“You’ve seen the tree of knowledge?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me exactly how it appeared to you.”
“This is going to sound strange but the first time...it sprouted from my sister’s dead heart.” Her mouth was arid, but she forced herself to continue. “Then it appeared in a vision the oracle at Delphi showed me...there were figures around it, then all these hands dragged them down and reached for its apples, and I burned them. I burned everything.”
“Interesting,” he murmured.
“Do you know what it means?”
Phineus twisted his staff between his palms. “You have seen a manifestation of the tree at the point of its conception and at its end.” He was silent for a moment. “Those symbols would suggest a cycle is almost complete. Like the phoenix reborn from the cinders of its old body, you are the embodiment of a new beginning. A world free of the gods.”
She swallowed. “In the prophecy, Prometheus called me ‘the last daughter.’Why the last?”
Phineus did not reply immediately. “Perhaps you are the last of your kind.”
“What kind?”
He shook his head. “That part is not clear.”
Her shoulders sagged with disappointment. Since learning who Phineus was, hope had blossomed. She thought he might be able to give her answers, but instead he left her with more questions.
“It’s fascinating,” said Phineus, more to himself than to her. “You can control your life-threads and use them to affect change outside of yourself in the physical world?”
“Yes.” She was growing impatient. “But I don’t know why or how. I just...can.” She paused. “Wait, you know about life-threads?”
“Of course, they are what power the prophecy stone. I may not be able to see them as you can, but they run through all living things.” As though sensing her confusion he continued, “All that touch the stone, are pulled from their body and taken to the void. Once in that place, all who ask questions are shown the answer woven into the tapestry of life.”
“You could have left instructions. The stone’s visions are impossible to understand.”
Phineus wheezed out a dry chuckle. “If only it were that simple. It took me years of study to accurately divine its revelations.”
She clenched her jaw. “I don’t have years, the gods are hounding me now.” Then she remembered something. “Why did you tell Manto not to use it?”
Phineus bowed his head. “You must forgive me for wanting to protect my child. You will have realized by now that foresight has a price.”
The life-threads that were drawn from her every time she touched the stone.
“I am not as old as I look... The stone is an empty vessel of sorts. For it to weave a vision it first needs to be filled with life-threads. I spent years divining prophecies from it, and in return it took years of my life.”
She stared at him in horror. He looked ancient. “But you told Manto to give it to me...”
“You are the last daughter—I thought giving you access to what is to come was of greater importance than the longevity of your life.”
Silence settled in the cracks of the room. Phineus spoke without the hesitation of regret, like he was merely stating he preferred black olives to green. It was then Danae realized that while the prophecy foretold her destruction of Zeus’s reign, it did not promise she would survive. She let the weight of that thought sink into her bones.
After a long pause, she asked, “Did the stone take your eyes?”
Phineus laughed bitterly. “The priestesses of Delphi did that. Did you know Prometheus’s prophecy came from the very oracle you destroyed?”
“No?”
“Much of the story is lost to time. But fragments remain, passed down the generations of the Children of Prometheus. Long ago, a rock was forged in the heart of the earth. All who touched it were granted visions of the future. It was named the omphalos stone, after the center of the world from which it was born. Everything you’ve heard about Prometheus is a lie. His only crime was that he saw the downfall of the gods in the depths of the stone and, for daring to speak the truth, he was strung up on the highest peak of the Caucasus Mountains for all eternity. I do not know how the stone came to be broken, but I do know this—before his capture, Prometheus took one piece of the shattered omphalos stone and gave it to mankind, so the gift of prophecy would be available to all. The gods were not happy with mortals knowing freely what was to come. They have spent centuries hunting the missing piece. The rest of the shards they placed in Delphi and built guarded walls around them, only allowing their priestesses to grant prophecies to those who could pay a mighty price.”
Danae could see it so clearly: the glittering oracle, shards and shards of obsidian stone trapped below the earth.
Another wave of realization crashed over her. The Pythia. No wonder she had been withered before her time after decades of the omphalos stone gorging itself on her life-threads.
