The Wicked House of Caroline

The first time she saw Snowflake after he was taken from her was when she was wandering the island looking for food. She watched the horned serpent seemingly spring out of nowhere to bite and then strangle a fast-moving giant deer. Beks knew how fast, flexible, and what exceptional aim Snowflake had.

It was unfortunate for the paladins that they did not.

The morning sun beating down on Beks’ face was blocked for just a moment as a large shadow flew over her. Snowflake launched himself from behind her, jaws open and scales glistening so bright, they were almost blinding.

The pack of two dozen mercenaries almost parted directly down the middle to avoid being crushed, or swallowed whole, by the massive serpent.

The dust and dirt was pushed into the air by Snowflake as he landed in front of her, his long body making the ground shake as he hit it. Before he landed, he had twisted, bringing his tail out and swinging it to the side, effectively knocking a few paladins off the edge of the cliff.

Beks winced and grimaced a bit. All that climbing, only to be flung off with the flick of a horned serpent’s tale. However, now Snowflake’s body was acting as a barrier between her and the paladins. The surprise of such a huge creature attacking wouldn’t last long.

After all, the paladins had been trained from childhood to become soldiers of the Temple. They soon regained focus. Beks saw two shielding the High Priest while Captain St. Moore was running a wide arc around Snowflake to avoid him.

“Keep them occupied!” Beks said. She turned around and returned her attention to the spring. The yelling of paladins attacking and screaming as they tried to avoid Snowflake’s jaws were heard behind her as she took a deep breath and tried to gather her biha once more.

She closed her eyes, feeling the biha gathering her hand. The tingling sensation grew stronger and she opened her eyes.

She caught a spray of blood flying into the air from the corner of her eye. Her gaze darted over and saw Rid Callan’s shoulders just above the slope of the hill. He was gripping as wword in one hand with blood splattered across his cheek as he took a step back.

His movements were slow, likely to keep his energy with little movement, and also to avoid tripping on anything while he was walking backwards. Her chest tightened as she saw another five, and counting, heads appear from the slope, surrounding the Thirnir.

If he wasn’t using his biha, it was likely that he’d already expended all the biha he had.

He was also going up the to the ceremonial site and was getting too close to the spring. If she shot her light beam, the shattered pieces of obsidian would hurtle towards him. The paladins could be skewered for all she cared, but Rid Callan had his back towards her and the spring and couldn’t see.

Beks grit her teeth, weighing her options in less than a blink of an eye.

“Dive towards the cliff and hold!” Her orders were in Sagittater and Rid Callan responded so quickly that the paladins didn’t seem to realize what he was doing until he’d already jumped towards the cliff.

He was strong, but he was a big man, and only got as far two paces from the edge, not reaching the cliff entirely. It was enough for Beks to shoot the light beam in the direction of the paladins that were caught off guard.

As soon as she released it, she didn’t stop to see how it landed or even shield her eyes from the spray of dirt and rocks that the blast caused. She darted towards Rid Callan on her left and bent down, grabbing his shoulder, and using it stop her as she refilled his biha.

Her hand was still on his shoulder when he slammed his hands on the ground and the earth beneath shook. There was no need to hide the process at this point, and sharp, solid pieces of earth shot up from the ground as high as they were tall to go block off at least half of the sloping sides of the mountain.

“Your Highness, are you all right?” he asked as he looked up at her.

Beks fixed her eyes on the wall and narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to shatter that rock if it’s the last thing I do! Seal the area! Don’t let anyone enter!”

Rid Callan grit his teeth, but pushed himself. “Yes, Your Highness! He put his hand on the ground and raised a waist height wall around a quarter of the spring’s perimeter. “Safety first, Your Highness. You must shield yourself.”

Beks swallowed hard and nodded. She patted his shoulder once more, giving him one more boost of biha before pushing forward. She ran towards the spring.

From the far end of the barrier wall Rid Callan created earlier, the ground rumbled as it moved, pushing up one continuous stretch of wall that encircled the top of the mountain. The enclosure was taller. Rid Callan was going to try to keep as many people from going after her as possible. Beks could see it forming from the ground around her, continuing behind her back as she ran.

She quickened her speed and just as the wall was about to close behind her, she was shoved forward from the back.

“Your Highness!”

“I’ve got it!” The wall closed behind her and the fighting behind it was almost muffled out. Her breath was shoved out of her as she stumbled forward, her eyes wide and arms going out at her side to try to keep balance in vain.

Beks hit the ground and the taste of mud mixed with a little iron hit her. She clenched her jaw and rolled to the side.

The tip of a sword landed in the spot where her throat should’ve been.

A cloud of dirt flew upwards as she threw a fistful and heard someone groan. Beks raised her leg and kicked what solid object loomed above her that she could make out behind wet, blurred vision.

It was another person, and before she could register who it could’ve been, she’d already made the fury inducing assumption.

“I swear to the gods, paladin, if it’s you again, one of us will not leave this spring alive!” she yelled in a throaty, rasping voice. “And it won’t be me!”

