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 describingit. 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 Ican’t.I can’t stop the future. When something has been Seen, itcannotbe 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 rippedher 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.
