“Esme.” Henna’s voice was soft but pleading. “She didn’t order the attack.”

  I paused, turning my eyes to the General for a few moments, sidering my words. “But she was involved. That man, Yildren, he said the High Marshal wanted me gone.”

  Said High Marshal spoke up. “I ordered yht in, not killed.”

  Henna gred at the woman. “You ordered Burtred to do it, you know he’s a zealous bastard! You should have kept more tabs on his as. I know you didn’t want ao die in this but your judgment about this matter has been sideways since day one.”

  I looked into Olivia’s eyes, I could see her barely managing to not recoil from my gaze. There was something in there, something deep and hidden. Scars in shadows. I looked at the General and leaned against the table in a sign of impatience. “Well Henna, tell me why you trust her despite her apparent fwed judgment.”

  Prime Minister Carvat cleared his throat. “Not to interrupt, Saint Dreamsinger, but perhaps this personal matter could wait? I get the impression that this is not why you are here, revealing yourself to us now.”

  I turned my gaze to the man and nodded slowly. I had a trick up my sleeve for this anyway. “You are quite right sir, so I will simply ask this. Henna, is it trauma reted?” Olivia’s eyes widened and she shot the General a look equal parts threat and begging. Henna paused only for a moment and nodded. I sighed. “Well then, Prime Minister Carvat. I am afraid I must demand that you send in whoever has been talking in your ear this whole time.” His face flushed with embarrassment as he stammered out a denial that I quickly cut off. “I am a Saint of Dreams and a Mender. It took me a bit but I have realized that the story of your hearing loss seems to be a falsehood. Whoever is speaking to you through that earpiece must be close, something that small wouldn’t have much range. Send them in and do not insult my intelligence by denying it again.”

  He slumped in his seat and nodded slowly. “For the record, this is in fact a hearing aid. It simply has additional uses. Sellian, stop.” He spoke without looking at ao whoever was oher end. “She’s a Saint, Sel. I’m not telling her no aher are you. Have Penny bring you in, I’m sorry.”

  Dekarru raised a brow at me. “You’re pnning something, right?” I stayed quiet.

  There was a tense sileno one wao be the one speak first. Olivia took a seat o Henna, giving the General a look that spoke of betrayal. About two minutes passed before the door opened and a nurse pushed in a woman in a very fancy wheelchair. It was structed of thick metal and aricraft runes marked its many moving parts. I was reminded of some of the powered chairs from Earth that you could strap into and they would extend and raise to help someoand’ to reach higher pces without assistance.

  The woman sitting in the chair was quite rge and had some manner of pock scarring around her neck. It took a moment to pce it from some of Lietri’s memories. Ezrian’s Disease, a nasty tagious iion that didn’t have a high fatality rate, but survivors frequently had life long disabilities from it. Oh I think it would have been called neurological or nerve damage maybe. Particurly bad cases have a lot of swelling and infmed rashes on the hat usually leave scars. One of the kids in the orpha it when I still lived there, he lost fior trol in his left arm from it. From the look of this woman, I think she lost more than that.

  “Sellian, was it?” I spoke as she was brought to the table.

  She looked up at me and her eyes widehere was fear in her body nguage but not as much as simple ay. I was starting to put things together but I would let them y it out for everyone. “Y-yes ma’am. Sellian Carvat. I am so sorry for the deception miss Saint Dreamsinger, ma’am.”

  “Expin.” I made sure my toold them that I was not angry, but her was I in the mood for a runaround.

  The Prime Minister spoke up. “No malianipution was intended, I swear it. My sister is just better at this than me. I’m the fad voice of her ideas, she’s the brains behind my entire political career.”

  I looked into Sellian’s eyes and tapped the table with my finger in a slow rhythm. “I take it you want to avoid attention because of your dition?”

  She swallowed and nodded with jerky motions that spoke of poor muscle trol. “No one wants the fat girl that ’t even walk in charge.”

