#shadowhome

"Priestess, you have never...never in your devotion to Her..." She cannot stop the tears. "You cannot promise me that what you have seen is false."

Sahfi's expression is carefully blank. "No, Ariia. I cannot promise that. All I can tell you is what I saw, and what I know of you...and how the two connect."

"Then take her away." The new mother's voice is broken with pain. "Take her away, and name her, Priestess. You will be the only one who can help her."

"As you wish." The nurses stay silent. It is all they can do.

---

The girl was raised in the care of the priestesses, never aware that she was not the child of them. They were all her mother and sisters; they were her family. She had one sister, who was like a twin to her, but in one fashion they were like the moon-time and the bright-time. Her sister was a talented shadow-walker, one of the best in all of their land. Her sister walked paths that only Lutha had tread before, she was sure.

But she...

She could not walk the shadows. Nor could she walk the light, like the highest of the priestesses.

She was the only hawk she knew who could not walk the paths made for them.

Lutha has a plan for you, the High Priestess would say. Time and time again, she repeated the mantra. Lutha has a plan for me. The Goddess has a plan for me.

And perhaps the Goddess did have a plan for her, as she slipped out of the temple and made for the waters. Perhaps the Goddess' plan included her stealing a boat from the nearby fisherman, setting what few belongings she had in the bottom, and pushing it—and her—into the water.

Perhaps the Goddess' plan included her being somewhere other than Shadowhome.