Chapter 24 Darius #2
We look at each other. Her at my sightless eyes.
Me at her through Isa’s much more acute vision.
Thanks to my familiar’s excellent sight, I can see the way her irises expand a bit more and the brown shades shift even in the dim light.
Her heart beats a little faster, and her skin flushes.
I can feel her mood and see the way colors spark in her aura.
The moodiness she entered with has been completely eclipsed by something lighter.
More pleasant. But now it’s stormy again. Not in a bad way. Just different.
“Shit,” she whispers. “I… I had no idea… And your parents wanted Puck to be…?”
“Yes. They wanted him to ascend to godhood and reunite the Unseelie Court. Which, with his powers, would have meant slaughtering thousands of people, absorbing their power. But I suppose when you try to create your very own god, you forget that gods are difficult to control. So, what has our pigheaded boy-god done this time?” It’s as good a segue as any.
She sighs. “You’re just going to toss out that bit of mind-shattering information and move right on?”
“He isn’t actually a god. He just has the ego the size of one.”
She snorts, and I can’t help but chuckle. It isn’t Puck’s fault he’s been catered to and spoiled. I’m rather proud of how much he’s changed since discovering Gracie. Puck is a good man. He’s just been through some shit.
“What was that like?” she whispers, brow furrowing.
“It was… A burden. To achieve that level of power, a person has to train and endure things that would destroy someone else. It helps that our family has the blood of former gods mixed in, but it’s not enough to achieve that level of power on blood alone.
Puck still had to work for it. Or more accurately, he was forced to endure trials to prepare him for the bloodletting necessary to achieve the higher ranks of his power. ”
“Could it still happen? Would he want to?”
“It could, and what I will say is that Puck does not want that future. Even when he was our parent’s puppet and at his cruelest, he didn’t like it.
He did it to buy himself some relief.” As for what I think will happen?
It’s murky. I’ve seen all paths. Some lead to wondrous places, and others to disaster and heartbreak.
“How much can you see of my future?” she asks.
“Hm…” I tip my head back and curl my arm around her a little more. “Gracie? I’m… I’m hesitant to tell you what I see. There have been times I’ve shared things with good intentions, and it’s led to things I deeply regret.”
“Okay. Fine. Keep your secrets,” she mutters. “There isn’t a way to break the bond with Luc.”
Her pronouncement doesn’t surprise me, though the quick change of topic leaves me staring blankly at the ceiling for a moment. “You can only change it… Ah, I see. So, Puck overheard you talking about marrying Luc?”
“Yeah.”
“There isn’t a future where he didn’t snoop.”
“Well… At least he’s consistent?”
“He loves you.”
“Love isn’t everything,” she says softly.
I can practically taste her sorrow. He hurt her, the fool. But he’ll make up for it. I know he will. Puck is nothing if not determined.
Gracie lifts her head and looks at me. “Enough about him. How are you?”
“Alright,” I drawl.
“Why do I feel like you’d say that if your arm was cut off?”
“Don’t really need my arm, if we’re being honest.” I reach up and pat my familiar. “So long as I have Isa.”
She pinches my side hard enough I gasp and jerk away from her. My mind is still floaty from all the witchweed this afternoon, and I giggle. It’s not a dignified sound, but I’m not my brother. I don’t care about things like perception.
I lean toward her, wrapping my arms around her body, and yank her to me. She sprawls half on my chest and goes lax, like this is where she wanted to be.
Isa trills and shifts to my other shoulder, becoming more blob-like. At least, from what I can feel.
“Hi there,” she says to my familiar and holds out her finger.
Isa lifts their front paw, which is half furry, half transparent. It’s really not like them to show their real form to others. It is strange to look through Isa like this. The angle is disorienting.
“You’re so cool, Isa.”
Isa and I are so closely linked it’s sometimes hard to remember we are two separate entities. The swelling pride, however, is all Isa.
“They really like you,” I say.
“Well, I like them. I’m a little envious. I hope my familiar is as cool as yours is.”
I bite my lip. In my current state, I’m not sure what will come out. So it’s best to avoid this topic altogether. There are some things I can’t speak on. Doing so would change the futures I see. And for now, everything works out. I need it to stay that way. We all do.
“How do you get around without Isa? I mean…” She groans. “I’m trying to figure out how to politely ask if we should move anything or… I don’t know. I’m fucking this all up.”
I chuckle and run my hands down her back.
