Lumis Flickerwise was an oracle without a mortal to guide, and the mist was winning. They hovered above the swamp, no bigger than a thumbnail, their body a single point of pale light. Somewhere in Riftseed a forgotten god slept in a hidden heart, waiting to be woken. Lumis knew the way. But a lantern-god needs hands and feet it does not have. They needed a mortal to lead, and their glow was too weak to call one through the fog. Lumis flew higher and pushed the light brighter. The effort dimmed them almost to nothing. The mist swallowed every beam within an arm's length. No one could see this. No one ever saw them. Then, at the swamp's edge, a small figure stopped walking. She was a human girl in a torn dress and heavy boots, a brown scarf wound to her chin. She squinted straight at Lumis. Her dark eyes tracked the tiny glow through the mist that hid it from everything else alive. "You're a bug," she said. "A shining bug." Lumis froze mid-air. In every long year, no mortal had looked back. "You can see me," Lumis said. Their voice was thin as a reed. "Truly see me?" The girl nodded. She reached out one careful finger. "My grandmother said I'd see things others couldn't. She said not to be scared." She swallowed. "Are you real?" "I am Lumis Flickerwise. I am an oracle." They spun once, and their light steadied for the first time in ages. "What is your name?" "Ember. Ember Lighthollow." She glanced back toward the dark trees behind her. "I ran away. There's nothing left at home worth staying for." Lumis drifted closer, drinking in the sight of a face that finally answered theirs. Here was the mortal. After so long, here she was, seeing the one light no one else could. "Ember," Lumis said, "I know a place deep in Riftseed. A sleeping god waits there. Waking it could change everything for a girl with nothing to return to." Ember's finger stayed out, and Lumis landed on it. She felt the weight of them, no heavier than a breath. "Will you show me?" she asked. "I will guide you every step," Lumis said. "But the way is long, and the mist grows deeper the farther we go." Ember pulled her scarf higher. Then she stepped off the dry ground and into the swamp, following the small light no one else could see. Behind them, the fog closed over the path home. Lumis had their mortal at last. Now they had to keep her alive long enough to reach the heart of Riftseed.