The Seer

Opening the door revealed a young Lyko woman, with painfully obvious wolf ears and a tail, and a long, messy mane of silvery hair. Lykosi aren't usually seen around here, out in the desert, so to see her here meant either it was very important or she was very desperate.

Or perhaps both.

But why now, in the middle of the night? And more importantly, why me?

“Excuse me,” she spoke with a barely audible voice, “is there a Halliyah Zikatta at this residence?”

How did she know that name?

While gently closing the door, I told her, “I'm sorry. I don't know anyone by that name. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's really late, and I -”

Before the door finished closing, the Lyko managed to get a hand through. “That's not what the stones showed me,” was her reply.

Of course, she would have said something like that.

“Stones?” I attempted to feign ignorance, hoping that she might grow tired of my antics and leave.

“Oh, come on. Everyone knows about seer stones. Even you.”

That attempt could not fool her.

I debated with myself on whether to let her in or to continue trying to get her to leave. She refused to remove her hand from the door. We found ourselves locked into a stalemate. The hot air rushing inside forced me to relent; even a Lyko such as her would not stand much of a chance out there at night. If the heat didn't get her, something else would have…

Perhaps I could reach a sort of compromise…

“It's awfully hot outside,” I told the Lyko seer, letting go of the door as I spoke, “Could I interest you in some sweetroot tea?”

“Sure!” the Lyko replied, her tail wagging in excitement. “That's my favorite kind of tea!”

I served her the same way I served any other traveler, fresh from the bar, hoping to only make light conversation before the traveler would go on their merry way. But she did not. After her first cup was downed, she merely stared at me, her tail continuing to wave to and fro. Many years had passed since the last time I saw someone so… happy…

“You want another cup?” I asked her.

“Oh, please!”

After pouring her a second cup, I said, “You're a long way from home. What brings you all the way out here?”

As with her first cup, she downed the second without much thought. Her demeanor underwent a slight shift, and the tone in her voice deepened. “A search for a legend…”

“A legend?”

“The legendary hero, Halliyah Zikatta,” she repeated that name from earlier. “The stones showed me he lives here, and the stones never lie.”

It hurt me considerably to say this, but it needed saying. “I suppose they don't teach you history at the Seer Academy, but Halliyah Zikatta died fifteen years ago, killed at the Battle of Luwas at the hands of -”

She interrupted me, “I've heard the stories. Do you actually take me for some child?”

I took the cups from her to clean them. With my back turned to her, I continued, “If you know the stories, then why chase after a dead man?”

Neither of us spoke for some time after that. I would serve her as many drinks as she needed, free of charge as a favor, but I would not entertain her fantasies. Although… something about her told me she actually believed what the seer stones told her.

She said the stones never lie. The stones, however, could get confused, foggy, or if ever cracked, they could even forget. I remembered as much from my days in the army. That said, we both knew the truth. I just refused to see it.

“Do you have your seer stones with you?” I asked her after putting some thought into it.

“Of course I do,” was her immediate answer. “I always bring my stones with me. A small box sat next to her, ornately decorated with various gems and delicate wooden paneling. Such a thing must have cost a fortune. Putting the box on the table for me to see, she opened it, revealing a dozen pebbles, polished to an exquisite quality, pristine and flawless. There went all my potential excuses for why I couldn't be who she sought after. Trying to wriggle my way out of this situation would only get much more difficult from here.

As she hid the box away, I told her, “The name's Dan.”

“Ipas.”

“That's an Islander name,” I commented. “It suits you.”

“Thanks.”

I turned to offer her one more cup of sweetroot tea, asking, “So… those are real seer stones?”

“Absolutely,” was her answer. Once again, she caught onto what I had planned. “You're wanting to see something, aren't you?”

“Maybe a little,” I admitted with a whisper. “There used to be someone else here.”

“Halliyah Zikatta?!” The Lyko woman's ears perked up and her tail started wagging even faster than before.

“Nah, she was an old woman,” I continued. “Even older than me, actually. She left to search for something in the Dorns. I was wondering if you could see what that could have been.”

“No, I will not help you hunt for loot,” Ipas told me before I could even ask her. She would not deter me otherwise.

