The Destiny of Three [3] (The Parallel Series) ✓

The Fires of Pompeii - Two

"Show me this man and woman." They were interrupted by a voice behind a large veil.

"High Priestess, the strangers would defile us." The priestess countered.

"Let me see. These two are different. They carry starlight in their wake." Rita squinted her eyes a little slightly making out the figure of a woman sitting on what looked like a bed behind the veil.

"Oh, very perceptive. Where do these words of wisdom come from?" The Doctor asked.

"The gods whisper to me." She said.

"Looks like they've done far more than that." Rita scoffed slightly clearly seeing that the woman's skin looked slightly grey through the thin red fabric.

"Might we beg of an audience?" The Doctor looked around. "Look upon the High Priestess?" He said looking at the Sisterhood as two of them drew the veil aside, to Rita's guess the High Priestess was indeed a living stone.

"Oh, my God. What's happened to you?" Donna gasped.

"The heavens have blessed me."

"Doesn't look like that," Rita muttered under her breath. The Doctor let go of Rita's hand and stepped forward towards the High Priestess.

"If I might?" He gestured to her hand, she approved and held out her hand, the Doctor lightly touched the back of her hand and looked up at her cracked stone face. "Does it hurt?"

"It is necessary."

"And who exactly told you that?" Rita crossed her arms stepping forward to stand beside the crouched Doctor.

"The voices."

"Is that what's going to happen to Evelina?" Donna asked in horror before turning to the other members of the Sisterhood. "Is this what's going to happen to all of you?" A member of the Sisterhood stepped forward exposing her arm which had slightly become cracked stone.

"The blessings are manifold."

"They're stone." Donna gasped.

"Sometimes I regret my name." Rita pursued her lips. "The people of Pompeii are turning to stone before the volcano erupts. But why?" She looked at the High Priestess.

"This word, this image in your minds." The High Priestess looked between the Doctor and Rita. "This volcano. What is that?"

"More to the point," the Doctor took over from Rita, "why don't you know about it? Who are you?"

"High Priestess of the Sibylline."

"No, no, no, no." Rita and the Doctor shook their heads. "He's talking to the creature inside you." She made it clearer for the High Priestess. "The thing that's seeding itself into a human body, in the dust, in the lungs, taking over the flesh and turning it into, what?"

"Your knowledge is impossible."

"No that's just the Stone being brilliant." The Doctor grinned. "you can read her mind."

"As well as you can read his, who is also very clever if I must say." She glanced at the Doctor who shrugged as if it was nothing. "You know our knowledge isn't impossible"

"I demand you tell us who you are." The Doctor added.

The high Priestess began to speak her voice shifting from her own to a deeper voice which then took over. "We are awakening."

"The voice of the gods." The priestess holding the knife before breathed before kneeling down next to the rest of the priestess who were also kneeling down in a sort of prayer.