A few minutes later, Talon found us on the stream bank. I had done my best to wring my hair dry, and Ellie was helping me braid it up again. He stumbled upon us, edible plants bundled under one arm, and immediately backed into the woods again, face scarlet. While I laughed, Ellie got up to drag Talon back towards the clearing.

It didn’t take much prodding for us to fall back into our usual meal-preparation routine. Much like a feral cat tempted by promises of fish and other treats, the two of us had even coaxed Talon into eating next to us, instead of several feet away. Hm, that was really a good way to describe him, wasn’t it? Small, fierce, always hissing. But perhaps a little softer than his demeanor implied.

“Harvest Festival’s coming up in a month or so,” I sighed. “The preparations will make it harder for me to leave.”

“Ugh…right…” Ellie said, and scratched the back of their neck. Talon’s dark eyes glimmered with interest at the festival’s mention.

“Do the Angra have a Harvest Festival?” I asked.

Talon shook his head. “No. Our holidays are very different. We have holy days and days of jubilation, but nothing like what you describe.”

“You’re not a very social people, are you?” Ellie said.

“If we were, I’d go insane,” Talon scowled. “Sometimes several villages will gather for games and competition, but it’s not an annual thing. Just when there’s an event worth celebrating, like a significant victory, marriage, or funeral.”

Our conversation lazily circled around the sorts of celebrations our settlements would have. Talon seemed disappointed when he learned that the ritualized combat of the Harvest Festival was less of a tournament, and more of a heavily-choreographed performance. Even the audience, except for very young children, already knew who the victor would be, as they were just recreations of several famous battles from history and legend.

Eventually the topic changed to a very important pillar of the Harvest Festival: food.

“It’s too hot and dry for anything to grow during the Sun Season, so of course we’ve got to save a lot to eat then, but we always throw a huge feast. Our specialties are so famous that people come from all over to try them, even Heishan and Merides,” Ellie said, gesturing with their arms.

“Sounds like a waste. You never know what’ll happen, they should save as much for emergencies as possible,” Talon replied. Ellie smirked at him, apparently seeing something in the sullen boy that I could not yet.

“Well, yeah. And we try to. But life’s rough—you gotta have something to get you through the hard times, yeah?”

“And don’t forget,” I added, “all the trade that goes on. The Heishan Mountain Kingdoms always send a shipment of ores and precious gems down for trade, don’t they?”

“And that’s not counting spices, clothes, and dyes from Merides and stuff,” Ellie agreed. “I’ve heard from my family it might be smaller this year, though. The harvest hasn’t been quite so good. Not as much rain.”

“Is that what’s happening? It explains why the Head Priestess has been so strict, my wrists are sore from channeling, even as just a Candidate!”

Even as the time approached when Ellie and I would have to leave, we continued to talk. It had been getting harder and harder for me to leave the city and the temple, recently. I did not want this meeting to end, this escape from the drag of my normal life. Never did I know which of our getaways would be the very last—perhaps it could even be this very one. Another good reason not to let it end. If only I could stay away from that cursed city for forever…

But just as rain and ripened fruit fell to the ground, eventually we had to leave. Still, I kept chattering and talking at Ellie as we navigated the now-familiar route through the Deep Woods and back to Gresha. My words fell upon them like an unceasing rainfall.

“So even though another common way of thought is that Hallows and Crowns can simply sense our innermost wishes and desires, there’s the question about how they can sense everyone’s desires at once, which is where this next theory comes in, that animal messengers of Crown Naruune deliver prayers for her. Usually Turtle Moths or Deep Wasps. Since the Deep Woods are full of them, that could explain why I was able to synchronize, because they could hear and deliver the messenger quicker.

“Of course, the temple takes a different stance. Crown Naruune is an earth goddess, so the deeper you go into the earth, the more clearly they can hear your prayers. But if even the High Priestess can’t master synchronization, still, despite having access to all the deepest prayer rooms, it’s almost definitely wrong. So I was wondering, maybe if I captured and tamed some Deep Wasps—”

“Didn’t the temple try that? Didn’t someone die?” Ellie asked. “Weren’t you thinking it was something special about this place, specifically? You were talking about that last month.”

“They didn’t want to tame the wasps, and the wasps didn’t kill anyone,” I corrected. “A Head Priestess generations ago wanted to use perfumed sachets to pray to Hallow Zaya, while in the Deep Woods. She attracted a hive of Deep Wasps instead. Some of the accompanying guards scattered and woke a crownbear, and that killed people.”

I took a breath. “As for it being something about this place… I don’t know! For a while I thought it was something about the trees. I wondered if they were the ears Crown Naruune uses to listen. They have much deeper roots than any plants in Gresha. But carving runes and glyphs in the trees before didn’t do anything! But if you’re worried about the Deep Wasps, maybe we could try capturing Turtle Moths instead—”

“Are you sure it’s not the trees? You haven’t noticed anything different about them?” Ellie asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What’s the Deep Woods most famous for?”

