Path of the Whisper Woman

The silence in the hall felt like a physical pressure trying to push me down into the floor. The usual comfort I took in silence wasn't anywhere to to be found. This silence amplified every noise but it also felt like it'd drown me if it wasn't broken.

"Cleanse yourself."

That was all the Beloved said before she gestured to one of the night filled pools and headed towards the second one. Disrobing for cleanliness wasn't something I'd normally think twice about, but everything was different when the Beloved was in the same room. Still, I couldn't let my resolve break so easily.

I stepped out of my clothes as quietly and quickly as possible before sinking into the pool. I told myself it was like stepping into a shadow, which it was and wasn't. It felt similar to the shadow I held to earn the boon: slippery and fluffy and cool, weightless and yet slightly resistant. I expected it to be wet, for some reason, but it didn't feel like water. It also wasn't like shadow because the pinpricks of stars fizzled and sparked against my skin when they touched me. Even with my dark vision I couldn't peer into the pool. As far as my eyes were concerned I was lowering myself into a pretty void.

At least I could feel the bottom of the pool with my feet and I knew that in the grand scheme of all the crazy things I'd done, this was likely one of the simplest. Even drinking the shadow would rank higher on that list. Knowing now that the Beloved wouldn't appreciate half measures, I dunked my head under the surface. Unable to fight the temptation I let my eyes open, curiosity over what I'd see winning over sense.

What I saw was a star about to collide with my eye. I tried to dodge, but the moment I took to realize what I was seeing undid my efforts. It hit. And there wasn't any pain, but I couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling of it sinking into my left eye. Half-blind from the bright light I scrambled out of the pool and tried to regain my composure as my vision came back to me. Blink by blink.

"Opened your eyes, didn't you? Interesting. Dress in undergarments only, when you're ready. I need to see what I'm working with."
The Beloved's voice shocked me back to the present. All the sun spots had disappeared from my vision. As far as I could tell the spark hadn't done anything but briefly blind me and I could only be grateful my stupidity hadn't had worse results. I got dressed as ordered and met the Beloved back at her sitting cushion.

She looked me over like I was some creature she'd recently discovered. She walked slowly around me, only to suddenly get close and run a finger over my back, face, collarbone. She spent time poring over my current marks and asking questions about each of them. How I felt about the diamonds of my bless mark. If I thought the dots from Flickermark were enough of a reward for what I went through. If I knew how much experience Rawley had when she did the arrow head and leaves on my wrist.

I answered everything as honestly as I could, but I didn't let her prodding and interrogation cow me. I kept my gaze to the middle distance and didn't let myself over analyze every exchange. That could come later. For now I told her that I didn't care one way or another about the shape of my bless mark, that the Flickermark dots were more than I expected to get for solving a maze, and that I had no idea how long Rawley had been doing tattoos.

She acknowledged every response with a small nod, but it was clear her focus was deciding on where she'd mark my body. Near the end, she brushed the back of one finger along the back of my hand and commented absently, "Pity you weren't born in the palace. Your hands would have taken the healer's marks well."

I froze. And then nearly shoved my hands in her face demanding that she give me the Black Handed healer's marks now, but I held myself in check. I had already cut the knowledge from my mind and I couldn't reverse its withering. I had made my choice and, even if it felt like she had just stabbed me through the chest, I had to live with it.

"Pity," I agreed.

The Beloved shifted her attention back to my collarbones after that and I could tell her decision had been made before she spoke,

"Here. This spot will be the best for what I intend."

"What do you intend?" I knew I couldn't stop her. Didn't want to if I was being honest; receiving a mark by the Beloved was too good of an opportunity to refuse, but it would be nice to know what to expect.

She ran her gaze over me again. "You have enough of the night on you between your bless mark and your chin. You need something to ground you—and with your request there's only one right answer to commemorate your success. You'll have a pine branch on either side."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Only the Beloved would dare such a thing. Taking the goddess's trees onto my body? Permanently? Surely that would draw Her ire.

I repressed the alarm that wanted to crawl up my throat as I asked, "Won't the goddess object?"

The Beloved laughed as if I told a joke. A really funny one. I just stared at her, not sure how to react, until she caught her breath and said, still grinning, "As we've said, She claims what She claims."

