Calathus

Chapter 27 - Feasting on Prayers

Psst. It's back.

RECAP: Sianna and the others have been sent on a mission to Ayodite by Dracarr's wizard. They are to retrieve The Eye of Artemis that the wizard thinks will help stop the Magus invasion. He has also revealed that the Magus were released by a necromancer that is slowly stealing Death's own power, and this is also something the wizard believes he can stop with Sianna's help.

Once in Ayodite, the group encounters several fantastical places such as a corpse, floating islands, and, currently, a Nayichi tribe at the bottom of a giant, broken tree. In order to navigate the magickal lands, they had to escape a Lich King by dying and though they were separated a few times, Sianna and the others eventually regrouped. They are finally at their destination and ready to retrieve the eye and their bodies so they may return back to life and back to Dracarr to deliver peace from Magus threats.

27.

Feasting on Prayers

The world around her hushed. Sianna gaped at the albino snake. She saw her reflection in its ruby eyes, an image of herself bathed in blood, and for a moment she didn't exist. The silence faded away as a buzzing swarmed her head and her thoughts. A fevered pitched, it seemed to speak words.

"Welcome back."

Sianna recoiled and everything returned. Kota's wails rolled over her skin and penetrated her brain.

"Ser?" Reth stared at her with concern shinning in his eyes.

She licked her lips. "Reth, did you hear a voice?"

A twitch on his right eyebrow. "No, ser. Only Kota's cries."

She dared to look at the serpent again. It had not moved as if made of stone but the corpse crown on its head twisted and pulsed with flesh that was dead and bark that was alive.

"It's worse than we thought," Kota said. She kneeled in front of the snake's mouth. Sianna thought she looked more like an offering than someone in mourning.

There was a pensive quietness before Aldermeck spoke. "We need to continue, Kota."

She turned to them, her orange eyes outlined with magenta tears. "I can't go up there with you."

"But you need the eye to lif' your banishmen'!" Iari said.

"And how convenient it's so close to your home." Deneck smiled. "Or maybe it's just an ironic oversight on your part."

Kota's leer churned like a liquid sun.

"I don't care. I just want to remember how it feels to breathe." Lycin lifted the Nayichi to her feet. Yokir hissed at him but it was Kota's hand and not Calera's imposing presence that silenced him. Lycin ignored it all. "Hurry up and tell us what to do now."

Kota pulled away. "Vivor will take you, but..." She gazed at the snake and the grotesque vegetation on its head. "I didn't know it had been so bad. It's draining faster than I thought."

Sianna opened her mouth to spit words at Kota's irritating vagueness, but Yokir came to her rescue. "It's Death's power that is draining. Vivor can't eat from both prayers of life and death and so the elder had to feed it with her own demise. It was that or Vivor would start feasting on our own from the tribe." He laced his hands with Kota. "In her sacrifice Elder Mair saved us."

"So Vivor is the snake?" Sianna asked.

"Yes." Kota said.

"And it's going to take us up to get the eye?"