She rolled over and felt a stone at her side. In a fit of frustrated madness that the man who tried to kill her multiple times was still alive, Beks grabbed the rock as big as two fists in one hand as she stood up. She blinked fast, trying to clear the tears and dirt out to make out a target.

The amount of anger she felt seeing that limping paladin still struggling to get dirt out of his eyes in front of her cause the most guttural scream to ever leave her mouth as she raised the rock, unknowingly poured biha into it, and flung it at the widest target of his body to increase her odds of hitting him: his torso.

She didn’t expect him to be shoved back several steps, or the rock to momentarily seem embedded in his left rib cage, before he folded over and let out a mouthful of blood.

“Marius!”

Beks stood in place, her chest heaving as a throbbing along her midback made itself known. Her eyes narrowed. He got her back, so she got his front. “There...we’re even....” she said, breathless.

The rock hit the ground with a thud, bouncing once before becoming still, as if it had never been used as a crude projectile. Two knees hit the ground beside it as Captain St. Moore keeled forward, one arm across his left side as the other awkwardly gripped a sword.

“Marius!” The same voice that had cried out earlier, and that Beks had disregarded, came. Past where Captain St. Moore was struggling to breathe on his knees.

“Get the ceremonial sword!”

Iris Elpidah wasn’t alone. Beks heard the low rumbling growl of an eagle-headed creature as it landed between her and Captain St. Moore. She locked eyes with the sharp golden ones of the griffin as the wrinkled face of the High Priest riding with Iris Elpidah behind him glared at her. The griffin’s wings were held out, acting as a shield as Iris Elpidah slid off its back and nearly fell in her awkward landing before managing to steady herself.

“Marius!”

Broken wheezing came from the paladin as he lifted his head. Beks watched his eyes soften as blood trickled down the corners of his mouth. He seemed to try to say her name, but it only came out as awkward gasps.

“Get the sword! Don’t waste time! Once the sun no longer touches the horizon, the time for the ceremony is over!” The High Priest climbed off as carefully as he could, but urgency tainted what elegance he should’ve had after years in his position.

Beks remained in place, her feet firm on the ground and careful of her movements. She didn’t dare take her eyes off of the griffin.

Though it was smaller than Thunder and Snowflake, it was still an animal that was larger than her, and had a sharp beak and talons. She could feel its steady gaze on her.

“Legendary beasts are quite intelligent,” Beks said, keeping her eyes ahead of her. She didn’t dare look away for even a moment. She had plenty of pets and knew that prey that was unguarded had a better chance at becoming a meal.

Iris Elpidah was panicking over Captain St. Moore’s injury, but Beks focused on what stood between her and the spring first. Her hand began to gather biha. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to hit the griffin in the right place to kill it, or at least wound it so she could get around it, but it was her best chance. Of course, if she missed or the griffin sensed the light beam first and dodged, she didn’t have a second chance.

While she had an endless biha supply, her attack couldn’t last forever.

Her body would give out before her biha supply would, then she might as well wait for death.

“Get up! Get up!” Iris Elpidah had grabbed the arm of the paladin and was trying to pull him up and put his arm around her shoulder. “The water here has healing powers! It’ll heal you!”

“I...Iris....” Captain St. Moore struggled to stand, but the weight of his body on her small shoulders weighed her down.

“High Priest!” She looked around for help, but the High Priest was already wading into the water. The metal box that Iris Elpidah had been holding earlier was in his arms. Her face paled. “High Priest! I need your help to carry him to the spring!”

“The sun is rising! We need to begin!”

It didn’t surprise Beks in the least that he didn’t care about Captain St. Moore. Considering what was happening outside the earthen barrier, it didn’t matter how many paladins they had, outsiders knew the great secret of the Temple and the High Priest didn’t know if they would have another chance.

The High Priest put the metal box on the stone and opened the latches. As Iris Elpidah grit her teeth and half dragged Captain St. Moore towards the spring, the High Priest placed the relics that had been collected on to different points of the sacrificial stone. Three spots were empty.

One was the space that was supposed to be for the jaw of St. Cyric that was now dust in the Giant’s Ridge. The second was a section with the hole that the blood would drain into. And the third spot was directly across from the section with the drainage hole.

The High Priest had put Captain St. Moore’s sword, which he’d pried from the barely breathing paladin’s hand, on to the stone before placing the relics. Beks narrowed her eyes.

She hadn’t noticed it because the paladin’s hand had been holding the grip, but from what she could see, it had a web of metal filigree around what she thought was a dark piece of stone or enamel around the grip. It was a fancy-looking sword and she’d seen plenty. Such embellishments were common.

The High Priest used the blade to cut off some of the fabric from his clothes and then wrapped it around the upper half of the blade. Instead of holding it by the grip, the High Priest picked up the sword by the blade using the cloth. He raised the cross guard and gripped it over his head. His arms shook a bit, unused to such labor, just before he swung the sword down.

Beks’ eyes dilated as the grip seemed to shatter within the metal filigree, and something dark and wet trickled out.

