Silence spread and then the uneasy murmurs among the people grew much louder.
When I looked around, I saw how the other women in the room were looking at me and whispering to each other. My mother tried to shield me from their scornful looks and whispers.
"Perhaps my daughter became part of a new form of eurybia's blessing." She turned to me. "Exactly, that's how it must be. Tell everyone Yona. Tell them about your blessing."
I waded through the water and stopped in front of my mother. Slowly I took hold of her hands. "Mother, I have not received a blessing from Eurybia because I am not one of her believers."
"What are you talking about. Of course you are..."
"Mother!" I interrupted her and looked at her urgently.
"Her soul belongs to someone else."
The priestess stepped up to us and examined me from top to bottom. I returned her astonished gaze. How did she know?
"That's not possible!" my mother whispered.
"OH, YES IT IS! I KNEW IT!" My father's voice echoed angrily through the hall and everyone flinched.
What did he know?
He detached himself from the wall and came slowly towards us. "Onea!" My father grabbed my mother by the arm and turned her roughly towards him. "Tell me the truth. You did it, didn't you? Twenty years ago.... you did it...."
She shook her head though my father had not yet uttered a reason.
"No I didn't..."
"Oh yes you did how could I have been so stupid..."
My father turned to the crowd with a pained expression on his face. "That bastard child is not my daughter."
What had he just said? I was not his daughter?
My mother fell onto her knees in front of me. "I swear by all that is holy that I did not do this."
"Don't lie! You gave shelter to the unknown traveller and that night you were not with me. Shortly afterwards you became pregnant with this child. Look, even the hair is the same, the hair of the traveller. But you only said that this child, that Yona, had a genetic defect. YOU LIED TO ME AND I WAS SO STUPID AND NAIVE AND BELIEVED YOUR WORDS!"
A wave of anger swept over me. Everyone was staring at me in shock, but I did not care any more.
"No...", my mother whispered, but it was clear that she was lying.
"This man was a traveller who wanted to explore Niantra, no one knew where he came from and no one had ever seen hair like that before." My father turned to me. "Look at you child, you don't look like me or your mother, you are the child of a nameless man."
Everyone turned to look at me. No one seemed surprised by what my father had just said.
I clung to the memories I had. My life was a lie... no it couldn't be. "Father, please stop. That's not true."
"IT'S THE TRUTH, NOBODY CAN DENY THAT!"
I could not take another second of this. "Stop it! Stop it all right now! You are wrong! I am my own person. This is my body and my life."
"Yona don't fool yourself!" my father shouted and jumped forward to grab me.
I tried to push him away, but he was stronger than me.
"LET GO OF ME! LET ME GO!"
"NO, YOU ARE NOTHING BUT AN ABOMINATION!"
I screamed and hit him as hard as I could with my fists.
"That's enough! This temple will not tolerate such behaviour in the sacred halls." The priestess pulled my father away from me. "Whoever opposes this, opposes our patron goddess!"
My father did not seem to like this, yet he nodded. Whereas ... that was not my father. This man raised me as his own, but now I learned that I was not his own.
There was a murmur among the crowd and they looked at me, waiting to see what would happen. In that moment I realized that I was not so different from those people. My whole life had been a lie. I had been living in falsehood for twenty years. Was it too late to change that?
For the first time in a long while, my mother approached me. "Yona, you must forgive your father. He doesn't mean it. He loves you."
I looked at her in shock. "How can you say that at this moment?! We both just found out that we don't have a blood bond and you're acting like a hypocritical family?! You're crazy!"
The priestess put her hands on her hips and stared at me. "Do you have something to add?"
"YES I DO, I HAVE EVERYTHING TO ADD!!!" I turned to face my father. "This is not my fault. My mother lied to me for twenty years. Now you tell me that I am nothing but an abomination. What more do you want from me?"
My father did not answer and turned away. The pain of having to watch your own father move away from you was painful. I had never experienced anything like that before. I had always loved him, but now I felt betrayed.
"I'm afraid I have to interrupt this family affair. But here and now it is about your unconsummated blessing." The priestess turned to the townspeople. "You will all leave the temple now and wait outside. When I have taken care of Yona this blessing will continue."
You could see the displeasure in the people's eyes. But one by one they left the temple. Among them was the man I believed to be my father. He was followed by my mother, crying. She seemed to be pleading with him, but he ignored it.
Behind them walked my brother Zao. He turned around for a moment and our eyes met. But at the same moment, Hua caught up with him and he turned his eyes away from me. They both also disappeared through the large gates of the temple.
A few minutes passed before the priestess and I stood alone in the great hall. "Follow me, Yona." I nodded and followed her through the temple. At the entrance we went down the stairs to the basement and entered a small room.
There, two men were sitting together. The room was gloomy and only torches on the walls bathed everything in a dim light. In the middle of the room was a black wooden table. To the left and right of it, benches were mounted on the walls. The two gloomy-looking figures sat on them. They looked up when the priestess entered.
"What does this woman want?" One of them asked.
"She wants to speak to you." The priestess pointed towards me. I tried to hide my astonishment. My gaze flitted to the priestess but she did not return my gaze. I wanted to talk to them?
Both men stood up and bowed respectfully to her. "We'll meet with her."
