Page 97 of The Garnet Daughter
How long had Omnesis been under the Estate, caged and locked away for the Temple of Divine Mothers to carry out their rituals? How many falsely divine priestesses did they truly create in that time? We counted hundreds in the birth records before we ran out of time to submit them.
Omnesis squats down, wrapping her arms around her bent knees. The way she looks up at us from across the fire is so disarmingly human, even August loosens his grip on my hand. “My temple’s ward could not decipher if you came to kill me or bring an offering, the balance of both fluctuating to the point of intrigue. Tell me, why have you come?”
“The other . . . vessel in the ritual. Her name is Ferren, and she is very dear to me,” I stammer.
“One of many forced into divination while the balance keeper remained deep, deep below.”
“Yes, my elders believe you will balance the tilt your captors created. I have come to ask you for mercy, not only because they are innocent of what their temple has done to them, but also because they are needed in the coming days . . . and every day after.”
“So much power siphoned from the worlds into that temple.”
I stand straighter. “The means were not just, but each of them will protect the stones from First Son.”
She finally looks me in the eye, her expression flat and observing. “You have come to make an offering in exchange for the falsely divine lives?”
“If needed.”
“If I were a lesser god, I would not remind you of the tilted balance between us when you freed me.” She adjusts thestones around the fire circle before drawing in another breath to continue. “The priestess order’s balance will be restored slowly over time. Divinity cannot be created or multiplied. Their numbers will dip, and they will become weakened. I am not the god of death, only balance, and some scales take eons to right. Even now, in this moment, there are scales balancing, ones tilted at the very beginning. Humans assume the universe works quickly, perhaps because your lives are so short. I am fond of watching you build and destroy. Again and again. As if the laws and rules you humans make hold any meaning to the stars in the sky or Mother, who sleeps. But each time you rebuild, you create an ever-fluctuating balance.”
Omnesis waves her hand back and forth absently, but all I can focus on is Ferren.
“You will not harm her? Yet you called her an abomination.” My tone is more demanding than I intend.
August shifts next to me, leaning in and hoping for some clue of what she is saying.
“And yet you understood the language of the gods.” She smiles, her teeth sharp and spaced widely. “She is an abomination in more ways than you know, but I will not harm her. Surely this is not the only reason you have come.”
I step back, a raw, exposed nerve struck with blinding precision. Questions I did not know I needed answered hurl themselves behind my eyes, leaving them lined with water. If I asked, would she know what the source of the voice I have heard is or why I understand her language? I can sense Omnesis trying to unravel the walls I have erected to protect myself from paths that do not serve our mission.
“What did she say?” August whispers, his posture stiff, as if he is worried by my sudden energy shift.
“She isn’t going to kill the priestesses born in the Temple of Divine Mothers. Ferren’s safe.” I gulp on air.
She perks up as if fascinated he has spoken, her smile hissing across the plateau.
“Where is Cosima’s stone?” I capture her attention again, determined to stay on task.
“I can answer any question asked so long as the answer does not deviate from the path my balance has drawn. I will do so, as to begin to tilt ours back to harmony, my debt for freedom. But not here.” She stands slowly, turns her back to us, and walks toward the cliff wall behind her.
A carved, stone stairway comes into view from nothing at all, the orange glow of the fire illuminating it as it makes itself solid into the space. She gestures me forward to follow her up the ancient-looking passage.
“Bring the human male with you,” Omnesis calls over her shoulder. “Every cell in your body vibrates with imbalance when he is not near you.”
Suddenly, I’m frozen, my mind firing every nerve ending and disabling my ability to speak or even comprehend what she is saying.
“Callia,” August whispers next to me. “Does she have Cosima’s stone?”
“She wants us to follow her.” I search his face, still a little flustered.
He nods patiently, so calm and solid it’s impossible to panic. My heart surges with affection. He is here with me; I am not alone.
I follow her a few paces back as she slowly climbs the stairs. They are so narrow, August has to walk behind me, but his hand is firmly clasped in mine. I focus on the carved steps in front of me, mind swirling so fast it doesn’t even occur to me to be afraid until the old god’s human feet turn into fearsome talons as she ascends, tucked-in wings dragging on the stones behind her. Ihesitate, leaning against the rock for August to see Omnesis in her true form, standing at the top of the passage, waiting for us.
“Come,” she says as we reach the top.
The passage opens to a warmly lit, open-air temple, a mix of ancient ruins and architecture frozen in time. Ornate limestone pillars line the space in formation, as if to hold a ceiling that once was. The floor is a celestial mosaic that peeks through layers of sand where the wind from the cliffside has blown it into tiny dunes.
“The stone.” Omnesis stands like a living statue behind a temple altar, peering down at a precisely cut circle in the center. The pool of starry water in the bowl of its skull slushes back and forth but never spills over the sides. All four of its hands rest on the ledge of the altar, skin pale blue, almost transparent. It wears a robe like I have never seen before, tied at the waist with a rope made of gold.
