After all of their tests were successful, Dorian sent a message with what happened to the Colony of Veda. Just as they were about to call a meeting to discuss what to do next, Howard spotted Denewulf coming down the stairs. He looked shaken and oddly pale, something that Howard had never expected to see from him.

{What happened?} Howard asked, causing Dorian to look over.

{I just had a conversation with the Oracle you guys were talking about,} Denewulf explained, {Whatever that thing is it is powerful enough to overwhelm me completely. It didn’t even need to go through the cores to contact me.}

{What the Oracle talk to you about?} Dorian asked.

Denewulf relayed his conversation to them through a telepathic mark. From the White Knight to the revelation that the coming war was part of the Cycle that kept being mentioned it was all different information than the Oracle had told them. Then there were the mentions of these other heroes or knights.

{The Red Knight could be someone with red eyes,} Dorian suggested, {and if the Black Knight is in the Crimson Colony then we really should contact them.}

{Who among those with Dream would be the most likely to deny the existence of the Oracle or refuse to acknowledge them in another way?} Howard wondered.

One person came to mind, but Howard dismissed it. Rather than him it was more likely to be Azul or one of Denewulf’s siblings.

Dorian didn’t answer but seemed to realize something. {We need to gather the others. The Oracle didn’t say that they would take us to their Garden of Feroz, but Concordia. If Concordia moves somewhere strange without warning several people are bound to freak out.}

{I imagine Sanders is going to leave so he does not get involved, again,} Howard guessed, {but we definitely need to get everyone ready before we try contacting the Oracle.}

It took a while to gather everyone, and Jonathan was especially reluctant to leave his research, but once they explained what was going on they quickly launched into a heated discussion. Just as Howard had suspected, Sanders had known ahead of time and was already gone.

{So next time one of you tries to talk to this Oracle they are just going to kidnap us to some sort of suspicious garden?} Nova demanded. Nova still had red eyes and her hair was still very much black, but she had grown a little in height and could now communicate through telepathy.

{I don’t like the idea much either,} Natalie agreed, {Do we have any chance to refuse?}

{It doesn’t sound as if this Oracle intends to give us any more warning than it already has,} Jonathan mused, {How obnoxious. I am in the middle of a very interesting project involving the philosophy of the origin of Wisdom.}

{You actually made progress on that?} Selina asked in surprise.

{Not really but what I have found has been exciting. I will explain at a better time when you aren’t all panicking about an Oracle kidnapping us.}

{Right. Do we have any idea on how to prepare for this sudden teleportation?} James asked, {Do we even know what the Oracle means when they say they are going to take Concordia? Does that mean the whole colony will be torn out of the ground? Where does the Oracle consider our borders to be?}

{It might not be teleportation at all,} Jonathan suggested, {The second magic in this world is called Dream.}

{So you think it will be some sort of illusion where we think we are somewhere else but we didn’t go anywhere?} Selina clarified, {That would be pretty cool and we wouldn’t have to worry so much being kidnapped.}

{Though it would be concerning that they have so much control over our minds,} Leon pointed out.

{We have already known they have a lot of control over minds,} Dorian replied, {But with the current situation we need answers more than caution and this Oracle seems to have them.}

{Why do you have so much faith in the Oracle?} Miranda asked, {Sanders instantly accepted them too.}

Nova answered instead of Dorian. {On our world prophecies are common and are taken very seriously. Not as a definite future, but as one of the possible futures. It is deeply ingrained in our culture, in all of the culture I found no matter where I went.}

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{That makes sense,} Miranda agreed, {but there is no telling whether this Oracle is a fake or not.}

{I think there may be, and we might be able to test it when we go or dream wherever the Oracle takes us,} Dorian replied, {Besides, Oracles give advice as well as prophecy. This one could just be referring to themselves as someone who speaks for Feroz.}

{That’s true,} Selina agreed, {So how are we going to prepare?}

{We don’t know how this is going to work or how long it is going to take so we should eat first at the very least,} Natalie suggested, {The last thing we want to present to the Oracle is a growling stomach.}

Both Selina and Miranda turned slightly red at the thought.

{I can make food,} Hiroshi offered.

{Please do. Meanwhile we can try and figure out the basics of what to do while we are there,} Natalie brought up, {For starters, who will be our representative?}

{The Sages, right?} Nova answered, {It seems natural that they would take the lead.}

{But which one?}

{Dorian is the one who says he has a plan for finding things out,} Selina stated, {He makes the most sense to me. Howard and I can pitch in when necessary.}

They continued discussing plans, and shortly after Hiroshi brought some food to the meeting room. After they ate, they intended to try to contact the Oracle. However, once they were finished they didn’t have the chance to do anything before the scenery around them suddenly changed.

The Oracle had called it a garden, but it reminded Howard of a biodome straight out of a fantasy. There were the usual teal and blue plants, and then there were familiar green plants. After that a full rainbow of wildlife emerged.