“The blood of St. Myriagnus.” Her heart sank. She took a step forward and was immediately met with a growl. She jumped back as the griffin snapped at her and lifted its front talons to swipe at her. “Stop!” Beks jumped back and raised her arm at him. “I said that legendary beasts were intelligent, so if you understand me, I suggest you step back.”

A low trilling came from the creature and she didn’t need to have her sister’s gift to know it was threatening.

“The blood of the sacrifice is needed! Oracle! Give me your hand!”

“Hold on! He’s too weak to stand!” Iris Elpidah cried out. “Marius, hold on to the side. Can you do that? Just hold on-”

“Oracle, hurry, you must get on the stone!”

Suddenly, the panic in Iris Elpidah’s voice turned to shock. “Aren’t you going to be the sacrifice?”

Beks barely held back her gasp. Did Iris Elpidah not know? If that was the case and she came back before, who was sacrificed?

The High Priest looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. Frustration filled his face as he grit his teeth and clenched the edge of the sacrificial stone. “It is the oracle who is to sacrifice herself! Else, the ceremony will not work!”

“Yes, it will!” Iris Elpidah shouted back. “I didn’t kill myself before and I came back fine!”

The High Priest sneered at her and her ignorance. “You foolish child! You call where we are now ‘fine’? Your attempt to go back ended in failure because your ceremony was flawed! Not only did you not have enough Muil Stones, but you sacrificed another being! The goddess Xeria wants you!”

He tossed the sword with the broken grip towards her from across the stone.

“No!” Iris Elplidah cried out, her eyes red as she almost jumped away, the water splashing around her as she stood waist deep in the spring. “Someone else can do it! The Third Consort was sacrificed when I came here! I can’t sacrifice myself!”

“You must! Who knows where you’ll end up if you don’t sacrifice yourself?” The High Priest’s face reddened. “Do you want all of this to be for nothing? You’ve come too far-”

“But I can’t!” Iris Elpidah cried out once more. One arm lowered into the water and Beks couldn’t see what she was doing. “I’m pregnant! If I die, my baby will die!”

“Then all the more reason to go!”

Beks brows shot up at the High Priest’s words. She didn’t expect him to say that of all things. She wanted to take a step closer, but another low, threatening trill stopped her. She ground her teeth together and looked at the griffin.

“I don’t have time for you.” She gathered biha in her hand, preparing to shoot once more when Iris Elpidah’s scream filled the contained area. Not only was Beks caught off guard, but the griffin snapped its head back to look at the sound.

Suddenly, the creature drew back and let out a screech, turning its back on Beks. It began to claw at the ground and flap its wings as its cries drowned out Iris Elpidah’s.

Her arms were around Captain St. Moore, who was struggling to pull himself up onto the sacrificial stone. The depth of the water, his weakened state, and the sword pushed into his chest made it difficult.

“Marius! Marius, what are you doing?” Iris Elpidah was hysterical, clawing at the paladin to keep him back while trying to pull the sword out. “Don’t!”

“You must live.” Beks darted around the griffin that was going mad in front of her and managed to get closer to the spring. She could hear Captain St. Moore as he seemed to gather all his strength as he grimaced. He pushed the other woman away and finally pulled himself on to the sacrificial stone.

Too weak to go any further, he was able to get his upper body onto the stone on his side. The entire lower portion of his mouth was covered with blood as he heaved to breathe. He grasped the sword he’d stabbed himself with and pulled it out, letting out a low hiss. Nothing was keeping the bleeding at bay now.

The sword fell on to the dark stone and he rolled over onto his stomach. His head was turned to face Iris, whose red face was filled with tears as she grabbed at his arm, tugging him with her feeble strength as if it would pull him off the stone.

She continued to say his name.

Beks couldn’t help but shake her head for a moment of pity. Oh, Elpidah...you loved the wrong man, didn’t you?

She watched Captain St. Moore’s eyes seemed to glaze over as he tried to smile at Iris Elpidah.

“Marius! Marius!” The woman’s choked screams almost drowned out the screeching griffin. “Don’t die! You can’t leave me! He’s yours! He’s yours this time!” Iris Elpidah grasped his twisted, bloody hand and held it against her face, sobbing. “Wake up!” She cried at the empty eyes that still looked at her. “Wake up!”

Beks saw a shadow move behind her and she jumped to the side. The talons of the griffin came down and Beks rolled over. She pushed herself up and found herself blocked from the spring once more by the griffin.

“Keep her back!” the High Priest ordered. “Don’t let her get close when the gate opens!”

“Gate?” Beks jumped back once more as the griffin swiped its front talons. She ducked and shuffled to the side, trying to keep facing the creature.

If she could get around him and put some distance, perhaps she could run to the spring before it pounced on her.

Her eyes narrowed. Or she could just level the enclosed area with light biha. She frowned and crossed off that idea. Even with the walls, who knew how powerful her light beam would be. The explosion could level the entire mountain, including her husbands, Rid Callan, Gerard, and Snowflake.

