Treacherous Witch

24. Sleep

"Magic isn't a fixed quantity. It ebbs and flows according to the situation. This invisible hierarchy binds us all."

Interview with Queen Shikra III, as told to Master Anwen

The mystery of it rankled her more than ever.

The body in the coffin was Queen Shikra, she was certain of that. If visiting the tomb had accomplished nothing else, it had at least confirmed that. The queen was dead.

So, then, how had she seen Shikra in the silvertree wood? How could the figure have known her name?

It can't be her if she's dead. It can't be.

So, what was it? An illusion? A disguise? Something else she couldn't comprehend? Or was everything she had been taught about death utterly wrong?

"I heard Lord Thorne wants to convert me."

"Lord Thorne wants to convert everyone."

She was taking supper with Lord Avon in his chamber. He'd already heard the bad news. Anwen had reported that they'd learned nothing of note, and to her relief he hadn't pressed her about it.

"This Divine he talks about," she said. "What is it?"

"If you'd like a sermon, ask Lord Thorne." Avon sipped his wine, regarding her. "Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering what you believe about death, my lord."

"I see. You return from a tomb full of morbid thoughts. Well, the church teaches that life is only the precursor to our true goal: oneness with the Divine. After death, there is a time of reckoning, and if you lived a sufficiently virtuous life, you pass into the Divine and are rewarded with eternal bliss."

"And if you don't?"

"The wickedness of men is punished through suffering on earth. Death, rebirth, a cycle of suffering."

He didn't sound convinced by any of this. But he never talked about his faith. Was it not important to him?

"So... you're reborn forever? That doesn't sound so bad."

"Oh, no," he said. "No, you have only so many chances at redemption. And you'll know if you're on your last chance."

"How?"

He put down his glass. "You're born a woman."

"What?" She spluttered. "That's absurd!"

"Ah, now you think it sounds absurd?"

"No—I mean, it all sounds a bit strange, but... Drakonians really believe that?"

"There are different schools of thought on the matter. Lord Thorne would have you believe that women are but one sin away from eternal damnation. Men know they'll have another chance."

"Do you believe that?"

"No. I was brought up in what they call the salvationist tradition, which holds that we are all powerless in the face of the Divine. We cannot know whether we have achieved salvation, so we waste less time worrying about it. I prefer to focus on the here and now." He tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. "What does Maska say about it? The Ninth Testimony."

"Our souls return to the earth."

He nodded. "Yes. That's it. Almost nothing about any afterlife at all. Yours is a very practical religion."

"You've read Maska's Testimonium."

"Yes," he said.

The copy he kept wasn't only a curiosity, then. He spoke of Maska's writings almost with... admiration.