Chapter 9

"He's insane." Rhishandri glared at the wizard with a disgusted look on her face. "Obviously. Let's go."

Adara put a hand on the girl's arm placatingly, but she gave the man a dubious look. "She's right. She was human yesterday."

"Don't blaspheme, woman!" the old wizard snapped. "How dare you deny a miracle that's right in front of you!? Never did I think to feel the presence of divinity again. Never! And now, to actually see it, with my own eyes ... I can die content." His filmy old eyes were actually glazed with tears when he looked back to Rhishandri. "Lady, beloved Lady, will the others return now as well?"

Rhi glanced helplessly at Adara, then drew back from the wizard. "You're crazy," she repeated. "How should I know anything about gods? A wizard-- one even crazier than you are-- used me in some perverted spell. That's all," she said, firmly.

Certainly it didn't seem too likely, Adara thought as she looked at the confused, frightened girl. But still ... She looked at the wizard expressionlessly. "Why do you think she's a goddess?"

He picked up the crystal with shaking fingers. "There were other signs-- the bond between the two of you, the line that she has buried into his soul-- but the final proof was this." He handed it to her, and she turned it over in her hands. It was slick, and slippery feeling, almost as if it had been oiled, and slightly warm to the touch. It felt curiously alive, in fact.

"It's a simple tool," the wizard went on. "Given to me when I was an apprentice studying at the University at Caldera, before my disgrace. Through it, anyone with any magical talent can see the auras of magic around people and things. We were taught the different colors and what they mean-- red for demons, purple or black for undead, blue for a human mage, and so on..." His voice trembled with emotion and he looked at the floor, his hands tugging anxiously at his ragged beard.

"Go on," Adara said, when he seemed to need prompting.

"Th-there was one color taught to us all, though that one very few could ever expect to see, and that was gold. Gold for the divine. Gold for a god."

"And?" Adara asked.

"Look," he whispered. "Through the crystal, look at her."

Curiously, Adara held the crystal to her eye as the wizard had done, and turned to Rhishandri. Through the crystal, a cloud of light surrounded the girl, extending several feet from her small body and reaching out with tendrils to touch everyone around her. The light held swirls of deep purple and black, and even strands of red, but the primary color was a pure, glowing, metallic gold, unmistakable for any other shade.

Stalling for time, trying to decide whether this 'confirmation' made any difference-- after all, the wizard could have made the color associations up as a means to back his story-- Adara looked at the others as well. The wizard's smaller, dimmer aura was a faded, dirty blue. The so far unnamed man's was a dim, flat yellow, except for the gold spike that stabbed through it from Rhishandri. Conor's was a pure, bright (but still much smaller than Rhi's) blue-green ... interesting, that. Did that mean he was a spell-caster of some sort, or that he wasn't exactly human? Finally, she looked down at her own. Fitting with what the wizard had said, it was mostly blue, with purple highlights and black shadows, and stronger than any of the others except for Rhi's, and bits of it reached out to weave with the outstretched gold tendrils. Very, very slowly, she lowered the crystal, only to meet Rhishandri's frightened green eyes.

She hated to frighten the girl more, but the wizard was definitely right about at least one thing: hiding hard truths never helped anyone, in her experience. She sighed. "He's ... right," she said, reluctantly. "At least, yours is gold."

Rhishandri frowned darkly. "So? It's a trick. He could say that gold means whatever he wants, or could have enchanted the stone itself." Her voice grew louder, took on more on an edge of panic with each word. "He's just trying to make you afraid of me!"

He could have been making it up. Adara certainly had no love nor great trust for wizards. But the colors he'd described fit her understanding of her own nature, as near to perfect as she could tell, and he couldn't have known what she was, not that easily. And the girl's fear was certainly understandable; the majority of the old gods were (had been?) homicidal maniacs. Still ... she found herself leaning towards belief. More answers were obviously needed. She looked at the cringing wizard. "She was human yesterday. I saw the mage drag her into her chambers."

Despite his obvious fear, he shook his head. "Looked human, she might have. Her nature might even have been concealed, even from her. Now, though, she is more. Much more."

Rhishandri jumped to her feet, hissing angrily. "He's lying," she snarled. "I knew better than to trust a wizard! I won't listen to his lies any longer. I'll wait for you with the animals ... if..." She hesitated, looking at Adara uncertainly. "If you still trust me enough to travel with you, I mean." Shaking, but with hands clenched into fists, she turned and stalked towards the door.

"Wait," Adara said softly.

Rhi stopped, but didn't turn around. "Why?"

"We need to know. I find it hard to believe, but if it's true ... well, you don't seem like a monster to me." Adara tried to keep her voice soothing, and it seemed to work, because the girl turned around cautiously.

"You can't possibly think he might be telling the truth," she said, looking at Adara with big eyes. "He's up to something. He wants something." Her pleading expression changed abruptly to bloodthirsty anger. "We should just kill him."

Conor reluctantly cleared his throat. "Now, lass ... ye can't just kill everyone who ye disagree with," he said hesitantly.

She looked stubborn. "Not everyone," she said, shaking her head. "Just wizards."

Adara looked at the wizard. "Do you want something?" That had been gnawing at her-- what possible reason would the man have to lie? What could he get out of it, especially since he had to know he was endangering his life with his story?

The old man was shaking so hard it looked painful, and was deathly pale. "O-only for the gods t-to return, Lady," he whispered tremulously. "It's been so long ... if it takes my death, t'would be worth it."

She cocked her head. "Why do you assume you are going to die?"