“I suppose, it just doesn’t make for the cleanest records, your sight-blessed.”
“Exactly.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “Come on, Geoff, we need to prepare for the storm.”
The skinny, young man followed her back out, and Damien and Amma were left alone with the oracle, plus one imp and vaxin.
“So, what can I do you two for, hmm?”
Before Damien heard her say it, he knew exactly what was about to come out of Amma’s mouth, impossible to stop.
“Don’t you already know?”
That helplessness crawled back up to the surface of Damien’s skin, and he scratched at his neck.
But the oracle laughed, loud and genuine, then took another puff of their pipe. “Course I do. But if I don’t ask, you, like, won’tsay it, and then past me can’t have the vision of you asking, so present me can’t know, so the only way I could have already known is if you ask at some point, and I have a vision of that request.”
Amma thought a moment then seemed to accept with a confused sort of nod. “Convenient.”
“Cool, cool, cool. So, sit. Let’s hang.” They gestured to the pillows before them and leaned back.
It was confusing for most who heard any true oracle speak, and not just because they often communicated in riddles. Oracles spent quite a lot of time in their visions of the future and often picked up on language that would not come about naturally for centuries. These anachronistic words worked themselves into an oracle’s vernacular, and since most of what they said made little sense to others as it was, a few funny words here or there hardly mattered. The argument could be made that oracles themselves, in using future speech in past times, were the true sources of languages’ evolution, but etymologists didn’t want their careers to be obsolete, so would never confirm the paradox.
Damien awkwardly sat on the ground, crossing his legs and sitting up straight as Amma perched on her hip with knees folded. Katz sulked nearby, plopping down with a huff.
The oracle pointed at Damien with their pipe. “But, just so you know, if you ask about your destiny and your dad and all that again, I’ll tell you the exact same thing as before:when the day is night, and the—”
Damien cleared his throat. “The prophecy. Right. Yes.”
“You won’t tell Damien anything else about his fate?” The indignation in Amma’s voice rose out of the awe. “But youdoknow? You’re just going to keep it from him?”
The oracle seemed neither bothered nor offended, they just took another long pull of their pipe and tipped their head back.The smoke in the tent thickened and then dissipated. “Prophecy is, like,hard,” they finally said.
Amma grunted. “So is climbing a mountain.”
Damien held back the laugh that wanted to burst out of him but gazed at her what he feared was probably a bit too fondly.
The oracle rested their chin on a fist and smirked at Amma, reminding Damien he was meant to be afraid. “Yeah, that’s fair, I guess, but it’s not exactly dealing-with-the-gods hard. Or maybe you two do know something about that.”
A slight gust outside buffeted the canvas tent, the sound filling up the quiet. It was an odd thing to say, but so was most of what came out of the oracle’s mouth, so it was passed over.
“So, here’s the thing: if I were to tell you that in fifteen hours and thirty-seven minutes, you are going to stumble and cause a great calamity, what would you do?”
Amma’s small mouth opened, eyes darting around, and then she cleared her throat. “Probably try to not stumble.”
“Exactly,” they said. “You’d do, like, everything you possibly could, count down the time, try real hard to keep yourself upright, all that. But prophecies are going to happen—that’s their wholething. And, like, I’ve tried it a lotta ways, trust me. I even had this phase where I focused on the good stuff, ya know? So instead, I might say to you, in fifteen hours and thirty-six minutes, you’re gonna have a little accident with a rock, but you’ll be crowned queen of a loyal and vast empire. And then you’d be like,Amazing! Bring on that rock! Right?”
“Well, not exactly like that,” mumbled Amma.
“The thing is, though, when you know, that’s all you focus on, and the gods hate that because it sort of gives away the ending and ruins their games.” The oracle waved one of their hands, stopping Amma before she could ask. “You’re just pieces on a board to them that they get to push around. It’s a whole thing, but back to my example. If I tell you, instead of all thatother stuff, that the wandering lady will displace the earth to upend tyranny and usurp the salvage throne, I create a mystery, everybody plays along, and by the time anybody ever figures it out, it’s probably already happened.”
Amma was staring back at the oracle, brow knit. “You’re telling us that you purposefully shroud your visions in metaphor and extravagant language so your visitorsdon’tunderstand them?”
The oracle was taking a very long drag and then coughed. “Totally.”
“What’s the point of prophecy then?”
The oracle shrugged. “I’unno.”