“It's not hunting for loot,” I replied as I began to pour myself a drink. What was I doing? I had never shared a drink with a customer before. Hilami always did that. “The old woman seemed to think she had discovered some sort of… magical tool that could help the man you're looking for.”

She put down her drink at once. “I'm listening.”

I continued my offer, “She never told me what she found, but if you could use your seer stones to identify it, perhaps we could find that tool for her.”

After running a hand through her hair a few times in thought, she came to her answer, “Okay. But if I see nothing but hidden treasure, I'm out. Deal?”

“Deal.”

•

Ipas arranged the seer stones into a pattern I could not recognize. Most seers I remembered relying on just the same few patterns. This one, however… two stones lined up next to each other inside a circle of six stones inside a square of four more. I had seen my fair share of seers in my lifetime, but never a pattern like this one.

“Stones of sight, show me your wisdom!” Ipas prayed much like any other seer would, by shouting out to the Seven Heavens. “For this, I call upon Aab the Boundless Wisdom!”

Another hapless fool who prayed to one of the gods that abandoned us…

Nothing happened, as I expected.

“Seems Aab the Boundless Wisdom isn't interested in answering your prayer,” I told her.

“Aab has never rejected my prayers before,” she answered. “Maybe something is wrong with the prayer conduit -”

“Or maybe Aab has abandoned you just like all the…” A faint blue light emanated from the stone pattern. In an instant, the stones themselves proved my statement false. Ipas’ ears perked up at the sight.

“Yes! I knew it!” Ipas shouted. “Aab would never fail me!”

I couldn't believe it… Not once had I seen a prayer be answered in the last fifteen years. And yet, this Lyko woman had done it. She had called upon one of the gods.

And he responded.

What made her so special that one of the gods would answer her anyways?

As I was not trained in the art of the seer, all I was able to see was the blue light radiating from the seer stones.

“What do you see?” I asked Ipas.

“I see… of course, lots of hidden treasure,” Ipas described to me what she saw. “Perhaps these were the caches of gold and jewels long rumored as hidden away by the Ten Kings during the Demon Lord's invasion.”

“Is it just gold and jewels?” I pressed her with even more questions. “Do you not see anything else?”

“I see bones… bodies… people who sought fame and fortune, but lost everything… Creatures of the night… walking boxes… strange, strange things…”

I grew very concerned. None of the things Ipas listed were anything Hilami would have shown interest in. But she wouldn't say she found anything useful if she hadn't meant such.

“I see it! A relic… It appears to be a necklace of some sort.”

“A necklace?” I asked her. Despite knowing better, I walked around the bar table to catch a glimpse of what she saw. Of course, only the blue light caught my eye. I knew that, so why did that surprise me?

“The necklace sits on a small pillar inside the main cavern of the Cave of Arai-Kansee,” Ipas finished her explanation. “There does not seem to be anything guarding it. Maybe this is what the old woman found.”

Curiosity had gotten the better of me, as if something had called out my name.

Halliyah Zikatta…

No… it couldn't… I imagined the whole thing, surely. But still…

“We must leave on the morrow,” I told Ipas, without even a second thought. What was I doing?

“When on the morrow?” was the question she fired back in response.

“When the Watcher opens his eye on the horizon.”

“Cannot do that,” Ipas told me. “That's when I go to bed. I am nocturnal.”

I knew that. That was just how Lykosi were.

“Wait…” she interrupted my thoughts. “I see something else. How strange…”

“What do you see?”

“An old woman, who looks about eighty years of age, possibly even more, with hair of white and an aura of magical wisdom.” Ipas described the vision.

“What?” I shouted. It couldn't… Too many days had passed. The chances of her still being alive were just too low. “Where is she? Is she okay?”

“She appears… exhausted, as if her very soul had been removed from her.”

Trouble… and the way Ipas described the old woman reminded me much of Hilami. She indeed was alive, but yet also in danger. How horrifying! The old woman was the only one I trusted for all these years. Only the gods knew what had happened to her for all those days. Maybe, just maybe… she may have yet been alive.

I… I had to do something about it. There was no other option.

“We leave as soon as possible, then.”