6 Chapter 4: Danger in the Dessert

Naturally, as an Oracle, I've got the basics down in the palm of my hands.

You'd never know, but when I was young, I was known as the Elusive Ernaline. Adorned with a fake, fake eye and a mystical crystal ball that was actually made of some cheap diamond, everyone from the old granny next door to the lord mayor came to me for predictions. I would say I had done very well with my act as an Oracle.

Of course, I was really an Oracle then, but you have to pass off both in appearance and ability to be truly successful. And I was supremely successful in that little city.

I was lying in that little box when I heard the sounds of swords clashing and men groaning.

Suddenly, my dark little room shook.

"You're right, I'm being attacked. What should I do?"

Rulia's voice was trembling really hard, and for a moment, I felt sorry for her. After all, she was just a twenty year old girl who had left her country for the first time, and without anyone to love her too. She must feel terrifyingly alone.

"Don't worry. Listen to me."

"Can I really trust you?"

"...I'll keep you safe."

I could feel her grasp my little box tightly to her heart, and her heart was beating erratically in fear. She drank in my advice like it was the last tonic on earth.

"Okay," she replied to me. With a fling of her arm, she opened a nearby storage box and wrapped herself with some thick and conservative dresscoat that covered her from her neck to her feet. Immediately, she looked like some nun who had come from the convenant to pray for the heavens.

Then, she swiftly grabbed a knife from below her sitting area and snipped off all of her beautiful hair.

Her hand trembled as she stared at the sharp edge.

"Do it. You need to do it to survive."

She held my little box tightly. Perhaps she could hear the sincerity in my voice, or the situation outside her little carriage had made reality all the starker for her.

"Help me, my lord," she breathed.

And she sliced the knife across both her wrists.

Before neatly slicing both her cheeks and her forehead.

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