Overview

At dawn, Six secretly prepares to Divine for Rory in Aisling Cathedral without the abbess. With a gargoyle’s reluctant help, she conducts the ritual using Rory’s blood and experiences an unprecedented vision centered on a sixth Omen: a moth. The dream shows living figures of the five Omens and a sixth empty-handed figure, and horrifying images of Diviners twisted in agony. When Six wakes, Rory is gone with the king’s party, and by the next morning Four has disappeared.

Full Summary

Before dawn, Six goes to Aisling Cathedral in her Divining robe, having not slept after Coulson Faire. She rouses a batlike gargoyle to accompany her and keep the abbess unaware of the unorthodox Divination she intends to perform for Rory. As they wait in the narthex, they exchange barbed comfort; the gargoyle admits resentment and sadness about the Diviners’ eventual departures, and Six steels herself.

Rory arrives in armor, cynical yet honoring the bargain from the previous night’s challenge. Six challenges his faith in the Omens; he replies he believes but has no faith. Discovering she lacks a knife for blood, Six asks Rory for blood; he bites his thumb and, with unexpected gentleness, presses it to her lips when she grants permission. Six almost reveals her old name, Sybil Delling, but withholds it and signals the gargoyle to begin.

Because the abbess is absent, Six orders the gargoyle to drown her for the ritual. He reluctantly complies, murmuring, “Would that things were different.” Submerged, Six enters a dreamscape that first feels empty and silent, then grows darker and colder until a pale moth appears. The moth lands on her shroud and patiently removes it, after which visions sharpen with vivid color.

Through the moth’s wings, Six sees Traum’s five hamlets in brilliant detail and then Aisling on its tor. In the courtyard, the five statues are living humans, each holding a distinct stone object—coin, inkwell, oar, chime, and loom stone—while a sixth hooded figure at the cathedral door holds no object, arms open as if the cathedral itself were its domain. The vision shifts to the cathedral’s spring, revealing the abbess, gargoyles, kings of old, and crowds seeking Divination. It then shows young Diviners whose bodies distort into grotesque, agonized forms, their cries like wind. Six begs for it to stop before she is overwhelmed by a totalizing pain and hears, “Swords and armor are nothing to stone.”

Six wakes on a pew under the rose window, wet shroud intact. The gargoyle reports she said nothing aloud in the dream and suggests the Omens may no longer favor her. Rory is gone; the king and knights have already collected him. Six runs to the wall, where One and Four help her up to watch the departing party. She locates Rory riding between King Benedict Castor and Maude. Rory glances back at the Diviners, locks eyes with Six, then rides on into the holloway.

With One, Three, and Four on the wall, Six deflects questions, claiming she could not read the signs. Internally shaken by the moth, the living statues, and the Diviners’ suffering, she hopes the dream means nothing and that life will resume its routine. Instead, the next morning feels wrong: the cottage is colder and quieter, and Four—energetic, determined Four—is missing.

Who Appears

• Six (Sybil Delling) — Diviner and narrator; secretly conducts Rory’s Divination, experiences a vision of the moth and disturbing images of Diviners, later discovers Four is missing.
• Rodrick “Rory” Myndacious — knight; honors the bargain to submit to a Divination, offers his blood with unexpected gentleness, departs with the king’s party after the ritual.
• Batlike gargoyle — cathedral guardian; accompanies Six, reluctantly drowns her to begin the Divination, hears nothing from her during the dream, expresses sadness and defiance toward the abbess.
• Abbess — head of Aisling Cathedral; absent from this secret Divination but appears in Six’s vision at the spring.
• King Benedict Castor — king; arrives with knights to collect Rory after the Divination, seen riding away.
• Maude — companion to the king’s party; rides beside King Castor and Rory during departure.
• One — Diviner; helps Six onto the wall and asks about Rory’s dream.
• Three — Diviner; watches the knights depart and comments on sleeplessness.
• Four — Diviner; present on the wall after the ritual, later disappears by the following morning.
• The moth — the apparent sixth Omen (new); appears in Six’s dream, removes her shroud, shows visions including living statues and tormented Diviners, and heralds a cryptic warning.