It was a long, silent walk back to the temple. It didn't matter how many sounds drifted in from the street. The crushing stillness hung heavy over the three as they walked back into the sanctity of their temple. The black marble and light flicker of torchlight that had always felt calm and comforting suddenly seemed cold and empty.

"Who was the reader you used? Are you sure she wasn't an amateur? Maybe she didn't take care of her bones," The woman, Ror insisted.

"New fortune tellers don't use bones. Only a few Shadow Women can do so properly. Who was it, Noh?" The man, Shannon asked, turning to face Manesc. He nodded slowly in response. Noh was by far the best fortune teller in the city. She was one of the best Shadow Women in the entire temple.

"Fuck, there's no way she'd let her bones become brittle before such an important reading. This is an omen. A bad omen," Shannon groaned, running his hand through his hair.

"Let me see the bone with the sigil," He said, holding his hand out to Manesc. He reluctantly reached into his pocket, taking the bone and offering it out to his companion. Shannon took the bone in gentle hands, turning it over, examining the cracks in it. He ran his thumb across the markings, stopping in the middle of the temple hall.

"Destruction. This sigil means the destruction of heaven" Shannon said, each word falling from his lips as if made from stone. "The gods are dead. Almost all of them gone in a war we were all too blind to notice."

"You can't be sure of that! Jumping to a rash conclusion would be detrimental!" The terrified anger wafted off her like a heat.

"He's not jumping to conclusions. If you two hadn't shirked your duties to go day drinking you would've been there to see it. As soon as she threw the bones into the altar they shattered. All except two."

"I'm terrified to ask which two," Ror muttered, leaning back against the wall behind her. "Tillia... is Tillia still...." Worry wracked her voice.

"Barely but we...don't think she is going to make it much longer," Manesc's voice fell as his eyes were pulled to the ground with the gravity of the situation. They'd all failed as priests. Underneath their noses, something like this was being allowed to happen. The entire framework of their world, shattered. The balance was gone. All the power that had been held by the gods had sunken away.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"And the second bone?" Ror clutched her fists, afraid to hear the answer

"We already know," Shannon said, looking to his partner.

Manesc nodded. "Cors."

"Damnit, what was his temple doing all this time! They have to know how dangerous this is!" Ror shouted. "The Gods need to share the power or it will destroy everything."

"Don't shout that at me, I know that," Shannon growled back at her.

"You both need to calm down," Manesc demanded. "Right now you are the only leadership we canlean on. At a time like this, the Right and Left hand need to hold the Temple up together.

"Whose Hands are we supposed to be? Who are we supposed to act on behalf of if our Goddess disappears?" Ror asked.

"We need an oracle, some direction from her. Some sort of guidance!" Shannon was shaking with rage. Manesc understood. As the Left Hand, he was their Goddess's voice of reason. He knew her will better than anyone in the temple and he'd misinterpreted her silence. It was going to be a deadly mistake that would follow him for the rest of his life.

" Appease him," Manesc spoke. "That was the only thing Noh was able to read in the bones."

"Him!" Ror was outraged at the idea. "That has to be a misinterpretation. This is all his fault! Why would the proud Mother Night want us to appease the sun bastard!"

"Because she is our mother," Shannon said through a clenched jaw, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We've always been tasked with teaching and protecting the truths, and that's what she wants of us now. She wants us to survive so that we can continue to protect and teach. It is her will that, for us to survive, we have to pick our battles. There is no option but to give in. Her commands are absolute. We have to find a way to appease him."