Jian was still so deep in the vision she could see luminous purple on the backs of her eyelids, even as Mother gently shook her awake. “Wait!” she cried out. “I don't understand!”

A beat too late; both boy and waterfall vanished. When Jian opened her eyes, her chest heaving, only Mother was there, one hand on her own heart, the other on Jian's. "Are you all right? You were crying out in your sleep."

"I saw something." Jian had trouble finding her voice. It sounded as strange in her own ears as the voice in the dream had been. Everything still seemed to be underwater. "A vision."

“A vision!? I shouldn't have disturbed you! What did you see? Tell me, and quickly; dreams don’t always stay long enough for us to put them in words.”

Despite Mother's wild-eyed agitation, Jian found most of the images had slipped away in the moments between the dream world and wakefulness. With each detail she could recall—the eyes, the water, the melodious voice—she knew others of great importance had fallen just beyond her grasp. What was the message she needed to carry to the waking world?

“What did you see?” Mother prompted again.

“There was…” Jian shielded her face with both hands, digging the heels of her palms into the space below her cheekbones. “A person speaking to me. I know they said 'Homeland,' and then something else, something tremendously important."

But what, exactly? Jian couldn't recall. Nor did she remember the messenger's shape or their face, other than those striking luminescent eyes. "With purple eyes. Glowing ones. And there was water coming down from a high place.”

Mother’s exhaled breath came short and fast. “Your Path!” she whispered. “Thank the Goddess. I knew She wouldn’t leave you, not today of all days, on your birthday. You made it, Jian.”

“But what did it mean?” Jian had never heard of such a Pathfinding. The girls she knew from school had all received direction. They saw visions of themselves; they came away from the solitary Trial knowing they would be artists, or mothers, or leaders. They might see the person who would become their husband, should they be lucky enough to receive Maere's blessing for a match, or an older version of themselves, alone, to prepare them for life without one. They discovered hidden talents or received visions for how they might utilize known ones.

No one had ever received a direction as vague and aimless as this. Not even half-remembered. Without question, Maere had tried to tell her something, but Jian couldn't even begin to guess what.

Mother only shook her head. “I can't say, but you’ve surely been blessed in a way no one else in Elsinoor has been before. Violet eyes! Your Path could lead to the Goddess Maere herself. Perhaps you're meant to be a priestess.”

Jian couldn’t speak. She had been pious as a child, yes; but never less so than now. Until yesterday, she'd been prepared to think the Creator had no Path in store for her at all. Could such an unbeliever become a priestess?

“I will ask the Elders,” Mother said, beside herself with excitement. “They've recorded every Path in the village’s history. They’ll know exactly what it means.”

“It’s unprecedented.” Elder Veila looked at Jian, lips pursed, in a way that suggested she thought perhaps the girl had panicked and made up any story she could think of. “Of course, there have been Elsinoorans called to priestesshood, but not as Jian describes it. I’ve recorded no Path vision like the one she claims to have had.”

Undeterred, Mother's eyes sparkled. "It could mean she's on a Path that will be closely linked with Maere herself. Like the priestesses of old, in the southern lands."

"Or," Elder Veila's eyes narrowed, "she was so worried about her Pathfinding that anxiety crept into her dreams and came up with these...images."

Could it all have been her imagination? Jian hated considering the idea, after the elation she'd felt on waking. When she reached back into her memory to search for more details, though, they too had evaporated, just as if it truly had been a simple dream. A Path was supposed to be a vivid experience; one so real that children sometimes awoke unable to properly separate reality from the vision. Jian's dream had turned to smoke with the return of her consciousness, and more slipped away with each passing moment.

"Impossible," Mother insisted. "She turned sixteen today, so there's no question that Maere sent the vision to allay our fears. Perhaps her plans for Jian are meant to come to pass much further in the future, and so She chose to be imprecise in the exact direction for Jian's Path."

"Proper priestesshood study does take years, even with guidance," Elder Yatsura pointed out. "If that was the meaning of the dream, Jian would have to travel to Kesmet and learn from the priestesses there. It's been too long since one was born in Elsinoor, I'm afraid."

Jian felt almost as skeptical as Elder Veila looked. "But Mother, I didn't see myself as a priestess in the vision. I only saw the eyes, and the falling water."

"A baptism." Elder Yatsura nodded.

"No priestess of Maere has been called in such a way," Elder Veila maintained. "When a priestess was born in my year, not only did she receive a clear Path, I saw her in my Pathfinding. And so did both of you, Sisters."

Elder Yatsura shot her cohort a frustrated glance. "Certainly I did, but you completed your Pathfinding over fifty years ago, and I less than a decade later. Hardly yesterday, Veila. Just because we did not observe Jian as a priestess in our own visions, hardly means she won't become one someday. Perhaps her time will come after we three are gone."

Elder Veila gasped. "How dare you?"

"Tut, tut. It has been a long time since a priestess was born here." Elder Tuina stood, with great effort, and felt along the wall as she approached Jian with slow, unsteady steps. "And we have seen great changes in Pathfinding since we were young, Sisters. Perhaps Maere is calling Jian for a more spiritual duty than any Elsinooran priestess has received before."

"The women destined to be the future Elders might know," Elder Yatsura suggested.

"I'd like to ask them what they think." Elder Tuina placed her gnarled hands on Jian's face. "Please arrange a meeting with all the future Elders we know of, Veila. And call for Alesun as well."

"Of course," Elder Veila said. "Alesun will ferret out the truth, of that I'm certain."

Elder Tuina's expression never changed, but even Jian felt the atmosphere of the small room turn electric as the senior Elder dismissed her cohort with a curt nod.

Veila's lips pressed into a thin line and she strode from the room without another word, her long skirts streaming behind her.