Chapter 41
AIMILIA
The water rippled, but nothing appeared in it. Hypatia frowned when she saw it, and then she closed her eyes. The pace of her chanting increased. She took a deep breath and kept casting with her other hand.
The vitae was blinding, and the incense was starting to get to Aimilia’s head.
Hypatia couldn’t quite seem to smell enough of it.
Holding a rune in the air, she glared at the still water.
Hypatia broke her chanting, spitting out a swear word Aimilia had heard Marcella use once.
Hypatia’s grip tightened painfully on Aimilia’s arm, as she cast again and again and again.
Hypatia let go of Aimilia’s arm with a sharp gasp.
Aimilia’s hand hit the water, sending a few droplets splashing on the water, rippling, but no image appeared.
Hypatia’s hand clutched her chest as she struggled to breathe. Her eyes were opened wide, but Aimilia could tell she wasn’t seeing anything in front of her. She was seeing something else. Or maybe she was feeling something else.
Aimilia stayed perfectly still, only moving to pull her hand out of the water as Hypatia caught her breath. When the glazed look in Hypatia’s eyes began to fade Aimilia sat up straighter, heart thundering in her chest.
What had she Seen? Was it a prophecy? A premonition?
Hypatia took a deep breath and said, “I received no vision. But there was a premonition. I couldn’t quite pin it down.
That’s the tricky thing about them. But I sensed a trap in your future.
Whether you had been caught in it or there simply was one, it was not clear.
But I heard the sound of a dog snarling in the distance, wind whistling like I was falling—you were falling.
Vitae humming, an explosion. Then finally, a realization settled over me—I was in a no-win scenario. There was no way out.”
Aimilia’s stomach rolled. It was all too vague. What did it mean?
Hypatia sat back, bracing her hands on the floor and catching her breath. “Don’t ask me what it means. I can’t tell you any more than that. That’s what I saw.”
But even though her words were ones of exhaustion and resignation, there was a strange lilt to her voice. A giddiness.
“If my future has this trap, how do I avoid it? What can I do to win in a no-win scenario?”
Hypatia raised an eyebrow, and then she laughed.
“There is no avoiding this. Once I have seen something, it cannot be unseen. I suppose I should have mentioned that before. When I see your future, Aimilia, it is set. There is no changing it. Any attempts to do so would be absolutely futile. And as a seer, I’ve been given both a gift and a curse.
It is my privilege to be able to know the future and that privilege comes with the responsibility of ensuring it comes to pass. ”
Aimilia said, “You mean, in all your years doing this, with how often you do it, you’ve never seen something that you’ve tried to prevent?”
Hypatia took a deep breath and stretched her legs out, nudging the bowl as she did so.
“Not the way you’re describing it. I’m not foolish enough to believe that’s possible.
If you and Marcella are as close as my cousin has led me to believe then I presume you know about how her capture came about.
I saw a vision of a girl who looked like either one of us in a tent with a blond commander.
I didn’t know it at the time, but it was your prince.
To be fair, the blond threw me off. I hadn’t heard much about the second born, I only knew about Nikias. ”
“So you prevented a vision you saw of yourself.”
“I didn’t prevent anything. I ensured it happened, and I went out of my way to ensure it didn’t happen to me. I went so far as to give Marcella a scar that matched mine because I knew if I didn’t, it would be me. I Saw what I Saw, and I made sure it happened.”
Aimilia said, “So you controlled the future.”
Hypatia shook her head, letting her curls fall back. “I knew an Inimicus like you could never understand.” A bitter laugh slipped through her lips. “I don’t control the future. The future controls me.”
Hypatia was right. Aimilia couldn’t understand. “How could you see something horrible and not try to stop it?”
“Don’t you think I’ve seen terrible things I’d give anything to prevent?” Hypatia’s head snapped up. The passion in her voice caught Aimilia off guard, and then it cracked slightly. “But I can’t. I can’t stop the future. When something has been Seen, it cannot be unseen.”
Before Aimilia could press her any further, Hypatia reached into her bag and pulled something out. One of the leather bracers the stone mage had been wearing. When had she gotten it off?
Hypatia gripped it tightly and began casting again. Without another word to Aimilia, she began chanting, holding the bracer tightly in one hand and casting with the other. The smoke from the incense was everywhere.
