The priestess laid on her pallet inside the tiny house at the very back of the inner temple. She ate some grapes and drank some wine. The Oracle just sat there, seemingly asleep.

It was her job to hear the words of the Oracle, so she had to be here whenever they came. Sometimes they came in the middle of the night when she was sleeping. The Oracle would go days without eating when she was communing with Apollo. Afterwards she would have a voracious appetite. It was her job to feed the Oracle. The Oracle didn’t even have a name.

The Oracle sat suspended on a round cushion seat inside a tripod over a deep dark well. The well belched fumes from Hades. It smelled and gave me a headache some days. I moved my pallet far away. The Oracle sat in these fumes for days sometimes, seemingly asleep, but really she was outside of her body, her soul communing with Apollo. I think sometimes it took her longer to find him. Maybe he grew weary of her chasing him, or maybe he hid for a lark.

I just waited for the message.