Status Updates From The Last Goddess

Then it happened—naturally. Her first babbled utterance, before she knew it was coming. Followed by several more that flew into her head and came together in a stream. Others hurried to join them, and the stream became too strong to hold. It came in a rush along with her tears, like a waterfall, out and down and onto the ash-gray headstone. Hate, pain, remorse, and at the very end, sorrow.

When she closed her eyes, she saw their cottage clearly. Jakoubek was sitting on the doorstep, and Surmena was standing behind him. They were giving her a cheery wave as she approached. At that time she didn’t yet know that the only images she could summon were firmly anchored in a long-closed past.

It was her task, she told herself, to dig out and tell the life stories of all the women of her line, no matter how long ago they had lived, and most importantly, to tell the world of the extraordinary art their enemies had tried to erase from the face of Kopanice all through the ages. It was up to her to ensure that their legacy was not lost.

But no sooner had she opened it than she was confronted with her true role, and suddenly she guessed what it wanted of her and how she was to contribute, as the only one who stood where two worlds met—with one foot in the world of science, yet deeply rooted in the life of the goddesses.