The priestess waited until the two sat down on their benches again before she turned to me and pointed to a chair that had initially remained hidden from me due to the poor lighting conditions. "Sit down."
I nodded and lowered myself onto the chair. While I sat there, I had a chance to observe the two men in the room. Their skin was pale, almost greyish. One of their eyes was sewn shut. The black thread and the x-shaped stitches were clearly visible. In my opinion, their nostrils were far too large to be considered human.
When something silver flashed towards me, I suddenly became aware of it. The ones next to me were not human. Their silver shackles held them captive here. I had heard of them.
As a child, my mother had told me the story of two grey men who rose from the depths of the seas and entered Niantra to plunge it into grief and chaos. They were called the grey weeping willows.
They were created by gods and could neither be killed nor allowed to live, which is why they slept chained to silver in the depths beneath the temple. Under the watchful eye of Eurybia, of course.
"So, let's hear what you have to say." The voice of the one grey weeping willow echoed through the room.
"I have not received a blessing." I spoke calmly, but I was not sure if it had worked.
"That's not correct!" both grey weeping willows said at the same time and I winced. "You have been blessed... even Eurybia told you so."
The priestess' eyes widened.
I just nodded and one of the grey weeping willows continued speaking.
"You were blessed at your birth. An exceedingly strong blessing. You had just seen the light of day when you received it."
I did not understand what he was saying.
"It has been twenty years since then," the other one added. "You have lived under false pretences."
The grey weeping willows exchanged glances before he continued.
"It is written in the prophecy books of the old gods, that you will bring about the end of times."
My mind whirled. The prophecy books? The old gods? What had happened to me? Where did all this come from?
The grey weeping willows stood up and moved closer to me. One of them reached out and caressed my cheek. His touch was cold as ice. "You are the one, the prophesied one."
I flinched, but I did not turn away. "Why are you telling me this?"
The grey weeping willow smiled. "Because you will die soon."
His hand fell away from my face and I pressed my palm against my cheek, wiping his fingers off.
"Your death is foretold. If you do not go to the island of the old gods and sacrifice yourself, you will die soon."
I gaped at him.
"Are you trying to scare me? How can you know what is going to happen?"
The grey weeping willow shrugged. "You will find out soon. You should prepare yourself for it. Be ready to sacrifice yourself."
"And you expect me to kill myself?"
The grey weeping willow laughed scornfully. "You do not have much time left. You should make haste before it is too late."
A stifled gasp filled the room and my gaze slid to the priestess leaning against the wall. "This can't be... Such a thing is not possible."
She was trembling. "What is happening?"
"The prophecies are true. The one prophesied in the ancient books is indeed here. And in this room, now." The grey weeping willow slammed his fist against the table.
He turned to the priestess. "You must help her!"
The priestess nodded and stepped up to me. "Yona, get up! Take your belongings and leave this temple. Your destiny lies elsewhere. Find the island of the old gods and carry out your task. After that, you'll be free."
She looked at the grey weeping willow and smiled. "But if she chooses not to follow the prophecy... what happens then?"
The grey weeping willows did not respond.
"Wait a minute, please. Stop I have to process all this. I should kill myself in order to be able to live? None of this makes any sense!
The grey weeping willows are supposed to bring sorrow and suffering, why do you believe them?" I just shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair. What the hell is happening here?
"The two can be trusted because the story you know about them is not complete. I'm sorry for everything." The priestess seemed to be torn between helping me and protecting herself. "You have no idea how many times I've wished to have the power to change things. I wish I could have saved you. But I cannot. I'm sorry."
I was still confused by the events unfolding in front of me. What was going on? I looked at the grey weeping willows.
They were looking at me with pitying eyes. "You have chosen the path of death."
I shook my head frantically. "I didn't choose anything! You're making it sound like that. I didn't know anything about this."
One of them nodded. "Yes, that is probably true. But that does not change what will happen."
"If that's the case..." I looked at the priestess. "Then I want to leave now. I can't stay here anymore. Not after all this."
The priestess looked at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Yona, listen to us. We're trying to help you. Please trust us. You're the one prophesied by the old gods."
"Whatever that's supposed to mean..." I just shook my head and looked around. "What am I supposed to do now."
One of the grey weeping willows looked at me seriously. "The best thing for you to do first is to go home and sleep it off. You have chosen your path. You will soon set out for the island of the old gods. Time will guide you and you will know when to set out."
A shiver ran down my back. "Set out? You mean I have to leave Niantra soon?"
The grey weeping willows nodded.
"The prophecy is not about what happens in Niantra. It is about what is going to happen on the island of the old gods. The prophecy is about you. It is your destiny."
One of the grey weeping willows raised his hand. "He speaks the truth!"
I felt dizzy. I felt sick. I understood what they were telling me but it didn't make any sense. I felt hot all over.
"But I don't understand. I have no power to hurt anyone. How shall I bring about the end of time?"
The grey weeping willow grinned. "That's not entirely true. You have a very powerful divine blessing. A curse so terrible that it can destroy entire worlds. That is your blessing. Do you see what this means? This is what you have to do."
"She must sacrifice herself in order to find her peace in death and make our lives possible. If she does not, we must all die..." The priestess came to me and clasped my hand. "How much time does she have left?"
The grey weeping willow scratched his chin thoughtfully. "We don't know, but time will tell you everything. When the time is right, you will know."