Chapter 17 - The Seer.
The Merry Ploughman stood half empty in the morning hours, with a few patrons at the far tables, scattered light coming through the small windows, and the smell of wood and yesterday's hearth holding in the air. Bernard worked behind the counter, picking up the plates one after another and wiping them to a dry shine, running his eyes over the room and every so often moving them to Selma beside him.
She was scrubbing the countertop in a circular motion, though it had been clean for a long while, and the face had gone out of her, the emptiness and pain that sat deep in her showing in the set of her shoulders and in the way her eyes never came up. Bernard set the plate down without a word and lowered his hand onto hers, covering it completely.
Selma turned her head slowly and found him looking into her eyes in silence. Her lips shook a little, and then she pressed into his chest, barely holding the sound in, while the tears began to run. Bernard held her hard and looked ahead, at the far wall of the room, clenching his jaw and drawing a deep breath.
Suddenly the door swung open as Erik came in at a confident stride, fingers working through the pouch at his belt, heading straight for the counter.
"Hey, Bernard, so I managed to get something out of the local gossips and the green cloaks. Word is that..."
He raised his eyes and stopped short. Erik's brows came together, his breath went out and his shoulders dropped, and he sat down on a stool at the counter.
Selma drew back, wiping her face with the back of her hand, while Bernard spoke to her quietly.
"Selma, you need some rest. I'll take care of everything. Trust me."
She nodded without a word and went off into the back of the place, disappearing behind a side door, while Bernard went back to the dishes, setting the wooden plates out along the shelf.
"Go on," Bernard said.
"They say the Queen found another survivor while she was in the Great Forest. One of the Order's knights. Apparently he's on the mend already."
Bernard held still for a moment, turning it over, then carried on setting out the plates.
"There's also talk that the attacker was the legendary Ursus himself," Erik went on.
"I think that's the point where you should have stopped listening to rumours. Ursus is a grandmother's tale, so that fools like you keep out of the forest," Bernard said with a smirk.
"Very funny, comedian. But it's the knights themselves saying it. The word came from the ones who rode out with the Queen. Supposedly she agreed herself that something set Ursus off, that he came out past the inner bounds of the forest and went at the hunting party."
Bernard put everything aside, braced both hands wide on the countertop, breathed out and looked at Erik.
"All right then. Say the tale turned real. How does that help us find Elen? All you've confirmed is that if we go in there, Ursus does to us what he did to the other fighters."
"Well, you're right about that… even without Ursus it's a risky business… But they say that even though he came out past the inner bounds, he never crossed the outer ones, and after the slaughter he went back," Erik answered, leaning forward.
Bernard stared at nothing in front of him, turning the words over, until the front door creaked and let in Aren along with Elara and Leo. Erik straightened on his stool, his eyes going noticeably wide, while Bernard for his part went still behind the counter.
"Would you look at that, you're already back on your feet?.. Holy Mother Goddess, they beat you half to de—" Erik began, but Bernard's fist came down on the crown of his head and cut the sentence off halfway, while Elara winced with an expression of honest sympathy.
"He might have taken a beating, but Aren's got super healing!" Leo said.
"Don't listen to him, he's exaggerating. The Archiater helped a great deal with his healing magic, that's why I'm much better," Aren said with a slight smirk.
Bernard smiled warmly, while Erik felt carefully at the lump with two fingers, wearing the look of a man in deep suffering.
"We're going to head into the north-eastern district of the lower city," Elara said to Bernard, still not sitting down.
"Now?" Erik said into the wood, lying face down on the counter.
"What for?" Bernard asked.
"The Archiater said a real seer lives there, one who can help Aren find out his past and his future!" Leo got in ahead of them both.
Bernard and Erik exchanged a look, and Erik lifted his head off the counter and looked the three of them over, finding the same calm, certain faces on all of them.
"You're serious?.. What if it's some witch who at best just shakes you down for money, and at worst throws her magic at you and turns you into her lifelong marion—"
Bernard cleared his throat loudly, and Erik broke off.
"This is Waldruhm, not Valkar, idiot. There are no necromancers and no control magic here," Bernard said, then turned his eyes to the others.
"Well, if the Archiater himself recommended it... then..."
He took off his apron and threw it over Erik's head.
"Hey!" Erik protested.
"Keep an eye on the place while we're gone. We'll be back soon," Bernard threw over his shoulder, already walking out with the others.
"Is this what you meant when you told Selma 'trust me, I'll take care of everything'?!"
The door closed, and Erik looked into the space in front of him for a few seconds, then sighed and lay back down on the counter.
The same morning light lay over the north-eastern district of the lower city, where it was quieter than elsewhere, the streets ran narrower, the paving was older, and the houses stood hard against one another, forming long unbroken frontages with rare gaps between them. They walked for about a quarter of an hour, until Elara slowed in front of one of the houses.
