10

That morning, Silas was gone. He would never return.

The children searched for him extensively. The first place Milo checked was the God of Agriculture’s cottage. The first place Adaline checked was the temple on the mountain.

Milo entered the God of Agriculture’s cottage, but it was empty. There was no smoke in the chimney. Milo combed each field, hoping to find the God with Silas, or hoping to find him at all so he could at least enlist his help. He came upon the God in the orchard, where he sat on a stump, sharpening his scythe with a rock.

“What brings you here?” Asked the God.

“Silas is missing,” Said Milo. “Do you know where he is?”

The God of Agriculture shook his head, and went back to sharpening.

“Can you help me and Adaline find him?”

The God of Agriculture sighed a deep, dark sigh. “Yes. I will,” He said. “But I do not think he wants to be found.”

Adaline pounded up the steps to the Temple. She searched the inside first, then the grounds, then the inside again.

She stood in the center of the Temple, gazing at the roof. “Cymis?” She called, her voice barely a whisper. There was no answer. “Renja? Esid? Palla?” There was only an echo. “Feidlimid?” Her voice was barely audible now. Just saying that name in the temple felt like a sin.

She struggled to remember the name of the last Goddess in Silas’s story, the Goddess of Truth. She had forgotten it, and so she left, while a little red bird watched her curiously.