The Forgotten Oracle
Many centuries ago, in the time of ancient Greece, there existed a kingdom built upon the emerald tendrils of the sea and the graces of mighty gods – the city of Polis. In this city, there lived a young oracle named Kore. Gifted with the ability to pass messages from the divine, her prophecies were said to change the fate of empires and change the destiny of the mightiest kings.
Oracle Kore was taken up to the grand temple built at the top of a hill, where she was provided a cubicle living space adorned with divine resemblances and ancient scriptures. Here, she was to spend the rest of her life beneath the golden beams of sun and dewy pearls of moonlight, waiting for the divine messages from the gods.
Years passed, and her life wore on in a solitary rhythm, her only interactions being those of people coming to her seeking wisdom. The perception of time that most people in the city carried slipped from her hands like sand, and she grew in both wisdom and divine understanding. She saw victories and downfalls, pain and joy, all through the eyes of the gods.
However, Kore longed for independence, to experience life outside the temple, to mingle with the city, to share in their joys and sorrows, witness their victory and grief. She yearned to be a part of the world and sought the multitude of experiences it offered. She prayed to the gods she served, asking them to relieve her of her duty.
The gods, touched by her piety and evident sincerity, granted her wish. Kore found herself suddenly free of her role as an oracle and was allowed to explore the city. She saw the town criers deliver news, she traded with the merchants from far-off lands, she danced at celebrations, and she cried at funerals. She was relieved yet overwhelmed by the simplest joys that life outside the temple offered.
In her newfound freedom though, a seed of emptiness began to sprout within her. The city she had yearned to be part of, treated her differently now. She was no longer the oracle, the bridge to the divine, but an anonymous member of their community. She found, to her dismay, that the life she craved was rather mundane, and she deeply missed the profound connection she had with the divine. The loss of her divine purpose and the hollowness that echoed in her soul proved too much to bear.
Distressed, Kore visited the temple seeking solace and stumbled upon a group of city-dwellers seeking guidance. She felt a pull, an old familiarity as she heard their problems. She remembered her divine communion, the how beyond her own understanding, she had possessed the wisdom to counsel, to guide, and to predict.
Unable to resist, she began to speak, her voice echoing through the wide halls of the temple. The crowd, surprised yet hopeful, listened to her mesmerizing voice as she advised them on their worries and calmed their fears. As she uttered powerful words of truth and hope, she felt the divine within her be rekindled, resurfacing with a radiance that hadn't been there before.
Her longing to stay as a part of the city and her role as the oracle found their balance that day. She realized that her divine nature was as much a part of her as her human existence. She returned to being the oracle, but with a newfound understanding of the divine and the mortal. She dedicated her divine gift for the world's greater good, making her prophecies from a mortal's understanding but with divine wisdom. And such was the tale of the Oracle Kore, the distinguished oracle who united the divine with the tangible world.