A sudden fluctuation of biha swept through the air. It was so strong that Beks could feel it in her bones. The biha was already rich around the spring, but the amount must’ve at least tripled to the point that there was a heaviness around her.

A moment later, all the biha was pulled away. It didn’t disappear. Beks could feel it being moved towards the spring, and condensing.

A flash of light caught her eye that was far colder and whiter than the sun. She dodged another swipe of talons and the snap of a beak and took another series of steps back to get some distance.

She sucked in a sharp breath as a ball of light appeared directly above the obsidian stone slab. All the biha that had been gathered was being swallowed by the light. It was a near blinding white and Beks had to blink to keep from staring too long at it. The shining light also seemed to affect the griffin, as it let out an irritated trill and took a step back as it turned its head away.

Dense strands of biha seemed to coil out from the light, themselves glowing, as they wrapped around the objects that had been placed on the slab. The three relics were carried upwards and brought into the ball of light like an octopus bringing food to its mouth. With each relic absorbed, the light seemed to double in size.

When the last of the three relics was absorbed, the blood on the stone began to glow. They gathered into large pearls of white light that floated into the ball hovering above. They were absorbed, but the ball of light didn’t get any larger than the width of the sacrificial stone.

“It’s about to open! Ready yourself!” the High Priest yelled with ecstasy filling his wrinkled face.

Iris Elpidah was still clutching Captain St. Moore’s lifeless hand. Her face was stained with blood mixed with tears as she heaved with heavy breaths. Her head was tilted up and her eyes seemed fixed on the light.

The ball began to dim. Beks felt the rise in biha once more and braced herself.

The ball of light seemed to explode into a bright flash and she had to turn her head away to keep from being blinded. When the flash died down, she looked back and balked.

She expected some sort of portal or glowing gateway. A door frame, even.

She found herself looking into the single black iris of a giant, floating eye.

“It’s open!” The High Priest shouted with triumph.

Beks forgot about the griffin and ran. Now, it was a race.

Her arms pumped at her sides as she sprinted to the edge of the springs.

A talon swiped in front of her and she screamed as she jumped to the side. She felt a burning flash against her arm and winced. “Bastard!” The blood coming from the wound on her arm was hot and Beks slapped her hand over it.

“Kill her!”

Beks clutched her arm against her and prepared to run once more. The griffin reared on its hind legs and raised its front talons. Its shadow fell over the ground before it was covered.

A furious screech filled her ears just before a choked squawk. The griffin never had a chance to pounce on Beks.

Thunder shrieked as he flew up, the griffin gripped in his talons so hard that Beks was sure one of the griffin’s wings was broken. Thunder threw the griffin up before letting it drop and grabbing it again, this time by its hind legs. Beks could hear the creature scream in pain as Thunder’s talons pierced its hide.

“What about the griffin?” She snapped her attention back to the giant eye. Iris Elpidah was trying to pull herself on to the stone slab, but had stopped to watch in horror as Thunder dropped the injured griffin from an astronomical height. It let the griffin free fall as Thunder disappeared above. Before the griffin could near the ground, Thunder reappeared, wings tight against his body like an arrow cutting through the air.

The griffin’s frantic screaming came to a sudden halt as Thunder’s talon, at high speeds, silenced it.

Beks knew what came next and began running towards the spring. Her feet splashed into the edge of the spring as the High Priest screamed frantically at Iris Elpidah to get into the eye as he struggled to get to where Beks was coming to stop her.

Iris Elpidah saw her coming and scrambled upwards. Beks reached the edge of the stone and ignored Captain St. Moore’s corpse with his legs still hanging off the edge. She grabbed the part of Iris Elpidah’s robes that were still in the water and pulled her back.

The other woman let out a choked scream as she fell backwards, her hands automatically going up to her throat to try to loosen the collar, but forgetting to brace herself. She landed hard on her back, and if her shoulders didn’t hit the edge, her head would’ve slammed against the stone.

“Get away!” The High Priest reached for Beks. He grabbed her right arm with both hands to try to pull her away from the stone.

She didn’t realize he was shorter than her.

She released the robes and pulled back her left shoulder, her hand loosening into a fist.

The pain of impact of her first against an old man’s lower jaw and cheek shot up her arm, but she pulled back and repeated it before he could steady himself. He let out a scream, but his hands were clamped on to her arm. He was stubborn and refused to let go.

Beks caught Iris Elpidah trying to scramble up while Beks was distracted.

“I didn’t say you could move.” Beks grabbed the cloth once more, wrapped it around her fist and pulled her back as hard as she could. This time, Iris Elpidah not only fell back, but slipped on the water and blood on the stone. She fell back hard, and rolled off the slab and into the spring.

Beks released the cloth. She grabbed cloth around the High Priest’s neck and pulled him to the side. If her fist wasn’t hard enough to stop him, maybe the edge of the sacrificial stone was.

She pulled the cloth down, bringing the High Priest’s head with it and slamming his temple against the edge.

