Page 136 of Broken Veil
Lakshmi nodded. “The fiber arts are some of the oldest forms of worship still left in the Brightlands. I always feel very energized after they visit.”
“Nice.” She sipped her tea and started to feel a little lightheaded. “Uh… Lakshmi?”
“Yes, my love?”
“You didn’t…” The world around her started to swim. “Uh…”
“Yes, Carys?”
She was definitely not herself. “Did youdrugmy tea?”
“Not really.” The goddess’s voice sounded hollow. “Well, maybe a little bit. It depends on what you consider a drug.”
Carys was woozy and very relaxed when Donna joined them in the tea nook.
“Sometimes,” Donna said, “it’s good to dull the rational mind when you need to visit a spirit realm.”
“Is… Annwn a spirit realm?” Her blinks were long, and everything felt like it was underwater. She didn’t feel drunk. No, everything was extra clear, but it was as if she was watching all this from outside her own body.
Her mind’s eye drifted up to Oshun’s loft, and she saw a blue flame glowing over the goddess’s table.
“You’ve probably been wondering why Angus has been hanging around, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
The blue flame sparked again, and Oshun lifted a shining gold chain in front of Carys’s face. “This the collar of Dôn, made of gold from her own body, purified by Lakshmi’s fire, and woven into a chain by my hand. Do you accept this gift?”
“What does it do?”
“Do you accept it?”
All of this is a choice.
“Yes.” Carys pushed the words from her mind to her mouth. “I accept it.”
“Good.” Oshun put the chain around her neck. “The shepherd will guide you to the otherworld, Tegan’s daughter.”
The gold collar felt light and heavy at the same time.
“What are you doing to me?”
“I am anchoring your spirit to your body.” Blue fire sparked from Oshun’s fingertips when she took the two ends of the chain and pressed them together. “So that Arawn’s hounds do not sniff out the scent of a living soul.”
Carys felt the warm weight of the gold sitting on the back of her neck. “Okay.”
“Keep Dôn’s collar around your neck,” Oshun said. “It is now tied to your life, and it is yours to do with as you will. So until you are ready for death in this world, you must not take it off. That is the cost of your passage to the other land.”
“So if I remove this chain, I’ll die?” Carys would have panicked if she were capable of panicking. “What if it breaks by accident?”
Oshun smiled. “A chain made by the goddess will not break. Say ‘I accept your gift, Mother.’”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Oshun waited in endless silence.
“I accept your gift, Mother.” It was the only thing Caryscouldsay.
Her mind drifted back into her body, and she was sitting on the couch again.
