She was destined to rise above all others, to play with the lives of peoples and worlds like children's toys, to rewrite the history of the Inner Border, and the Outer Border, and the Spiral Arm, and even the all-powerful Republic itself. At various times in her short and stormy life she was known as the Prophetess, and as the Pythia, and as the Prophetess. By the time she left the galactic scene, only a handful of lucky survivors could tell of her real name or her home planet, and sometimes even her early years, for this is how it usually is with giants and the stories about them. But she had a homeland, and there was a destiny, and there was a name, and even a childhood - of a kind. This is her story.