The Voice of the Oracles

By Elizabeth Bundick

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Since the age of thirteen Tessa Sinclair’s life was defined by three voices. The first and oldest was named Ebi, then came his brother Lodi, and last the sister Obi. They were three distinct personalities that the doctors at Oakdale Sanitarium found disturbing in their reality. The personalities were not violent, the doctors would note, but they knew things they shouldn’t, and spoke in ways that were almost foreign. For example, the first doctor who worked with Tessa exchanged her case for one of a woman who had drowned her three children because he found Tessa and her voices so disturbing. It was noted in his case file that the voice called Obi had said he would die in a car crash before the year was over. The new, second doctor lasted until she read the paper three months before New Years and saw her fellow doctor had indeed died in a car crash. More and more doctors and the staff of Oakdale Sanitarium reported strange and unusual events that circled around Tessa Sinclair and her three voices. At age twenty, weighting barely 120 pounds, she threw a solid oak coffee table across the room, without laying a finger on it. When she was locked into solitary confinement, the girl screamed and blamed it on the fact that Ebi and Obi were fighting. When a schizophrenic patent claimed she was raped by an orderly, Tessa was the one who got the orderly to confess. He claimed she made him feel everything he had done to the patient. The astonishing thing was she never came face to face with the orderly; this was when the girl was twenty-nine. It was when Tessa Sinclair was thirty-five that the final and strangest event happened.

Tessa spent the day in her room, drawing like she always did of a far off place her voices called Balthorn. She was drawing the Spire, the castle capitol of Balthorn, when Obi slipped into her mind.

It is time to go, little voice Obi said, stilling Tessa’s hand.

“Go?” Tessa asked, titling her head to the left to hear Obi better.

That’s right To Tessa it felt as if Obi laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, To Balthorn. They need you now

“How can I go there? The Wall blocks my way.” This was said in the matter of fact voice of a believer, “The Demon Queen repaired it thirty thousand years ago to keep you from being reborn. It is what sent you to me.”

Yes, little voice Now Lodi, strong willed and gentled voice joined the light tune of Obi’s in Tessa’s head, That is so, but it is weakened, the Gate is coming near

“The Gate?” Tessa’s eyes swung to the picture that hung right beside her bed. The one she looked at every night as she fell asleep. The Gate was a handsome, hard faced man. He wore a knight’s armor, inscribed on the right shoulder with the three talon marks of a General. Tessa had many visions of the Gate and she reached one finger out to touch the cheek she had drawn.

We must prepare for when he reaches the Wall, we will only have a moment to act Now the final voice, gruff as sand paper, Ebi slid into her mind. To Tessa it felt as if he ruffled her hair and she giggled like a young girl.

“What must I do?” The girl asked, perfectly ready to do as The Oracles demanded her to.

Get your colored chalks, little voice, and clear away the rug Lodi order. Light and fast as a sparrow Tessa sprang into action. She rolled up the white rug that covered the linoleum floor and propped it up in the closet. She threw her desk chair onto her bed, which caused a large bang. She knew the orderlies would come to see what she was doing soon, but didn’t care, The Oracles had asked her to act.

Good little voice, good Obi praised once the room was clear Now see what you must draw In Tessa’s mind the images came and she set to work.

When her parents had abandoned her in this place, not believing her stories about Balthorn and The Oracles, she had had no choice but to turn to the voices that had taken up residence in her head. It was during those long, lonely nights they had told her their story. They were triplets, born to a peasant farming family on the out skirts of Spire. Two days after their birth, The Oracle before them, Katsi, came to the farm. She spoke to their parents, telling them that they would be the next Oracles. The Oracle had the highest position in Balthorn society, as the Speaker for the Gods. Through the Oracle, the Gods made their will known and Balthorn was kept safe from the Dark, the Demons and their Queen. The peasants were overjoyed that their triplets were the next Oracles. They went with Katsi back to Haven Temple, the home of the Oracle. Their lives were splendid, raised and treated like Kings they knew no pain, no real sorrow. And when Katsi was called home to the Gods, they came into their Powers. But, this began the War. For the Wall, which held back the Demons was weakening, as it did every thirty thousand years and the Demons were coming through. It was in this War that The Oracles lost their lives. They had appeared with the Foretold to destroy the Queen, but they failed and the Queen flung them across the Wall. They wandered beyond the Wall for years, until they had felt Tessa. She had the strength like they had. She had the power to bare them back across the Wall and save Balthorn.

A bang came at the door and Tessa whirled around to look. One of orderlies looked through the small window in the door at her, “What are you doing?”

Bar him Lodi order and Tessa waved a hand at the desk. It lifted from the floor, flew over where she lay crouched on her knees in the middle of a complicated web of circles and symbols and slammed against the door. The orderly jumped back from the door. Good little voice, your Movement Powers grow ever stronger

“I practice with the exercise balls when no one is looking,” Tessa beamed with pride as she continued to draw on the floor.

We know this Obi smiled into Tessa’s mind.

As we know all Ebi answered and she felt all three of them bow their heads. She wished she could return the comfort they often gave her, but knew not how to touch them as they touched her. Still, she worked, scribbling away. The orderly who had come to check on her had gone to get back up to open the door. Even when three of the strongest men slammed against the door, they couldn’t move it. Tessa’s Movement of the desk held strong.

Quickly child, the Gate draws near Lodi yelled, almost with enough force to have Tessa drop the chalk in her hand. She worked faster, drawing with a speed she had never drawn before. Quickly the symbols flowed from her mind onto the floor until she was in the dead center of what looked like a spiral with strange geometric symbols in between its lines. This large symbol was made up of hundred of smaller ones intricately woven together.

Stand up, little voice Obi said, and Tessa stood.

Face the window Lodi said and Tessa faced the window.

Chant with us. Ebi said and Tessa chanted.

“I, Voice for the Gods, Oracle of Balthorn, Seer of the Not Yet Seen, and Speaker of the Not Yet Spoken, call to the Gate, Broacher of Walls, Collapser of Barriers, and Bridger of Rifts. Break me from the bounds that bind. Cut me of the ties that hold. Free me of the limitations that demand me here. Bring me home!” Outside the window the orderlies had to run for cover as the light from within the room blew the desk and the door off its hinges and through two more walls. When the smoke and light cleared the orderlies scrambled to their feet and dared to peek into the room that use to hold Tessa Sinclair. All that remained for them to give to her family were the pictures of the world they had never believed in.