Overview

In the cathedral, the abbess conducts the Divination for young King Benedict Castor after Six drinks his blood. The abbess recounts Traum’s origin myth and the six Omens, then commands Six to drown in the spring and dream. In the dreamscape, Six witnesses five omens, each delivering a negative sign, concluding that the Omens do not favor the king. The vision ends with a menacing presence in darkness and the abbess waking Six.

Full Summary

King Benedict Castor cuts his palm for the ritual, and the abbess brings his bleeding hand to Six’s mouth. Six swallows the blood as the abbess begins the traditional oration about Traum’s history, its hamlets, and the rise of the Omens. When the abbess offers to shorten the story, Benedict insists they proceed properly, though a hostile dark-haired knight from earlier pointedly leaves the cathedral during the recitation.

The abbess tells of a foundling child who drank from the tor’s spring and dreamed of six divine figures, naming the Omens by their stone objects: the Artful Brigand (coin), the Harried Scribe (inkwell), the Ardent Oarsman (oar), the Faithful Forester (chime), the Heartsore Weaver (loom stone), and a sixth Omen that appears as a pale moth, unknowable. She emphasizes the king’s duty to be a supplicant and not seek power from the Omens. The congregation repeats the refrain “Ever but visitors,” and the gargoyles close in as the rite proceeds.

Prompted by Six, Benedict states his name for the question, and the abbess orders Six to lie down. She presses hard on Six’s clavicle, and Six drowns in the spring, transitioning into the dream state. In a pale, empty version of Aisling, Six stands naked beneath ghostly remnants of the cathedral before the scene ripples and collapses.

Six first lands on a vast pile of coins in a purple-bannered room and sees the Artful Brigand’s coin with its rough side up, a sign of bad fortune. The floor drops away into a dark corridor lined with indistinct paintings where the Harried Scribe’s inkwell lies overturned, its ink bleeding into the carpet—another terrible sign. Falling again, Six shatters a collarbone on mountain rock overlooking a calm basin while the Ardent Oarsman’s oar hangs above water without a current, signaling more ill luck for the king.

Healed in the next shift, Six stands amid a birch forest beneath warm light as the Faithful Forester’s chime rings discordantly, a fourth bad omen. The trees press close, their bark like mottled flesh with hundreds of lidless eyes. The scene then plunges into dank darkness where moonlight filters through cracks.

On a stone bench, Six finds a frayed tapestry weighted by the Heartsore Weaver’s loom stone; the thread is frayed, a fifth negative sign. Six declares that the Omens do not favor Benedict. Before the abbess can pull Six fully back, a harsh clacking like stone on stone approaches in the dark. Though nothing is visible, the sensation of being watched intensifies, the light blots out, and Six runs through the darkness, falling into nothingness.

The abbess’s distant voice calls “Six,” and Six wakes with a wrenching gasp, ending the Divination.

Who Appears

• Six — narrator and Diviner; drinks the king’s blood, drowns to dream, interprets five omens as uniformly unfavorable, experiences a menacing presence before waking.
• Benedict Castor the Third — new boy-king; offers his blood, requests the full rite, is told indirectly that the Omens do not favor him.
• The abbess — leader of Aisling Cathedral; conducts the ritual, delivers the origin myth of the Omens, commands Six to dream, and wakes Six.
• Dark-haired knight — hostile knight from the road; openly scoffs and exits the cathedral during the oration.
• Gargoyles — ritual attendants; surround the spring as the Divination begins.
• The Omens — divine figures within the dream: the Artful Brigand (coin, rough side up), the Harried Scribe (overturned inkwell), the Ardent Oarsman (oar above still water), the Faithful Forester (discordant chime), the Heartsore Weaver (loom stone on frayed thread), and the pale moth (mentioned as unknowable, not directly seen).