As expected, I was summoned three days later. Esie found me at the lookout with Prevna who was still acting odd. Every time she accidentally leaned too close in the small space she would jerk away and get an annoyed look on her face. Really, that should have been my reaction.

I knew the others had noticed her hesitant behavior, just as everyone knew I had yet to cross the small paths, but refrained from saying so to my face. Just as I was about to roll my eyes and confront Prevna about it—her actions had gone from amusing to annoying rather quickly—Esie appeared from the shadows on the path behind us.

She leaned a hip against the railing. “Enjoying the weather?”

It was easiest to feel a day’s true temperature on the fringes of the Seedling Palace rather than the artificial constant that was maintained inside the branches. The sky was bright and clear, and the sunlight warmed all the way down to the bone. A good day for water hole tribes to get fishing and diving and other wet work done, though I doubted that most were back at their home territory yet.

Prevna nodded. “It’s a good day for it.”

Esie smiled back at her in agreement before the expression turned slightly apologetic. “I’ll need to borrow your friend, however. Jin’s back and there’s a few people who want a word.”

She winked at me.

Apprehension rose along my spine, but I slipped by Prevna with a short goodbye and went to the whisper woman. Esie took my hand in hers and then we were falling into the shadow paths.

I stayed on my feet when we hit the oily looking ground, despite the disorientation, and she gave me a look of approval.

I drew myself fully upright. “Who wants to speak to me?”

Esie tilted her head to the side. “Oh, just the commander and Yolanda and Rivon. But I’m sure you can handle two sect heads and the second of the Hundred Eyes.”

I paled.

She chuckled. “Don’t worry. They want to hear your final report about the attack and remind you to behave yourself.”

“Why?” The word came out soft as I suddenly had to contend with a dry throat. I had thought the commander might take an interest after the quests she had given me, but three high ranking whisper women? “I’m just a seedling.”

Esie started pulling me forward with a smirk as silver-gray mist drifted past. “Sure, but you’re an infamous one.” She glanced back at me. “Or did you think all seedlings get sent to the battlefront and survive?”

I mulishly didn’t point out that I couldn’t die or that other seedlings had gone and survived without the blessing I carried, even though I wanted to. I knew that Yule had probably hoped I would get dragged to the bottom of the ocean during my time at the shore.

Still, knowing that I had caught the attention of so many wasn’t a comfortable thing. I might want to rise in the ranks and take my place among the goddess’s Chosen, but I was used to being ignored and, with my current status and training, I was more likely to be used and discarded. That boded ill for my ability to reach the heights I wanted.

Esie took me to another point in the shadow paths that looked like exactly where we had been. We could have been walking in place for all I knew, but when we emerged from the shadows we were in a completely unfamiliar area of the Seedling Palace.

We were on a wide branch covered in unnaturally dark shadow that narrowed quickly behind us before curling upwards, so that its long needles hung overhead and blocked access to the branch. From what I could tell, the only way to get to where we were was through the shadow paths.

Ahead of us was a tunnel made of woven needles and thin branches. However, unlike the completely dark tunnel in the Seed Landing, this one had little swirls and knots of softly glowing moss that made designs in the needles. Eyes and beasts and spears and constellations covered the inside of the tunnel in a disorientating array.

I didn’t want to enter it. It reminded me too much of the horrid tunnel that led out of Flickermark, but Esie didn’t give me much of a choice.

Her hand tightened on mine. “The way to the Gathering Spot only shows paths to strength. Don’t let it intimidate you, Little Diver.”

Esie’s soft tone on the nickname snapped me out of the remembered fear and I flicked a glare up her. “I’m not.”

She chuckled and pulled me forward into the tunnel. The way wasn’t completely straight, so I couldn’t see out of the tunnel until we were a few feet from the end, but once we stepped back out into the open my breath caught.

We were near the goddess’s nest. Closer even than we had been on the viewing platform when we saw the Beloved. It rose behind where the commander sat with two other women, filling the opening in the pine needles and making sure that no one could forget the being we all answered to.

The high ranking whisper women sat on plush cushions on one side of an elevated wooden ring that wrapped around the entirety of the platform we stood on. A smaller, narrower ring ran below the high one. Four ramps, equidistant from each other, led up to both elevated rings. Esie and I stood on the edge of the large, empty area in the middle of both rings. Another opening in the side of the rings stood across from the entrance to the tunnel we came through. Esie led me over to it as the leaders’ attention, as well as the others in the area, focused on us.

I took stock of the situation as we walked. Jin sat below the commander on the secondary ring while Yule stood in the open area near where they had gathered. Mishtaw was also there along with Tasha. One of the whisper women who had been there when I…treated Melka. As well as Melka herself.

I swallowed.

There was more people and potential problems than I had expected.

