“I am Pauline Silentghost with the g silent and the h — not silent.”
“Pauline Silenthost?” replied Wheeler phonetically.
“Yes. (pause) I am the wisdom of all things–”
“–Nautilus, yes. I gathered that.” Wheeler indicated behind the entity at the circular framed nautilus shell, obvious symbol for the continent she once again inhabits. Like returned Rust. “Thus, I suppose, your smaller property in Scroop.”
“Scrougeout, yes. We call it Scrougeout. Carrcassonnee has decided so.”
“The… Oracle.”
“Yess.”
It was here Wheeler understood that they were talking to each other in their heads and not bodies. It was also here that Wheeler realized she was floating in air as a disembodied head or sumtin before the Oracle. Silentghost *was* the Oracle, or a channeler of Carrcassonnee in the moment. “You know Spider,” said Silentghost the Oracle. Then she fired these numbers very rapidly, the first being the same as the last. 24 permutations in total. Like this: “2130 1230 3210 2310 1320 3120 3102 1302 0312 3012 1032 0132 0231 2031 3021 0321 2301 3201 1203 2103 0123 1023 2013 0213 2130.”
“I suppose,” replied Wheeler, remaining even keeled through it all. “We found him in Tennessee. A Red Arrow indicated his presence there. And 8 shoes. And a bird, a dove perhaps.”
“Ahh… *my* dove. Victor, short for Victory. And *Victoria*.”
Wheeler tried to absorb this seeming nonsense, knowing it actually wasn’t.
“Let’s go down to my treehouse and talk further,” Silentghost requested, and then they were there.
(to be continued)
Sunklands 