The Seers of Oak

Book 3 - Chapter 19 - Correct Thinking

The next nine months passed in a blurry haze for Nate. The Council came to speak with him several times. According to the oath he had taken in his previous life, he told them everything he experienced, but he never offered more than the answers to their questions. Maleo was the most disconcerting. He stared through Nate with a solid gaze.

"Tell me again."

"What more do you want to know? The crop cycles and rain patterns I'm aware of won't happen for another ten years."

"But you were the head of the Council?"

Nate nodded. "You passed away in your sleep. The war was not kind to the Seers. Most of your generation died young."

"When did the visions take you?"

"When I was twenty-two. Luckily, I was at your house having dinner at the time. I broke a plate and you saw the signs of the first vision. My face paled and I flickered in and out of consciousness for a moment. You caught my hand before I could enter the vision fully and taught me to feel the mantle of magic and how to release it."

Maleo nodded. "I'm a kind man in any reality, apparently." He grinned, chuckling lightly. "So you're that strong?"

"Strong enough. Your daughter and I dropped two layers when we were in the Festival, and I dropped as deep as seven during the end of the war."

Maleo whistled. "Not many can stand the weight of the magic at that level. It becomes crushing." He stopped himself mid-speech and chuckled again. "I suppose you don't need me to tell you about it." He turned thoughtful. "And Ginata makes it through alright?"

Nate left out most of the gory details, things a father didn't need to hear. "She manages."

Pricila sat across from the pair, though she hadn't spoken until this moment. "Why won't you fight?"

"Because I believe that we are in another vision and I need a mental break." He looked at her, daring her to challenge him on the point. It was Seer law that sanity should be regarded more highly than any need for information or action. There were usually enough in the conclave to ensure that another could replace a burdened Seer to give them rest.

Pricila pursed her lips but said nothing more.

Maleo took over after a moment of silence. "If you believe we are in another vision, why do you not release the magic?"

"Because the mantel is not mine this time." He stared at the table now, trying not to think. He preferred not to think about Ginata any more than he had to. "Your daughter and Baron hold that title right now."

Maleo nodded and stood. "We will likely have more questions, but it would be unfair to force you into a course of action you don't believe in. We will respect your need for mental peace for the moment, although I would suggest that you see if you can still reach the visions."

"I can." Nate met their gaze intently. "I know past scholars dedicated considerable time to how the visions begin—the first is almost always induced by some sort of mental or physical stress, but once started, they never leave. I can feel the same magic within me. If I pulled at it, I have no doubt that I could step into vision."

"But you haven't?" Pricila, the closest to a scholar the Seers currently had, leaned forward with interest.

"I haven't, and I won't."

Maleo grunted, still staring down at him. "Technically, that's grounds enough that you would have to leave our community. If you won't stand with us and under our rules—"

Nate finished, "then you must seek your own path away from ours. I know the law, but I've technically already taken the oath once, and I'll continue to live by it. I won't seek a vision without the Council's approval."