The mystical plants were arranged in a spiral, and in the center was a cylinder of light. Even though it was light, Howard couldn’t assign a specific color to it. Sometimes it appeared pure white, at other times slightly blue. If he looked at it from a different angle it appeared golden.

Floating inside the light like a weightless doll was a beautiful woman with flowing black hair, and lifeless crimson eyes wearing a pure white dress that contrasted her appearance perfectly. Standing next to the light was a man who seemed like the woman’s perfect opposite. White hair, white eyes, and he was staring right at them.

{Welcome to the timeless Garden of Feroz,} the man told them, {That is my wife and the Oracle of Feroz. She has become one with Feroz, but I will to my best to translate for her as I always do.}

The man’s voice was exactly like the one that the Oracle had used when communicating with them, but Denewulf did not seem to recognize it, meaning he had likely been contacted by the woman personally. This did explain the Oracle’s tendency to refer to Feroz as a female.

{If you are not the Oracle, then who are you?} Dorian asked, glancing between the man and his wife.

The man gave a bitter smile. {Messenger of the Oracle perhaps? Translator? I am sure you have questions about your situation and about the Cycle. I can answer those for you.}

He seemed unwilling to reveal his identity any further.

{Why don’t you start by explaining why your wife is like that and how the Cycle began?} Dorian asked.

{I cannot guarantee that this is the true beginning, but it is the beginning as I know it,} the man cautioned, {As you Outsiders may know, Feroz is a young world, and being a young world it is overflowing with the magic that sparked its creation. The beings of Feroz have always been able to harvest that magic and use it, however it comes at a price. Magic changes our bodies down to the very core. The more we use it the more it consumes us, until one day our bodies can no longer keep up and Feroz claims us once more.}

{There is that kind of danger?!} Selina demanded in alarm.

The man held up a hand. {There is more. Do not worry. Since people could no longer survive without magic, a genius split magic into three kinds. Wisdom, Dream, and Evil. Wisdom and Dream were the kinds that the people preferred to use, and Evil was the kind that could grant incredible power but ate away at their bodies. However, because of this Feroz stopped protecting the people from the painful heat of the sun, or perhaps the protection of the sun was part of the magic that the genius dubbed Evil.}

Howard felt like he could see where this was going from here. If Feroz was anything like Earth then this was the part where…

{That is when the genius came up with the idea to offer a sacrifice to appease Feroz. The genius gathered the strongest in the ways of all three magics and locked them in this timeless garden. Once the garden was sealed, the light appeared and began to consume it. In a desperate attempt to save our child, my wife gave herself to the light and became one with Feroz.}

{Child?} Dorian asked.

{Yes. As I said, there were three. I am Wisdom, my wife is Dream, and our child is Evil.}

Everyone began looking around nervously for this child but saw no one.

The man let a sad smile cross his face fleetingly. {Our darling daughter, after being dubbed Evil and losing her mother began to change. Even though her body would not grow older in this space her mind continued to grow. One day she couldn’t take it anymore and charged into the light to try to free her mother and disappeared. That was the beginning of the first Cycle.}

Howard felt a chill. He did not like where this story was going, and he especially did not like what they had heard about this supposed genius.

{Evil lost her body, but continued living. Furious at the genius and what they had done she became a vengeful spirit and hunted them and their supporters. She could not return to the Garden, and she could not pass on. Then a group of heroes appeared and captured Evil, giving her the gift of rest. Thus the Cycle ends.}

{So the next Cycle begins when she wakes up?} Dorian asked.

{Yes,} the man confirmed, {The trace of the Bloodcry will lead you to her.}

{There has to be a better way than just putting her to sleep,} Selina brought up, {We can’t just leave her like that.}

{If I knew any other way I would have told you,} the man told them, {Do you think I wish for things to continue like this? I will tell you one more thing. The genius was an Outsider. Since they have long passed, you are our only hope. It is our belief that only an Outsider can undo what the genius did. Please, save my family!}

His tone grew desperate as he began to plead. This was the revolution the Oracle wished for, but Howard wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. The genius definitely did a terrible thing but they didn’t have enough information on what horrors would happen if they just undid it.

{What about the Knights?} Dorian asked.

{Ah, that is what my wife likes to call the heroes. The Knights save my daughter every Cycle. Feroz continued to provide a way, but so far we have failed anything but a temporary rest.}

{We will need time,} Dorian replied, {And we have our own problems right now. We can’t do anything for your daughter if the other colonies destroy us first.}

{That is something I actually can help with,} the man assured, {Whatever happens we will be on your side to make sure you are safe.}

The promise was likely conditional, but it was the best they had at the moment so they would have to work with it. Seeming to have decided that they had already agreed, the Garden of Feroz disappeared and they were sitting exactly where they had been before in front of their empty dishes.