The Fall - Book 1

14. You're not a monster.

JUNE 1, 2018 —  WAKANDA —  RÉA

Bucky and I walk side-by-side out of the palace, the moonlight illuminating our way to the battlefield. A comfortable silence settles between us until Bucky breaks it.

"So why were you on your way to the battlefield?" he asks.

"I need to heal the land."

"Heal the land?" I feel his eyes on me as he asks.

I nod. "Bloodshed and death leave energetic 'stains', for lack of a better word. They mark the land. And even though I brought back those who were killed, their blood still touched the land, as did the blood of those injured. And then, with the deaths of Thanos and his army...there are a lot of stains there now. And the energy needs to be balanced, or there can be problems. Maybe not immediately, but certainly in the future."

"How do you...?" he trails off.

"How do I what?"

"How do you know how to do this?" he asks.

"Oh. Ummm...well..." I hesitate, before answering. "I didn't say this in there; I actually haven't ever told Tony or Pepper this, either. It's just...it feels too...I don't know," I shrug. "So, I have precognition, but that's not the entirety of it. This 'just knowing things' is claircognisance."

"Claircognisance?"

"You've heard of clairvoyance before, right?" I ask, turning my head to look at him.

He nods. "Yeah. Sometimes there were fortune tellers at Coney Island," he replies with a slightly sad half-smile.

"Well, that's one of the clair senses...or, as I call them, clairs. There are nine: clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognisance, clairintelligence, clairempathy, clairsentience, clairtangency, clairalience, and clairgustance. In that same order: see, hear, know, think, empathy, physical feeling, touch, smell, and taste.

"Clairvoyance can manifest as vivid dreams, mental images, visions, and seeing auras; clairaudience is hearing—like being alone in a car and hearing 'turn right'; claircognisance is knowing—most people would call it 'instinct'. Clairintelligence is what most people would classify as having an epiphany; clairempathy is an awareness of emotional energy—feeling someone's anxiety; clairsentience is physical feeling, like feeling an injury or feeling the physical effect of an emotion, like a knot in your stomach because of anxiety; clairtangency is perceiving facts about people or objects by touching them; clairalience comes through the perception of smell, like gasoline when there's not a pump nearby or smoke without a fire; and clairgustance is tasting things without having anything in your mouth.

"There are actually four clairs that are part of precognition: clairsentience, clairvoyance, claircognisance, and clairaudience. I'm attuned with all nine clairs, but most of my precognition tends to come through clairvoyance and claircognisance. I'm not infallible by any means; there are things I don't know or don't see, and things I only see or know bits and pieces of. I mean, I'm still just a Nephilim; I'm not the Divine—I'm not omniscient—but I believe I see what I'm supposed to. And I didn't go into this earlier because I just felt like it wasn't the time, or the place, or the audience." I pause. "I mean, Doctor Strange asked if I was dangerous...and Steve implied that he thinks I am. And that was just from what I did share." I clear my throat. "Anyway, I'm sorry about the word vomit."

"Don't be sorry. It was interesting."

When we reach the edge of the battlefield, I take a seat on the ground, wanting to stargaze first; Bucky does the same. I'm looking at the sky, but can feel Bucky's eyes on me.

"I'm sorry for what Strange and Steve said to you," he says quietly.

I sigh. "When I think about it, I suppose I am dangerous."