Page 36 of The Oracle of Dusk

“Don’t think you can whittle down your tab just by acting gentlemanly. I’ll be back in a few hours. I brought more food for dinner. And you—” She turned to Aurora. “Back to bed with you.”

“Right,” Aurora swallowed, dizzy with confusion.

Macris had been gone but a moment when Silvanus rushed for an alcove, pulling out his armour and the holy sword, donning them as quickly as possible.

“What are you doing?” Aurora asked.

“Time, Aurora. Your magic is time magic. You said you saw Macris in the sanctuary, that she was going to lead a mob back here, right?”

“That’s what she said,” Phaedra grumbled.

“Then it stands to reason that you glimpsed into time with your magic. You paused time to save Phaedra. Then you saw the future, I’m certain of it. And if you did, then we need to leave. Get dressed for a journey—quickly.”

Aurora and Phaedra exchanged glances.

“You know what? At this point, anything is possible, and I’m not interested in facing an angry mob of dualists. Whatever they do to him they’ll do to me ten times over,” Phaedra grouched and hurried over to get dressed.

Aurora followed, numb. Had she actually glimpsed the future? Bile surged up her throat. This was too much. No one in their right mind wanted to know the future—to become an oracle.

Once dressed, Silvanus peeked out of their abode and led the way, their steps as soft as possible. Voices were raised in the distance, echoing down the cavernous halls. Silvanus pressed a finger to his lips and gestured at them to follow. The voices grew in volume as they crept through the passages. Then, as they turned a corner, the ceilings tripled in height. Aurora gasped.

“What the fuck, Silvanus? You brought us to the sanctuary?” Phaedra hissed as quietly as she could.

“It’s the centre of the maze. Trust me and keep quiet,” he whispered back.

He dragged them over to an area behind the statues. Here, now, Aurora could take in the details of the sanctuary. The scent of incense, the small statues and tokens placed at the feet of the goddesses, the divine magic dancing off every surface. She’d prayed to Knowledge in Her temple, begging for divine magic as a child. She’d felt Her presence in every marble tile, in the very waters of the clear, opalescent pool she’d knelt in for three days straight. But here? It was in the very air she breathed, and it wasn’t just the presence of one goddess, but six. She felt small and irrelevant and inclined to beg for mercy. How had this remained hidden for millennia?

“It’s true! Justice selected Silvanus as Her avatar! I just came from Boreas. He was last seen heading out with High Priestess Orithyia. He’s betrayed us all. He can’t be trusted,” a man insisted.

Aurora jolted out of her thoughts and listened with dawning horror as the same scene replayed in front of her yet again. By the time the group had left, her heart was hammering inside her chest. This was bad. Very bad. People who saw the future went mad. The most famous oracles stabbed out their eyes, or slit their own throats, just to escape from the horrors they were forced to witness. If that was her fate, she never wanted to use her magic again. It could atrophy inside her until the day she died.

“Is this what you saw?” Silvanus asked.

“Yes…but blurrier around the edges.” Aurora trailed off in a horrified whisper.

Phaedra grabbed her hand and squeezed, dragging Aurora back to the present.

“Stay with me, Aurora. Here, in this moment.”

“But—”

The understanding. The pity. The fear. They were there in Fae’s gaze and crushed by determination in an instant.

“I won’t let you go mad.”

“Let’s move,” Silvanus whispered.

Phaedra shot him a dirty look, but followed without comment, pulling Aurora with her. They slunk through empty halls, ducking into rooms when the sound of footsteps or voices threatened to reach them. It must have been for hours that they traversed the mountain labyrinth, until at last Silvanus called a halt.

“In here. We should be safe for a while.” He pulled aside a curtain and ushered them inside.

Aurora ducked into the well-lit hall.

Only to be met with a scene from a fever dream.

“I… What… This place…” Words failed her as she rushed to the nearest glass case. Inside, a perfectly preserved Pre-Second Sundering artefact winked up at her. She had no idea what it was, only that it was intact, its characteristic geometric designs and blue crystal accents laid out like a feast for her eyes.

“Show off,” Phaedra muttered.

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