She was born The One

in the third year of water;

in moonlight, under wolf-sign,

 

They carved the world's design

in fine, scrying black lines;

burned into her infant back.

 

She grew the map:

new lands; new Rule, new Law.

 

She possessed the lines seared

in her skin, riding endless fire--

the chart was never hers.

 

The elders demanded a new One

to bear and grow new lands,

new Law, new Rule.

 

Unneeded and unheeded, she found

a way along the edges; paths marked

by tree-breath--an avian way;

scent over wolf-trail.

 

Seared, gleaming; forever scried in

her skin; drenched in night's

dark stain. Worn, marked, she stalks

alone: torrid and raging.