“Our prison is like one massive spiderweb,” Estelle continued. “Where we are all interconnected and yet individual threads at once. I feel the sadness and longing and anger of the ancient ones, as if through a blood bond. The High Priestess knows us, knows each of our names. She speaks to us sometimes and asks for forgiveness. She tells us it is all for the greater good. I do not believe she knows we can hear her.”

“How did you escape the first time?” Kandra asked. “When I saw you here, by the obelisk . . .”

Estelle closed her eyes, remembering. “I was still new then, still strong. She was feeding so many of us she forgot to seal my tomb. I remember the feel of air in my lungs again, the cold ground beneath my hands. And then I was walking and I didn’t know where I was going until I found a staircase. I began to climb. I felt like I was in a dream.”

“How did you move the obelisk?” Leela asked.

Estelle blinked. “I don’t know. I didn’t realize I had. I remember feeling desperate. I remember thinking, I have to warn them, I have to tell them. I had bright new fruit running through my veins. Though my muscles felt weak, my magic was strong.”

Elorin had moved Faesa’s statue as well, Leela thought. Perhaps the brightness of Estelle’s magic had called on the obelisk to move. Perhaps all Cerulean were as capable of moving the moonstone as they were of reading the doors. They simply did not know it. Or the High Priestess had siphoned that power along with their magic.

Estelle turned to Kandra. “You told me I was dead.”

A tear slid down Kandra’s cheek. “And you said no, and then yes.”

“I am sorry I did not tell you truly what was happening,” Estelle said. “I spoke in riddles, but it felt like everything was one big riddle myself. I have had more time now, to see, to feel, to listen. When you ran away, I tried to follow you. But my legs were so clumsy, my mind muddled. And then I felt the fruit begin to fade from my veins and I could not walk any longer and my lungs began to shrink and my heart beat slower. And that’s when she found me. She put me back and locked me away.”

“That must have been when she sealed the stairs beneath the obelisk,” Leela said.

“The obelisk,” Kandra muttered, her eyes faraway. When she looked at Leela again, Leela saw a small spark of blue. “I think . . . I think I saw her name. Written on the obelisk.”

Leela frowned. “Whose name?”