Page 70 of The Orc Outcast's Miracle

The seer’s brow screwed up. “You think that momentary elation would stand against bone-deep grief?”

Her jaw trembled and her eyes stung and she couldn’t catch a breath. The excitement from winning began to dim. “But... but I sat on the log like you told me to and let all this happen. I thought that would get me ready. Or at least ready long enough to dredge.”

“You still aren’t ready, Miranda.”

Frustration snapped her up. “Why did you make us go through all that if it wasn’t going to get me ready to dredge? Why make me work so hard when you could have just spoken for us and ended it all, even before this judgment started?”

“That is not how the Fades work, Miranda.” The seer’s voice was unyielding and cold. “I did not know this was going to happen. I do not know what will happen next. I see only what the Fades show and not a speck more.”

“Seer, I’ve been working so hard. I don’t think about it every hour of the day and I’ve made sleeping properly and eating well a priority. I’ve been controlling the grief like I’m supposed to. I even got through the whole day yesterday without thinking about Earth once.” Well... almost.

“Didn’t I tell you that avoiding it wasn’t the answer?”

Her stomach dropped.

He sighed heavily. “You are not ready. You need more time.”

No. No. “I don’t have more time. I have to find them now. They need me.” Her throat grew tight and her eyes burned. Her mind wailed all the way back to Earth. To the desolation and the heat and the crushing weight and the screaming of her babies in her mind.

They hadn’t died there. They hadn’t.

The seer’s brow grew tight. “Do you mean the family you asked after in the woods?”

“Yes. My babies.” Miranda tried to keep her voice hush so none of the mingling orcs around them noticed but it was difficult—so difficult. “The kids that I took care of. That’s what I want to know. I have to know what happened to them. It’s driving me crazy thinking about them calling for me. For help. And that I didn’t go back for them. I just left for the ocean and I didn’t...”

The seer said nothing, only blinked, and she managed to take a few shaky breaths. “They must have made it here like I did. I have to find them. You can tell me where they are. Please.”

“That’s not what this is about.”

“But... but that’s the only thing that matters?—”

“That isn’t what this is about, Miranda,” the seer said slowly. “The Fades, they want me to know of the memories you lost. They will not show me things that you could not possibly know.”

Her whole body went cold. Quaking. A ringing sounded in her ears as the world around her dimmed.

“I can only dredge from things that you yourself have experienced, Miranda.” The seer inhaled sharply. “And I sense no children within those memories. Only you and... chaos.”

“No.” Her voice didn’t sound like her own. “No. That can’t... you’re supposed to tell me...”

“I am very sorry, Miranda, for the horrors you have suffered, but what you ask for is beyond my ability.”

She could not think. Could not move. Was not even aware that the seer had bid her goodbye and left her standing there, right next to the doors.

“Miranda?”

She had to get out of here. Right now. She had to escape.

“Miranda, are you well?”

Miranda’s heart thundered in her ears. She spun and ran out of the hall into the too bright daylight.

“Miranda, stop!” Govek was right at her side, following closely. He matched her stride as she made a fast clip along the path back to their home.

She wished he wouldn’t. She wished he had stayed in the hall, enjoyed the win he’d earned, basked in the revelry of his victory.

A victory she would never have.

Earth was gone.

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