Page 42 of Stranger's Choice
“And?” Sebin prompted when it seemed Timben would say nothing more.
“You are indeed immune to my power, and I think that means Pajwar is correct: you are the one from our ancestor’s visions.”
“So tell me about this vision.”
To his surprise, Timben didn’t prevaricate. “Over a century ago, one of our most powerful dedicated herself to scanning the distant future. She analyzed visions of thousands upon thousands of turning points and places where futures diverged. Her intent was to find a safe way to end the treaty between the oracles and the imperial throne.”
That was encouraging.
Sebin leaned forward. “Do I end this treaty, then?”
“I don’t know.” Timben mirrored Sebin’s posture, leaning forward over the table. “What this oracle saw was a time of flux. Too many turning points to monitor, too many choices being made. But at the end of the chaos, she saw hope. She foretold that when the Emperor’s Oracle disappeared from common visions, the day would come that we might become rulers in our own right.”
Sebin blinked. “What does that have to do with me?”
“You are invisible to common visions, those triggered when an oracle uses their power on a person. You are the only person I have heard of with such a power outside of history lessons. The stories of those past humans are more legend than fact.” Timben straightened. “In addition, Pajwar saw you crossing the ocean and becoming the catalyst for the chaos foretold.”
Sebin could believe he was the catalyst for chaos in the oracle’s minds. Auraelie had explained how his life intersected others and caused gray spots in the futures she scanned. Not being able to see the turning points that led to certain futures would be upsetting to a race that relied on interpreting them. But he still didn’t understand how he related to the long-gone oracle’s vision.
“Has Auraelie disappeared from common visions?”
Timben shrugged again. “I do not know, but considering her association with you and your own immunity to our power, it is only a matter of time if it has not yet occurred. Once her life is completely entangled with yours, no doubt she, too, will disappear in common visions.”
Sebin was distracted for a moment by an image of him and Auraelie, limbs and bodies entangled. She wore nothing but her hair, the long black locks doing little to veil her from view. Her pink lips were open, an invitation he couldn’t resist.
The image was so strong, Sebin nearly forgot he was in a room with the leader of Opiesa. But guilt forced him out of the daydream all too soon. He shouldn’t think of Auraelie that way, even if he wouldn’t ever abuse the position he was in. She had so little say in her own life and how her body was used. It wasn’t fair for him to put her in such a situation, even in the privacy of his own mind.
With guilt replacing lust, Sebin noticed what should have been his first thought after Timben’s comment.
The oracle did not sound upset about Auraelie’s life “entangling” with his. Rin had stormed off in anger when he believed Sebin was taking advantage of her. But Timben sounded downright delighted by the whole situation. Did he know something Sebin did not?—a foolish question. He was an oracle, of course he knew things Sebin didn’t.
“Are there any other signs that the ancient vision is coming to pass now?” Sebin asked carefully.
“That the oracle saw anything more than a hundred years distant is a wonder. Your immunity, the chaos it brings to our powers, must be what she spoke of.”
“But you knew it would happen around now?”
“No. We knew only the signs to watch for and have waited this past century for them to appear. And now, we have our first hope that the time has come.”
Did that mean that for a hundred years the oracles hadn’t even tried to improve the situation the Emperor’s Oracle was put in? They sat back and waited for some sign that change was coming?
Timben seemed to be in a forthcoming mood, so Sebin probed further. “Curiously, did none of your people see the danger when you signed the treaty with the first emperor?”
Again Timben shrugged—his indifference for anything not directly affecting him grated on Sebin. “We saw what would happen if we did not stop the war before the humans united against us. For the first few generations, the treaty did exactly what it was supposed to.”
“And when the emperors perverted the treaty, and an oracle became an imperial slave in all but name, did your people seek to change it then?” It took effort to keep his tone mildly curious instead of enraged.
“It was too soon,” Timben said. “The danger we had avoided by creating the treaty in the first place still existed. It still exists today. But we knew, thanks to those who scanned the distant future, that if we waited, we could break free without risking the same terror we had faced back then.”
“What risk was so terrible that oracles allied with humans, when your magic alone, not to mention the powers of the sprites, shapeshifters, and incubi, should have ensured a victory? What is so terrifying that you have waited over a hundred years doing nothing, just hoping that something would change?”
Timben squared his shoulders. “Our power is useless against you, a human, is it not? My ancestors saw the emergence of a new type of weapon if we allowed fighting to break into outright war. Humans across Pynth would arm themselves with objects that blocked the powers of the magical races. Our magic could not ensure a victory if they rendered it useless.”
Sebin thought about his bag of null charms. Timben considered them weapons. The oracle had also not considered for a moment that Sebin relied on something for his immunity rather than having the power himself. Like everyone else in Pynth, Timben did not realize that for Sebin to have a natural immunity to magic, he would have to be a sensitive.
Hundreds of years ago, the sensitives in Pynth might have discovered the method of making null charms out of desperation. But the humans had made peace with the magical races instead. Now, Sebin thought sensitives were almost nonexistent on this continent. The human bloodlines weren’t pure enough to produce sensitives. Instead, blood from the magical races mixed in and changed sensitivity into new powers. A person inheriting both human sensitivity and an incubus’s emotional lures became an empath. The child of a shapeshifter and a human mage might gain the ability to understand animals. Once the magical race bloodlines mixed in, the influence over how the magic manifested never went away.
Without sensitives to make the charms, the threat Timben mentioned had to have waned over the years. But still the oracles did nothing. They waited, never lifting a finger to help the oracles sent to serve the empire.
