Page 129 of Earthbound

‘The Fates are souls…’ she whispered.

The realisation left her trembling. Afa had not known what happened to the souls that were no longer tethered to the earth.

Are the Fates my ancestors?

She longed to ask Afa, but then she’d have to face him again, and lose Alder once more. And she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to speak to Afa again.

‘What are you?’ she asked the silver threads. They pulsated but of course didn’t answer–they had answered her enough with a prophecy.

She quickly wrote it down:

Bosome’s children, power reclaimed, will aid you in your plight. The half-moon seeks to own the night.

‘What does the prophecy say?’ Lettle jumped at the voice behind her.

Mortah came and sat down next to her.

‘My heart is in my throat! You walk so lightly across the silkvine.’

‘Years of practice. I woke up and saw you reading the Fates. What do they say?’

Lettle recounted the prophecy.

‘What does it mean?’ Mortah asked.

‘No idea.’

The Nomad laughed. ‘The Fates, helpful as always.’

‘You said you knew a diviner in Waning–who was it?’

Mortah tensed, hesitating. Then she said quietly, ‘My father.’

‘What was his name?’

Mortah crossed her ankles ahead of her before answering. ‘Imna.’

‘Shaman Imna?’

‘You knew him?’

‘Of course I knew him. He was the diviner who found me after my father died, who trained me, taught me everything I knew.’

‘You mean to say he’s still alive?’ Mortah’s eyes shimmered in the moonlight.

Lettle’s smile faltered. ‘He is…well, he was when I left Mosima last year…but an illness of the mind overcame him a decade ago.’

Mortah clenched her eyes tight and nodded. ‘He would be old now, a hundred and forty-six. I have counted every one of his birthdays, mourning him as though he were gone.’

Lettle hugged her knees into her chest. She understood the grief Mortah was feeling as if it were her own. There was not a day that went past that she did not think of her own father.

‘Would you ever go back and visit him?’ she asked.

Mortah shook her head sharply. ‘No. We didn’t part happily.’

‘I know something of that. Was he angry you were dismissed from the army?’

‘I wasn’t dismissed,’ Mortah said. She tucked her greying locks behind her ears, reminding Lettle her ears weren’t cut through. ‘I left, though I didn’t want to. I loved the army, and I loved my country even more.’