“I don’t see anything. Obviously.”
“The first attempt is the most difficult.”
“That’s not helpful.”
There was silence in the darkness. Syr thought about that. Silence always seemed to have its own presence in the darkness, where elsewhere it was felt more like an absence.
After a minute of this, the formless blue-purple-red eddies of sensory deprivation began to thrum in her vision. Still the soothsayer said nothing, and silence swelled to fill the little curtained alcove, seeping into every yard of fabric and pressing on her ears and mind.
As Syr wondered if any of these sensations had something to do with her self, she began to sense something behind those swirling non-visions. Something deep and vertiginous, yawning, threatening to pull her in. She felt sick. Dizzy. Disoriented. She feared for her balance, that she might fall off the world.
And she felt the gazes of many sets of eyes as she nearly stumbled.
“Hmm.”
The hum of the soothsayer cut through these feelings and restored ordinary silence to the dark alcove. Or was it ordinary?
They lit the candle in the center of the table, and their veiled hood returned to view.
“An interesting first Seeing,” they commented.
“Was that what I was looking for? That is… me?” Syr stammered.
“No,” chuckled the soothsayer. The soothsayer’s sudden expression of any sort of emotion almost knocked Syr out of her chair (or was that the lingering nausea?). “What you saw is not you. You are not given to introspection, I think.”
“So if that wasn’t me, what was that?”
“Examine it yourself. What do you believe it was?”
Syr considered complaining about the soothsayer’s unfailingly cryptic approach to every damn thing, but thought better of it and instead put her mind to the task.
“It felt like… a space. In front of me. A void. It felt like it was pulling me in, but maybe it wasn’t… physically pulling. It was like I wanted to fall forward into it. But somehow it was also dreadful, like I shouldn’t.”
Syr furrowed her brow, pressing on.
“And the eyes. I was definitely being watched. Judged.” She looked up, directly into the veil. “Am I still being watched right now?”
“In a manner, yes. You are quite perceptive.”
Syr began to grind her teeth. “Stars above. I get that you have a thing you’re doing but cut it out and tell me what the Hell is going on.”
“Be patient, young one. One day you may grow practiced this skill and come to understand why those like me can be so… circumspect. But now, yes, you will have your answers.
“There is indeed a space very near to here. You may even go there. It is near and by no means forbidden, but it will be unfamiliar and there are hazards which your instincts are warning you against. It is the Halls; an ancient place that many believe to have been here long before Gullport. Possibly before even the kingdom of Orland itself.
“The gazes are another matter. One among them is certainly the Law. You carry a token of it, remember. The coin. Last you came for help you left convinced that you were not in violation of its law and that has allowed you to coexist with the coin. But the Law of life and death remains close in your presence.
“More sets of eyes upon you, though? I cannot say. Perhaps it is your sense of the Law, that it is multiplicate rather than unitary. Or perhaps your talent has attracted attention. For my own part I do not see the other eyes upon you. But that is not to say that they are not there.
“We may speak more of those shortly. You truly do not sense your self? I have heard of such a thing before. But those who do not know their own magic are often startled by its… brilliance.”
“No. Brilliance? I know we’re not talking actual light but brilliance is not what would come to mind. I sensed the… emptiness nearby, the eyes on my back, and a whole lot of dark and quiet room.”
The soothsayer nodded, considering. “Very unusual. Shall we try again?”
Syr arched an eyebrow. “I suppose I should soon. But I want to see the Halls, first.”
“Ahhhh,” the soothsayer remarked. “You would like to know what this newfound sense is good for. How much you can even trust it, perhaps.”
“Damn straight.”