The girl blinked and time moved again, but it was like she couldn’t hear anything that was happening. One of the soldiers gripped her great-grandmother by the arms, her cane clattering to the floor, while the other brought his sword up and quickly pressed the tip through the back of her great-grandmother’s neck. Blood ran from her mouth in a river, staining her white kaftan and gushing to the floor. Her body fell from the sword with a slick sound before crumpling to the ground. As soon as she fell, a light detonated in the space from where her body lay, causing the men to lift their hands to their faces with a cry.
The light pulsed, staying contained near her great-grandmother’s body, pushing away anyone who dared get near. No sound accompanied it, yet it drowned out all other noise in the room—the soldiers’ exclamations, the General’s shouts and orders, the Warlord’s cursing—all were muted as the light continued to pulse.
The girl felt a pull in her chest as she gazed at the light. It felt like it was beckoning her closer, and she was instantly reminded of the life lights scattered throughout the dark room in Solace. The girl felt her soul drift until she was standing directly in front of the light.
“It is time, child,” a voice that was simultaneously familiar and undoubtedly foreign said in her mind.
The girl reached out her hand and brushed against the life light. The light latched onto the girl at the smallest of contact, pulling her back into Solace and out of the Room of Knowledge. All at once, images exploded across her consciousness. Visions floated through her mind at the speed of light. Thousands upon thousands of lives flashed beforeher eyes—those of the ancient past and those of the future all combined into a steady stream of images. The girl gasped and felt like her soul was torn into a thousand pieces as the speed of the images accelerated until they coalesced into one blur. Despite the speed at which she saw everything, the girl inherently knew that she would retain it.
For what felt like years, the girl’s hand remained encapsulated by the light while she was inundated with visions of the past and of the future. The girl tried to wrench her hand away, afraid that her mind would burst from the pain in her head, but the light held tight.
“Look!”it said, “see what has happened and what will happen, child. You are the last of us. The Last Keeper. The Last Matriarch.”
The girl let out a bloodcurdling shriek and was thankful that one of her ancestors had the foresight to create a Sound Blocking Rune on the carpet in the seeing chamber. Her mind latched onto that memory, and she saw her four times great-grandmother sewing the rune into the carpet, the thread thick with the blood that had gushed from her nose when she had bound herself to Solace.
The memory ended and floated away while others continued to assault her consciousness. The girl felt too full, like any more information would surely cause her brain to burst. The memories slowed to a trickle, and the girl was able to latch onto a few as they floated past. She distinctly saw the faces of six people, and catalogued the memories and futures directly attached to those six faces into their own room in Solace, saving them for when she had the ability to further dissect the images.
Eventually, the memories and futures ground to a halt, and she opened her soul’s eyes to see that no time had passed inside the Room of Knowledge. The light from her great-grandmother waned and died, taking the bodies of both her relatives. The girl found that she didn’t feel any sadness at their loss. They were with the goddess, now. They were at peace.
Much to the girl’s surprise, her soul was not thrust back into the room containing the life lights of her people upon the deaths of her remaining family. Instead, the girl found she was able to move freely about the space and she floated over to the General, studying his face before touching his cheek where the rune was. The blood, and rune, had absorbed into his skin when her great-grandmother died, hiding itself until the time was right.
The General shuddered at her touch. The girl pulled her soul’s hand back as if burned and a sequence of visions pulled across her mind.
He was one of the six.She let out a low hiss, disappointed that Solace demanded he live when he had helped cause the destruction of her people. She searched her futures, desperate to find one where he wasn’t alive, and could not find it as a possibility.
She floated away from the General toward a raging Alois. He was shuffling through the book again at lightning speed, beyond frustrated at this point.
“Thatbitch! It’s not here! There is nothing here!” he screamed at no one in particular. Alois wrenched his gaze from the book, eyes wild as he searched for her great-grandmother’s body. “The magical signature of the Last Keeper!” He whirled to face one of the soldiers. “Where did it disappear?” He crossed the room in three great strides and picked up the soldier by his collar, throwing him against the wall.
“D-d-down here! Down here! She is in here somewhere!” He clawed pointlessly at Alois’ hands wrapped around his neck. The Warlord released the soldier and frantically ran his hands over the walls, looking for a place where the girl could have hidden.
“You will not find me here,” her soul said in a voice that was somehow hers but alsonot. The Warlord instantly halted his frantic searching and pivoted to gaze around the room.
“Where are you? I hear you.”
The girl cocked her soul’s head to the side, quietly regarding Alois.He could hear her?
“SPEAK TO ME,” he demanded, spittle flying from his mouth as his face turned red, hand clutching the book. The Mages remaining in the space took an involuntary step backward, away from their raging lord.
“No,” she said simply. The Warlord growled in frustration.
“You’re not here, are you.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement that rang with truth and knowledge.
Truthsayer.
“No, Truthsayer. I am not,” the girl said. It wasn’t the truth but wasn’t a lie, either. Her physical body was here, but her soul was in Solace.
He searched around the chamber again, looking for her.
“Sir?” The quiet question came from the General. “Who are you speaking to?”
Alois’s gaze snapped to the General and he gave him a feral smile. “The Last Matriarch, General. She is not here, but we will not stop until every one of her people is dead. You hear me, Keeper?” he shouted the last part. “I will kill every. Last. One of you until you present yourself to me.”
She didn’t deign him an answer. The Warlord huffed and shoved past his soldiers and General, making for the entrance of the room.
“Sir?” the General asked quietly again.
“Torch it. Torch it all. But leave the bodies for carrion. If the Last Matriarch refuses to give herself to us, then she shall not see her people returned to Solace,” he said. “And we’re keeping the book,” he added petulantly while striding from the room, not waiting for his General’s response.