She heard a crack and watched hateful light in the old man’s eyes dim.

His grip on her arm loosened and she pulled it back. She shoved him away and grabbed the edge of the stone to pull herself up.

A woman’s shriek came from behind her and an arm went around her neck. Beks was pulled backwards and fell into the water, on top of someone strangling her. Iris Elpidah struggled in the water, getting on top of her and trying to keep her head down.

Is this idiot trying to drown me? Beks was too stunned to fight back. She twisted her shoulders to try to loosen Iris Elpidah’s death grip, but to no avail. All right, fine. Beks struggled a bit longer, pretending to try to pry her opponent off before releasing a mouthful of bubbles and going still.

Without air in her lungs, she began to sink to the floor of the springs. Iris Elpidah didn’t seem to want to check if she was really dead. Instead, she shoved Beks away and stood up to resurface.

She turned her back and reached for the sacrificial stone. Panting and out of breath, she managed to drag her upper body on to the stone. She took a moment to try to catch her breath and gather her strength to pull the rest of her body on to the stone in order to reach the giant eye floating above.

Beks moved around her beneath the water until she was behind Iris Elpidah. She smiled to herself as she saw the other woman’s legs still dangling in the water.

She broke the surface. “I heard you’re pregnant.” Iris Elpidah whirled around and Beks grabbed her arm and pulled her off the stone. “Congratulations.” She all but flung Iris as far as she could before using her height advantage to climb on to the stone with ease.

“No!” Iris Elpidah floundered in the water to find her footing as Beks stepped over Captain St. Moore’s corpse and stopped beneath the glowing eye.

Beks looked up. “So, what do I do? Just jump in?”

She heard Iris Elpidah screaming behind her and the sound of splashing water as she tried to climb up.

“Beks!” She turned around and saw that part of the wall had split open and Lucian was rushing in with Laz climbing in just behind him.

“Lucian! Laz-” Beks snapped her mouth shut as the sight of her two husbands was suddenly blocked by the inky dark iris of a giant eye. She took in a sharp breath as the eye floated in front of her.

Her heart seemed to both speed up and slow down as the eye looked at her up and down. Beks couldn’t look away and found herself turning to follow it as it circled her.

Anything past the eye, her husbands, the springs, even the sacrificial stone she stood on, no longer seemed to be visible, as if she was so focused on the eye, that everything else faded away.

Beks didn’t know how long she turned to follow the scrutinizing eye. In the back of her mind, she wondered why her husbands hadn’t reached her yet. They weren’t that far away, and they were faster than her. They should’ve reached her already.

It wasn’t as if Iris Elpidah could stop them.

“Your name.”

A low voice boomed in her head and Beks let out a sharp breath, wanting to reach up and grasp at her head as it seemed to almost vibrate with the voice, but her arms wouldn’t move from her sides. Beks opened her mouth to answer.

“Rebecca of Caroline of Kadmus.” Her eyes widened. When had she been so out of breath? She could barely say her own name.

The voice didn’t reply immediately. She could feel the unblinking eye scrutinize her harder. “Where is your prayer?”

The voice wasn’t as demanding this time, but it was still loud and made her head hurt a bit.

“What prayer?” Beks asked, the corner of her eye twitching. She couldn’t turn her head and everything below her neck couldn’t move. Now, the eye was circling her.

“Your prayer to me.”

Beks squinted. Did everyone hear that voice or was it speaking directly to her mind? “Are you Xeria?”

“What do you ask of me, Rebecca of Caroline of Kadmus?”

She had a thousand scenarios that had played through her head before that moment, but Beks had been unprepared to speak to a giant eyeball that was likely a goddess.

She heard the voice chuckle. “A mortal would die if they saw my entire being. Be satisfied with my eye.”

“You’re really Xeria?” Beks asked.

“Did you not know who you were summoning?” Was it just her, or was there amusement in the goddess’ voice?

“I was trying to stop the summoning.” If the goddess could read her mind, which Beks would bet money on, there would be no use in lying.

“Good.”

“What?”

“It is one thing to pray to the gods, but to summon them....” The amusement was replaced with disgust. “To treat us as tools....”

“What are you talking about?” Beks asked. “When were gods summoned? I thought the gods were just representatives of energy.”

“Oh, you understand. So many of those priestesses have summoned me, but you’re the only one who seems to acknowledge this.” The voice paused. It no longer hurt her head and Beks wasn’t sure if it was because she had grown used to it or if the goddess had taken pity on her. “I can see why you carry the energy of the gods. There haven’t been many of you that survived. Yes, we are energy. Energy is all around you. A summoning collects and consolidates a particular energy into a being. The problem is, until we grant the wish of whoever summons us, our energy cannot return to our natural place. If they do not, we are stuck in limbo. There will be no chaos or order until I am released.”

Beks’ eyes widened. “They’re holding you hostage? Wait, go back. What do you mean there haven’t been many of you that survived?”

“Those who carry the energy of the gods were chosen to do what we cannot do in the mortal world. To shape it and mold it, but for some time, every one of you died at infancy.” The voice was quiet for a moment. “No, not die in infancy,” she corrected. “You were killed. So many of you....”

