"She is an abomination," said Meenoch. "I do not understand why this is still an issue. We have a thousand other important things to do. It is plainly written in every Precursor tome; 'The kuan is a holy man. He will devote his life to the glory of Mar. He will keep sacred the words of the Precursors. He will rise and join them in the everlasting embrace of timelessness and infinite essence.' There can be no female kuan! No kuan a-lal!"

Divaka fidgeted. He and Seem kneeled. The five skriba were seated in a circle around them. Seem quietly turned from one wizened face to the next. They sat in the order of their age; Baromah, Kastahn, Meenoch, Forbroir and Valyder.

"Hear, hear," wheezed Baromah, the oldest skriba. His jowls swayed as he shook his head. His skin was sickly yellow beneath the whiteface. He was the only kuan skriba who went without his cap; his fingers were too arthritic to pull it into proper place.

Forbroir sat forward in his chair. "Do not the holy writings also detail the Lost Statue of Kir'ah, that Mar carved in honor of his female companion? She appears again and again in the ancient literature, reminding us of the importance of women. We should hear the child's reason for coming. Her trek across the wasteland in a sand storm is worthy of an audience."

Kastahn and Valyder nodded. Meenoch scowled. "Very well. Tell us why you have come, girl."

Seem cleared her throat. She bowed to each skriba and then faced Valyder, who made her feel the most welcome. "It was the day before I came here," she started.

"When was that? I'm afraid I was busy doing more important things than noting the date," said Meenoch.

Liar, thought Divaka. You would have never forgotten the day a girl dared come to our temple unescorted. "It was seven days ago that she came, your highest honors," he said, bowing his head. "Early evening. After the royal seamstress and weaver had taken your measurements."

A wave of muttering sounded around the room. No self-respecting kuan enjoyed the touch of a non-holy.

"Oh yes," said Kastahn. He shifted uncomfortably. "Dreadful pins and needles in our soft places."

Seem glanced at Divaka, who flushed. He motioned for her to continue.

"I was in the city. Spargus, I mean. With my mommy and my baby sister. My other sister was helping daddy pull up the rockbrush. That's a bad weed, you know. So we were selling cactus fruits, when all the sudden a white eco vent exploded!" She threw her hands into the air. Divaka smacked himself in the forehead. Valyder's laugh rumbled throughout the room.

"Preposterous!" said Meenoch. "Dismiss her now. Everyone knows there are no eco vents in the city."

"But there are!" said Seem. Divaka blanched and pulled her back down to a kneeling position. "It shot up right where I was standing-"

"Not even the kuan sumna could survive such a blast!" The veins in Meenoch's forehead throbbed beneath the whiteface. "She dares to contradict her elders!"

Baromah wheezed in like-minded astonishment.

"Calm yourself," said Kastahn. "Continue, little one."

"White eco flowed up all around me. My mommy screamed. I flew into the air! I landed on my back. It hurt a lot, but I didn't break any bones. Mommy said Mar had been watching, and he blessed me. She said I had to come to the temple and tell you what happened."

"Why didn't she come with you?" asked Forbroir.

"She needed to help daddy in the fields. The winds were coming and they needed to cover the cacti. So I had to walk here in the storm, all by myself."

"How did you get across the islands?" asked Kastahn. "We have bridges, but they are always taken down before a storm. You are too young to command a dune hopper."

"But the bridges were up," said Seem. "I walked across them. I followed the red-roped bridges, just like mommy told me to. Then I walked up a hill and crossed the bridge at the waterfall, and I came to the temple."

"Were the bridges not taken down before the storm?" asked Baromah, glancing around the circle.

"They were taken down," said Valyder. "I oversaw it myself. Helped the younger kuan so they wouldn't blow away."

Divaka and the elders looked at Seem.

"Mar must have had a hand in this," declared Forbroir.

"Don't be foolish," snapped Meenoch. "Her parents probably extended the bridges."

"Meenoch!" Kastahn snapped his fingers. "Recall the ancient writing; 'do not doubt the miracles of Mar, for he is glorious. By hand he built the cities, and powered them with the eco that flowed through his veins.' Do not be so clouded by your biases!"

Meenoch huffed and sat back in his chair. He could not contradict the words of an older skriba.

"If the child and her mother saw an eco vent, then Spargus should celebrate. Perhaps the Precursors are blessing the Queen. It is not our place to question the doings of our Creators. Now." Kastahn folded his hands over his knee. "Is there anything else you can tell us, child? Did you feel different after touching the eco? Has anything like that ever happened to you before?"

"I think the light eco kept me from breaking my back. Nothing like that ever happened to me before. But when I was born and my parents took me to the oracle, he said that I would someday be." Seem thought carefully. "Surmma ku-la a-lel." She glanced at Divaka, hoping her pronunciation was not too bad. Her parents had told her the story countless times, but did not know the meaning of the words themselves.

The skriba sat back, as if a sandsquall had forced them into their chairs. Divaka let the words wheel around his head; he hadn't heard this particular dialect before, but since the words were close to others that he knew, he thought he understood.

"Impossible," breathed Meenoch finally. "Not possible. Not possible."

"I think we ought to speak to the kuan sumna about this," said Forbroir.

"Definitely," coughed Baromah. "If it is indeed true. I have only heard that dialect once before, many years ago…"

"It's obviously a false prophecy." Meenoch slapped the arm of his chair. "There is no need to involve the sumna!"

"I will alert kuan sumna at once," boomed Valyder, and he launched himself from his chair.

"Interesting. Very interesting," said Kastahn, tenting his fingers in deep thought.

The remaining skriba began speaking very fast in a language Divaka had not yet learned. Seem leaned close to him. "What does it mean?" she whispered.

"Well," Divaka said, scratching his head and exposing more hair from under the cap. "I haven't studied that dialect yet-"

"Oh, please guess. I told mommy that if I ever found out, I'd tell her what it meant. She and daddy have been curious since I was born."

Divaka looked uncertainly around the room. "I don't know if I should tell you," he said. "I could be completely wrong."

"Please?"

He sighed. "Surmma is quite close to sumna, which you already understand as High Priest. The phrase ku-la means something like 'renewing.' The Middle Precursor word is kuul'on. And a-lel defines the surmma as being female. At least, I think so. In Middle Precursor, female is a-lal."

Seem squinted. "Renewing female High Priest?"

"Priestess," corrected Divaka.

"I don't understand. What's renewing got to do with it?"

"It means… the first one. A breath of fresh air. An entire overhaul of the old structure. Everything new. A sumna a-lal. A High Priestess."

"Impossible, impossible!" Meenoch cried.

The voices of the skriba argued louder and louder.