A Court of Three Stars

26: The Oracle

The Oracle's Temple, Old Square, Lunathion

62 years ago

Ruhn

My parents were not speaking to one another.

My mother had shown up in her most beautiful gown, a light purple color that was barely a different color than her pale skin, dripping with sparkling jewels and diamonds. All those riches that bearing my father's babe had allotted her, clear as day on every inch of her skin.

And my father, just as pale as she was, red hair shining in the sunlight, didn't even spare her a second glance. Sometimes, I looked at them and I wondered how the hell I could have come from them. I wondered how they had even managed to speak to one another long enough to create me, how they had managed to have a child that looked nothing like either of them. I supposed I had my mother's hair, but that was about it.

It only served to make me feel awkward and out of place when I stood before them, staring at the gates leading to the temple in the distance. They had already been sure to clear the Old Square of any press, of anyone who would just love a paparazzi photo of Prince Ruhn completing his first Rite.

His first foray into adulthood, a glimpse into the future at the Oracle's Temple.

Most of my friends had been excited to take this step, I knew that Flynn and Dec had. But all I felt was dread.

And the impenetrable silence between my parents, between the helmeted guards surrounding us all, did nothing to assuage my fear. For a moment, I wished Leur was here. I wished my father would have allowed her to come.

He had said she was busy, and she hadn't said a word about it. She had just taken Sprinkles this morning, wished me luck, promised we would celebrate my birthday tomorrow, and then left. I could tell she was angry about something, but I doubted I was old enough to know just what it was yet. If I had to guess, it was the same thing she was typically angry about.

My father.

"Go in, Ruhn." He pushed me towards the gates, "This is important."

I knew just how important it was. It was about all I had heard about for the entire year leading up to today. Never-ending lessons on the Oracle's prophecies, on what it meant to walk into that building. Over and over again, the same damn thing.

I was excited this would be over, if only for the fact that I would get to stop hearing about it day in and day out.

My mother offered no words of encouragement, only kept staring at my father, waiting for him to notice her. I knew better than to be surprised, or to expect anything else. She didn't care, and neither did I.

And with no other reason to delay except for my own fear, I pushed open the gates and walked inside the park. How scary could it be, I reasoned, no one had died or been hurt in any way. And the courtyard was beautiful, completely empty aside from my footsteps on the smooth stone leading up to the temple, lined with palm trees flittering in the wind, and lit by warm, golden sunlight.

The temple loomed in the distance like a shadow, all dark onyx pillars and fog swirling out of the massive twenty-foot entrance. I felt like I was walking towards my own demise as I walked up the stairs, despite the fact that I knew it was safe. I knew I'd survive.

But I'd know my fate, I'd know what my life would lead to. Good or bad. Perhaps she would tell me I would be a benevolent and just King, perhaps that I'd have a mate and children someday.

Or that I'd die tomorrow in some kind of horrible car accident, that I wouldn't be able to survive the Drop when I was grown up, that one day- I'd piss off my father enough that he just killed me and had a new son.