3 #2
“For the most part, we don’t rank psychics,” Sharon explained, although even she was looking at me differently, with this air of disbelief.
“There’s no sense to that—every psychic is different and has different strengths.
However, we do an initial reading on people because some, like yourself, burn hotter than others.
We want to know how much support you need and what you’re able to do.
Occasionally, we have a psychic who comes in who’s so powerful it’s obvious they’re a descendant of a minor deity, at least. It’s the only classification we have on the scale—Descendant. ”
I blinked at her. Then the words fully sank in and I blurted out, “You think I am a descendant of a god?!”
“You must be with those eyes of yours,” Prince Donovan muttered, sounding thoughtful now. Like everything made sense. “There isn’t anything you can’t see. Damn near omniscient.”
I mean, he wasn’t wrong, but… “I would like to point out that my eyes are fallible.”
Carol snorted, her lines full of disbelief. “I think your understanding of what you see is fallible because you’re human. Your eyes are not the issue.”
Erk. She had me there. I did see it all, I just didn’t understand everything I saw. Which would likely improve with experience. At the grand old age of twenty, I couldn’t say I was an expert on life.
Still! “Not anything close to a god.”
Carol waved me down. “I know, I know, I’m saying your ability is. This isn’t something to argue about, Jon. It means you have multiple avenues to explore when it comes to career. In fact, you can even multi-class. Tell me everything you can do; we need it for the records.”
Um. A descendant of the…? So I… Wow, that was… Wow.
Right, okay. I needed to think about this more, but now was not the moment. She’d asked a question about what all I could see and do, and I should answer.
I started with the obvious—that I could read people’s meridian lines, which gave me not only an idea of what they were like as a person, but their history, their general well-being, and whether they actively lied to me or not.
That, of course, spiraled into other things, like yes, I could see what ailed a person’s body, so working alongside a doctor would be beneficial to the patient.
Sharon even tried lying to me a few times to see if I could detect it—although on her last attempt she didn’t even try hard, breaking out in giggles instead.
Prince Donovan brought me a glass of chilled water midway, which I happily consumed, as all this talking was thirsty work.
The two ladies heard me out, made multiple notes, then had me review everything to make sure what they’d recorded was accurate. I had to tweak a few things, but they’d done a very good job, and I was overall pleased with it.
Carol went to one of the dressers on the far wall, tucked against a bookcase, and grabbed several things before bringing them out to me. “Your Highness, I assume you’ll function as an anchor for him for now?”
“I will,” Prince Donovan assured her.
I gave him quite the side-eye for that, because we both knew he wanted that position permanently, but that wasn’t a conversation for an audience. I did feel the need to ask, “How do I even anchor with someone? What does that entail?”
“Oh, right, you don’t know.” Sharon turned and grabbed another small scroll wrapped with light blue ribbon and put it on the tray. “Those are instructions. I’d read through that tonight, if I were you.”
Why, because Prince Donovan was so keen to anchor with me?
I chose not to ask the obvious out loud.
Instead, I focused on the tray. Lined up neatly were several things.
One, two bracelets with a lapis lazuli stone set in silver, quite beautifully rendered.
In fact, it was a matching set, which was interesting.
There was also a finely beaded bag, a thick book, and a key. I had no idea what any of this was for.
“If you wish to take up a position as a psychic in this country—and I strongly urge you do so; the benefits are amazing—then all of this becomes yours.” Carol pointed to each item in turn.
“The bracelets are worn by yourself and your anchor, or temporary anchor in this case, to signify who you are and who’s in charge of you.
Hm, I didn’t phrase that right, but basically who’s in charge of your well-being.
If you are overwhelmed or need to retreat, your anchor will be the only one who can touch you.
The bracelets make that clear to anyone nearby. ”
“Ahhh.” They really put up all sorts of safeguards for psychics here, bless them for it. “The bag?”
“Your purse, from now on, and your first payment.”
I lifted the purse and just about dropped it again from the weight. Incredulous, I quickly opened the bag, looked inside, and I did a rough estimate because currency exchanges and all of that, but I believed I’d been sold for less than what was in this bag.
I… Yeah, I needed wine before I really dwelled on that.
“The book?”
“A list of all the known psychics in the city, so you can read about them and call upon them for help,” Sharon explained.
“The key is to your new building. We keep several empty and on hand for new psychics. The main floor can be your office, but the top floor has a fully furnished apartment to it.”
I’m sorry, had I just been given a whole fucking building?!
Who goes around giving away buildings?!
Prince Donovan made an unhappy sound. “He gets to live with me, doesn’t he?”
Carol gave him quite the speaking look. “That’s his choice.”
Prince Donovan now had a sad.
Personally, I felt like it was better for me to have my own place to retreat to. Experience had taught me I was not easy to live with. Still, a house?!
When Mack had said they treated psychics well here, he really should have expounded. Like, holy shit, he should have explained better. The new life I found myself in was slowly trickling in, starting to form into reality, and it was a crazy picture to be sure.
Why did I have the feeling I stood in the doorway to a breathless, amazing life, if I could just summon the courage to step through?