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Saturday 27 May 2017

The Shattered Oracle - III - As Oracles are Wont to Do - Page 10


III

As Oracles are Wont to Do


- Page Ten -




"It was a moment of stupidity." Maenthrai got up to her feet. Her robes seemed to billow and flow around her on a wind with no discernible source. The energies were crackling around her, but much more subdued than before. Her anger at herself was bleeding heavily into reality, using her powers as a conduit into the material world. Both of the metal doors slammed shut with a loud groan followed by a thunderous impact. "It was a moment of weakness!"

"Well, you're here now, neigh? It was just a spirit journey, you said." The young woman gave a half-hearted grin. She lifted one of her hands from the bed and offering it outward. Her palm was upturned as if she were balancing an invisible object in her grip. "You got lost in your head. As oracles are wont to do, and you almost fell off a balcony like a clumsy sod." Her eyes closed as she chuckled at the thought; it was more nervousness coming out of her than mirth. "We save you. No big deal, neigh? Don't say 'thank you' or anything."

"No." Hildger's voice was low and rumbling when he let the word slip out of his mouth. "It's not that easy, Wynnol." He let his broad shoulders slump some more until looked like he was half-crouched forward in defeat. "Maenthrai betrayed us."

Maenthrai stopped to stare at the large man with the corner of her eyes. She wanted to direct some of her building rage at him for his words. She could feel sparks of telekinetic energy rippling out from her like tendrils. Each of the tendrils — imperceptible to anyone other than a well-trained oracle — reached out, snapping like whips in the air. All it took was for one of those conduits of aethyric energy to make contact with his body and she might toss him across the room like a rag doll. It didn't matter his size or how far her will might throw him. She held her powers in check, however, letting the tendrils dissipate or return to her. She knew he was right. His words were honest. Her emotional weakness, her bad choices, and her carelessness had betrayed them all.

"I don't understand." Wynnol kept her hand aloft and turned her large, green eyes toward Hildger. She scrunched up her nose for a moment, causing the freckles on her youthful cheeks to bounce up and down. "She projected, saw her home, had an accident. The balcony really wasn't that big a deal. Like I said, nothing to say 'thank you' for." She stopped and set those green eyes like daggers at Maenthrai. "It's only an eighteen story drop, or so." She softened her eyes and let a morbid chuckle out.

"I take it, when you traveled to Oerstav Caelii, something there let you know the Mad Hag felt your presence?" Hildger turned his attentions back to Maenthrai and ignored the ramblings of Wynnol. "Mileana explained some of how projection works to me." He turned his eyes towards Wynnol with these words. His brow arched severely and his jaw was set at an angle. He was using his body and tone to tell the young woman to pay attention to what he would now say. Obviously, these two must have a history together. "You weren't able to disperse your energies by taking a long way back to your body, right? When you were falling, the mortal shock drove your spirit to you directly." Hildger took a deep breath. "Mileana told me a similar thing happened to her when she was training under you. She was projecting as part of an exercise and fell into a stream. The shock sent her snapping back to her body immediately." He lowered his gaze and took a moment of contemplation. "So, whatever spooked you — well, we know it was the Mad Hag — at that horrible place, will be able to follow your soul-trail to this place." 



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