  “People do get caught up with the wrong issues, don’t they?” I snorted. “Well that doesn’t matter here. You’re the political mind so you’ll be here at the table. Which leaves your brother here avaible for a different task.” I turo Dekarru. “Ready for a trip into someorauma?”

  The Seer gave me a half-hearted gre. “Well it’ll be iing to see it from inside I guess.”

  I looked at Prime Minister Miratan Carvat and smiled softly. “gratutions, you get to know someone oher side better now.” Before anyone could ask me to expin, I poured mana into the spell. Dekarru, Miratan, and Olivia all grew immediately, visibly tired and within seds found themselves unscious.

  Gasps, shouts, anger, fear, all erupted arou sted for about ten seds before Mary stood and shouted, “ENOUGH! If you want the Saint to expin herself you have to keep your chattering mouths shut so she !”

  “Thank you Mary.” I gave her a small nod of my head. “They are all in The Dream on a Visio and will be back soon enough. For now, we have matters of importao discuss.” I turned my eyes onto the Prime Minister’s sister briefly.

  Sellian swallowed nervously. “Wh-what do you want from me?”

  “I itrak, Uvtrayl, and Willow Creek to present a united front against a ing storm. You will help that happen. But for the moment-” I paused and stared at nothing, fshes of ideas and moments passing through my awareness. “Ah, apparently I keep track of how the Visio is going. Good. That should make this more iing for me.” I chuckled aurned my attention to the room. “As I was saying, I o speak about something less pleasant.”

  Hen my eyes when I looked at her. “Ah, time for the ugly truth then?” she asked me.

  I nodded and took a slow breath. “Uvtrayl’s gods are dead.” The Uvtrayl envoy’s rea was more subdued than I imagihey were mostly quiet, slowly processing what I’d told them.

  El looked at the ck of rea on Henna and stared at her. “You knew?”

  I spoke for her, making sure to keep any possible immediate fallout directed at myself. “I only told her retly, though I imagine she and some others were starting to realize this already. I’m sorry for being blunt about this matter, but the Hegemony’s gods killed yours decades ago. That was the reason for hunting down yious leaders and worshipers, they needed yods weakened enough to destroy.”

  The mousy woman held her fa her hands and silence held for a time. I looked at the Pitrak envoy a a kind of ugly hope in the hurt I saw in their faces. The idea of losing their gods, having such a fual part of their society taken away forever, they sympathized with that. Empathy was a good sign for future retioween them. I just wished it hadn’t cost Uvtrayl so much.

  Sellian spoke first, drawing the eyes of the Uvtrayl people. “You—your Dreamer, they want to repce Uvtrayl’s gods, don’t they?”

  El’s eyes widened and she gazed at me with her suspi renewed. I shook my head slowly. “Vie’Ryn Tayalora, The Dreamer, my Goddess. She and her pantheon are looking for a home and a people to help.” I matched my gaze to El’s. “She knows that yods ever be repced, but she wants to stand where they stood in service to Uvtrayl and her people. To honor them and the people who praised them.”

  El’s shoulders stiffened. “And our holy days, our ceremohe sacred things we’ve only just started to recover, we throw them all aside for some new deities?”

  I gave the woman a small smile. “Nel Faeylorn would never allow that. The Ritual is a goddess of remembrance, she would sooner destroy her own pahahem to erase your people’s ways. She will aid in the recovery of Uvtrayl’s religious rites and celebrations, I swear it.”

  A mao her, thin and pale like he absolutely lived at a desk and avoided sunlight like the pgue, timidly spoke . “Who are yods?”

  I let a warm smile fall on them all as I spoke of my pantheon. This nned for, I spoke in terms both dired vague, putting on a bit of a show as ropriate for this revetion of gods to three peoples. Pitrak’s people were fasated, Willow Creek’s as well, but Uvtrayl’s envoy hung onto the words with a clear mix of worry and denial. As was expected.

