Around her, the three Oracles hummed a harsh tune, she realised it to be hymn of thorns; the women standing in the distance solemnly held their hands to their chests as they witnessed the proceedings. 

Aari Luseen was the one to offer Elizei her hands, and pull her up out of the pond. A barrier of a wide white sheet of cloth was pulled up by Elizei's fellow apprentices, to hide her from the spectators' gaze. 

Without even letting the water dry off, the Oracles dressed Elizei up in a white robe with a tiny bell tied around her neck with a cord. It rang very weakly, easy to miss if you weren't aware of it's existence.

“Elizei, daughter of mine…” Aari Dreni began. “Today we are here to bid you on the path of the Guide. It is a privilege, a duty, a punishment, a calling and most of all an honour of mine to ask you one last time: do you wish to take this path?

Know that our love for you will not wane if you walk away, and neither would we be any prouder if you were to accept this burden. We are not here to force you into a way of life that your nature does not align with, for that would be the greatest of sins. We are simply here as witnesses and guides, for a spirit that has reached the nexus of change. Do you accept this change for which you have prepared for all your life, child?” 

Elizei stood there, her body trembling as cold water clung to her, and cool winds caressed her making her shiver under the damp robes. Dreni was not her mother, Elizei had no memory of her parents, and even if she did, Elizei doubted that it would change anything now. Aari Dreni had raised her, fed her, and made her stand up with her eyes held high. Elizei looked down at her left hand, which had arcane, elegant black patterns tattooed on it, from her fingers to halfway to her elbows: vague thin designs like threads weaving around her palms, like spider webs; it was a birthmark. She often wore gloves to hide that. But today, she didn’t, she would need it.

Did she want to become an Oracle though? She asked herself, and surprisingly, the answer came in the image of a person, Avin. He had told her that she didn’t need to do this, that she could walk away. 

There was more to it, not just the words, but the person who had said it. Something she had felt with him, even though she had barely talked to him, barely knew him. She clutched the puzzle link in her marked hands and opened her mouth to say no. 

But then, the look on Aar Dreni changed the words she wanted to say, and before Elizei even realised, the words came out of her mouth, 

“Yes...” 

***

In the night the red ruins were solemn, and silent, the ruin had seen Oracles, and chief's, who had walked through them to take the trial of spirits so many times in the past, and would still watch for the ones will pass through them in the future. 

Elizei walked in her plain white dress robe, holding a lantern, Aari Dreni following behind her with a lantern of her own. The moon wasn't full today, but it was enough to brighten the night enough to somewhat make out her surroundings.

The Red ruins were once home to the Old ones, whose names that had been forbidden by the ancestors, the ones whose blood ran in the Krimzons and, to a certain extent, the Ulov. The only name that was remembered and not forbidden to speak of, was the name of the city that this ruins once was: Zer-shi-Tan  

The name Zer-shi-Tan was in the old tongue of Eson. But when translated into the common modern Imperial tongue, it would roughly translate to Raised by blood. As to the blood of what, Elizei had no idea. And Oracles had told her Zershitan was not the full name of the city. So not only the origin, and ruin of the city was a mystery, but also its name.

The Grand city now lay in a heap of collapsed Arches, and cracked and leaning palaces. There were plazas so grand and magnificent as to take one's breath away, were buried under rubble. Even the smallest of homes, Elizei could make out, were built like tiny temples. 

She passed through a tunnel that cut through beneath a small hill, on which stood a grand structure with dozen towers and arches connecting them. Elizei could barely begin to fathom what that structure was for. 

‘Maybe a castle for the Kings who once ruled this city? But no, that can't be. Why would the King make a tunnel running beneath his Castle?’ 

The tunnel was wide enough to let ten carriages pass side by side. They came out of the tunnel and walked some more, their footsteps making echoes in silent and seemingly empty city, until they reached another huge structure that seemed to have been made for giants, tall pillars and collapsed walls were all that was left of it however, and Aari Dreni led her down to the probably the middle and then to a small tunnel, well small only in comparison to the huge city, in fact it was wide enough to let five men to walk in abreast. 

Elizei went still, as a chill went down her spine, as a cold wind blew out of the tunnel and Elizei could feel something deep inside. Something that was… alive.

Dreni turned away from the man-made cavern as if trying to avoid it, her eyes darted away from it, and she looked at Elizei with a grave expression. 

Elizei stood nervously, biting her lips. “W-what do I do?” She asked. 

She knew the trial happened inside that cave; all her life, she had been trained in the various fields of cosmology, herbology, irrigation and how to understand weather and climate. She had been taught to read and write in various languages, about travel stories and politics of the wider world. But she had not been taught how to take the trial of spirits. All she knew the spirits will choose her if she was worthy.

“Before that, I must confess something, Elizei.”

“Confess? To what mother?” 

“Mother… I don't think I deserve such a kind title, least of all from you. But I must tell you the truth now, before you enter the cavern, and the truth is, my fellow sisters and I have promised two lives to him; we did it to protect as many of our people as we possibly could. We did it to save the future of the Krimzons. I know it doesn't justify what we did, but it is the only true reason.” 

