Abnoba’s wrinkled lips twitch. “I have been most curious about you, warrior,” she says, seemingly content to let her attention fall on me instead of Fritzi.
“Oh?” I hate the combative tone in my voice.
“Am I an enemy to you?” the Crone asks.
“Should I treat you as one?”
She laughs, the sound as hollow as the thuds her staff made against the ground…whatever the ground is. It’s too shrouded in mist. “I don’t think so. But some of your people do.” At my blank look, she adds, “You worship a different god.”
“Differences do not make enemies, except among fools,” I say.
“And you are no fool?” Again with that tone—no accusation, just curiosity.
“I try not to be.”
“Many fools do the same.” Before I can respond to that, Abnoba smiles again and thumps her staff. “But the real fools are the ones who think they know everything. Thatisone thing I appreciate about your beliefs, human. The idea of the mystic unknowable. It’s when people start to believe they know everything that they show their foolish hands the most.”
“This philosophy is…” Fritzi heaves a sigh, unwilling to label her thoughts on the conversation. “But I believe we’re in the middle of an apocalyptic event that perhaps has a little urgency attached.”
“And you are eager to return to what must be done?” Abnoba asks.
Fritzi ducks her head, blond hair falling in her eyes. “No,” she says, so quietly I almost miss it.
“Well, that’s good, dear,” Abnoba says, reaching past me to pat Fritzi on the cheek. “You young ones, alwaysdoing.It’s good to take a moment to pause and think.” She turns to me with a twinkle in her eye. “To tell a story. My sisters and I, we are not of your world. But we came here seeking…”
She pauses for so long that Fritzi and I exchange glances, wondering at the way the Crone’s voice trails off. “Seeking what?” I ask.
“Oh, different things.” Abnoba waves her hand dismissively. “Butwhen we came here, we brought some of our magic. And magic is a wild thing, hm?” She makes a noise at Fritzi, something guttural, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s a knowing laugh. “Magic can’t be stopped, only delayed. So my sisters and I planted the Tree to slow it down. At the time, this world was very new. We wanted to help humanity grow, but we wanted to protect our children.”
“I thought it was Perchta who was the Mother, the protector,” I say.
“And I thought you were comfortable with the idea of three gods being one,” Abnoba snaps back.
I jut out my chin, giving her the point.
“We did not foresee so many walls,” she says after a moment. “A wall to dam magic and mete it out incrementally. A wall to protect the Well. A wall to keep out the Romans. And they made walls, too, the Romans. The limes to push the people back. Walls around your cities, around your amphitheaters, around your homes.”
“Walls can protect,” I say.
She nods slowly. “They can. But every wall that has ever been made must one day fall.”
Fritzi sucks in a breath at that, her hand going clammy. I know what she’s thinking. It’s my fear too. The wall around the Wellhasfallen. Dieter used the flames engulfing his body to burn the Tree.
I remember the light. It’s hard to think in this fuzzy in-between place the goddess has taken us to, but I remember the light.
I remember the fire.
I’m not sure of time anymore. Did the goddess bring us to this liminal space before or after it was too late to do anything about the fire that engulfed the Tree?
“Is…?” I swallow. “Is today the day the Origin Tree falls?”
“What does that matter to you, human with no magic?”
I’m not sure. I’m a soldier, not a general in this war. Fritzi knows—not just what the council wants and what the goddesses want, but whatshewants. Freedom of magic, magic available to everyone, without the restraints of the rigid rules of the Well. I glance at her, and I’m certain she would know what to say. But she’s waiting for me to speak. So is Abnoba.
“What does it matter to you, Otto?” Abnoba asks again, her voice gentler.
“I like having access to magic,” I say finally. “I did not realize it before—how can one want something one has never had? Had never believed possible? But I know it’s possible now, and itissomething I want.”
