After the Saintess was ushered out, the High Priest and Kielan both excused themselves, leaving Rhiannon and I standing in the over–decorated chambers in silence. We could not dare speak freely inside a temple building for fear of being overheard, but we managed to communicate the following conversation with glares, eye–rolls, smirks, and one unfortunate and confused blush.

What in the name of common sense has gotten into you?

How about you? We never agreed to a Ceremony today –

Just be glad I got your uncouth and unsubtle butt into the Ceremony at all. With how erratic you were acting, we're lucky they didn't manage to derail everything.

I wasn't acting erratically, I was being cautious. We can't just add random things at the last minute –

And what was with touching her hair, you freak?

The pair of acolytes who came in to lead us to the Ceremony found me flushed with embarrassment and Rhiannon looking smug. It was an unfortunately familiar situation for me, similar to countless times we had bickered as children, with me losing more often than not.

I was sincerely concerned though, and it was frustrating to be unable to explain why to Rhiannon. I had told her only the bare bones of what had occurred at the Ceremony – that the Saintess had drunk Holy Water and become ill, and that the priests had acted suspiciously – but our plan had been motivated more by the fact that the Saintess had given us a detailed prophecy than anything else. Leveraging the Proclamations was Rhiannon's idea, and our plan was far from subtle. Removing the Saintess, who had at least once been willing to share information, from the temple, who never wanted to share information, was supposed to help us weaken their stranglehold on the court and public opinion. We had taken a risk, as for all we knew the Saintess might not be willing to provide a full prophecy again. All our planning had centered on how to manipulate the temple and catch them off guard before they could rally their imperial allies to hamper our movements.

I had not explained in detail just how alarming the Saintess's reaction to the Holy Water had been, or how sinister the priest's expressions had felt as they watched her suffer. Rhiannon was no fool, and to a certain extent we had both hoped for conflict between the Saintess and the temple so that we might be able to push them apart more. But seeing the Saintess so desperately throwing in with our arguments after only the barest consideration, all after fleeing from her supposed attendants without even shoes – it felt wrong to put her back by the Spring of Blessings. Rhiannon was making a logical decision, and I did not have a better plan in mind. Perhaps if I had a chance to explain this to her, she could figure something out, but everything was moving too quickly.

I agonized silently as Rhiannon graciously allowed us to be led out and towards the Spring. The temple seemed to be in chaos around us, priests and acolytes running wildly around and guards standing nervously at their posts. I had to admit that moving quickly gave us an advantage against the temple, at least; they were clearly caught wrong–footed. Even the High Priest looked off balance when we met her again at the entrance to the Spring. We all stood silently as we waited for the Saintess. There was really nothing to say.

When she finally appeared, clad again in indigo but this time without a veil, Priest Kielan was with her. Her face was completely blank, while his was twisted, and he was gripping her upper arm as they walked, almost dragging her to the side. Rhiannon frowned beside me, and I took a step forward when the High Priest cleared her throat. Kielan snapped away from the Saintess at the sound. The High Priest's expression was briefly terrifying as she looked at him, but then she turned to me and Rhiannon and it was gone.

We waited a few moments longer before entering, giving the Saintess and her two attendants time to go in first. Walking in, the –wrongness– struck me once again, worse this time. It was so much like an incursion that my hair stood on end.

Rhiannon felt it too, I was sure, but she did not show it. I knew she was cataloging every detail next to me, but my focus was on the figures across from us, lit eerily by the light of the Holy Water.

The High Priest spoke the words I remembered from the last Ceremony.

"Saintess. For the Empire and the Holy Order, we beseech you to call upon Lumina's grace once again."

This time, the Saintess did not reply. I remembered how angry Kielan had seemed when she did before and wondered if even that had been a rebellion.

Instead, she waited silently as the acolyte to her left handed her the strange black ladle before walking smoothly up to the Spring and kneeling. Without the veil the light from the Spring of Blessings suffused her features completely, turning her pale skin and white hair gold. Last time, she had been like a carving of the Goddess, with her hair done intricately and adorned lavishly and her face hidden. This time, she looked fragile and human. Watching her raise the glowing water to her lips, ladle full to the brim and her eyes downcast, I wanted to scream at the wrongness. She swallowed once, twice, five times, choking slightly at the end. The ladle hit the floor beside her with a faint thud.

It was just as horrible this time, worse even, her twisted expression visible as the prophecy hit her. Rhiannon stood rigidly beside me, and it was all I could do to stay next to her. Kielan's face was dark with fury as he watched the Saintess writhing on the floor, and the two attendants were businesslike as they retrained her. I tore my gaze away for a moment to glance at the High Priest, and shuddered at her expression. It was icy and compassionless, furious and merciless. If there had been any suspicion in my mind that the Saintess was somehow acting with the temple's leadership in order to trick us, that look burned it away completely.

Nauseous, I waited as the moments passed slowly until the Saintess finally started to speak. When she did, muffled and desperate, I started to move forward again. If we could not hear her, there was no way the priests would not lie. I expected Rhiannon to stop me – it was wrong for a bodyguard to leave their charge, and it was a mistake for us to do anything to piss these priests off further until we got what we needed from them – but she moved forward with me.

The Saintess's eyes locked on mine, just as desperate has her grip on my sleeve had been before. I grabbed her hand without thinking.

"North. The glacier, melting. Not just beasts, but a river too, on fire. Flooding, blighting crops with purple, hunger. Starts at the north, then it spreads, further and further. The beasts rush through two valleys. In a village – knights – I – I'm there –"

She fell unconscious, blood trickling from her nose.

The prophecy was not as clear or informative as last time. The words were garbled, and no timeframe given. Concerningly, it was also not a clear answer to whether or not we should bring her out of the temple.

But seeing Rhiannon's face mirror my own as the Saintess was carried away, I knew we were not going to leave this woman behind again.