Esie placed a cushion into my numb hands when we entered the opposite alcove and I distantly noted the large pile of cushions and ice vine that the space held. Then she took a cushion for herself and stopped me just within the alcove’s entrance.

She gestured to the whisper woman sitting in the middle of the other two high ranking whisper women. The woman had light brown skin, with a golden tone, and long black hair braided back from her forehead in one large plait while two smaller braids framed it on either side of her head. The rest of her hair hung loose. Dark eyes stared out from between exacting sweeps of gray face paint and her robes and dress were neat. The tall, slim woman didn’t look like she took well to critique or humor.

“That’s Yolanda, leader of the Scales sect.”

Esie directed my gaze to the woman sitting to Yolanda’s left. She was shorter and, rather than the sect leader’s sharp edges, was a kind of soft beauty. Big, pale eyes and wavy, chestnut hair tucked behind one pale ear. She was smiling softly to herself. It put me on edge—something about the smile reminded me of her when she was given a patient who she knew she could extract a generous payment from.

“Rivon. The Hundred Eyes leader’s second. She’ll be speaking for Dawnli today which is why she gets to sit on the top level.” Esie glanced down at me. “Do you recognize everyone else?”

I nodded and she led me back out into the gathering area. We stopped a short distance from the rest of the group and I copied Esie when she set her cushion down before she inclined her head in a short bow to the leaders.

Yolanda spoke, her voice clear and even, “We have heard the grievances against you and accounts of interest covering the Lady Blue’s recent insurgency, seedling. However, full understanding is of the utmost importance. We would have you tell your tale from the time of accepting your punishment until you returned to the Seedling Palace.”

I noticed there was no mention of my attack on Yule and the other whisper woman. It was likely deemed that nothing I could say, no understanding that could be gained, would change the judgment and punishment already made for that idiotic sequence of actions.

Rivon held up a staying hand. “Esie, you don’t need to linger. We did not call for you as you have no stake in these proceedings.”

Warmth suffused Esie’s tone when she spoke, but it did nothing to undermine the bite in her words. “But I do. Just as you speak for Dawnli today, Rivon, I speak for my mistress and she has given patronage to this seedling. If I have no place to stay and speak, then surely the same must be true of you.”

Rivon’s falsely innocent looking eyes narrowed before she took on a demure expression and gestured for things to continue.

The commander nodded. “Speak, seedling.”

I cleared my throat, more than aware of all the eyes and expectations on me, but I couldn’t choke now. I had known something like this had to be coming. So I drew in a deep breath and began to tell the tale as if it was any other story I had drilled into my head. I started with joining Mishtaw’s squad before brushing over our first fight with the fish as well as my ill thought out decision to slip away after instead of returning to camp. I mentioned meeting Kaylan and helping her keep lookout without drawing attention to her lazy tendencies. I spent more time on spotting the first wave, the commander’s intervention, and helping save her from a nasty fall off the wall. The commander’s quest and the hunt for the crawler. Our success killing it and then into the horrid day that started with fog and exiting out the Blood Gifter’s Gate to noticing the wind was missing and fighting a storming gigantic sea snake. I got more than a few wide eyed reactions when I told them how I jumped into the thing’s mouth, wasn’t swallowed, and killed it. Then it was time to wrap up with Tasha’s retrieval and heavily push the notion that I helped Melka solely with first aid before getting frozen.

Silence hung heavy after I finished speaking. Nearly everyone had settled onto their cushions as I talked; only Yule still stood. It seemed that she couldn’t be content with anything less than staring me down from her greater height and trying to burn me alive with her gaze alone.

Jin was more subtle, but I sensed her judgment pressing down on me as well. I don’t think she liked that the leaders were taking time to listen to me. One interesting note was that her attention kept flicking briefly to Esie. Presumably, something about the whisper woman or her association with my patron set her on edge.

Mishtaw hadn’t liked any of the moments I put myself in danger and she and Melka were pensive about the proceedings. Tasha seemed to be reserving judgment and I wasn’t entirely sure why she had been included when others had had much longer interactions with me. I couldn’t glance behind me to where Esie had settled but she radiated confident calm like a cloak. The whisper woman who had acted as a spokesperson when I helped Melka was suspicious and didn’t seem to believe half of my retelling.

They were the easy ones to read.

The commander, Yolanda, and Rivon had kept their own masks as I told the tale. The commander and Yolanda had kept their features smooth and impassive, giving nothing away. In contrast, Rivon had reacted readily to most of the points in my account with a range of emotions from surprise and amusement to annoyance and impatience when she wasn’t acting disinterested. That was the trouble with her, however. In my gut, I knew I couldn’t trust that anything she showed was genuine, so whatever emotion she displayed was about as useful as if she had kept herself impassive like the others.

“Good.” Yolanda finally broke the silence. “The scales are set. Now it is time to determine the truth of your account and judge your place among us accordingly.”