Then Leela’s memories took over and the visions changed and she shared with their people everything she had seen and learned over the past weeks, since she had first overheard the High Priestess speaking to Acolyte Klymthe in the Moon Gardens. The doors, the fruit, the Sky Gardens . . . Finding the circlet. Releasing Estelle from the stalactite. The dream. The cache of moonstone. The High Priestess threatening her. And then Leela jumping through the pool, down to the planet as Cerulean had done in days of old.

As they were meant to do.

When at last the memories were spent, Sera and Leela came back to themselves. The temple was as silent and somber as the Night Gardens. Many Cerulean were rubbing their eyes or the backs of their necks, or blinking around as if unsure anything they were seeing was real. Some were crying or holding each other. Some were shaking their heads, dazed. Sera felt a faint crackle in her chest, as if her moonstone was saying, “Well done.”

“Was that real?” Sera looked up at the sound of Acolyte Endaria’s voice. She was gazing down at Leela. “I felt . . .” She pressed her fingertips to her temples. “I felt so much. It had to be real.” She turned on Acolyte Klymthe. “How could you have been part of this?”

“Sh-she made me,” Acolyte Klymthe stammered. “She said it was the only way. She showed me with her circlet, showed me what could happen if we didn’t . . . I was afraid, I only wanted to help.”

“Silence,” the High Priestess snapped, then looked to Acolyte Endaria with a smile that might have once contained warmth but now was sharp and brittle. “Endaria, I can explain—”

Acolyte Endaria stepped backward. “You have lied to us,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “You have lied all this time. How could you?”

“Why?” It was timid Daina who spoke up, to Sera’s surprise. “Why would you do this?”

The High Priestess looked trapped. She glanced behind her, as if searching for a way to escape, but then Acolyte Imima stepped up, blocking her way.

“Where do you think you could go, Elysse?” Imima said. “There is nowhere to hide in this City. You must answer for these . . . these memories, these images we have seen. You have told us Leela Starcatcher is false, that she is dangerous. You have said Sera Lighthaven was unworthy. But we have felt their feelings and have lived the truth of them, and the only danger here is you.”

“All I have done I did for my people,” the High Priestess protested. “Do you want another Great Sadness? You speak of the memories—you saw what Sera went through down there. They locked her up! They tried to steal her blood! Is that the future you want for this City, for our people? To be at the mercy of humans who do not understand us?”