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her thin lips upward.
    “No, Dreslya.” She savored the sound of her answer, enjoying the shock on the lesser oracle’s face as she rose from her bow.
    “But High Oracle, this morning we found you unconscious. I and the other oracles fear for your health in these plague-ridden times.”
    It wasn’t often that Sameska thought of her own age, one of frailty and senility in some, but she knew the tone of Dreslya’s plea and did not appreciate being reminded of it.
    “Young lady, you seek to stand with me in the Hidden Circle, to hear the whole and full voice of Savras? You fear I am too old to withstand the power of his sight?”
    “N-no,” she stammered, shaken by the tone in Sameska’s voice and the steel in her gaze, “I did not mean to imply—”
    “I have stood in the rune circle alone since I was but a slip of a girl well younger than you! You stand here stuttering and unsure in my eyes, hearing my voice. What will you do when he speaks fully to you? How will you stand when Savras pours his truth into your ears, child?”
    “I beg your pardon, I have seen—”
    “Yes! You have seen, haven’t you? Seen the day a woman will bear her child, advising midwives to be prepared. You have seen the lives of lovers perhaps, where their paths might cross and for whom they are destined? These are but fragments! Bits handed down in his mercy so your soul will not be set on fire with the visions that await you in that circle!”
    Dreslya was speechless, wide-eyed she looked away, unwilling to bear the indignant fury in Sameska’s eyes. The high oracle looked her would-be successor up and down, once again feeling strength in her old blood. She reached out with one hand and turned Dreslya’s face to hers, allowing a brief silence to settle on the young woman before speaking again.
    “Child, I stand in the Hidden Circle for us all. Neither age nor burgeoning plague will end this.” Her voice was softer, placating Dreslya’s look of hurt and confusion. “Should Savras wish me to fall and another take my place, so be it, but until then I must do what my mother and her mother did before me. Alone.”
    Dreslya nodded and her quivering lip steadied. “Yes, forgive my intrusion. I did not mean to offend.” She bowed and turned to leave.
    Sameska’s stern explanation belied the sudden rage that built within her, but she held it in check. As she watched Dreslya walk away, she wondered what new rumor or derisive comment might be made of this behind her back and decided she might have her hand in it as well.
    “Wait.” Sameska’s voice echoed in the long hallway, sounding louder than it was. Dreslya stopped, cast in the darkness between two windows, but did not turn.
    “Yes, High Oracle?”
    “Instruct the oracles and the hunters to gather in the sanctuary at noon tomorrow.”
    Dreslya turned then, worry spread across her smooth features as the import of Sameska’s words hit her.
    “All of them? A gathering?”
    “Yes, child, all of them,” she replied, enjoying the moment, eager to proclaim her terrible secret and assert her authority once again over the whisperers and doubters of the church. Then she added, “Something is coming, and we must be prepared.”
    She left Dreslya standing in the dim hallway, mystified and frightened, and closed the heavy doors of the sanctuary, ending their conversation.
    Sameska paused behind those doors, pleased with herself and feeling younger than ever as she straightened her robes and studied the circular chamber.
    She stepped quickly to the edge of the rune circle. She recited a traditional prayer and cast a minor spell of seeing, a divination to guide her through the visions she hoped to receive, felt confident she would receive. She focused her mind, blocking out all but the circle from her thoughts, studying its edges, arcane symbols intertwined with the divine.
    The Hidden Circle was the path of the oracle, the center of Savras’s attention in the temple. She sighed and