She sighed and leaned onto the windowsill in front of her. She wasn’t a religious scholar. She heaved another heavy sigh just as she noticed a shadow pass overhead.
Liane looked up, expecting to see a dragon, but instead, she saw a giant raven, twenty times the size of a normal one. Its piercing golden eyes sent a chill down her spine as it swooped toward her.
She leapt back as it dove, even though it was much too large to pass through the window. As it approached, it shrank down and swooped in to land on her bed. Liane pressed her back against the wall and considered shouting for help. Though she likely wouldn’t be heard from the top floor of this tower. She’d seen this raven before—the moment her powers had first flared in the temple and through various visions. It let out a long, low caw, and as it did, the door to her room swung open. She rubbed at her eyes. She must be dreaming. There was no way a shape-changing raven and Erich had visited her on the same night.
When she tried pinching herself, it hurt. Not a dream, then.
“Come. The hour grows late. We’ve not much time,” it cawed before flying down the stairs.
Ludicrous as this was, she felt compelled to follow it. The raven waited for her at the foot of the stairs, cawing before swooping down the hall, headed for the inner ring of the temple. The halls were empty, strangely so. Even when the curfew was in effect in the city, many priests and acolytes worked late into the night tracking the stars. But it was as if she’d stepped into a liminal space between worlds, the light like twilight. Rather than question it, Liane followed the raven into the inner sanctum.
The high-domed glass ceiling was filled with moonlight, and when she gazed upon the statue of Cyra, she noticed her appearance had changed. Her golden visage, which sparkled in the daylight, was shadowed and contorted. Her once-golden hair looked onyx in the moonlight, and her cloak was blanketed in stars. Liane stared at it for a long moment before it dawned upon her. This wasn’t Cyra but the Nameless Goddess. Not as she’d been depicted, shrouded and sinister, but pearlescent and sparkling like the moon and the stars.
“This is Yneas’ true form,” said the raven. She’d never heard the Nameless Goddess’ name spoken before, but the word sent a ripple through her, as if the name itself evoked her presence. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she turned to face the raven, half expecting to see the veiled goddess beckoning her beyond the veil as she had in her vision. The raven had grown again and was nearly five times Liane’s height, its head close to brushing against the domed ceiling. As it moved, its massive talons clacked on the lacquered floor.
“Does your presence here mean I am damned?” Liane asked tremulously.
“You are not.”
“Then why do you keep haunting my visions?”
“Because I am the guardian of the sword that resides in your back,” the raven said.
Her heart was hammering. This all must have been a dream. It had to be. But she felt the sting of her pinch throbbing on her hand, felt the cold breeze produced by the ruffling of the raven’s wings.
“I’ve seen you in the books. You were on Cyra’s shoulder.”
“You’re right. I have been there since the beginning of all things. I watched the sisters turn on one another and have seen their followers bring this world to the brink of destruction.”
“And are we on another such precipice?”
“Yes.”
A cold chill slithered down her spine. “The sword is in my back, but I fear I am not worthy of it.”
“When I gave your mother the sword, I told her the price would be owed. And you are one-half of that price, the wielder who was promised, who can set the world’s balance back in order.”
“That’s what the Avatheos told me. I am doing everything, but I still don’t hear her voice.”
“It is not her voice you need to hear.”
“Then whose? Are you trying to corrupt me, to lead me astray, to unleash the Nameless Goddess?”
“What has been set in motion cannot be undone. You can prevent nothing, but you must end it.”
“How can you say that? I killed a girl. She came to me for help, and I cut her life short.”
“The church killed that girl. She was doomed to death before she ever met you. They filled her head with promises that could not be fulfilled. The sun cult is killing magic. The more they try to control it, the more it withers. When they severed the two magics from one another, they created a rift that grows larger and larger and will swallow the world if you cannot stop its spread.”
“I just want to be good, to follow the light.”
“To magic, there is no good or evil. There is no light without the dark. The doubt that lingers in your mind will be your destruction if you do not accept the path. You know what must be done. You know the answers. Either let magic die and, with it, let the world wither and fade to nothing, or take your first step on the path of your destiny.”
“Then I choose the church and the Avatheos,” Liane declared.
The raven opened its wings and squawked at her. Liane stumbled back a step, catching herself from falling by grabbing onto a nearby pew.
“No! They will bind your power to theirs. To let them draw your sword is not why you were chosen. You do not bend the knee; you do not back down. Why let them cow you?”
