I waited for Torben to leave the hut before trying to write because every time I positioned the quill on the page, my hand began to shake. So, instead, I’d pretended to be thinking. But now that he was gone, I didn’t pretend any longer. Instead, I sat watching my hand hold the shaking quill.
“I want you to know I feel like you could have prepared me a little better for that,” I said into the empty room, though I was addressing Hilda as I stared at her book. She couldn’t hear me—not in the afterlife, not concerned with the petty affairs of the living any longer, but it made me feel better to complain to her.
“A little warning would have been nice,” I grumped. With one final sigh, I dipped the quill in the ink and began to write.
As follows is the first prophecy of the oracle, Allete Auv