Elizei was at a loss for words, “What are you talking about mother? Promised two lives? To whom? The future of Krimzons? I don't understand…” 

Dreni took a deep breath and began again, “Years ago, our spies from the Empire brought news about the Emperor and his plans. And in his plans, we, the Krimzons, were to be killed, enslaved or… worse. For centuries upon centuries, our people have guarded this spirit sanctuary, and now… the Emperor's searching eyes have fallen on it. We're too weak, Elizei, too isolated, but that is not out of pride, but out of necessity. We could never expand and create close ties with the Provinces of Perch, or beyond, because that would lead to the exposure of the Spirit sanctuary eventually. So we had to stay isolated and trust no one outside of the Krimzon valley. But…”

A cold wind creeped out of the tunnel, Elizei’s chill seem to intensify.

“But we're not without allies, for ages this ally has guided our people from the shadows. He has blessed us, and empowered us. So when we went to him, to ask for a way to save our people. He asked for two lives, two lives to save the fragments of our people…” 

Elizei felt like her feet would crumble beneath her, it was too much information, in too suddenly. She didn't know how to make heads or tails of it all. It's not every day you're told, out of nowhere, that your people are about to be destroyed, and you have to sacrifice yourself to save them, and especially to some shadow leader behind, who pulls your strings.

“B-but how, I don't understand mother… What does the emperor want from the Sanctuary? What could we have that would puts us in danger? You've told me that there are multiple spirit sanctuaries throughout the continent. We've never made enemies of the outsiders. We–” 

“We. Are doomed, child.” The words sounded so final, and so weak from Deni's mouth that it made Elizei frown in fear, “we're doomed if we don't do this, there is nobody in the world that would protect us, or stand with us openly. Not only because of who we are, but also, because of the one who leads and guides us. The only reason we've survived so far, is because nobody knows our secrets child. But if they find out...  that would be an end to us, as swift, as the people who ruled this once proud city. And our might is not even dust compared to the Zershitan's.” 

“Who rules us then? What has he done?” Elizei asked, her voice trembling.

The Oracle didn't answer, and gestured towards the cavern, “I dare not say his name, you may ask him yourself.”

Elizei wanted to ask more, but stopped. Dreni’s tone clearly suggested she wouldn't explain anymore, and she knew nothing would come out of pushing Dreni; she would never budge. 

So Elizei took a shaking breath, ignored looking at her master-her mentor and her mother, and stepped into the tunnel. 

Cold winds became colder, the lantern in her hands shook, and the flame inside the glass case started to flicker, as if trembling in fear. Her heart, beat like drums and her blood was running cold. 

She was to meet her overlord, an overlord she had not known about just moments ago. And do… what? 

She reached the end of the long stairs, it felt like she walked for hours but it obviously couldn't have been, she reached the end, and beyond it... was a huge corridor. With huge pillars on each side leading into the distance. Of course it was all cracked and ruined, covered in dust and flooded with old dried vines. There was an alarming amount of bones, and skulls of animals, birds and with a sickening feeling she noticed humans.

Despite the ruin and marks of age on the walls and ceiling, despite the place looking like life couldn't have thrived there, there was a vitality to the place, that, Elizei felt in her spirits. 

There were spirits here, just beyond the perceivable world, the spirits came here, attracted or pulled nobody knew. But this was the spirit sanctuary: where the barriers between the two realms were the shallowest. 

She passed through the pillars, once she might've marveled at the sight, but her mind was too preoccupied by other things. At the end of the corridor a great gate stood, open just a slit, the deep black wood was surprisingly untouched by the rot that seemed to have touched everything else. Figures of naked men and women prostrating to a figure silhouetted by a star. A great snake coiling around a great tower and numerous other figures were carved into the ash black wood that Elizei could make out, with the light of her lantern. 

She knew someone was beyond this door, someone who waited for her patiently. She felt it in her spirits and bones, so she took a step forward, and then another, she passed through the huge doors, and stood looking out at… her breath caught.

The great hall in front of her was full of fire-flies, fluttering around. A storm of them, thousands upon thousands of them. like a hurricane of living sparks, golden and red, their colors and lights hypnotized her. The scene was so dreamlike that it almost made her forget the other end of the Grand hall. 

Or rather– the Night sky. Elizei couldn't find a better way to describe it. It was as if someone had cut off a piece of the night sky, and condensed it and placed it there. Unlike the golden red spirits that moved and danced in masses, the stars beyond of that dark shroud were seemingly static. 

“Beautiful aren't they…” She heard the voice, like a whisper just beyond her hearing range, a voice like saw grinding on stone, gravelly yet… soft. 

She started and turned about, expecting to find the owner of that whisper close by, but there was no one beside her that she could see. 

“Who, are you?” She asked tentatively. 

“Hmm, would you like the short answer, or the long one?” The voice asked amicably.

She hesitated, ‘would he even give me the long answer?’ 

“I'm afraid I cannot.” The voice replied. Making Elizei's eyes went wide in panic.

‘Can he read my mind?’

The voice chuckled, “No child, I assure you I cannot read your mind, often-times I had wished that I could though. That would make everything so much more convenient. But it's not that hard to look at your face, and guess what you're thinking. And to answer your question, no I'm afraid I cannot give you the long answer.”