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Dalya guided us through the open double doors and along a path away from the esher woodland and the maragord grove. It was the stone path that brought us through the great iron gates. But rather than walk across the bridge, she continued on the path to the right where it circled downward.
The chill wind pushed my cloak against my body, the clouds wispy over the moon above. I breathed a prayer to Lumera, that she would be with me this night, that she would protect me.
As we descended in a winding path down below the castle, the stone cold beneath my slippered feet, I did not look at the steep drop-offs on either side. Rather, I focused on the singing prayers of the priestesses, their soothing melody brought me comfort.
I found myself muttering a prayer to Vix as well, the smoky incense billowing around me as I walked on. Vix wasn’t a god we revered in Lumeria, but he was the god of this land. This was his sacred space. Surely, he would listen to a moon fae who found herself thrust into the world of his dark fae children.
“Bless my spirit,” I whispered to myself. To Vix. “Keep my body and mind whole and safe, my lord.”
A buzz of warmth pooled in my belly. It felt almost like magick, a strange and ethereal touch of knowing, of power, and warmth.
Dalya led us into a cave opening, both sides lit by torches of feyfire. The flames danced slowly, unnaturally, a welcome lightguiding us into the dark. The priestesses stopped chanting at once.
The paved path disappeared into a trail of black sand that led deeper into the cavern. The sound of dripping water and the soft shuffle of our feet was all I could hear as we wound our way around a corner.
Then I saw it, surrounded by torches—Näkt Lykenzel, the black lake where I would either seal my fate as mizrah to King Goll. Or where I would die.
Dalya stopped at the edge. We all halted behind her. When she turned to face me, I instantly unhooked my cloak and removed it. When I would’ve dropped it to the ground, a priestess quickly took it from me. My wings sprang free, Hava wisely cut openings for them to slip through the ceremonial chemise.
I stepped around Dalya to look down into the dark abyss. The pool of water didn’t seem menacing in any way. One side of it was a steep cavern wall, water sluicing down into the pool. Strangely, steam rose from the surface.
“It is a heated pool,” I muttered, grateful for that at least. My last dip into icy waters in Silvantis had led to me being captured, tortured, and stripped of my goddess-given magick.
“Yes,” Dalya confirmed softly. “There are deep pockets and hot springs below this sacred place that still warm the waters here.”
Even so, I shivered in my gossamer shift, gooseflesh prickling my skin. I stood straight and tall. “Let us begin.”
Dalya raised her arms and hands wide. “Vix give us guidance, bless this female, accept her into your beloved embrace.”
With her arms opened to the cavern ceiling, she stepped into the black pool. The priestesses followed behind her in their parallel lines, stopping when the water reached their thighs.
On instinct, I walked forward, my body wanting to be in the water. The warmth of it surrounded my ankles, my legs, my belly and buttocks as I stepped past Dalya and the line of priestesses.
“Stop there, Mizrah.”
I did.
“Now, fall back into the water. We will catch you and pull you up after you submerge.”
Either dead or alive, I thought to myself.
Finding that I was extraordinarily calm at a time like this, I didn’t hesitate. Closing my eyes, I fell backward. Slender arms and hands caught me beneath my head, shoulders, hips and legs, as the warm water enveloped my entire body. My long braid of hair and wings drifted downward. I held my breath when my entire head went under.
At first, nothing. Then…blinding flashes of memory. Not all my own.
The hag whispered in the dank dungeon, her cold, skeletal fingers tracing runes in blood on my forehead. “Ora est kel ohira. Ora est kel näkt los. Ora est meheem.” Then her eyes lit with a burning light, something that hadn’t happened in the dungeon but seemed more real now than the memory. Then she spoke in perfect Issosian in a monotone chant, “You are the destiny. You are the dark lady. You are for him.”
A flash of pain, then a different vision. Not a memory. Only voices in a dimly lit room. I couldn’t see anyone, only hear them, their voices intimately close. A single candle burned in the corner of a small bedchamber. A female whispered, “Two sides of the same coin. Demon-fae. One true, one not. Beware the raven’s back… It’s you, isn’t it?” A male replied, “You know it is me. You’ve always known. Don’t pretend I’m not destined to take it all from him.” Then the voices faded, still whispering vehemently.
Then there came a vision of three sprites flying in a circle and singing, “A dark fae lady with secrets to see. A dark fae lady, lady…” They giggled and flew away into the shadows, their figures swirling into mist.
Out of the vapor stepped a menacing and dominant King Goll, his dragon eyes burning with blue-fire. “That is correct,Princess. You are my mizrah.” His aggression vanished, and in its wake only pain etched his face and desperate longing. “Mine,” he whispered, reaching out to me before vanishing into smoke.
Then my entire body was wracked with agony, burning from the inside as yet another vision came tumbling into my mind with jagged force. This one held weight and gravity, more than any other before. A four-horned wraith fae—no, something more, something bigger, greater—flew on dragon back, the moon shining behind him. In his arms was a female wood fae, her black hair streaked with gray lifting in the wind as the dragon soared in the night sky. Then the man, the god—he was certainly a god—cupped the cheek of the sleeping woman in his arms. “Rest now, my love. It will all come to pass as it should. My vengeance for you will be justice, and it will turn the world right again.”
There was the sound of a dragon’s flapping wings then the vision vanished into the gray clouds of the night sky.
I choked and spluttered the water clogging my throat and mouth. Dalya’s wide eyes stared down at me as she held my head above water.
