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The Oracle was sitting on a bench, facing the glorious sweep of glass that looked out on the stunning vista It really was one of the s I&039;d ever seen I&039;d looked into the eye of more than one storm, and seen the complex, matheorgeous, violent faces of nature
But this was different Deep and slow and silent There was no math to it, no science Only spirit
Unlike the other Oracles, this one looked norenerous curves and a lived-in face, with lines at the corners of her eyes anda dress the color of the rocks outside of the , brick red, with a subtle patterning to it, like the creases and shadows and textures of the sandstone It had flowing sleeves and a loose drape, and it pooled around her feet, into shadow
She was no race I could identify--coffee-and-creahtly upturned eyes, but not enough to make her distinctly Asian Full lips Beautiful bone structure under a soft h ide swathes of gray, and her eyes reflected back the light froly, I couldn&039;t tell what color they were, at least not fro with her hands neatly folded in her lap Rough, scarred hands Hands that had seen a lot of work, and little gentleness She looked tired, poised on the knife-edge betweenold
Her head slowly turned, and then she was looking atme I can&039;t describe what that felt like, except to say that it was beyond terrifying As if the stars had coI felt small and dirty and ridiculous, a clumsy freak of nature with no business here, no business at all The Oracles barely recognized the Djinn Humans were beneath conteot to , because I kneas very close to soy of the Fire Oracle, or the menace of the Air Oracle
The Earth Oracle was closest of all to the Mother
She tilted her head slowly to one side, consideringpiece of abstract art
"Please," I said The sound washed over us both, et me anywhere The Earth didn&039;t use words It spoke in the whisper of leaves, the hiss of grass, the groaning of rocks buried deep Co very different here, and I was completely unprepared, completely unworthy to try it Not even an Earth Warden, which at least would have been soile
I was just dirt on the floor in this place No, less than that She&039;d at least understand dirt
Her gaze slowly shifted away, toward the altar, the flickering banks of candles on either side in their red glass holders, and the astonishingly beautiful vista stretching out before us
She wanted so from me, and I had no idea what it was, or how to provide it
I felt the gradual withdrawal of her presence fro dismissed
"No!" I said, and held up my hands "Please! Please listen to me, I need you to understand--"
No answer She didn&039;t even blink It was as if I didn&039;t even exist to her anymore Maybe I didn&039;t Tiic Human lives came and went faster than the ticks on a clock
"Please!" This ti that was either very, very brave or abysmally stupid: I reached out to her, and took her hand It felt warh, more like sandstone than flesh "Please listen"
Not a flicker Not a treht so hard, run so fast and she was ignoring ive a hard right cross to the chin to get her attention There was a strong sense of deep holiness here Respect was required
Respect was delass s, I saw the sky change It had been getting darker, but now it curdled, like ink dropped in clear water--a sense of so I felt it happen inside of myself, too I felt the deathclock we all carried, allto just wipe everything clean? All life? Destroy it all and wait that long eternity for things to grow again? Or would the Djinn step back into their place as firstborn, best loved?
I went up into the aetheric, and there I saw it for what it was A stor A storm that showed bloodred, full of fury and power I felt a tethering tug, and looked down at my aetheric form to see that there was a line, a thin, unbreakable line stretching fro up into that storm
It was connected to me, and as I looked around, I saw hundreds of lines Thousands Millions Like solid raindrops, each leading down to a human life A human who&039;d just felt an instant of shadow, of doubt in his or her own immortality
Who&039;d had the sensation of soraves, and only one entity walking, but it only took the one
It was starting
"Please," I said "Please don&039;t do this We don&039;t deserve this We can&039;t deserve this! Dammit! What do you want me to say?"
The Oracle treroan in response What the hell--?
Her eyes closed, and the hand I was holding suddenly turned and took hold ofI felt the trehrong Terrifyingly wrong
Oh no
I took an aching breath and reached forward to move the neck of the Oracle&039;s robes aside, and there, battened on her like a black nest of worms, was the Demon Mark The skin around it was drained white, leached of life, and I could see the black writhing tentacles bulging under the skin It was burrowing
I was too late It already had a firrip on her
I reached out and put both hands on the De for the rich, burning source of power that was the Oracle I was insignificant There was no way I had enough power totoward us, digging through stone and concrete So dark and terrible The adult Deon--no telling But we didn&039;t have long
None of us did I could feel the terrible pull inside of ed away
The Oracle&039;s poas coht the infection of the De the intention of the Mother to wipe humanity out of her way
I couldn&039;t stop it I couldn&039;t even heal the Oracle, which was the only way I could even begin to ht
"Take my hand" A rusty, exhausted voice I looked aside and saw Rahel, holding out a treedly broken When I took it, it felt cold
She extended her hand to Alice--Venna--as equally daed The line stretched on Djinn after Djinn after Djinn And with thenized a few Wardens A few members of the Ma&039;at
A chain of hands, joined one to the other, building a circuit of power that, while it couldn&039;t possible be as huge as the potential of the Oracle, was a ed the Demon Mark Come on, you sick little freak Take us You know you want it
It wasn&039;t corabbed hold of it, and pulled with all the fury and grief and rage in h the circuit of hands, rebound, and coer still
They poured their power into me, and the Deed, andlike the barrier of the Oracle&039;s; it tore into inal size, and ripped toward o of Rahel&039;s hand just as the adult De razor-edged shards like thrown knives I felt the hot cuts of the debris, and hit the floor, panting, gagging on the sensation of the Deht work Don&039;t knohy it did work, except that I knew that two De each other I knew that because having two of them inside me had killed me, once
I turned and threwmy arms around it
It didn&039;t feel like I&039;d expected it to feel I&039;d thought it would be cold, ice-cold, and sharp to the touch, but it was lukewarm, and its flesh--if that was flesh--was only se into ainst it, driving my hand into its chest
And I felt the De, stir, and turn It raced downthe skin as it went, sliding like a bundle of wore it did, and it felt like being set on fire fro every muscle ruptured, every bone shattered on the way I screamed, but I didn&039;t let myself pull away
The De the mark of the Wardens, and slammed into the center of the adult Demon
I looked up at it, but there was no face, no sense of any sort of humanity to it I couldn&039;t tell if it felt pain, or fear, or even disappointh thin h the hole and into the dark
Gone
Maybe dead, maybe not, but it was in trouble
I collapsed to , exhausted The death clock inside ofslowly, inexorably down
"Please," I whispered "We saved you Please stop this"
The Oracle hadn&039;t moved from where she sat on the bench, but now, her head turned I don&039;t knohat she saw, because her eyes hite Pure white, with a tiny dot of black for pupil Eerie and totally inhu else But at least I had her attention
"We&039;re not invaders," I gasped "Maybe we&039;re greedy, and selfish, and stupid, but that&039;s our nature That&039;s all nature Weeds strangle wheat Bees go to war against each other Hu But she didn&039;t turn away, either I felt tears break free, and I didn&039;t try to stop theht now