Beks wasn’t as surprised as she thought she’d be, still, her heart sank and the feeling of despair spread from the pit of her stomach. “That’s why they summoned you. To kill us.”

“There was one who said she would keep you alive. It seems she kept her promise.”

Beks swallowed hard. “Someone summoned you again. I failed in trying to stop them, so to keep them from going back, I came instead. If I make a wish, will you be released? I won’t go back in time, will I?”

“Back? I suppose, for you, it would be back. You can go any which way.”

Beks brows shot up. “Then I can go forward?”

“You can go whenever you want...within...two...three hundred years...yes...there was not enough energy to send you back further.”

“Two hundred....” Beks shook her head. “No, I don’t need to go back that far.” She paused and narrowed her eyes. “Actually, I don’t need to go back at all.”

“Rebecca of Caroline of Kadmus.” Her name was said in a dire, serious voice. “You must make a wish for rebirth at another time. And soon, before the sun no longer touches the horizon. Tell me when you want to go, else I cannot be released.”

“Does my current time not count?”

“It does not.”

Beks grit her teeth. “All right, if I go somewhere, will it affect my timeline?”

“I don’t know.”

I thought you could see through all the time? She inwardly screamed.

“Timelines can change.”

Beks pursed her lips. She took a deep breath and began to run through her past, how she got there, and how she was connected to people. She was afraid of going back and changing something. What if she woke up in her body, like Iris had? Where would she be? Could she act faster to destroy the Muil Stones?

Could she prevent this entire thing from happening? That wasn’t a bad idea.

“A word of advice, the closer you return to your timeline, the more it will fluctuate and change in a way that you won’t like,” Xeria said. Beks could’ve sworn she was giving her a clue. “You see, the more you try to change your direct past, the more the natural order of energy will resist and try to retaliate.”

“Did you tell Iris this?” Beks asked.

“The priestess who wanted to go back to be with her lover and change their future?” Xeria asked, almost mocking. “The natural order does not condone selfishness.”

Beks lets out a small, tired breath. “So, staying in my time is selfish?”

“The sun will soon leave the horizon and dawn will pass,” the voice didn’t answer her. “Make your decision and tell me your wish or we will both be trapped.”

“Trapped?” Beks paled. That hadn’t been mentioned earlier. Her mind began to race. “No-”

“You need to make your decision now.”

“No...no, wait, what about my family-”

“Three....”

Beks shut her eyes to hold back her tears and suppressed the pain. She had no time or they’d be trapped there. If she couldn’t stay, then she went with the next best option that appeared in her mind. “All right...fine.” Her instinct told her she only had one way out, so she might as well make the most of it. An image in her mind appeared of a farming valley she read about.

“Two.”

“She saved my life, so I’ll do what she wanted most.”

“One.”

She didn’t know when the exact date was, or where, so she recalled the passage the last Great Oracle had written in her book and hoped Xeria would know.

Her senses began to dull as her entire body grew heavy. She heard a small voice chuckle in her head.

“Good choice.”

Beks felt a strong pull. The last thing she saw, she was lifted up and into the inky darkness of the goddess’ eye.

╔═════════════════ ∘◦ ♔ ◦∘ ═════════════════╗

Once, she read that sound was the last sense that one could lose before they died. It seemed that was the first sense that returned when one regained consciousness.

The words she was hearing above her didn’t sound familiar, but she could understand it.

I’m in another body, aren’t I? She forgot all about that in the urgency of deciding. She took a deep breath and instead of calming down, her lungs began to burn and she started choking. She tried to open her eyes and move her arms, but her eyelids wouldn’t open and her entire body felt so heavy, she could barely muster the strength to lift her arm.

“She’s choking! She’s alive!”

“I told you she wasn’t going to die! Someone like her won’t die so easily.”

I do not like the sound of that.... Since she didn’t name someone specific, did this mean that Xeria just threw her soul into the body of anyone who had just died? Was that person in trouble?

“What should we do? Should we call the doctor back?” someone asked, sounding uncertain.

“Because she coughed? Why spend money on a doctor? As long as she’s not dead, we can proceed with the trial.”

Trial? What did this body do? Beks wanted to speak, but the choking had yet to subside.

“This crazy woman. I don’t know how she did it, but there was nothing in her basket or the pockets of clothes.”

“Hmm...our people checked the vegetable cart and the surrounding area. There wasn’t anything in there to start a fire.” One voice sounded a bit older and raspy with age. “Are you sure there wasn’t anything else in her basket?”

“No. Empty. In fact, it was wet.”

“She sells fish she caught in the river. She must’ve put them in the basket....” The older man snorted. “The point is we have eye witnesses.”

“But no one actually saw her starting the fire. Just that she was where it started, so it must’ve been her.”

Beks frowned as her coughing subsided. She fell back and found that she was slumped against a wall. She remained still, though found she could move her fingers. She was able to crack her eyes open just enough to see that she was in a dark room with no windows. The only source of light came from the door made of metal bars and the open door beyond it.

