The Destiny Detour

Divinating

Rosaliy

Rosaliy jerked awake with a gasp. Her heart raced and her palms were clammy. Where was she? She rubbed her eyes and bolted upright.

Her hands were gone.

Her body was gone!

Slowly...slowly...whys drifted back to her.

Oh no.

How long had she been out?

She pressed her invisible hands to the stone wall and clawed her way to her feet. The floor was either gently swaying or she was still woozy. The worst of her potion mixing catastrophe had passed, but she needed to avoid exposure to any more direct magic or she would be useless. Her one strength had been turned into a dangerous drawback.

Light stretched into the hallway from an open doorway. The sun was going down. The whole island would be awake soon, or so she assumed. Her head hurt.

Something rustled in a nearby room. Rosaliy was tempted to hide, but she was already hiding. She froze instead, holding her breath.

"Rosaliy?" called a soft voice. "Are you here?"

"Zaphia?"

Zaphia's red, feathered head popped into the hallway. "Where are you?" she hissed.

Rosaliy made her way over to the girl. "I'm right here. Don't panic," she whispered, placing a hand on Zaphia's arm.

Zaphia leaped into the hall and spun on her heels—the opposite of calm.

"You can't see me," Rosaliy clarified. In hindsight, she should have led with that fact. Her head was still a bit fuzzy.

"I'm glad you're ok!"

Sort of.

"Where is Drake?"

"Well," hummed Zaphia. "He went into the prison."

In? No. This could not be happening. Not now. Not when they had come so far. "They captured him?"

"I'm not sure," Zaphia admitted. "Probably not. Before he came out, Iketa and Dalor went in, and I thought it was because of him, but it turns out they just wanted— Well, it's hard to explain. Come and see."

Zaphia took off, and Rosaliy scrambled to keep up. She nearly stumbled over her own feet a few times, but her head was clearing.

"This is bad," Zaphia whispered as she tiptoed down the hallway. "Really bad. I think Iketa and Dalor found a way to make the divination room work."

Rosaliy did remember something about that. Before she could ask any questions, Zaphia hissed, "Quick."

Zaphia snaked through the dimly lit corridors of the temple, heading for the epicenter of the explosion Rosaliy remembered from her first time here. The outer temple was still orderly, filled with straight lines and dim, mellow corridors. The center of the temple had been that way once, but now it was a crumbling mess of broken rock and hastily-patched walls propped up by driftwood logs and vines holding broken columns together.

Zaphia grabbed a bucket of what looked like wet mud and edged her way toward a buzz of activity spilling out of the divination room. She smeared mud paste on a cracked column, pretending to work. Rosaliy needed no pretense, so she joined the throng. Two guards wedged Daniella between them, blocking the doorway. Rosaliy would have loved to pass her a message, but she had nothing to say, and the guards would have heard her anyway.

Dalor was inside the room stuffed with at least five more serious-looking guards. Rosaliy could see why the extra manpower was needed. Iketa and Sorceress Issabeth were just off to the side. All the cracks in the room had been sealed, so the many occupants were lit only by torchlight, suitably ominous lighting for a nefarious purpose.