Matamuri paused, mulling over the words.
“No,” she finally said. She would take the pain of death, the stench of rot and decay. But she would not betray her people by aiding the Warlord.
“I’m afraid, my dear, you don’t have a choice. You agreed to my bargain, after all,” Fate said with finality.
The girl blanched and tried to remove her mind from this place, but she found that her soul was trapped here with Fate.
“You tricked me,” she whispered.
“And how many times have you done the same? To your own people, no less.” There was a hint of derision and disgust in Fate’s words.
Matamuri blanched, but Fate was right. She had tricked her own people, fed them false visions, denied their final rites of passage into Solace.
The girl hung her head in shame.
“Gather them. Protect them. Let them help you.” Her great-grandmother’s words rang through her mind.
She’d failed her family. Completely disregarded her great-grandmother’s last wishes in favor of her own revenge.
Matamuri didn’t deserve to be reunited with them. She didn’t deserve these last moments of peace.
But, maybe, this could atone for some of her sins.
“Do it,” she finally said.
Without a word, Fate’s vision slammed into her consciousness.
This felt so different than the visions she’d received from Solace, and the realization made her unbearably sad. The future Fate thrust into her mind was shockingly clear, like thewater that flowed from the springs in the north. There was an element of peace to it, and Matamuri found herself sighing as it washed over her.
This was what a vision was supposed to feel like.
It was evident the futures Solace sent her were tainted—dirty—altered to fit the goddess’s plans.
How many fake visions have I given my people? What have I done?
The thoughts flayed the girl, opened her heart to the monstrosities she’d committed. But it was too late now to fix what she’d done, what she’d started. If she’d died sooner, if she’d passed with her people all those years ago, Solace would still be imprisoned, Elyria wouldn’t be on the brink of a second Sundering, the gods wouldn’t win.
It was never Solace’s intention to rain justice on the heads of those responsible for the killing of her people; in fact, it felt like the goddess even orchestrated it, pushed visions into the minds of Keepers who had the ears of powerful lords.
She only hoped that Jarius could alter the course of the future enough to thwart the goddesses and her plans.
He’s in the possession of the last Truthsayer; that has to mean something.
The girl gasped as she pushed the vision into the mind of Jarius. There was a tentative connection there, Jarius holding onto life by only a thread, though the thread was thicker than her own.
“Thank you, Matriarch,” his voice whipped through her mind, barely above a whisper, “rest with our ancestors. I will see you. I will remember you. Go, be at peace.”
Matamuri broke the connection with Jarius, her mind spent and exhausted.
“Thank you, Matamuri,” Fate murmured. “Go, now. Join your family. They’re waiting for you.”
Slowly, a prick of light expanded until it encompassed the dark completely. The girl heard the voices of her people calling her, the warmth of her mother’s arms surrounding her, the love of her great-grandmother inside her.
And so, she went.
Chapter 11
The Acolyte