She didn’t open her eyes the whole way and continued playing unconscious as she took in her surroundings and the figures standing outside her cell.

From the size of the room, she couldn’t tell how large the actual building was, but the two men who were guarding her weren’t wearing uniforms. They just looked like normal villagers. It was likely she was in the countryside. Of where, and more importantly - when, she wasn’t sure.

Her hand rose to touch her coarse clothes. They were thin and worn. Her hands were calloused and rough on the palms and the backs. These were the hands of someone who did a lot of physical labor. She was definitely not a duke’s daughter, let alone a princess, now.

And she was accused of a crime. From the sound of the men, she was guilty thanks to eyewitnesses. She didn’t know what her punishment would be, but she didn’t have time to go through with whatever farce of a trial they had.

She let out a groan and raised her arm to her head. She measured her breathing to prevent herself from choking once more. Beks didn’t realize it earlier, as the coughing put such pressure on her chest, but the back of her head hurt. She raised her hand to the back and sure enough, there was blood congealing.

“Who hit me...?” She asked more to herself than expecting the guards to answer.

“So, you finally woke up,” a man’s voice said. As she opened her eyes all the way and her vision adjusted to the dim light, she made out the faces of the two men. As expected, one was older with gray hair in a comb over while the other was a man who was probably just a year or two older than her.

‘Her’ as in her previous body.

“Where am I? How did I get here?” She figured these were common questions someone would ask after apparently being knocked out. Although, if Beks had woken up in the body, it was likely that the body was about to die, not just knocked out.

“What does it look like? The village jail. You’re a criminal,” the younger guard told her with a proud sneer. “You know what you did.”

“What village am I in? Where am I?”

“Oh, are you pretending you don’t know your own village?”

“Well, I was hit quite hard.” She lifted her dirty fingers that had a trace of sticky, dark red on them.

The older guard snorted. “Don’t bother pretending to get out of your crime. No one is going to believe you.”

She narrowed her eyes. If they weren’t going to answer her directly, she’d get them to answer her indirectly. Her last lifetime didn’t train her to become proficient in dealing with wily courtiers for nothing.

Her dry, cracked lips curled up into a provocative smirk. “You believe I did it.” They didn’t answer her immediately and their reactions were dull. She let out a small snort laugh and looked away. “Of course, you would. Such small-brained people would believe anything, right?”

“Are you calling us stupid?” The younger of the guards whirled towards her and glared. He stomped towards her, but was held back by the older one. The older man frowned.

“She’s riling you up. Don’t listen to her.”

“Yeah, listen to the gray-haired old man. With one foot in the grave, he knows a little more about pretending to be ignorant.”

The older guard could brush off ‘stupid’, but apparently not ‘old’ and ‘ignorant’. He shot her a glare and she could see his hand clench at his side. “I would be quiet if I were you.”

“I’ve already died once, old man. What do I have to be afraid of?” Beks replied, lifting her chin up in defiance. “And no matter what I say, you won’t believe me anyway. Isn’t that what you said?”

“All criminals say they are innocent.”

“By that logic, all innocent people say they are guilty,” Beks said with a roll of her eyes as she remained slumped against the back of a cell. “I didn’t do it.”

“Half the village witnessed you setting fire to Rowena Grosh’s vegetable cart!” The younger guard looked as if he wanted to hit her. “Just because the man you like picked her over you at the spring festival’s dance!”

Beks wanted to groan. That was why this body was in prison? Attempted arson was one thing, but the motive was embarrassing. Her ex-fiancé not only picked someone over her, but slept with that woman while they were engaged. This was nothing.

A small part of her chastised the owner of the body for being so brash.

“You think that’s the only reason?” Beks raised a brow. It probably was, but she wasn’t going to be known as a crime-of-passion arsonist.

“What other reason is there?” The older guard shook his head. He pulled the younger guard away. “Ignore her-”

“Yes, ignore me.” He sent her a glare as she mocked him. Beks continued to sneer. “Ignore the lack of evidence.”

“We have evidence-”

“You have the word of a bunch of people who don’t like me,” Beks snapped. “You think I don’t know? They’d jump at a chance to ruin me.”

“Then what were you doing at the vegetable cart?”

“A woman can’t go grocery shopping?” Beks raised a brow.

“They saw you bending down by where the fire started-”

“You said that all I had with me was a basket,” Beks said in a firm voice. “What was inside? Nothing. It was empty. In addition, the basket smelled of fish and was damp because I was selling fish. I didn’t have any sort of kindling, no matches, no open fire to start the fire.” It was good she listened to them analyzing her things. “So, tell me, with what am I supposed to start the fire with? My mind?”

The younger guard opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for water. He didn’t know what to say, but the older guard seemed to have heard enough. He glared at Beks once more before dragging the other guard away.

