On the night before the Winter Solstice, Iolaus has a dream involving some strange imagery: a star, a rock, a tree and a strange pointy object. When he wakes, he tells Hercules that he is going north, Hercules comments on his hands being red. Elsewhere, King Polonius tells his queen Maliphone that the Oracle told him a child "not of the House of Polonius" would succeed him. The queen orders all boys under the age of one to be rounded up.