The Palate's relic vault was an unsettling sight of inner chaos. Contrary to the Heartforge, which was loud and busy, this place was tranquil and gleaming. Amazing things were inserted in the walls: a saint's tear that petrified when evil was near, a cup created from a god's wisdom tooth, and a fabric produced from the light that came from its eye.
Naomi, with a counterfeit ID that Maxine made, confidently strolled into the vault as if it was her own domain. The guard, an elderly man who was fond of napping, hardly glanced at her pass before granting the entry.
Her search was for the Tuning Bone of the First Listener. The Lobe's plan described it as a fragment of the bone of the first prophets who claimed to have heard the first words of Aethelrex. It was said to be the one that first resonated with the God's initial utterances, the silence before the devouring began. It was the key to the switch.
There it was, in a darkened crystal case. The bone looked like nothing more than a tiny spiral of grey with a little black velvet cloth beneath it. There was no light, no sign, just old bone.
Just as she was about to open the case, a suave voice came up from behind.
An unusual choice for a day like this, Lady Frost.
Naomi halted and slowly pivoted. Arch-Cardinal Sebastian Wilder was at the door of the vault, hands together, head bent. He was without a companion.
That would be Your Eminence, she said, her brain spinning. I was… exploring the sounds of the first tales. As the theme for a… quiet song.
Quiet, he said, coming into the vault. The most vital flavor. The time between heartbeats. The instant before the very first bite. He came to a halt by the box, staring at the bone. They say this thing holds the echo of that quiet. Most find it dull. I find it… tragic. The quiet before the hunger.
He turned his look upon her. His gaze was mingled with kindness yet it penetrated her completely. Your sister came to see you.
Not a question at all. Naomi felt icy. He knew.
I haven't met Bianca for quite a few years, she fibbed.
Certainly, he smiled. However her ideas… don't die… They get stronger in sorrow, in misery. They say that no is the way. A terrible joke. He touched on the crystal box. Why steal the bone, Naomi? When you have the power to take everything?
In six days all the quiet, all the noise, all the flavors... will be one great thing. You will be complete. No more empty holes. No more craving for other people's pain,
He was offering her the whole world. The end of hunger. For a person who has always been hungry, it was a very tempting offer.
What if… she said, her voice quivering, what if the feast is poison? What if it kills us?
Wilder kept the smile, but his eyes were colder than before. You have to trust. To take the leap. The old world is gone. Time to start anew. Your sister is living in the past. I'm giving you new life.
He stepped nearer, lowered voice. Give me the bone, Naomi. Not to conceal. To operate. It'll allow us to tune the last note. Tell me where your sister is. Help me showing her the way. And you will have a place at the table of the sunrise.
He was trying to persuade her to be in his camp. Using her own discontent.
Naomi looked at the bone. At the man who was offering an end to her misery. She thought of the warm stone, her sister's sad eyes. The clay mouth screaming in her shop. Real pain. Real choice.
She made up her mind.
I… I need to think, she mumbled, looking away. It's too much.
Wilder put his hand on her shoulder. Of course. Think. But the table is ready. Choose your side.
He left, after giving her one last shoulder squeeze and his robes making a soft sound on the floor.
Naomi was there, trembling. He wasn't certain, but he knew something. She had an opportunity.
She unlocked the box and took the Tuning Bone. It was not warm. She hid it in a dress pocket.
While turning to leave, she glanced at another relic: a little, round, smooth stone, ordinary, with a tag that read Stone from the First River, Before the Sea of Sighs. A fragment of the earth before the god ate it. She put down a fake crystal in place of the one she took. If they couldn't find the bone, they'd think she had taken a pretty rock.
She fled the vault, the bone, and the stone heavy in her hands, the Cardinal's proposal and her sister's words battling in her mind. She wasn't just stealing things anymore.
She was becoming something.