“No, you’re fine. I can still see shapes.
They’re vague. And things can be light or dark.
I can’t discern color accurately at all.
But my other senses have improved. When Isa isn’t with me, I use a variety of other magical tricks to show me where things are.
It helps that my non-seer magic follows our family line.
My earth magic is respectably strong, and most building material is of the earth.
Which means it’s easier for me to sense things around the house.
I’m quite self-sufficient. I do miss playing video games.
Isa has no patience for them. I understand that blindness in this world is a very different condition. ”
“Well, for humans, yes. Witches who go blind usually get some sort of glass eye.”
A laugh bursts out of me. “A glass eye? Is that for real?”
“Yes! They’re spelled to act like an eye, but they are made of glass.”
“Gods, I thought that was some made-up story. Glass eyes are real?”
“Yes,” She laughs. “I had a witch teacher who had two of them. They never pointed the same direction. Everyone else thought it was totally normal. But coming from a human public school to that?” She shakes her head. “I’m not proud of how much it weirded me out.”
“Glass eyes are real,” I whisper and stare up at the ceiling.
She snickers at me. “Yes, glass eyes are real.”
“It’s so wild that glass eyes are actually a thing. Maybe I should get some? Though I doubt they’d work very long. No idea how it would change the sight, so… Maybe not…”
“Can I ask about your condition?”
I pick my head up and look down at her form with my own eyes. “My what?”
“Your… The vitiligo?”
“The what? Vitil… What was that?”
“Vitiligo,” she says a little more forcefully. I blink my vision back to Isa’s eyes and peer at Gracie’s frustrated face. “The auto-immune disorder that causes the pigment in skin cells to… I don’t know. Break down?”
“Vi-til-igo,” I say slowly, rolling the word around in my head.
“Have you never heard of it before?”
“No.” I chuckle and roll us to our sides so we’re facing one another. “Gracie, that’s a human condition. I’m not human.”
“I know, but…”
“Why am I spotted instead of ebony dark, like Puck?”
“Well… Yes.”
“I just…” I tilt my head. “I thought you knew…”
“I guess I thought I did, too. What do you mean?”
“Gracie.” I chuckle. I can’t help it. The witchweed makes everything a little funny.
“I’m not losing the coloration of my skin and hair because of what was it?
An auto-immune disorder? It’s common for seers to lose pigment because the power in our bodies is so powerful it overwrites our appearance.
It’s not the loss of anything… It’s… Every fiber of my being is being drenched in power until it’s covered all of me.
My power comes from, well, that god doesn’t exist in your world, but their power is a milky color and it’s much stronger than my earth magic.
If my seer power was rooted in another source, I might turn a different color.
Green or purple. You thought I look this way because there was something wrong with me? ”
I lose it. My body vibrates, and I shake with laughter. Isa is still curiously watching Gracie stare at me, very much not amused. But I can’t help it. It’s too fucking funny. This precious woman.
“Okay. I am the asshole,” she says dryly.
I flop back and swipe my hands under my eyes. “Sorry. Oh, Gracie. Sorry. It’s just… Sorry!”
She pokes me in the side, and I flinch away as my toes curl on instinct and a higher pitch laugh rips out of me. “Laugh it up, giggle man.”
Reaching over, I wrap her in my arms and once more pull her to lie across me. As amusing as this moment is, she should know the extent of it.
“There is no denying that I am weaker than my brother. My body isn’t as strong.
My magic isn’t as deep as his. I am lacking in many ways.
But being a seer? It’s a different kind of power.
It’s one you can’t learn. You have to be born with it.
And there was only ever the tiniest chance one of our bloodline would be a seer.
Think of me as the wild card. My genetics didn’t obey the rules.
And when you’re a seer, your power isn’t…
It’s not about your body. It’s about your mind.
Your will. And in that regard, Puck and I are identical.
The fact I’m only three hundred and have lost so much coloration is actually a badge of honor, Gracie.
I’m quite proud of what I have accomplished.
My sight is a sad thing to lose, but I stand to gain so much more.
And once my natural sight goes, I will gain a different kind of sight.
It’s a rite of passage I’m very proud of. ”
“Oh. Well. I didn’t know.”
I can’t help but grin. My cheeks burn from the action. But I can’t stop myself. “You were worried about me?”
“Well… Yeah. Now I’m just the assuming asshole.”
“You are not.” I snuggle her closer. “You can still be worried about me, if you like.”