Beks relaxed and carefully let out a breath. From what she gathered, this was just a prison, or what could barely be called that from the dilapidated look of her surroundings, in a small village. If she could get out, she could get a better look at her surroundings and ask around to see if anyone knew the late Great Oracle’s family.

Beks closed her eyes for a moment.

Once she found them, she had to convince them to leave the farming valley before the dam burst and flooded the entire valley.

Or if she couldn’t find them, she could go with the other option of trying to stop the dam from bursting, but that was even more complicated. If the dam was as large as she thought it would be to be able to flood a village, then she couldn’t patrol it on her own to try to stop the Temple’s saboteurs.

If she had a few more people, she could fulfill the mission much easier, but this time, she was solo. No Laz. No Lucian. Not even Snowflake or Efran to help her.

She didn’t even know if this body had biha. In retrospect, nothing was written about it in the future in the last Great Oracle’s books. If there were any biha-users, they’d be in places like Sagittate, which historically had bihar rich environments.

The worst I can be is disappointed. Beks opened her eyes and held up her dirt covered hand. She took a deep breath and tried to collect biha. Compared to the tingling she felt before, what she felt was miniscule, but she was sure that it was biha. She wasn’t expecting a light beam or even for her hand to glow bright, in fact, she restrained herself as much as possible, but when she looked at her left hand and found that it didn’t so much as have a sheen of light, her heart sank.

All right, it’s just light biha, but there is biha. This woman was living outside of a bihar rich environment; it was unlikely she’d have a deep well even if she could gather biha. It was a logical assumption. It could also have been that she wasn’t a light biha user. It was rare, after all.

Beks took measured breath once more, catching herself so as not to fall into another coughing fit. She touched the hard packed dirt that was the floor, and carefully released biha into it to check for a reaction.

She still feared releasing too much biha at once and causing the ground to shake, which could cause the building to collapse on top of her, or the ground she touched explode with dirt. She released a little and to her surprise, it wasn’t an immediate surge of biha that she had to quickly cut off. It was a carefully controlled stream.

Her heart quickened. This had never happened before, at least not when she wasn’t healing in a bihar-rich pool. She quelled her excitement and released a little more.

A crack appeared beneath her finger tips and Beks nearly snatched her hand back in surprise. She slid down to the floor, her face nearly touching the ground as she looked at the crack in the earth.

“I did it....” she whispered to herself as she traced the outline of the crack. She narrowed her eyes and placed her hand over it, covering the small crack before releasing a larger amount. The ground trembled just a bit beneath her and she heard a faint scraping of earth as it shifted. The crack grew from her hand, all the way across the floor of the cell.

Beks drew her lips inward to keep from screaming with excitement. She’d never had that much control before. Everything was either nothing or explosive.

Some dust was pushed into the air and Beks waved her hand that still had biha gathered.

A light breeze filled the room, blowing the dust away, towards the cell doors.

She froze. Beks looked at her hand and then at the faint cloud of dust falling on the other side of the bars. She lifted her hand once more, gathered biha and made a gentle fanning motion. Another breeze picked up, far stronger than if she was just fanning herself.

“Wind biha?”

Her eyes narrowed. One element, she could understand. She was already lucky this body had biha. She shook her head. Perhaps, she was seeing things. She waved her hand again, this time mimicking what she’d seen Gerard do. She released much more biha than she thought and suddenly, all the loose dirt and dust that had been on the surface of the ground was pushed to the far corners of the room, as if someone had done a terrible job of sweeping.

Beks stared at the dirt for a moment.

She couldn’t resist testing one more and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and gathered the biha in the palm of her hand, making it circle around itself, faster and faster. Her hand suddenly felt warm, as if it had been placed in front of a heat source.

Beks opened her eyes.

For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.

She stared at the small flame that danced above her fingers. She hadn’t been able to do anything good with fire biha in her last life except give biha to other users. It was too dangerous to practice considering her inability to control the strength of her biha, but now, she’d done so. A sourness hit her.

She remembered being a toddler and watching her brother go through his forms. Afterwards, with her chubby little arms and legs, she tried to copy Deo’s moves in secret, hoping to show some signs of fire, like her brother and father.

Her eyes reddened. “Finally,” she said as she touched the fire with her other hand. It spread on to her other hand and a bittersweet smile appeared on her face. She moved her hand and manipulated the fire created by biha, making it grow larger, smaller, and moving it as if it were a puppet on strings.

Light biha and healing with biha in bihar-rich water was what she was able to do, as she couldn’t control the other elements anywhere near as well. She’d learned the foundations of all of them, but the foundation and forms she knew best was for fire biha.

Her eyes crinkled up as she went through one of the most basic attack forms with biha that was a direct ball of concentrated fire at a target.

A chunk of the wall was struck and when the smoke and dust cleared, a black scorch mark the size of her head covered a dent in the wall.

Beks walked closer and touched it. It was still warm, but the white washed wall wasn’t stone. “Mud brick...,” she muttered. Her eyes rose. She let out a small laugh as she gathered biha and created another fireball in her hand. It looks like she could proceed with her mission after all. “And here I was worried that I was trapped.”