The Augur

At night, Isla disguises herself, prowls a Nightshade city’s underbelly, and targets predators. When a banned lurker attacks a young woman, Isla disables him with a knife and her healer snake’s venom, lets him die, and carves out his heart for the augur. Over several nights she repeats this, delivering hearts to the waterfall-hidden cave until the augur demands she bring more.

After skewering eight hearts on her sword, Isla forces the augur to appear. He leads her inside a cavern lit by mineral stars and a pool of blood. He drains the hearts to “amplify readings,” then slices Isla’s cheek, tastes her blood, and drags her under. Spectral bonds drown her in blood and power until she’s expelled onto the stone, retching.

At knifepoint, Isla demands answers. The augur says he cannot kill her because her fate is written, but he can read it: Isla died once and, in her current state, will not survive past storm season. To extend life, he cites blood-fueled rites, ancient skyres markings crafted only by the prophet, or seizing power from the Nightshade portal. He doesn’t know the portal’s location or how to close it; the prophet wrote that in pages bound by blood, long ago stolen toward Lightlark.

The augur urges Isla to “use” her blood and identity, mocking her bracelets as mere fangs pulled from a still-poisonous snake. Before Isla flees, he reveals a wall carving of a woman wreathed in snakes—resembling Isla—and calls it “the future,” insisting she will return because it is written.

Between hunts, Isla avoids Grim despite his letters and preparations for storm alarms, and she hears townsfolk call her a traitor. Driven by guilt and urgency, she resolves to trap the next storm, follow it to the portal, seize its power to live, and then find a way to close it.