“Er…being Crown Naruune and Hallow Zaya’s sacred land? Being a barrier between the realm of men and the realm of the gods?” I asked, wondering where Ellie was going with this. “Do you think I was just physically closer than other priestesses usually get, while I was channeling?”

“No, not exactly,” they shook their head. “You really haven’t noticed, Nia? Talk about missing the forest for the trees.”

“What are you talking about? The trees are a dead end, I told you.”

“Or maybe you were looking so hard for the results you wanted, you missed the ones you got. It’s become a lot easier for us to quickly walk from Gresha to our meeting place, over the last three years. In the forest that’s famed for how impossible it is to navigate,” Ellie said. “Perhaps all your channeling did that?”

I frowned, considering the possibility.”Or maybe it’s because we’ve just been walking there and back a lot? People don’t go into this forest very often. Plus, Talon practically lives here, and the forest’s curse doesn’t seem to have affected him. I’m starting to wonder if Hallow Zaya’s curse even exists.”

“Wait, that’s a good point about Tal,” Elian muttered. “Hm, maybe he’s one of Crown Naruune’s beloved? That’d allow him to bypass the curse.” Ellie shrugged. “We know that Crown Naruune watches all her children. But she watches some a lot closer than you think.”

“Mmmmm…maybe,” I admitted.

“Maybe, because it was an emergency she gave you more power than she usually gives her channelers,” Ellie said.

“Doesn’t that imply it’s you who has her favor, instead, and she just used me as a tool to save you?” I asked. “After all, I was trying to save your life, not my own.”

Ellie’s eyes widened, like little hazel moons. Their face paled. “I…maybe,” they said, dropping their typical casual tone for a far quieter one. If I didn’t know them so well, I’d say Ellie was frightened. I believed I knew my friend better than anyone else—even their own family, even Talon. Never before had I seen them…afraid.

“Maybe it wasn’t Crown Naruune…” Ellie muttered.

“You think it was Hallow Zaya, then?” I asked. “You’re right, actually. You bring up a good point. Maybe I was too fixated on Crown Naruune. Any deity can be channeled from, theoretically. Maybe it was Hallow Zaya, especially if it’s the trees that are special. Maybe even the Sun Falcon.”

But why would Ellie even be so terrified? Only followers of the Sun Fiend, or practitioners of necromancy and Hell magic, would have reason to fear the deities. And I would bet my legs that Ellie was neither of those things.

We continued discussing theories about channeling until we reached the edge of Gresha. Ellie went to go back to their family’s residence, while I began returning to the temple, engaging in my usual routine of running and leaping atop the rooftops of Gresha. Being near the end of the rainy Moon Season, some of the roofs were wet with puddles, which I was careful to avoid. When I spied the window that led into one of the temple’s isolated hallways, my heart trembled with a mixture of relief and disappointment. From there, it was a short walk to my shared dorm room, and that tenuous period of time spent waiting for the other girls to stop chattering so I could sleep. I was sure there must have been easier methods of sneaking back into the temple, but this one had always struck me as the most fun and exhilarating, one last great hurrah before I had to put all the fun away. And besides, I had not gotten caught entering or exiting it yet. One last, desperate flight before I returned to the cage of duties and expectations.

But this time, something was different. The actual moment I felt my balance tip passed me by in a blur. I only knew that one moment I was flying, and the next I was falling, and I didn’t know why. While the instant had passed me by so quickly, suddenly it seemed to be taking forever for me to fall.

Or maybe it was just my racing mind.

Maybe I was just tired. After a long day of training my sore legs ached, desperate to just give out. Though this wasn’t the first time I had returned to my room in this manner, and I’d always landed easily before, it wasn’t so strange that they’d choose to give out at just that moment. There was, after all, a first time for all things.

Maybe it was the rain. Yes, it had been raining less this Moon Season than usual, and yes the structure of Gresha roofs was supposed to make it harder for rain to accumulate into puddles. But all it could take was a little wetness of the stones for me to slip. Nevermind that there had been little trace of wetness this morning.

Perhaps I was simply distracted, the earlier conversations I’d had still echoing about inside my head. Even if my body could make these leaps mindlessly, perhaps it was just too distracted this time above all others. Perhaps it was a little of all of these things, mixed into a dangerous concoction. Perhaps it was none of them. It felt like I had an eternity to ponder what was going wrong, however, from the very moment I first felt myself tipping.

My mind raced like a bat in flight, focusing on everything and yet nothing of value. Maybe I saw a glimpse of pale skin and dark curls in my room, but maybe instead I saw the blue sky, clouds, buildings, felt the wind on my neck and the rush of air, saw the birds above, envisioned the stone below growing closer and closer and closer.

Briefly I wondered if I should try to channel now. If I had created a miracle to save Ellie before, could I create a miracle to save myself now?

My mind raced with possibilities up until the moment a hard impact made thinking very, very difficult.