The house stood out from its neighbours in nothing at all, apart from the sign above the door, which carried a single name, "Raina". Aren knocked and listened to the silence behind the door. He exchanged a look with the others, took a silent nod from Bernard, and put his hand to the door handle, which turned out to be unlocked.
Inside it was dark, with sparse furniture and bare walls, and the only source of light was a window to the right that let in a narrow band of day, while at the back of the room a doorway showed, hung with strings of beads. Aren parted them with his hands and stepped through.
The next room was a long one, and hundreds of candles burned along both walls, set out on the floor and on ledges in the stone. At the far end stood a strange construction, a cylinder the height of a man, covered with a semi-transparent black tulle, through which a silhouette could be seen sitting motionless inside. Aren turned back to the others coming in after him, the beads clicking quietly behind them.
"Welcome. Please, come in," a deep woman's voice said from behind the tulle.
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A drop of sweat went down Aren's temple as he moved slowly towards the cylinder. The unlit candles on the floor flared up all at once, and he stopped where he was, moving his eyes from the flames to the silhouette and back.
"I see why you have come to me. You are looking for answers. Looking for truth. You are looking for your fate," the voice said.
"I imagine everyone who comes here is looking for exactly that," Bernard answered first.
"You dare doubt what I can do? Bernard, son of Onluf… 'the Undying' of the Mountain Wolves company that no longer exists… The one who lived… through the Battle of the Divine Ridge."
Bernard's breath caught at once, while his mouth tightened and his shoulders drew up. The tulle moved and parted, letting out a woman of middle years in dark violet robes, with runic marks covering her face from forehead to chin.
"Hello, Aren."
"You... know who I am?"
The seer's eyes narrowed and slid briefly past Aren's shoulder, towards Leo and Elara, and then she sat down in the lotus position on the cushions laid inside the cylinder.
"I know who you are, who they are, and why you are here."
Aren's eyes lit with hope as they never had before, and with a smile on his face he turned to her at once.
"Then please, tell me everything! Tell me who I am and why I ended up here!"
She paused briefly and tilted her head.
"Forgive me, young man, but unfortunately I am not permitted to tell you of it."
The smile went off Aren's face, and his brows drew together.
"What do you mean… you 'can't'?... You're a seer, and you're supposed to—" Elara began, until the seer cut her off.
"I owe you nothing… Yes, I am a seer, and yes, I see things ordinary people cannot see. That gift was sent down to me by higher powers. And right now, the higher powers do not permit me to look into either the past or the future of this young man."
"And would money get your higher powers to reconsider?" Bernard added, shaking the coins in a small pouch.
The seer did not answer, looking into the smith's eyes, and he for his part stiffened a little and put the pouch away in his satchel.
Aren's shoulders came down, his hands closed, and he turned and started for the door.
"Aren! Wait," Elara said.
"Erik was right. It was stupid to come here and believe some seer would tell me what kind of man I am and where I'm from," Aren threw over his shoulder.
"Oh, you think you're a man?" the seer answered suddenly.
Aren stopped dead, feeling the cold run down his spine, and everything around him stopped. He turned slowly and caught her smirk.
"Wh… what do you mean by that?" Aren asked.
"What I see. And I see a great deal. And I can tell a man apart with ease from… something I have never seen before…"
"Don't listen to her, Aren. You're right, we shouldn't have come here, witches aren't to be trusted, mad ones least of all. We're leaving," Bernard said.
Elara took Aren carefully by the hand and led him to the door, while Bernard held his eyes on the woman a moment longer and went after them. He stopped at the doorway, though, with the others already out in the street, and turned back, taking a step towards her.
Out in the street Aren stood facing the house with his hands on his hips and let out a breath, while Elara and Leo came up after him and she laid a hand on his back.
"Aren. Talk to me."
"Erik was right after all. This was a pointless idea," Aren said, looking down for a few seconds and shaking his head.
"Maybe she really is mad?" Leo added, and Elara threw him a look that was awkward and stern at once.
"I needed a past. I wanted to find out who I am. And in the end… by her reckoning I'm apparently not even a man," Aren went on, smirking on the last word.
Elara watched him with understanding and moved her hand a little higher up his back.
"Aren, look at me."
She laid her palm slowly against his cheek and turned his face to her.
"Yes, maybe you didn't find the truth your heart is looking for. Maybe you got something other than what you wanted. But that doesn't mean everything is lost."
She drew her thumb slowly across his cheek, smiling warmly.
"It isn't words that decide who you are, it's you yourself, and what you do."
She put her other hand to his chest and felt the beat of his heart.
"Don't listen to the ones who say things like that to you, and keep believing in yourself, in your own strength and in your purpose. Listen to your heart and believe…believe that you will get to the truth and reach what you set out for. As long as we believe, we’re capable of more than we think. I know that. And I know you will find what you're looking for…and we will certainly help you with it. I will help you with it."
Aren moved his eyes from Elara to Leo, who was nodding his approval with a smile.
"You're right," Aren answered, and her smile widened.
