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"You are Chione, the Unborn Depart!"

On the third coone and Myrrha slumped to the floor Her body convulsed and then she slowly, shakily, lifted herself up on her arms She looked confused, bewildered by her location She looked up at the Prince, her face a mixture of dread and sickness She looked around quickly, scanning the floor

"Was I…drea?" she whispered "Where is the babe? Oh, you hold her Was I asleep?"

The Prince stared at her "Yes…in a way What do you remember?"

"A room was full of serpents One of thelanced around the room "These are Pry-rian curtains The rushes are from our moors" She looked up at him, then her face quivered with horror "What have I done," she whispered, gasping

"You are a hetaera," the Prince answered sadly "How can you use your poithout your kystrel?"

Her hand went to her shoulder, as if it burned her She nodded, her eyes filling with tears "What have I done?"

"I will tell you, Myrrha You will not wish to hear it You killed your mistress, my wife, the Princess of Pry-Ree" His voice was thick with emotion "You killed her with your hands Days before, you er His body was found, but no one kneho had done it It created suspicion It caused distrust amidst my servants After this child was born, you went to the corpse and handled it The bodies of the dead bring diseases You carried those diseases on your hands and touched my wife as you washed her She is dead from the milk fever because of your hands and what you touched Why do the Myriad Ones want hter?"

Myrrha’s eyes blazed with terror at the Prince’s words As he spoke, it was as if she had witnessed everything she had done but from another’s perspective The horror of it made her face tith pain and dread

"Answer irl doubled over and vomited on the rushes She tre as white as milk "I am undone," she moaned "They will kill me if I betray their secrets I will die if I do not, for I am a vessel of the Myriad Ones" She looked up at hi of you, saveWe covered her body with stones, just as the vision showed me There were serpent bites all over her body and she was black and bloated Colvin wept silently, crouching before the makeshift ossuary He kissed her forehead, despite the threat of veno to take the kystrel froe that she had succumbed to the hetaera test crushed his spirits It is dusk now and the fete is about to begin Tonight ill depart Dahomey, arm in arm We are lovers now, in secret He will defy the and forswear his oath of fealty Together, ill sail for hoether for all the ages to come My work here is complete"

- Ellowyn Deal

The struggle for Lia’s soul began with the serpent’s bite When the venoony The snakes engulfed her, slithering around her, biting, striking, piercing her skin with their poison Her body convulsed and she becaid, paralyzed by the veno around her, she could hear the eager whine in their voices Lia could notAnother bite, another sting in her flesh The venoulfed the rooely, she could see There was so froe of a woman She had felt the presence before the venos in the room shuddered with power as the wolohite hot She wore a violet robe, decked with gold and jewels and precious stones She was devastatingly beautiful, the sheer essence of her drew Lia in with admiration A child of Idu Lia had felt She felt asha at her, eyes silver-white In her hand she clasped a golden cup Mist wreathed the ri, for it was full of warer of before

"I a at the woleamed about her wrists and throat The violet shape of the robe clung to her tightly, swaying as she approached She paused to stroke the side of a Leering and it burned even hotter