  Minutes of well crafted official descriptions of the pantheon on their duties passed with no interruptions. When I fihere was another silence, broken by Sellian of all people. “One of yods is a teacher?”

  I carefully kept my look from showing my surprise at her question. I hadn’t expected Pitrak to be the first to jump in. “The Mentor is, among other things, a goddess of teag, yes. She demands that knowledge be both accumuted and shared. She is uhe Golden Temple’s Scroll-Keeper, she would not allow knowledge to be hoarded and only spread among the elite. Not to insult the Scroll-Keeper, I know that isn’t his i. But he does allow the nobility to do that in his name, something The Mentor would take as a personal affront.”

  The woman’s eyes lit up at my words. “Maybe more than just Uvtrayl has room for yods then.”

  El stood. “This is a sham.”

  Henna sighed lightly. “El-”

  “No, don’t you dare! We just got our temples rebuilt! We’re rec! The priests say that with open worship restored, ods will recover their strength ah us again soon!”

  Ogaro stood slowly and looked at the woman with a deep sadness in his eyes. “I am sorry child. The Blue Father firms that yods are gooo far to recover. I am not surprised, the Thundering Pantheon is known to be aggressive and jealous. But I am sorry, so very sorry. As one ected more directly to a divihan any others save Saints, the idea of losing mine is horrifying in a way that I ot put into words.”

  “But we still have an oracle! She still receives revetions!” El tio protest.

  Henna reached over and squeezed her assistant’s arm. “El, she barely has any power. Her revetions are broken and fusing and she gets maybe three a year. She’s never been able to tact her god like an oracle should be.”

  ave his agreement. “The revetions, the visions, the ‘sight’, are gifts given to bloodlihat do not require direvolvement from the gods. Holy, I’ve had a few visions that even the Blue Father found surprising. But the rest of the powers of an oracle are based on the direct e to their god. She only receive visions, ’t she? No guiding hand, no blessings, no divine missions granted during times of crisis? Your oracle is a gift to your people, but she is likely the st of her line. I am sorry child.”

  El lowered herself into her seat slowly. I stepped over to her aed my hand on her shoulder. “I am sorry. I know this isn’t what you expected to hear today and I wish I had better han I do. But I swear to you my Goddess and her pantheon want to help your people. All they ask iurn is a home in your temples and prayers. They will serve Uvtrayl as yods did before them. They will fight to keep you safe and whole. They will strive to aid you in rec everything that the Hegemony stole from you that be recovered. I have met the Ritual and I son my life that she would rather burn her own than allow them to do anything less.”

  She looked up into my eyes. “Any ce I could meet this Ritual dy?” she asked, tears marking her face as she started to accept the truth. “Make my own judgment on her i?”

  I paused, deg that now was as good a time as any to see if I could do the same thing I had seen Willow Creek’s oracles do. I closed my eyes a a silent question into the ether, a prayer to my goddess with a plea attached. A few moments passed before I received an answer. More of a feeling than anything else but I could uand it shogly well.

  I opened my eyes and looked down at her. “You will meet her tonight.” I turo look at the rest of the Uvtrayl envoy. “I believe many of you will also be meeting one of my gods or aonight as well. So don’t stay up too te.”

  As questions came at me I ighem, not so much out of choice but because the sudden rush of information from the Dream bubble I’d created with my spell pletely drowned out anything else for nearly a minute.

  I turned with wide eyes to Henna. “Raynim?” She fli the he pain of that day still sharp decades ter. “Gods, no wohe woman is paranoid.”

  Henna grimaced. “If you’re only at him, you haven’t gotten that far into it. It gets so much worse.”

  “Geeze.” I shook my head aurned my attention to the meeting once more. “I hope you all uand the importany presence.”

  Sellian responded after a moment’s hesitation. “It means, we o get this hammered out quickly. You mentioned a ‘ing storm’. I want to assume that would refer to increased aggression from the Empire, but assumptions are the first step of many mistakes. you tell us more?”

