Asef froze in front of the doors that wasn't guarded.
His breath didn't hitch, but his mind raced.
Was he too late?
Had the Seer been moved?
Or… was this a trap?
The military could have discovered soone was hunting her and set this up to lure the attacker.
But no.
There was no magical residue. No sense of surveillance. No signs of recent movent.
Just silence.
Still, he entered slowly. Carefully.
His steps were soundless, his aura suppressed.
His presence wouldn't be picked up by standard detection spells, and even if a trap had been laid, he was confident he could dismantle it before it triggered.
But he didn't find any traps.
No mana pulses, no buried formations.
Only emptiness.
He didn't know exactly where she would be, but sothing inside him stirred. A quiet tug beneath his ribs. Familiar. Deep.
The sa feeling he'd had when he approached the well as a boy.
The sa instinct that led him to Hon's house in the middle of the plains.
A call without words.
So he followed it.
He climbed the stairs of the quiet structure until he reached the third floor.
Unlike the other levels, this one had only a single door.
No windows. No lights.
The air was still.
Heavy.
As if ti moved more slowly here.
He stepped toward it, each movent deliberate, silent. He reached for the handle, but paused—just for a mont—his hand hovering in the air.
Then, he opened it.
The door didn't creak. It swung inward without resistance, revealing a room bathed in soft white light.
There was no furniture.
No ornants.
Just a single woman, seated cross-legged on the floor, her back straight, her eyes closed.
She wore a white cloak that shimred faintly in the dim light, embroidered with symbols he didn't recognize.
Her silver hair flowed down past her shoulders, almost glowing in the stillness.
She opened her eyes. They were white.
And looked directly at him.
Not startled. Not angry.
Just calm.
As if she had been waiting.
As if she knew he would co.
***
Arlon was just as surprised as Asef when the woman lifted her gaze.
Her eyes—those eyes.
They looked exactly like Lady Rael's.
Was this a coincidence?
Or sothing more?
He didn't know if this planet also gained its magic and swords from when soone wished for it.
Maybe it wasn't always a wish. Maybe sotis, a world received its magic from a different source entirely.
Or maybe, just maybe, each world had its own seer. A being like this woman. A constant. A fixture. A witness to everything before it began.
The theory was loose. Unproven. But the sight before him... made it feel real.
He needed more data on this, so he continued observing for now.
Asef, anwhile, stood frozen.
He wasn't sure if the person in front of him was truly the seer.
None of the people he had manipulated in the military had ever seen her. Rumors said she existed. That she served as an advisor. That she spoke rarely and appeared even less.
If she really was the seer, where were her guards? Her wards? Her protection?
He opened his mouth to ask, but before a word left his lips, the woman answered.
"Yes, I'm the seer," she said plainly, then added with a faint smile, "But just call Ro. I don't like the word 'seer.' Sounds too distant."
Asef blinked.
He hadn't asked.
But she'd answered anyway.
There was a trace of amusent in her tone. Not cruel—more like soone who'd been isolated for too long and found a mont of play.
He still didn't understand the situation. He had more questions. Why was she unguarded? Why was this room—this base—so easy to infiltrate?
But again, Ro responded first.
"Are you really asking that?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "I knew you were coming, of course, I cleared the place. You think you can sneak up on with your great magic powers?" She smirked. "I'm the seer."
There was no malice in her voice. Only mockery. As if she were speaking to soone who'd walked into a riddle without realizing it.
Asef remained silent.
He couldn't deny it anymore. She was the seer.
There were other possible explanations—telepathy, long-range sensors, even spies—but his instincts told him the truth.
She knew.
So, he got to the point. He stepped forward slightly and prepared to ask his first question.
But again, she beat him to it.
"No," she said flatly. "It's not possible."
A mont of silence.
He hadn't even spoken.
But he didn't need to. She had read him like a book.
She knew.
He wanted to ask if there was a way to bring his mother back.
He hadn't admitted it to himself fully—not out loud, not in years—but the question had never left him.
Ro tilted her head. "That's the one everyone asks first, you know. They all co in here thinking their pain is special. It is. But it also isn't."
He didn't argue.
Instead, he moved to his second question.
"How can I get my revenge?"
Ro sighed.
"That's the wrong question."
He frowned. "What do you an?"
"I an," she said, crossing her arms, "I'm already answering your questions before you ask them, and now you want to ask them for you too?"
A smirk tugged at her lips. "Go hire a butler or sothing. I'm not here to hold your hand."
Asef narrowed his eyes.
She wasn't hostile, but her attitude grated on him.
"You know I could kill you right now," he said calmly.
Ro raised an eyebrow. "Are you really that dense, or are you just pretending?"
She leaned forward slightly. "I told you I'm the seer. I know you won't kill . You're not even here to hurt . I'm your only chance, and you know it."
She was right.
And it annoyed him even more.
He looked away, teeth clenched.
There was a question he should ask—he felt it in his gut—but he couldn't reach it.
After five long minutes, he gave up trying to find it.
"You already know I won't figure it out," he muttered.
Ro laughed. Actually laughed.
"You're the second one to fall for that line," she said between chuckles. "I like ssing with people with the 'that is not the right question' shit.
Not a lot of company here, you know. Keeps entertained."
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "Your brother was the sa way when I used this trick on him. Took it way too seriously.
Ah, you don't like people to ntion his na around you. Sorry about that."
Asef's eyes opened wide. He hadn't ntioned his brother.
Of course, the one in front of her was the seer. But it didn't an she knew stuff. It ant she saw the future.
So, there would be sothing related to him and his brother in the future.
But before he asked, Ro talked.
"Yes, yes. I don't just see the future. I know more than you think. But no—I'm not going to give you so prophecy. That's not how this works."
He was quiet.
"I don't tell people about the future," Ro continued, "Did you know that talking about the future changes it? And then it becos a lie."
She stood up, walking past him toward the window.
"The question doesn't matter. Your next step does."
She paused.
"You need to join the 56th company. They'll be deployed soon. Most of them will die on the way."
She turned back to him. "Try not to spoil it, will you? I know you don't care about them, but pretend."
He frowned. "Why?"
But she didn't answer.
Not with a smile. Not with a word. Not even a glance.
It was over.
The feeling in his chest—the one that had brought him here—tugged again.
Ti to leave.
So, he did.
Without another word, Asef turned and returned to his quarters.
Arlon, watching through the scene, lingered in the silence Asef had left behind in Ro's room.
Then a sound ca from the mouth of the seer, "You should be careful about the old man and the beast..."
Was she talking to him?
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