I Am Seer - Book 3

Chapter 4 - Visions & Confirmation

"Are you sure you're not mistaken?" The voice was unfamiliar, but the setting I was in made a chill of déjà vu wash over me.

The speaker was a tall woman with long hair piled ornately atop her head, and though her features were blurred, her stature clearly denoted gracious wisdom. Behind her, the big bed with maroon curtains drawn open was unmade. Beautiful etchings in the face of the wooden slats on the wall made my head hurt with their familiarity, and then a figure stepped into my line of sight, distracting me from the matter at hand.

"There's no mistaking it. I'm utterly certain." It was a masculine voice this time.

"We've waited so long." The first voice was filled with awe, and the woman sank onto the edge of the bed. "Is it really almost time for the reconvergence?" Hesitant excitement filled her words. "After all this time, you'll see your brother again, and if you're right, when she's been trained and learned what a privilege it truly is to be a Seer, we will remind Erik what a mistake it was not to end the Eighth before we escaped."

"Yes," the man mused, turning to look at the large table in the middle of the room with a smattering of papers coating the surface. "We'll bring justice soon, my old friend." He murmured to himself. "And my brother will pay for his crimes along with the rest of them."

"What would you have me do in the meantime, Ha-Won?" The woman said softly.

"Get everything prepared for her training. There can be no failure this time, and if order is to be maintained, we must prevent her from going into Seerworld or all our waiting will be for nothing."

"Do you think there's any danger she might have formed the attachment yet?" The woman rose slowly, her voice taut with concern.

"There's no way to know until she arrives, but we must plan for everything—including that." Ha-won pressed his lips together firmly.

In the blink of an eye the image disappeared, and I found myself looking at myself standing by a rustic table and staring out a window. I was in a small cabin, and I could hear the crackling of a warm fire. The scene was, by first look, peaceful, but I could sense a fierce underlying tension in the rigid set of my own shoulders.

"Bree?" Kotaro's voice didn't pull my attention away from the window at first. "Hey." He said softly, closing the distance between us and wrapping his arms around me. "It's going to be okay." He sounded so sure.

"Krimoa is on fire." I said dully, and my voice sounded empty. "It's only a matter of time until they find us."

I realized then that the warmth I felt and the sound of the fire was more angry and fierce than a simply hearth fire. Someone was looking for me—for us—and they were getting close. It was like a fox hunt, and for some reason, we were trapped here, waiting for them to find us.

"No, Ayan is scouting an escape route right now." Kotaro said firmly.

Finally, I looked up at him. "Can you really get us out?" Per usual, I needed his encouragement.

"Of course. In a few days, this will be nothing more than a bad memory, and we'll raise Sakura without her ever knowing what we escaped." Kotaro murmured, pressing his forehead to mine. "Now, get ready. As soon as Ayan is back, we'll leave."

"How quaint." An unfamiliar voice sliced through the tense atmosphere, and Kotaro and I started. "So loving."

A tall soldier in a smart, Falean uniform stood in the doorway, a cruel smirk twisting his lips. For a split second, neither Kotaro nor I moved as shock rooted us in place, and then realization set in as a baby wailed. We jumped into action at the sound: Kotaro unsheathed a blade, stepping between the soldier and I as I bolted across the room to a crib, scooping a baby up into my arms.