Her lips twitched, the hint of a smile tugging at the corner.
“Was it intentional?” she asked, her eyes still on her tea.
I scoffed. “Aran pissed me off.”
She set her cup down with a soft clink and lifted a brow. “So… it wasn’t, then.”
I shook my head, watching the steam curl between us.
“But it worked.”
She glanced at me, her tone curious. “And control?”
“Barely,” I admitted. My shoulders sank as I let the truth out with a sigh. “It felt… wild. Like I could barely hold it back.”
”Why are you holding it back?” she asked.
I looked up slowly, meeting her gaze. There was blue in her eyes, and green too, but the colors were so pale, so translucent, they looked almost clear. Like frost melting in the sun.
”I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it,” I said. ”Do you know? What did you see when you touched me? Was it really a dream? Did the gods speak to you?”
She tilted her head slightly, her eyes never leaving mine.
“I’m a seer,” she said gently. “Sometimes I dream. Other times the gods whisper while I’m still awake. And sometimes… the visions burn into my eyes like sunlight.”
She reached for my hand, fingers warm and steady.
“When I touched you that day,” she murmured, “they called to me. Told me to guide you. To teach you.”
She said it like it was nothing. Like carrying visions wasn’t a burden. It reminded me of something Licia once said, all those years ago, when she was still trying to put words to her secret.
When I get a vision, it just shows up, and then I can’t stop thinking about it. What it means.
“Did you understand what they meant?” I asked the woman. “The things you saw?”
Her eyes drifted toward the garden. “I never know. I only try to please the gods, but sometimes I must refuse them.”
“I had a friend like you once,” I said. “She used to get visions too.”
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared,” I managed. “One night. No warning. We never saw her again.”
“Nothing truly disappears, dear,” she said gently. “I could help you find her.”
My heart skipped.
Find Licia? I’d never even considered it an option. The world was bigger than I could imagine and she could have been anywhere in it. Even hearing the possibility of finding her felt like tearing open an old wound. Hope and dread tore at each other in my chest.
I didn’t answer, but the woman stood and gestured for me to follow.
We stepped inside the cottage and the door creaked shut behind us, slow and heavy like the lid of a coffin. The room was drenched in scent and shadow. Velvet tapestries hung along the walls, deep violet, midnight blue, and blood red, stitched with symbols I didn’t recognize. Black candles burned in crooked holders, their wax bleeding down onto shelves cluttered with jars, and dried herbs. Animal skulls lined the beams above us, some small and delicate, others large and cracked. A shrine stood in one corner of the room, pulsing with energy, crystals arranged in strange formations, bones stacked in precise spirals as coils of smoke curled into the air.
The seer crossed the room without a word and sat at a round wooden table in the center. She didn’t speak. Just raised one hand and gestured to the seat across from her. The floor groaned under my weight, each step a protest, like the house itself didn’t want me there.
As I reached the table, she lifted a mask and placed it over her face. Deep crimson. Lacquered like old blood, the mask shimmered in the candlelight, casting shadows across the walls that moved even when she didn’t.
Her eyes disappeared behind it. But I stillfeltthem.
