Ah, the prophet of Calister. The most famous prophet in Misery’s lifetime. There are dozens of these soothsayers every year, legions of fakes and the voidmad, but the prophet of Calister was the real deal, endorsed by the then-Pope. A mysterious figure whose identity was never fully revealed to the public, although there was no shortage of speculation. During a span of years in Misery’s childhood hir sayings and predictions regularly filled a corner of the Church waves. In a religious household like Misery’s, the prophet was a white-noise buzz you couldn’t escape, even if only through dissent. Crem did not approve of prophets, or prophecy in general, believing that such nonsense contradicted Scripture. The Larex Forge does not truck with fortune-telling and the petty fates of miserable humans, whatever. Misery, on the other hand, was obsessed. She read all the bulletins, sneaked onto age-restricted fora to snoop on the speculation. She knew the prophet’s great hits like the bones of her hand. The prophet predicted the Rebellion of Gelphy Tau. The prophet spoke against the Truce of Logan. The prophet told many stories of what was to come, some of which were right and some of which had not yet come to pass. When Misery was eight she was obsessed with the wave series The Ninth Messiah, starring Leaf Maruska as the titular character, doe-eyed and willowy, the picture of perfect saintliness. A fanciful what-if based on the prophet’s most popular prediction. Valley Boydell’s magnum opus. It was controversial at the time, and it was everybody’s favorite show. Misery inhaled it like oxygen. She spent afternoons curled in Mother’s lap watching episodes on repeat, mouthing all her favorite lines while Amaranth ran soft fingers over her scalp, murmuring, “That’ll be you someday, dearest mintling. You’ll see.”

In the show, the Tear of Assan was clear as glass, shaped like an actual teardrop, and glowed dramatically whenever Arrow Kaneda, Maruska’s character, came near. It spoke like an angel (voiced by Devdan-Zeta Quartz) and directed Arrow through her journey, channeling the will of the Larex Forge.

In real life the Tear is a glassy disc of black stone with translucent edges and strange circular markings. In real life the Tear looks so much like Mother’s amulet it makes Misery dizzy. What does that mean? Is there a connection between the two?

The Archbishop gestures to the glistening Tear. “What can you do with this?”