At the same time Bernard stood in front of the seer, who sat on the cushions and did not take her eyes off him.
"How do you know what I was?"
"What do you think?"
"So you're permitted to see my past, and not his?!"
"The decision of the higher powers is theirs to make. We will never understand their true intentions."
"What nonsense… Tell me the truth. How do you know about me."
The seer's eyes narrowed while she took her time with the answer.
"No one ever believed you, did they?"
"What… what are you talking about?" he asked, brows drawing together.
"About what happened in that battle. Hundreds…thousands of bodies. All dead. Fire… blood… smoke… flesh. Two sides that met, and neither of them left alive. Only you… who saw the thing… or rather… the one… who did it."
Fragments flared in front of Bernard's eyes, of cries and screaming, of bodies coming apart and bones breaking, of explosions and fire. A hum built in his ears and turned into a ringing, and his heart started beating harder in his chest while his breathing broke up.
"You… you saw him too?..."
"I see only fragments of what you saw… rough silhouettes… and terror. And to your misfortune, that is nothing next to what waits for you ahead."
His face grew still more troubled and strained.
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't tell futures for thank-yous."
Bernard pressed his lips together, looking into her eyes, then took out the pouch of coins. His eyes moved between the pouch and the seer, then he sighed and threw it down at her feet.
She took the pouch up slowly and smoothly, opened it and looked at the bronze, then raised her eyes and set it aside.
"These people… Leo, Elara and… Mia."
The smith's eyes went wide and his lips parted slightly at the names he had not expected to hear in his own prophecy.
"What… what about them?... What have those children got to do with any of this?!"
The seer's look grew darker and colder as she tipped her head slightly forward, holding her eyes on Bernard's all the while, and then slowly closed them.
The darkness in her mind slowly filled with a street running between ruins on both sides, where red flame was biting into what was left of the walls, and the screams of townspeople came out of the dark, in agony and terror.
Down that street walked a young man with long fair hair and shaved sides, one of them carrying two long scars. A dark green cloak covered his back and shoulders, while a steel breastplate sat on his chest. In each hand he held a magic pistol, and his clothes were covered all over in blood, while his gaze, lowered and set ahead, carried fury and a thirst for blood.
"Be on your guard, Bernard. The time is not far off when your whole life and the lives of those close to you turn over. Soon the ones you took for a source of love and life will sow nothing in this world but death and chaos," the seer said, opening her eyes then and raising them to Bernard.
Bernard froze at the cold, serious eyes of the woman, and the faces of Elara, Mia and Leo flashed in front of him. He turned at once and walked for the door, muttering through his teeth.
"Damned witch. Talking rubbish."
The beads clicked behind him, and he crossed the dark front room, pushed the door and stepped out into the street.
Meanwhile the seer, left alone with herself, sat in silence a few seconds longer, breathed out lightly and drew the tulle shut in front of her. She straightened slowly and returned to her meditation, until echoes of the future seeped suddenly into her mind and she grabbed at her head.
"Wh-what is this?!... What are you doing?!"
Her eyes flew open, but instead of the room she saw a deep cave, and in front of her lay a dead giant dragon whose open jaws touched the stone floor. Between the fangs sat Aren in black leather armour, his hair tied back and his face lowered, while a bloodied sword lay off to one side of him.
The pain came through her head again, and she set her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a pained groan. The ground shook, and ringing sounds began to spread around her along with flashes of light, and she opened her eyes again to find herself on a battlefield.
From one side came a formation of steam machines and soldiers in mechanical exoskeletons, with energy discharges flying through the air, while from the other, warriors in armour washed in yellow light were breaking the machines apart and throwing up domes of golden energy.
Frightened, Raina dropped onto all fours, shaking with terror as she tried to crawl into any cover at all, until one of the blasts startled her so badly that she threw herself onto her back and covered her face with her hands.
Then the sounds of the fighting and the shaking of the ground died down slowly, giving way to nothing but a light wind and silence, and she uncovered her face to a grey sky above her, across which a single roll of thunder passed. She looked around and saw only the dark earth of the shallow ditch she was lying in, and then began climbing slowly up until she reached the top edge.
She looked out slowly and froze at a dark field strewn with ash that ran away to the horizon, where an enormous army stood drawn up, of armoured, hideous creatures with deformed bodies, every one of them carrying mechanical prosthetics. Beside them and mounted on them were soldiers in black armour and frightening dark masks.
She jerked at a crunch nearby and turned in fright to find Aren walking towards that armada from the far side, in different armour now, black and mechanical, carrying two blades. The shaking would not leave her body, and the ringing in her ears kept building, until everything in front of her eyes went up in a burst of light.
Raina came up off the cushions all at once, gulping at the air and trying to settle, with her own candle-filled room in front of her. Her heart was hammering as though it were ready to burst out of her chest, tears running down her face and blood starting from her nose.
"Oh gods… what is waiting for all of us…"