Aimilia shrank back from the bowl as Hypatia moved toward it. She stared down into the water, casting again and again. Her voice rose with every chant until she was screaming.
Aimilia didn’t know how long she sat there. Her eyes never left the water. As foreign as this all was to her, and as horrifying as the thought was that what might come next couldn’t be prevented, Aimilia couldn’t tear her eyes away.
Maybe she was starting to understand a little what Hypatia had meant by calling it both a gift and a curse. If there was something that could be known about these Stonai, Aimilia wanted to know it.
There were a few ripples in the water and a flicker of rocks, but nothing came through clearly. When Hypatia saw that, she threw the bracer to the ground, and it hit the stone with a sharp slap, and she cursed at the water.
There was a wildness to her eyes now that Aimilia had only ever seen before when it meant trouble. Hypatia was speaking solely in her native tongue, but Aimilia managed to translate some of it.
“Come on—won’t let me—anything—doing—they want? Why now?”
Hypatia cast again, but this time she held nothing, and the rune seemed more casually thrown out of frustration than anything else.
But then her whole body went rigid. Aimilia pulled back, holding her breath to see what would happen next.
Hypatia’s head snapped, and her eyes zeroed in on Aimilia’s hand. On the ring.
The rigidity completely fell out of Hypatia and she hit the ground. Aimilia had her hands on the stone, ready to push herself to her feet to go run for help when Hypatia scrambled back up, barking in Aimilia’s language, “Let me see that!”
Aimilia didn’t know what else to do, but Hypatia pulled the ring off her hand.
The second the ring was free, Aimilia ripped her hand back and pressed it to her chest. Hypatia’s nails left a couple small scratches, but no bleeding.
Hypatia closed her fist around the ring and cast again, muttering in her tongue, “What is it? What—want?”
The water rippled and there were a few flashes of images going so fast Aimilia couldn’t make sense of any of them.
Hypatia, however, didn’t take her eyes off of the water.
But nothing else appeared. The water settled back into a reflection of Hypatia’s face and the painting of Asentai.
Hypatia dropped the ring to the ground with a clatter.
She moved around and cast again, but this time it was to increase the burning of the incense. Twice as much smoke as before billowed out. Hypatia reached into her bag, grabbing another handful of sticks, and then she flung them out.
Aimilia ducked and covered her head, but none of them struck her. Hypatia cast again, lighting them, and Aimilia was trapped in a circle of incense.
She couldn’t see anything through the haze. The only thing she could see clearly was Hypatia in front of her.
Aimilia pressed her hand over her mouth and nose, coughing furiously while Hypatia desperately breathed in the smoke.
She pulled something out of her pocket. It was a thin silver armband.
The pattern on it looked slightly familiar to Aimilia but she couldn’t place from where.
It wasn’t a Runai pattern, and it also wasn’t the same as the pattern she’d seen on the Desero estate.
Hypatia gripped it tightly. She cast again and again, resuming her chanting.
Aimilia could do nothing but choke and cough from the smoke. Nothing appeared in the water. Her movements grew more and more frantic each time she cast. Aimilia batted at the smoke around her.
Surely Hypatia had to be running out of strength soon. How many runes had she cast? These certainly couldn’t be insignificant in terms of the vitae they took. Hypatia was a powerful mage, but just how powerful?
Hypatia’s knees hit the stone again with a sharp crack. She clutched the silver armband tightly. As she pitched forward, her voice was rough, scraping over the air from so much use.
Hypatia cast again and again, her chants never letting up. There was one phrase Aimilia kept hearing again and again. “Show me.”
When the first rune flickered right as Hypatia cast it, not coming to full fruition, she closed her eyes tightly as she cursed and said in her language, “What is the point?—Answer me, Asentai! What was the—gift? If—show me his—please, let me—wrong. Show me—let me see—tell me—do not leave me—”
There was one word she kept saying…
Hypatia flung out her hand out, casting again. But this rune failed. Hypatia stared at the empty air, as the last of the incense burnt out. The smoke began to fade. She stared at the empty air where her rune had been.
And then she collapsed to the ground, completely limp, save for the deranged, hysterical laughs coming from her lips. Her body convulsed and she knocked the bowl over. Aimilia scooted back, avoiding the water, but most of it had spilled toward Hypatia anyway when she’d sent the bowl flying.
Aimilia was frozen as she stared at Hypatia. She had no idea what to do.