Page 2 of The Oracle of Dusk

“They fled to the city in time, thank the merciful Triad.”

“And the farm?”

“Went up in flames. Whole countryside has been plagued by monstrosities.”

A bitter reminder that Trisia was not at peace, and to count her blessings that her family lived safely within the walls of the Viridian capital, Boreas. As they passed by the bones of those lost long ago in times much like these, Aurora fought down a shiver. At least Aurora wasn’t on the front lines, or responsible for the welfare of the people of the empire.

Aurora squeezed Phaedra’s arm in sympathy. The Viridian empire had been beset by a plague of monstrous entities, and the imperial family was quickly losing the war. As the youngest princess, Phaedra’s role was to keep morale up, but even her façade of boundless cheer was beginning to slip. Joining Aurora on the dig was the only rest Phaedra had allowed herself in months. Aurora hoped for her sake that this cycle of chaos would soon be at an end.

“Sometimes I wish I had divine magic,” the initiate sighed.

Phaedra squeezed Aurora’s hand in sympathy then. She needn’t have. Aurora had long ago come to terms with the fact that she had been abandoned by magic in all its forms. There was magic in the discovery of ancient secrets and that was enough for her.

“There’s nothing you could have done, even if you did,” the other initiate reassured them.

Only those with divine magic could dispel the monstrosities that formed when the sinister planets aligned. Outside cycles of chaos, monstrosity infestations could be put down rapidly, but during such a cycle was another story altogether. The beasts that spawned now were vicious, intelligent, and required martial training to deal with.

The clerics of Justice, the swords of the Triad, had been run ragged and spread thin for half a year now, putting down infestations that came back threefold. It was a true blessing that this dig had been allowed to happen at all. Phaedra being at the dig ensured that at least a few of Justice’s initiates remained on site for her protection, and ostensibly, the safety of the whole dig team.

Luckily, High Priestess Orithyia CLXI was also of the opinion that one never knew when or how the pursuit of greater knowledge would prove to be what turned the tide in a crisis, just that, oftentimes, it had proved thus. No one knew what recovering an ancient artefact would allow them to do. The last had inspired the hovering surfaces for trays and carriages. Maybe the one Aurora had just unearthed would help grow crops or beat back monstrosities.

The sinister planetary alignment wouldn’t last forever, but in the meantime, people suffered. Aurora could only pray it would end soon.

When they stepped outside, the breeze brought the mouth-watering scent of spiced meat. A treat in times like these. The hum of chatter grew louder the closer they got to the dining tent, a long, wide canopy of black felt opened to the outdoors, the cooks working over spits just outside. In the fading light, the rocky desert of the ancient site glowed rosy gold, a few prickly cacti the only bit of green. Much had been buried in the millennia since the ancient capital had been in use, with their current dig site shifting through the rubble of the ancient temple of Knowledge. In the far ancient past, this was the capital of the long-gone kingdom of Aureum. The city, Altanus, must have been stunning before the repeated cycles of chaos and calamity had rendered it into rubble. Today, it was a desert far from the only habitable strip of the Aurean province.

As a queue quickly formed, Aurora and Phaedra expertly slipped themselves in near the front, to the grumbling of those less nimble.

“I’m going to enjoy watching you get tipsy.”

“You say that as if you aren’t going to join me.” Aurora smiled and raised a brow.

“Oh, I will, once I make sure you’ve loosened up enough to flirt with that initiate you’ve been eyeing all season,” Phaedra whispered.

“Shhh!” Aurora blushed.

“What was his name again?” Phaedra teased.

“Fae, don’t you—”

“Hmmm, can’t quite recall. But I did hear his nickname had something to do with having a very talented tongue.” Phaedra’s smile was savage.

Aurora placed her hands over Phaedra’s lips, glaring. If she kept this up, the man in question would surely overhear her, and potentially run scared. Most were already intimidated by Aurora’s relationship with royalty, and the last thing she wanted was to miss her chance with the man and his rumoured tongue just because Phaedra couldn’t help being a pain in her ass when the whim struck her.

“I should have sewn your mouth shut as a child.”

“Mother would have thanked you for that, I think.”

“I could still do it. I’m sure I could find a rusty needle somewhere.”

“Will that be before or after that silver-tongued young man puts his reputation to the test?” Phaedra asked, staring tellingly at Aurora’s nether regions before slowly returning her gaze back to Aurora’s, fluttering her lashes like some coquette in a play.

Aurora grabbed Phaedra in a headlock and mussed up her crown-like braids

“Not the hair! Not the hair!” Phaedra squawked.

A thread of panicked gasps jolted through the line of clerics. Aurora released Phaedra and they both looked around to find out what it was that had startled the dinner line. Perhaps they were shocked that Aurora had manhandled the princess? But they weren’t staring at the two of them, their gazes were off in the distance. Hopefully, no one had spilled the beer cask. Nowthatwould have been worth gasping over.

“Don’t tell me something happened to the beer!” Phaedra cried theatrically.

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