Free Oracle by Kyra Dune

Nephima and Brandon on
their great quest to save the world. Demons and gods and greatness were beyond
him. All he understood was profit and enjoyment and he had seen neither in
their enterprise. So he returned to Marigold and, as he had   since they were boys, Manny followed.
         Now here
they were in Kartesk , set on desecrating the most
holiest of temples. Jesse was not a religious man, but he was a respecter of
others beliefs. Or at least he had always been before. It seemed enough wealth
could corrupt even him.
         And still
Manny remained at his side. Not only because they were bound one to the other,
but also because he loved Jesse too much to let him come on his own. The man
could be so reckless, he needed Manny to keep him safe. Which was why he
had come into this business of being a mercenary in the first place, when his
nature should have shunned such a violent vocation.
         Manny was
born to be a priest. The air spirit had chosen him for it. But becoming bound
to Jesse had removed him from his proper path and he feared he could never find
his way back to it so long as his friend was alive.
         A cloud
moved across the moon. The air spirit working in conjunction with the fire
spirit who governed the celestial bodies. Manny reached out a hand, wanting
nothing more than to hear the sweet whisper of his kindred spirit. Only the
silence of the night met his mute plea. He lowered his hand.
         Though
Manny’s people did not count the passing of time in years, still he knew he was
of an age where the air spirit should have already communicated with him if she
were ever going to. Few things in life were worth fearing in his mind, but to
never attain oneness with his kindred spirit was among them.
         Logic
dictated he should take himself off this mad quest before it was too late. But
logic took a backseat to the matters of the heart. Manny could still recall the
first time Ash brought Jesse to the village.
         Ash was a
trader dealing in all matter of sundry goods and the only such allowed in Kartesk . This was due to his father, also a trader, who had
long ago befriended a most revered priest of the Children and then married the
man’s daughter, making himself and his son Ash as good as family in the eyes of
Children.
         During
his father’s life, Ash had assisted him in his trader work and then took over
when the man died. Thus he traveled away from the village more often than not,
but always returned twice a year for a brief stay. One summer he brought with
him a young boy. Not his son by blood, but by virtue of having married the
boy’s mother, who had passed on in the winter.
         Manny,
being the revered priest’s grandson, had been raised to consider Ash family. So
it was no stretch for him to include Jesse in such thinking. And so they became
brother’s in heart. Indeed, Manny felt closer to Jesse than many of his blood
kin. Despite the man’s faults, and of those he had many, he was at his core a
good and decent person. Even if he didn’t always act like it.
         The sound
of light footsteps alerted Manny to Nika’s approach
well before she sat down beside him. “I do not mean to interrupt your
contemplations, nor force you to speak on an unpleasant subject, but Jesse has
told me why you’ve come and asked me to lead the way.”
         “Was he
upset when you said no?”  
         She went
so long without replying it drew Manny’s attention from the sky. “You said
yes?”
         Nika nodded, her expression pinched. “I love him too. Not
as much as you, perhaps, but enough so I can refuse him nothing.”
         “What has
the earth spirit to say of this?”
          Nika ran her fingers through the grass. “He is silent on
the subject. Which is strange. But of late I have felt something in the trees
and the ground. Something coming.”
         “I know,”
he said. “I too feel the spirit’s unease.”
         Nika