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S: Thank you, Juliane. Then what?
O: She never came to the tavern, so I decided to go home.
Foreboding unwinds in my stomach like a spool of ribbon. The Sanctum Square would’ve been the most direct route.
S: Did you see or hear anyone else on your way?
O: It—it may have been theskonia.
S: I will judge that. What did you see?
O: A Selenae man. Standing in the shadows. Looking up at the Sanctum.
Juliane’s writing conveys a choppiness to Oudin’s speech, and perhaps fear. I’m feeling the same unease.
S: What was he doing?
O: He was—He was communing with one of the demon statues high on the wall. He spoke to it, and it flew away.
Skoniadelusions often start with seeing or hearing something real but unexpected, then diverge from what’s truly happening into a flat-out hallucination. If Oudin indeed saw a Selenae man, it means I was being watched—and followed—long before I left the Sanctum.
I’m also certain Oudin saw me standing by Pierre. When I moved away, his drugged mind interpreted it as the statue taking flight. The unspooled ribbon of anxiety in my belly feels like it’s caught fire at one end, spreading rapidly through the twists and turns. Somehow, I know what’s coming.
The next speaker is Lambert, someone I hadn’t realized was present.
L: Did the Selenae man say anything?
O: He said, “Go home, little cat. This is not a night to be out.”
