My foundations shift again.
I come back to myself, finding myself sliding off Nara’s back, barely holding on as she soars into the dark tunnel for which we were aiming.
Losing my grip on her fur at the last moment, I hit the tunnel floor and tumble across it. I quickly regain my reflexes, rolling back to my feet without breaking any bones, and sprint along beside Nara.
She checks me as she runs, giving soft, alarmed growls.
I’ve never missed a landing before.
A moment later, I spring from the ground and onto her back.
Several vampyrs follow us inside, and I prepare to blast ice back at them, but they rapidly clamber out again.
It’s soon clear why.
The silvery glow I saw just now in the vision I was drawn into grows blindingly bright ahead of us.
Where the light hides.
If this is the same tunnel in which the Oracle was standing, then I only have seconds to reach her.
That is, if what I saw was happening in the present.
If it already happened… If I was looking at the past and she’s already been bitten…
The Oracle could already be dead.
Drained dry by a vampyr who—my forehead creases—didn’t shrink away from the light gleaming around them.
All I know for certain is that the light wasbehindtheOracle in the vision, and she isn’t directly ahead of us, which means she must be on the far side of whatever’s causing the light.
“Hurry, Nara,” I urge my wolf.
She whimpers, an uncharacteristic sound, as we draw nearer to the light source, so bright that I’m forced to squint. To push my arm across my eyes.
As painful as it is for me, it will be much worse for Nara.
She’s proven her bravery to me over and over again. Yet this light drives her to the left side of the tunnel, where the only shadow falls. I imagine her pupils are mere slits as her body tries to take in as little of the light as possible.
Brighter and brighter the energy grows, and Nara increases her pace, dashing forward, reckless about crashing blindly into the side of the tunnel, knocking against the jagged rock so hard that I’m forced to leap from her back before my left leg jams against it.
Landing lightly on the ground, I sprint as fast as I can through the magical energy, calling to Nara, “Follow my voice!”
I will guide her through it.
I wait only for confirmation that she’s closed her eyes before I begin to sing, my voice scratchy, the melodies of my childhood long lost until now.
Her head lifts as she runs beside me, her ears pricked as my voice grows stronger.
Maybe it was the sight of the Lethian armor wrapped around the Oracle’s body. Maybe it was the echo of so much power in my ears triggered for the first time in decades.
But the tightness in my throat eases and my song swells, a song of darkness as I call on the shadows lurking between the jagged rocks, drawing them outward, gathering them around my wolf’s body, shielding her eyes so she can make it through.
In my mind, I’m sitting beneath the shadeof a giant tree, the kind I’ve seen only in drawings, its leaves rustling in the breeze, a cool shadow enveloping me.
So deep is my concentration that I barely register the shape at the center of the light, barely make out its parts.
All I know is that it’s breathing. Soft, whispery breaths meet my ears beneath the lilting of my song.
