I blinked, groaned, and put a hand over my face. I tried to push myself into a sitting position, but a cold hand pushed me back onto the ground.
“Stay,” Jarius said. “You need to rest.”
“Well, I’m not resting on the ground,” I grumbled.
“Acantha, please pour Ellowyn a glass of water from that pitcher by the window,” my father said. To my surprise, my mother scuttled to do as he asked.
“How long was I out for?” I asked.
“A little over an hour,” my father replied, quietly.
Shit.
“Ell, has this happened before?” my father asked, taking the cup from my mother as she returned. Jarius and my father helped me sit up, pushing my back to lean against my father’s chair. My father handed me the cup of water and motioned for me to drink. I’m not sure why they were treating me like an invalid. It was just a dream again, I was fine.
I took a sip of water to avoid the question.
“Ell?” my father prompted.
I noncommittally shrugged my shoulders.
“How often?” This question came from Jarius.
“Recently? Every night,” I whispered.
All three adults widened their eyes.
“Is it the same dream or different?” Jarius asked.
“Depends on the night and who is in it, I suppose,” I mused, taking another sip of the water. It was cold and helped to clear some of my brain fog.
My father looked to Jarius. “What does this mean?”
“I’m not sure,” Jarius replied, “there are a few theories I have, but I would need to explore them further. You have a Seeing Room in the city?”
My mother nodded her head. “Yes, in Solace’s temple. It’s . . . in disrepair, but I would imagine still functional.”
“Very good,” Jarius said with a nod. “I would like to spend some time there. I will be able to see Ellowyn’s futures now that I have connected with her, so no need to subject her to any more of my prodding.”
Jarius rose with my father and my father quickly bowed to him as Jarius strode from the room. The door shut with an audibleclick, and then it was just me and my parents in the room.
“He is so odd,” I said finally, breaking the silence.
My mother gave me an admonishing look.
Guess fainting and having weird dreams didn’t excuse me from proper behavior.I ducked my head and continued drinking my water. My father scratched his jaw in thought.
“Was he able to see any of my futures?” I asked.
My father laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “No, Ell. He wasn’t. Not clearly, anyway. He says he needs a Truthsayer to make sense of them. And the only one left in existence is Lord d’Refan.”
I gasped at that admission.
“So, looks like we’re not going to be able to be prepared then, are we?” My father shook his head. We sat in silence for a few minutes longer, my mother looking anywhere but at me while my father seemed lost in thought. I casually sipped my water until the cup was empty.
“Are you feeling better, Ell?” my father asked after a few additional minutes of silence. I nodded my head as I pushed up from the floor.
“Yes, I was fine when I woke, actually.”
