Page 37 of Invocation

Aruna still looked perfectly at peace. She wondered if somehow, from wherever his mind was, he could hear her.

“I’m going to fix this,” she said. She bent and kissed him—in case it was the last time she got to do so. A sensitive inner part of her chest, the part that felt love and hate most keenly, twisted in pain at that thought. Gritting her teeth, she fought back another wave of despair, strategically replacing it with anger.

Anger at Theros, at Avan, at Ardani, at the Varai. Anger that they hadn’t had more time. Anger at the gods for cursing them with misfortune over and over.

Just anger.

The cavern outside the inn was quiet and empty and still. People lay unmoving on the street and on stoops and at tables—women, men, and children alike. She spotted a group of guards on the street corner, collapsed in a heap of metal armor and weaponry.

The entire city had fallen into deathly silence.

It was unnatural and eerie. Some deep, ancient part of her mind urged her to flee.

She went to a young woman lying prone on the street and pressed her fingers to her throat. She had a pulse. They were all still alive. Sleeping. But how long would that last?

A soft sound echoed off the cavern walls. Novikke put a hand on the hilt of her sword. A sun elf man wearing a magic-suppressing collar stood down the street, staring slack-jawed at the unconscious Varai. He looked up at Novikke, apprehension lacing his features.

“What’s happened to them?” he said.

Novikke swallowed. She dropped her hand from her sword. “Can you tell me how to get to the Temple of Ravi?”

His dazed confusion turned to dark amusement. “Why? Are you going to take the opportunity to burn it down? You wouldn’t be the only one to consider it.”

What was it with Ysurans and fire? “Where is it?” she said more firmly.

“It’s on the eighth level,” he said. “Below.” He gave a complicated set of directions that Novikke only partially followed.

“Thank you,” she said. She eyed the man, suddenly guilty. There would be other people wandering the city, free for the first time since their enslavement. And she was trying to wake up their oppressors again.

“This isn’t going to last forever,” she said. “You should gather as many people as you can and leave the city, now.”

He gave her a suspicious look, but then nodded and hurried on his way. Novikke took out her mage torch and started down the stairs he’d pointed her to.

None of the Varai had been spared. They lined roads, and she could see them through windows, all eerily still. Every so often, she came across another slave. Some wandered, confused, like the sun elf upstairs. Some ran, hardly sparing her a glance.

In one cavern she spotted a human man with a knife, kneeling over an unmoving Varai. He stabbed the Varai in the chest, over and over. When Novikke passed, the man glanced up, his face twisted in rage, then kept stabbing.

She went down, down, into the depths of the earth far from the cliffside. The air grew damp and stagnant and cool, and the tunnels grew wide and empty. She got the impression that no one lived here. Whereas above, the tunnels and caverns had been lined with dwellings and shops, this was empty but well cared for. The spaces she walked through were immaculate, with smooth, pristine walls and floors carved into dark stone.

A strangely warm breeze hit her face, as if she was nearing a fire, and then the tunnel opened up into a massive natural cavern lined with stalactites and black stone columns. An enormous archway marked the entrance to the temple. Pillars covered in elaborate reliefs of foliage and animals decorated the entryway and the room beyond.

Most shocking of all was a statue, twenty times her height, that stood at the front of the temple. It was an elven woman sculpted from shining black stone, encircled in ethereal flowing robes, with waist-length hair that streamed behind her as if in a fierce wind. Her expression was serene but strong in a way that reminded Novikke of Aruna.

“Hello, Ravi,” Novikke said quietly, and her voice echoed. The goddess seemed to look down at her, judging. She half expected the statue to come to life and block her from entering the temple. Her shoulders hunched as she passed.

Inside the temple, fires burned in braziers, casting flickering light on the walls. Niches carved into the walls held statues and burning candles. Lush scarlet carpet lined the floors.

No one could say that the Varai did not value artistry.

Priests in black vestments lay on the ground along the carpet and in corners. There were more than Novikke had expected. She doubted there was any way she and Aruna could have infiltrated the temple unseen if they had tried to come the previous day. She stepped over them and kept walking.

At the center of the temple was another statue, an altar covered in flowers, and a fountain. It was beautiful, but none of this appeared to be what she was here for. It would have helped if she’d had any idea what this heart was supposed to look like. Hopefully it was the sort of thing that she’d know when she saw it.

Another warm gust washed over her, and she turned toward it, finding an open door hidden to the side of the altar. Through the door was a dark, narrow passageway that led even farther underground. Warmth emanated from below. Novikke rested a hand on her sword and followed the passage down.

She held her mage torch in front of her to light the passage until she realized that there was a soft, gold light coming from the end of the hall. She put away the torch, letting the strange light illuminate her way.

And then she rounded a corner, and the passage opened up into a room almost as big as the cavern upstairs. She flinched as heat and light bathed her. Something big glowed bright ahead, burning her eyes after she’d grown accustomed to the dim. She squinted until her eyes stopped stinging and the shape began to coalesce into something recognizable.

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