The Oracle’s Warning

The Temple of Echoes was not a building. It was a canyon where the wind screamed in the voices of the dead.

Vesper parked *The Crawler* at the canyon’s edge. Her body felt brittle. The blue lines had reached her face now, tracing intricate filigree around her left eye. She could see things with that eye—ghosts of seconds past, trails of where dust motes had been moments ago.

"We need supplies before we go in," Vesper said aloud. "There’s an outpost here. An old contact."

She stumbled out of the vehicle, wrapping a scarf around her glowing face.

The outpost was a hole in the wall run by an Oracle named Kael. He was blind, his eyes stitched shut with gold thread.

"Vesper," Kael croaked as she entered his tent. He sat amidst piles of bones and circuit boards. "You carry a heavy load."

"I'm carrying a passenger," Vesper said, dropping a bag of scrap on his table. "I need water. And I need to know the protocol for the Restoration Ritual."

Kael froze. He tilted his head, listening to a sound Vesper couldn't hear.

"Restoration?" Kael whispered. "Girl, you are not a transport. You are fuel."

Vesper went still. "What?"

"The God of Moments is shattered," Kael said, his voice rising in panic. "To bind the three shards back into one, he needs a catalyst. He needs a soul to burn as mortar. He doesn't just leave you, Vesper. The ritual consumes the vessel."

The silence in the tent was deafening.

**HE LIES!** The Sovereign roared in her head.

* I... I didn't know,* The Child wept.

But The Man was silent.

Vesper fell back against the tent pole. "You knew," she whispered to the air. "You knew the whole time."

**Vesper...** The Man’s voice was faint, guilty.

"You let me drive you here!" Vesper screamed, grabbing her head. "You let me fight off raiders, you let me starve, you let me trust you! And you were just bringing me to the slaughterhouse!"

**I must be restored,** The Man said, but the conviction was gone. **The world needs Time.**

"I don't care about the world!" Vesper yelled, smashing a jar of circuits off the table. "I cared about *you*! I thought... I thought we were partners."

She turned and ran out of the tent, back toward *The Crawler*.

She didn't run to flee. She ran to the canvas bag under the seat.