The Priest had told her that she would need to harden herself by physical challenges. There were things she could not avoid as well. The spirit in the woods was one such. It was a frightful thing, not because it had a terrifying form or because of its desire to drain your life away, but because it attacked at your most basic and primitive needs.

It had come to her showing itself in the form of a most attractive male figure. It was subtle and persistent. She was a healthy young woman and it was beginning to have the desired effect on her. It taunted the edges of her awareness, barely displaying its reward for her submission. Its power clouded her thought and she would have submitted to the desire to feel, just once, the embrace, the fulfilling of a desire she knew she would never have a chance to feel again. Then she remembered her Quest, her belief, her duty and...maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she could hear the prayers of one so dear to her she could not betray him.

She saw the seduction for the sham it was and rose up to her full height.

She spoke to it in a voice that was colder than the malevolent spirit itself. “I am not for you shadow of lust. Go away from here, tell your master that you have failed and take your punishment in the place you truly belong.”

The dark thing lost all form and looked about as if in terror, “No, I am not permitted failure!” It was pleading now, “Succumb, give me a portion, a taste...”

“No!” she shouted. It was so final that there was nothing to be done.

A growling wind rose up and a door seemed to open behind the spirit for a moment. There was a brief vision of a horrible place with a sky of roiling gasses, the spirit was pulled screaming into the opening and it closed abruptly.

All was silent and the Prophetess slept peacefully amongst the sheltering trees. Tomorrow she would make for the bridge.