The Oracle’s gaze slowly dropped, landing on her granddaughter. Signe drew in a sharp breath, eyes dancing between Mariah and the Oracle. The old woman leaned close to Signe, whispering something in her ear that was too soft for Mariah to catch.
Signe swallowed. “I was there, Grandmother. I’m not sure what you saw, but it was not that.”
The Oracle whispered again. Signe sighed, then nodded once. “As you wish.” She stood, her violet eyes finding Mariah’s in the dim light of the temple. “The Oracle would like to speak with you, Mariah.”
Mariah’s jaw tightened. She took a step forward but was halted by a hand around her arm.
“I have a bad feeling.”
Mariah met the deep blue of Andrian’s gaze. “It’s fine,” she said. “Whatever this is, I have nothing to hide from her.”
Andrian frowned, glancing between her and the Oracle with a furrowed brow. “It’s not that,” he murmured.
“Let go of your queen,reykr.” The Oracle’s voice carried through the cavernous room. “The sky trembled when you emerged from thestaor, girl. You went in, and something else came out. My god knows it, too. So come and let me see what you brought with you into the world.”
Mariah’s unease was like a stone dropped into a still pond. She fished for words but couldn’t catch the ones that fit.
Callamus, thankfully, stepped forward. “Silje,” he said, deep voice rumbling. “You have served me long and well. Do not force yourself to glimpse things you know you cannot unsee.”
What?“Callamus, what aren’t you telling me?—”
The Oracle cut Mariah off before the god could answer. “It is my time to see. I can feel it. You can, too.”
Mariah thought Callamus would push again. That he would step in and assert himself as the god of this place, a being worthy of all the idolatry of these people.
But he didn’t. Instead, he simply dipped his head and took a step back.
Mariah gaped at him. His galaxy eyes met hers, a sad smile on his face. “Go to the Oracle,” he commanded softly. “She speaks the truth.”
A low growl rumbled from Andrian’s chest, though, when Mariah stepped forward again, he didn’t stop her.
She padded quickly across the temple, halting before a stoic Signe. Mariah’s heart thundered in her chest. The Oracle’s eyes were once again turned up to the ceiling, a haze settled over her features.
Mariah cleared her throat. “I’m here, Oracle.”
The Oracle dropped her gaze, amethyst eyes clouded in the dim light. Mariah’s skin burned as the old woman took her in.
“Closer.” The Oracle extended her hands, almost in invitation.
Mariah hesitated, but a nod from Signe had her stepping forward. Had her offering her hands to the Oracle, the new Marks on her skin glowing faintly in the darkness of the temple.
The moment her skin met the Oracle’s, something shifted.
“The severed power wanes,” the Oracle whispered. Her voice was both young and old, wild and ageless and inhuman. “And only shattered can it be remade.”
Dread washed over Mariah, swallowing her whole. Those words tickled a memory. She’d read them before, in an old Leuxrithian journal. It had scared her then, when they’d been nothing more than a haunting prophecy.
Now they felt like a spell. An invocation of secrets long forgotten, burning out of memory and into reality.
Silje’s clear, wide-eyed gaze fell to Mariah’s hands. The Marks pulsed brighter under her gaze, the multifaceted colors beating in time with the thump of Mariah’s heart.
The Oracle pulled in another great breath, filling the lungs of her small body.
Then slumped forward, collapsing in her chair, tremors wrenching through her body in a violent wave.
“Grandmother!” Signe lurched forward, catching the old woman by the shoulders. Footsteps sounded, temple acolytes wrapping their arms around the Oracle and gingerly lowering her to the ground.
Mariah was frozen in her panic. That strange power was gone from the room, leaving only the familiar thrum of her light in its place, snapping and twirling in her gut.
