HeartoftheOracle by Viola Grace Page A

on, the locals had come to her for wisdom and forecasts of their futures.
    As travellers from the stars discovered her accurate predictions, the people of Miska began to turn a profit by allowing strangers access to their Oracle.
    Her ability to leave her body was recent, but she enjoyed it when she could get away and walk the fields and cities of Miska. Life as a living ghost was difficult, but it was better than being trapped in a cold body while forced to answer query after query about the lives and fortunes of those who visited the temple of the Oracle.
    The moment a supplicant came to the temple, she snapped back into her body. It wasn't a perfect system, but it worked.
    As the doorway of the inner sanctum swung slowly open, she watched the supplicant approach her. As many did, he knelt next to the long couch where she laid, the couch that held the circuitry of her stasis unit. He was wearing a cloak that slid partially back to display a richly embroidered tunic and dark hair.
    When he reached for her hand, she quickly slid back into her body and waited for the rush of power that normally preceded a prediction.
    Trapped inside her body, her emotions ran from shock to arousal as his hand spread a wave of heat through her. She hadn't felt heat in over a century.
    "Ah, my dearest. What is your name?" He pressed a kiss to the back of her hand and she felt the touch.
    She wasn't sure, but she thought her audio output sounded breathy. "I am Lara Weaving. What is it that you wish to know?"
    "I am wondering about my future and love." He kept hold of her hand.
    She waited for the rush of knowledge, but there was only a wave of certainty. "Your future and that of the Oracle are linked. Love will come when pain is released."
    "Really?" His tone was sceptical.
    Her precognition took hold and her voice rang with the ice in her veins, "When the Oracle is freed from her duty, pleasure and pain will fight for supremacy and only an Edinar Saber will decide the battle."
    He jerked when she spoke and he pulled his hand from hers. He didn't speak but pulled the cloak tightly around him and left the inner sanctum.
    Lara sighed as her attendants rushed in and cleaned her arm and anywhere he could have reached. Her elegant gown was adjusted as were the soft boots on her feet.
    Lara left her body and watched them work. Her body looked like a lady had just reclined for an afternoon nap if you didn't note the wires that ran along her limbs and were buried in her skin. Her blood had been exchanged for the stasis fluid and it re-circulated through her equipment dozens of times a week.
    When the Miska began getting visitors, they used the funds to acquire the fluids that they needed to keep their Oracle alive. At the point where the Edinar were considered an extinct species, they expunged the data recordings attached to her system. No one could prove what she was without a DNA sample and since the Miska declared her body a holy relic, anyone found trying to take a sample of anything would be bound by law and held on Miska indefinitely.
    Lara let her astral self go for a walk while her body was groomed for the next day of queries. She moved in the least-occupied paths of the market places. Walking through living beings just felt wrong.
    Lara could feel the tug of the man who had so recently held her hand. She rarely stalked her visitors back to their accommodations, but in this case, she couldn't stop herself.
    Out of all the thousands of men who had knelt at her side to get a vision of their future via her words, he was the only one whose touch had warmed her. She had felt him and with a body that was basically dead for all intents and purposes, it was something she wanted to experience again.
    The eagerness that coursed through her thoughts was unfamiliar, but she locked onto the touch of his mind. She had memorized that feeling in those few seconds and she followed him as quickly as she could. She didn't want to lose him, he was her only hope.
    Why