“What is that?” asked Alexis, but a moment later they were near enough for her to see fo
“What is that?” asked Alexis, but a moment later they were near enough for her to see for herself.It was a statue of a seated woman holding a baby on her lap. Pooled at her feet and in her skirt were small bronze coins, dried flowers, and tiny burned-down candles. The veil over her hair suggested this was meant to be a depiction of the Lady, but there was something about the effigy that made Alexis second guess herself.“Just a roadside shrine,” said Laurel. “Don’t you have them in Athouria?”“No,” said Alexis. Belatedly, she remembered that she could not be called well-traveled by any stretch of the imagination. “I don’t think so.”At this distance, she could see the baby was rather poorly carved when compared to the Lady, and her veil was made from a different sort of stone as the rest of her. It also looked like she’d once held something in her right hand, but it had since fallen off.“It looks like it’s been damaged,” commented Alexis.“I imagine it predates the arrival of the Testament in Valonn,” said Laurel. “She probably started off as a local goddess. They’d have turned her into the Lady when the Old Ways fell out of fashion. I think her baby was originally a cat until someone re-carved it.” Chapter Seven of Cursed is now live at patreon.com/effie -- source link