It cannot be true.
I close my eyes and hear Mother’s beautiful voice singing me to sleep.
She loved me, adored me, and she built up my confidence in a way nobody else did.
There’s no way she wasn’t my mother.
“I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you.” The Seer’s words come out like a soft summer breeze.
What game is she playing? Is she trying to win Hector’s favor?
“Are there more questions you wish to ask me?” she says, dragging my attention back to her.
“Why? So, you can tell me more lies?” The honesty rolls from my lips. The bitterness, I’m unable to disguise, tumbles out with it.
The Seer is unphased by my candor. “I can only tell you what I know.”
“Who is this woman who is supposed to be my mother, so I may prove she is not?” Even saying the words makes my chest ache.
“That has not been revealed to me.”
“Of course not.” Disappointment thickens my tone and lingers in the air.
Torchlight flickers across Hector’s face as he leans forward. “Sol, you are one of us.”
“There is no way to prove that.”
Hector reaches for my arm and slides one sleeve up, exposing the serpent mark, then gently glides his hand over it. “This proves it.”
Frustration tears through me as I remove my arm from his warm hands and force my mind to focus. “Who isus, Hector?” I point to the Seer. “She isn’t Bloodstone. Or Kyanite.”
The Seer folds her hands in her lap but doesn’t voice any objection.
“What tribe areyoufrom?” I ask her.
“I told you. I am a Seer of the Tarrobane.” How simply she says that, but there’s nothing simple about her words. Everyone has a tribe they represent. One they call home.
“What does that even mean?”
“Centuries ago, we were all one tribe.” Her tone turns wistful as she continues. “So, I help every Tarrobane barbarian just like my ancestors.”
“How are you helping me?” A valid question, I think.
The Seer looks down at the table, her gaze caught on the lines and cracks, as if they hold the answers she seeks.
When she doesn’t speak, I try a different tactic. “When I met you months ago, you knew about my serpent mark and the prophecy. What else did you know?”
“Oh, Sol.” She speaks in a gentle voice. “I saw you walking a path of vengeance.”
I was.
For ten summers it was all I knew. All I wanted.
“And now? What do you see?” There’s a part of me that needs to believe I am walking the right path—one Mother would be proud of.
Oh, Mother.
What the Seer said isn’t true.
