Overview

Six recalls her original name, Sybil Delling, and how the abbess drowned and remade her as a Diviner, erasing her past. In the present night after Benedict Castor’s Divination, Six awakens sick in the sacristy, ventures out for water, and collides with the king and his knights in the dining commons. She clashes with the irreverent knight Rodrick "Rory" Myndacious, discovers the king has a flagon of Aisling’s spring water, vomits on Rory’s boots, and then endures a tense confrontation at her cottage gate before parting in anger.

Full Summary

Six reveals she was once Sybil Delling, a foundling girl pulled from Aisling’s spring by the abbess, who told her the drowning made her holy and new. The abbess renamed her Six, bound her to ten years of service, hid her eyes behind a shroud for "safety," and warned her to guard her face and name. Six grew among five other numbered girls, performing Divinations with strangers’ blood in the spring until she forgot her original name.

After Benedict Castor’s grim Divination, Six woke in the sacristy, nauseated and hazy. A gargoyle scolded her for vomiting and mentioned that the abbess had offered the king lodging; the grounds were quiet and the knights had been kept from the spring. Six, aching and thirsty, left for her cottage.

Crossing the grounds, Six found the dining commons lit and guarded by a knight named Maude. Despite Maude’s offer to fetch water, Six entered and encountered King Benedict, relaxed and smiling with a flagon in hand, and the dark-haired knight from the road sitting shirtless on a table, smoking. When Six noticed brutal bruising along his ribs and challenged his absence from the ceremony, he deflected. The scent from the king’s flagon revealed it held Aisling’s spring water, which triggered Six’s nausea; she vomited on the shirtless knight’s boots and fled.

Rory pursued her to the Diviners’ cottage gate, barefoot after removing his soiled boots. He cornered her briefly but kept distance when she ordered it. They exchanged barbs about propriety; he mocked her clinging robes, and she demanded to know why the king possessed spring water. Rory used the nickname "Benji" for the king, irritating Six.

Rory offered her a smoking twig of petrified idleweed to ease her nausea; after initial hostility, Six accepted and felt its calming effects. He challenged the cathedral’s authority and the value of Omens, calling Traum’s obsession with signs a vague, profitable system. Six defended Divination as relief from uncertainty and "magic," and demanded deference.

When Rory asked for her real name, Six gave only "Six," explaining Diviners do not speak their true names or show their eyes. She recounted a failed attempt by a desperate merchant to drink from the spring, warning that only Diviners dream and that others merely become violently ill. Rory criticized the abbess’s stripping of identity and warned that Six knew nothing of the world awaiting her after her tenure.

Angered, Six asserted her service to gods and Benedict’s ill portents, then retreated through the gate without apologizing for his boots. Rory walked away, tossing a terse farewell. Six lay awake, seething, and found no rest.

Who Appears

• Six (Sybil Delling) — Diviner and narrator; recalls her true name and origin drowning; wakes ill after the Divination; confronts Benedict, Maude, and Rory; smokes idleweed; defends Divination.
• The abbess — head of Aisling Cathedral; drowned and remade Sybil as Six; offered Benedict lodging; absent in scene but central to Six’s past.
• Gargoyle — cathedral attendant; moves Six to the sacristy, scolds her for vomiting, mentions knights near the spring.
• King Benedict Castor — new boy-king; relaxed and smiling after his ill Omens; in possession of a flagon of Aisling’s spring water.
• Maude — knight (new); guards the dining commons; escorts and challenges Six at the door; startled by Six’s sudden illness.
• Rodrick "Rory" Myndacious — knight from the road (new); shirtless, bruised ribs, irreverent toward Aisling and Omens; smokes petrified idleweed; pursues Six; debates and antagonizes her; offers idleweed to ease her nausea.
• The other Diviners — Six’s peers; offstage, abed.
• The knighthood — Benedict’s retinue; offstage except Maude and Rory; were lingering near the spring but dispersed.