In the sixteenth century, fierce battles erupted all over Europe among opposing groups and governments - each of whom believed their way of life was the only correct one. As these wars were waged, millions of innocent people died for holding different beliefs. Among them were gifted healers and seers labeled "witches."1 This was the bloody period that gave rise to La Prophetic Aux Yeux Gris - the legendary "Prophecy of the Gray Eyes."

Although they didn't know it, a few gray-eyed families living in northern France around 1550 shared a common ancestor called The First. The First was the most powerful healer of the Paleolithic era (approximately 25,000-30,000 years ago). People believed her startling metallic-gray eyes were connected to her superior gifts.

By the late sixteenth century, the few families who bore these eyes - all of them healers and descendants of The First - were very distantly related yet had never met. But the mysterious eyes they shared drew the notice of fearful leaders. The warmongers accused anyone possessing these eyes of witchcraft, and began to hunt and imprison them. Mad rulers, and in many instances ignorant populations, demanded their death.

Five such witches met for the first time while in prison awaiting trial. Shocked to discover in others the eyes they thought had always belonged only to them, the three women and two men came to believe that their meeting was not accidental.

The night before they were all to be executed, they gathered secretly to pledge their faith to each other. Shielded by the dark of the new moon in Jupiter, they decreed a prophecy:

"Let it be written that the gray-eyed descendants of The First will someday be reunited. In thirteen generations there will come a sacred marriage between a gray-eyed man and woman. The offspring of this union, whose birth on the last day of October will bridge the moment between the setting of the full moon and the rising sun, will be imbued with powers greater than those of all others, and equal to those of The First. Thus will be restored the awesome power of our kind. In this way will we be vindicated, and things set right."

Calling upon their natural gifts, the five prisoners escaped, striking out in different directions to better their chances. One of those present for the prophecy was Jacob DuBaer's grandfather, the healer Henri, who fled his native land after being accused of witchcraft. Another was Jeanne de la Rochelle, who made her way to South Africa. Sadly, the other man and two women were recaptured.

A generation later, in 1620, Henri's son, Ephram DuBaer, left his home in England, sailing on a vessel called the Mayflower. He needed the freedom promised in the New World to practice his arts and express his beliefs. So, like his father before him, Ephram fled the land of his birth. This is how the family DuBaer eventually came to be in America.

Ephram settled in the Plymouth Colony, where his skills as a botanist and healer brought him great wealth and renown. He had one son and six daughters by two wives. Jacob was the eldest and soon, like his father and his father before him, he gained a reputation as a great healer. Jacob, of course, would go on to found Coventry Island.

Three hundred years after the uttering of the Prophecy, two descendants of Coventry's earliest and most prominent families, Miranda Martine and Aron DuBaer, married. The stage was finally set for the fulfillment of the Prophecy of the Gray Eyes.

1 The term "witches" is sometimes used to describe both females and males gifted in the magick arts.