36.

Snowflakes were falling against my skin.

Where they landed, I felt a faint fizz, like a spark of static electricity.

Then they melted, and the water trickled down my cheek.

I opened my eyes, blinking away the snowmelt.

I was lying on a dais, my cheek pressed against the stone. The sky was grey, verging on white. There was something draped over me.

I sat up, slowly. My cloak slid from my shoulders. I heard the sound of something metallic slithering off of me and hitting the ground.

Then I pressed my hands to my chest and curled in on myself, gasping. My breathing was shallow and rapid.

I felt…very strange.

My body felt hollow, almost weightless, like I was made of blown glass. My muscles still twitched spasmodically every now and again, as if an electrical current was running through them.

And then there was something else. Something new.

I felt it as a tingle beneath my breastbone, pulsing in time with my heart. I felt it as a buzzing in my head, and as a whisper that ran through my veins like a breeze.

It was unsettling. I didn't like it.

I looked up. The dais was empty. I was alone.

I gave a half-laugh, half-sob, and buried my face in my hands. "I can't believe it," I muttered. "I can't fucking believe it. So much for helping me, huh? So much for our bargain."

At least now I could put a name to the culprit.

Shaundakul.

Fucking hell. Why hadn't Kelavir Tarn told me that the man I was seeking was a god? How could he have just glossed over that little factoid? Maybe his god didn't like untruths, but Tarn was as good as any politician at lying by omission.

It seemed so ridiculous to even think of taking these things seriously. Gods who walked the earth like mortals? Gods who fucked up your life in a particularly hands-on way and then vanished? Magic that actually worked? Voices in the wind? None of that should have been possible. It wasn't possible, not where I came from.

The problem was, I couldn't doubt the truth of it. Not anymore.

The memory of what he'd done to me was already fading into a jumble of half-remembered sensation, but I remembered all too vividly that moment of epiphany.

Somehow, there on the brink of consciousness, I'd made contact with something, with some mind that had no edges or boundaries that I could sense, and I'd known, just known, who and what my nemesis was.

The knowledge had soaked into every fiber of my being. I despised it, but I couldn't deny it.

And now Shaundakul – may rabid pygmy marmosets nest in his rectum, god or no god - had gone and left me alone, and I had no idea what to do next.

"Fuck," I said to myself. "Atheism was so much easier. Why'd he have to go and ruin it?"

Nobody answered. Not that I expected an answer.

I felt like such a tool.

So much for my grand plan to get home, I thought bitterly. Good move, Rebecca. Now even the gods have ditched you, and you really have nowhere to go.

Still – I had to go somewhere. I was wiped out, and I still felt like my head was floating above my body like a balloon, but I couldn't stand to look at this place. His place.

I wiped my eyes with a trembling hand and leaned over to pick up Silent Partner.

I stopped in mid-lean.

I vaguely remembered hearing a metallic noise when I'd woken up from my faint. I wondered if this thing beneath my nose was the explanation for it.

I picked it up, my blood running cold.

The chain was heavy silver, and the pendant was a smooth, solid weight in my hand.

It was an oval of dark grey metal, with a paler grey inlay on its face. It depicted a pointing hand, surrounded by stylized swirls of wind.

I tried to remember where I'd seen it before.

Kelavir Tarn, I thought suddenly. He wore the same exact thing. I turned the thing over in my hands, the chain slithering coolly against my skin. Hmm. It looks kind of like that symbol the priestess of Tymora wore, too…

Then my fingers clenched around the amulet.

Kelavir Tarn hadn't just known whom I'd been seeking. He worshipped the bastard. And he hadn't even told me.

I lurched to my feet with a wordless shriek and threw the amulet overhand. It sailed out over the edge of the cliff and vanished from view. "Fuck you!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "You think I'm your little slave now? Well, think again!"

Then I turned back, holding my hand to my shoulder. It hurt. "Shit," I muttered. "I think I just sprained something."

Then I gathered up my things and headed for the path.