  “Sadly I ot. This is one of those times the gods have been vague and i with their message. I think you’d be right on the idea of the Empire being the source of it though.”

  Henna cleared her throat. “There is another possibility. The civil war in the Hegemony is nearing its end. ents there tell us there are only two of the fh Shaman’s childre and one is badly outmatched by the other.”

  I fought the urge to groan. “If one of them wins while the Empire is expanding again, the Hegemony wont sit idle. They will push hard to retake their lost territory before the Empire gets to it.”

  Sellian’s voice carried my other worry. “And if the two borders meet, that could very easily result in them finally fag each other in open flict.” I did not want to be in the middle of this p’s first World War, but that seemed to be a very real possibility.

  I looked at Mary. “You said you have a massive Wild Hunt right now.”

  She sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. “I see where yoing with this and FINE. You all deal with the demons and I’ll keep my monsters in reserve to aid your war should it happen.”

  Sellian sat up straight (or at least as best she could) with eyes wide as she looked between Mary and I. “Wait, a massive Wild Hunt? How massive?”

  “Thousands strong. Though most are simply on patrols of the borders. Many of the others fall trying to clear out s and I have to spend a great deal of my energy repairing or repg them. So the sooner you get to taking care of that little problem the better for us all.”

  With the stakes id out, I took my seat and we all talked. Sellian proved to be quite brilliant and well informed oate of her nation, though her ay of being involved directly without her brother as a go-between did slow things down at first. But I got the impression that being treated as an equal at the table gave her fidence a boost.

  Thankfully I didn’t o be involved in things very much for the rest of the iations. This was between the leaders of the three nations involved and my big part would be in Uvtrayl, speaking to the priesthood about their potential future with Vei’Ryn and her pantheon. This roving ve as I kept getting fshes of the Visio and that was all more than enough to distract me.

  Cots had been brought in to the waiting room and the three sleepers moved to them, I wahem nearby so I we could talk ohey woke up. Something that took nearly three hours to happen. By the end of the quest, I actually felt bad for Olivia and uood both why she’d dohings as she did, and why Henna trusted her anyway. I realized that she had the potential to be an ally in the ing days, but I would o give her time to process what she’d gohrough. Especially sidering I had do to her without her knowledge or permission.

  I felt a bit bad about that holy, but I didn’t like her at the time and thought she’d been responsible for the atta the train. Which, to be fair, she was plicit in if only in that she chose the wrong person to fulfill an order and didn’t give them proper ht. Something at least partially iionally done. But with what I knew now it seemed… uandable. Potentially fivable even.

  As the others talked, I stood and made my way towards the waiting room. “tihe others are about to wake up.” I said at the pause before simply walking out.

  I took a seat he cots and waited patiently. The Prime Minster’s wife gave me a fearful look from her seat o her husband’s sleeping form. I smiled softly “They’ll be awake in a mihey’re about done in there.” Relief washed over her fad she quietly thanked me for telling her before returnitention to him.

  A few mier Dekarru groaned and sat up, Miratan and Olivia following suit shortly after. The Seer stretched her arms and looked over at me. “Been waiting long, Stareyes?”

  The others tur her words and looked at me. “No.” I responded. “I was watg, I saw you were about done in there.” I looked at Miratan. “Your sister is brilliant. She’s doing a damned fine job at the table in there.”

  He smiled slightly. “She always has been the smart o was her passion to get public education fixed, her ideas that drove my campaign, her advice that kept everything w once I won.”

  I turned my eyes to Olivia. “So. You have lessons learned. I won’t push yht now but I will ask that you refle things. Henna knows where to find me when you are ready to talk.” The tears on her face were not new, she’d shed them many times during her Quest. The look in her eyes however, a mixture of anger, grief, and gratitude, was gaihe moment she looked at me. She simply nodded. “Good. Now I think I’ve had enough of this for one day. The rest of you head baside but I’m stealing a cot and taking a nap until someone needs me.”