Dread started pooling in my stomach. I tried to force the meaning in the Beloved's words to a conclusion I liked better than the one I felt she was alluding to. "She claims all of us with our bless marks but that doesn't mean we have free reign with Her aspects. How could this be different?"

"How could it be the same?" She turned the question back on me and when I didn't answer, she elaborated, "The goddess is many things but most of all She is possessive. Never once has She released Her claim on Her sister, for all their squabbling." I noted that only the Beloved could speak about the goddesses like that as she continued, "Never once has She relinquished Her hold on me and She likes to make Her claim obvious." She trailed a hand over her bless mark.

"I couldn't—"

"You have caught Her eye." The Beloved's gaze dropped to the seven diamonds on my thigh. "You have from the first. Your mark might not be Named but you aren't the first to bear it. Once I made a comment that I would like a companion that doesn't disappear just because time passed. Someone who understands my humanity. Heliquat made my wish Her own and cast it into the world. She doesn't control where the world manifests the wish but every generation or two there was someone born who couldn't die. The blessing would manifest differently, for some it only protected against a certain type of death, for others the strain of near death or immortality would break them. For the latter I would have Her rescind the blessing and some were able to have a normal life while others…took advantage of the opportunity to have their own kind of peace.

"She watches everyone who might fill my wish. You have felt Her gaze from the first time you should have died, yes?"

Mute, I nodded. Some part of me hoped that the Beloved would laugh again and say it was all a poor joke. That my life hadn't been upended and torn apart just because she made some wish once. That if she hadn't, perhaps I'd have been born with the two dots and had the life of a healer's daughter. Perhaps my mother wouldn't have envied and hated me for circumstances out of my control.

Another part didn't want to imagine my life as anything different. If it had gone different I likely wouldn't have met Prevna, or at least, formed any kind of relationship with her. I wouldn't have been able to witness and be a part of impossible, wondrous things. I likely wouldn't have learned what I was truly capable of when circumstances tried to break me and I refused.

The last part of me simply got riled at the thought that any part of my life was controlled by another. That my mark existed because someone said something once before I was born and that there was the implication I would do what she wanted. That I would become the Beloved's confidante just because that was part of the wish.

No. She might be the Beloved but she hadn't earned my trust yet.

I glowered.

If she was so certain her wish was responsible for everything she could at least get a taste of what it would entail. If it even applied to me.

I saw her note my displeasure but she didn't respond to it. Instead she said, "It might be only a small amount of Her attention but She has watched you since that first activation of your blessing. She wouldn't allow anything to do with me left to chance, so She tests those that receive the mark."

The Beloved gestured to the three dots on my chin. I had always known it was odd that the goddess had grown a pine tree and sent a whisper woman at our prayer in Flickermark. It shouldn't have been able to garner so much attention or response amid all the prayers sent to Her.

"But She wishes to claim you now in your own right. You've done too many interesting things in short order and your mark is the closest derivative of mine that I've seen in a long time. If I make it even more clear you belong to Her by marking you with pine needles She'll not object."

The Beloved watched me, waited to see if I'd beg for mercy or arrogantly claim that of course the goddess should watch me. I did neither. I couldn't control the goddess or even tell Her I wouldn't like to be surveilled, thank you. I had my mark, I was who I was, and I couldn't change any of that. Moreover, I had already concluded that getting the Beloved's mark was the best move.

So I calmly lowered myself to the floor and met her gaze for gaze. "Let's get on with it then."

She narrowed her eyes. "I should make clear that you will not be Chosen, though it might be best to let others think that. The Chosen are like a Pack and you are too much of a lone huntress to fit well into their confines. If you continue as you are, if you receive my mark and pass what other tests might come your way, you will become something entirely different. Something unique."

"I accept the challenge." It wasn't like I had much of a choice.

"I look forward to seeing how it turns out. Now," the Beloved sat on her cushion and positioned her inking tools between us, "this might take awhile."

It did. I sat for hours while the Beloved pricked my skin but we didn't converse much after our initial discussion. She was too intent on her work and I was too intent on everything she had said. I gritted my teeth against the pain of the needle as my mind circled again and again over the implications that the goddess might be constantly watching me. That others had blessings similar to mine but were very much dead. That it all came about because the Beloved made a comment once.

If the Beloved revealed what she had so I was too preoccupied to ply her with questions all I could do was acknowledge her skill at manipulation.