Page 185 of Lady for Embers

Sorin turned back to the statue, trying to process what she was saying. “You did not know that Queen Selinya was Saylah? Like the rest of Avonleya?”

Beatrix nodded. “That knowledge was known to a select few. The only three on our continent who knew no longer walk this side of the Veil. Even the High Witch only knew her as Selinya, nothing more.”

“But why?” Sorin asked.

“That is something only the goddess herself can answer. Her secrets died with those who held them.”

Silence fell between them, Sorin trying to sort through that information and ?gure out what to ask her next, but she spoke again. “There is a sister temple on our continent. For the Oracle.”

“Juliette has a temple?”

Beatrix smiled warmly. “She does. Do you know the reason so few male Witches exist?”

Sorin blinked at her. “Because the Witches despise males, including their own.”

“But have you consideredwhythat is the case?”

He hadn’t. Not really. It had simply always been that way. “To understand, I must tell you the story of two sisters.”

Sorin nodded at her to go on, the nostalgia of her “lessons” settling over him. He’d welcome any distraction at this point.

“There are more gods than just the ones known to this world,” Beatrix said. “There are two Lesser Goddesses. Sister goddesses, in fact. Taika and Zinta, goddesses of magic and sorcery. Two were created with a purpose. One to serve Beginnings, and one to serve Endings.”

“One is loyal to Achaz, the other to Arius,” Sorin said.

Beatrix nodded. “Taika serves Arius. Zinta serves Achaz. When Achaz learned of Saylah and Temural’s existence, he took it as yet another slight against him. The feud between him and Arius was already growing, and Achaz wanted a child with both his gifts and the gifts of magic. Both Zinta and Taika refused him, so Achaz punished them both. Any union between a female and male Witch would produce twins. Always sisters, and they would always find themselves pitted against each other. One would be drawn to the light and beginnings, one to the dark and endings. They dismissed the curse, but history proved it to be a curse indeed. When sister Witches are born, they disrupt history in more ways than one. The Oracle across the sea is only one example.”

“Juliette does not have a sister,” Sorin argued.

“No, but her mother does.”

Sorin sat up straighter. “Hazel. The High Witch and Juliette’s mother are sisters. I did not realize they were twins.”

“It is not a well-known fact.”

“But wouldn’t that also mean their father was a Witch?”

“It would,” Beatrix agreed. “It is part of the reason they are so powerful. Hazel is older, so she became High Witch when their mother Faded.”

“And their father?”

“Was killed in the Great War.”

Sorin nodded. “But those are not the sisters I need to tell you about. However, know that if Hazel is loyal to Scarlett, a descendant of Arius...”

“Sybil is loyal to Achaz and, thus, Alaric.” Beatrix nodded.

That would explain a lot. Eliné had worked closely with Sybil in the Healer’s Compound in the Black Syndicate. If she didn’t know this history, even if she had somehow known this history, she likely did not know Hazel and Sybil were twins. How much had Alaric learned simply because Sybil was watching Eliné? Had Sybil served Deimas before that?

“In other worlds, Taika is referred to as the Enchantress, andZinta is referred to as the Sorceress,” Beatrix said, interrupting his thoughts.

Sorin started. “The Sorceress?”

A humorless laugh came from the Witch, a sound he’d never heard from her before. “The one locked away beneath the Black Halls is not Zinta. Those cells could not hold a goddess, and certainly not a goddess of sorcery and master of blood magic. Her daughter, however...”

“Are you telling me the daughter of a goddess is imprisoned beneath the Black Halls and no one knew?”

“The ones who put her there knew,” Beatrix replied, patting his hand again. “Eliné and Henna knew.”

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