Page 44 of Stranger's Choice
“When did they know? How old were you?”
“Seven. I knew since age seven that I would be the oracles’ sacrifice to the Emperor.”
“How did they help you prepare?”
Auraelie laughed, the sound without mirth. “They told me to remember that I was doing this for all my people. They taught me the rules I would have to follow and terrified me with the consequences of not obeying. I may not have been raised among the Emperor’s Will, but my own people did just as good of a job teaching me that I could not afford to have a will of my own. The only thing they did to limit the power they would be handing to the Emperor was to teach me to explain my visions in the most cryptic manner possible without actually lying.”
Auraelie took a deep breath. She picked up her mug of tea and took a sip, then continued, the words pouring out of her in a release she had needed for the past nine years. No, longer. She had needed this since she was seven and learned what her life would be.
“They made sure I didn’t form deep friendships. They were afraid that I might do something foolish once I became the Emperor’s Oracle if I was too close to anyone back home. I was sent from one village to another as soon as I looked to be settling in. My mother visited a few times a year. My father was only allowed to see me once a year. I never even met my youngest sister. Once I was identified as the next imperial oracle, my brother could only see me alongside my father once a year.”
Auraelie looked up, blinking back the memories, but Sebin was no longer across the table from her.
Fingers, cool compared to the heat of the mug clenched in her hands, slipped over her, pulling the mug away. Then Sebin was sitting right next to her, his arm wrapping around her shoulders and pulling her close.
She didn’t know what to do. She had never been held like this. Not that she could remember, at least.
“Shh, just let me hold you, Auraelie. You need this.”
Auraelie obeyed the words and softened, letting Sebin pull her closer. Then her head was on his shoulder and she was crying. She lost track of all time while she cried as she hadn’t ever before. Oh, she had shed tears in the past, at times angry or sad over her fate, but nothing like this. Crying while someone held her gave the tears a weight they had never before had. They felt cleansing.
She didn’t know how long she sobbed, but as the tears dried, Auraelie became aware of Sebin’s hand rubbing up and down her arm and the careful words he whispered in his native tongue. She lifted her head, but did not move away.
Sebin’s words trailed off.
“What were you saying?” Auraelie asked softly, forcing herself to move that one inch that would make Sebin drop his arm.
He pulled his arm back from around her shoulders, but he didn’t move from her side. “Nonsense, really. I don’t even know.”
Auraelie let Sebin’s lie go unchallenged. If he didn’t want to tell her, she would let him keep his secret. For now, it was enough that he had said the words and held her.
“Thank you. I didn’t realize how much of a difference physical contact could influence emotional comfort. If anyone ever held me when I cried before, I was too small to remember it.”
Sebin frowned. “Auraelie . . . could your parents hold you when you were a child?”
“Yes, but like I said, after we knew I would be the next imperial oracle, such closeness was discouraged.”
“Your power only works on humans, doesn’t it?”
Auraelie drew back a little, trying to get a clear look at Sebin’s face. If she had thought he looked mad earlier, it was nothing to his expression now. “No.” She hesitated as she answered, wondering what was going through his mind. “My power works on all races except oracles.”
“Five hells,” Sebin said in his own language before launching into a stream of what she could only assume were increasingly potent curses. Finally, he switched back to Imperial. “They didn’t just take advantage of the isolation you already suffered; they forced it on you. If you were still among your own people, you could lead a normal life without fear of brushing against someone and going into convulsions. They condemned you to not just slavery but solitude!”
To her horror, Auraelie could feel tears welling up in her eyes again. “Yes.”
Then Sebin’s arms were back around her, and for a moment loneliness was a foreign concept.
