Page 72 of Stranger's Choice
The visions hit in a burst, all the futures that had been obscured in gray colliding in her mind at once. Somewhere, deep in her mind, she had the thought that Sebin had been wise to want to control the contact himself. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed as the visions hit her. It wasn’t because he had been blocked for so long. Her power didn’t work like that. But Sebin was the turning point in so many futures that he overwhelmed her senses. She had only had contact with one other person whose future impacted her so strongly before.
She took a moment after the visions stopped to breathe. She had to think through what she had seen before she faced Sebin. There had still been gray spots in his future, she assumed because he donned his ring again, but the turning points had been clear enough.
“You have to go back,” she said when her breathing felt steady.
“Why? What did you see?”
“King Duirden cannot remain in power a minute longer than absolutely necessary. His grief over losing Aster has broken something inside him. He will hand a kingdom in shambles to his heir if you do not return.”
Auraelie focused on the images she had seen: Sebin’s despair when he got a letter from home after deciding to stay in Pynth, the joy on his face as he played with his niece and prepared her to become a great queen, the policies he enacted after becoming regent. She didn’t let herself think about the fact that she had not seen herself in his futures, even the ones based in Pynth.
Sebin’s hands trailed down her arms, and she almost flinched back, but no more visions came. He must have picked the ring up again. “His heir?”
“Your niece. You are right, her mother won’t involve herself in her life. If you don’t return, she will have no close family, only servants in her day-to-day life.”
“You saw all of this looking into my future.” Sebin sounded . . . not disbelieving, but uncertain.
“I saw what you went home to years down the line if you choose to stay in Pynth now. That bit of guilt you had about what happened to your sister will be nothing compared to what you will feel then. You must go back.”
Sebin swallowed. “What did you mean that something broke in my father?”
“He is erratic and doesn’t listen to anyone’s advice. I’m not sure exactly what decisions he made in the futures I saw, but they hurt the kingdom. If you don’t return, there will be no one to stop him.”
“How—” Sebin’s voice came out as barely a whisper. “How long do I have?”
“Not long. Every delay will result in more issues you will need to fix once you get home.”
It took more effort than she expected to say the words calmly. Auraelie trusted her magic and felt confident that none of the gray spots blocking her vision would change the overall situation. She could have shared only select pieces of the future. She knew which ones would have convinced Sebin to stay in Pynth, with her. But she also knew the damage it would cause, both to Moial and his own sense of worth.
Auraelie did not know for sure if she would put her own happiness before an entire kingdom. It didn’t matter, because she would never hurt Sebin. If he stayed in Pynth, he would hurt. The guilt would tear him apart. She had to let him go. No, worse. She had to convince him to go.
