I couldn't focus. My signals were delayed, and my body positioning was wrong. We nearly clipped a tower during a turn because I'd been staring at the Citadel roof, looking for scorch marks that weren't there.
"Land," Ravel said after the third near-miss. "Now."
Onyx descended to our usual isolated peak, and as soon as we dismounted, Ravel turned to me with his arms crossed over his chest.
"What's going on, Cadet Strom? You look like death."
I winced. "Bad night."
"That's not an answer."
I didn't want to tell him about the dream. Speaking the words out loud would make it even more real, more disturbing. But I knew Ravel wouldn't ease up until I told him everything.
I sank onto a sun-warmed rock. "I forgot to drink the sleeping draught and had a disturbing dream."
"What kind of dream?"
"The Citadel was under attack. Bodies everywhere." I swallowed hard. "Alar died in my arms."
Ravel's expression didn't change, but something flickered in his eyes. "Tell me everything."
So I did.
Ravel listened without interrupting. When I finished, he sat beside me on the rock.
"It felt real," I said. "But not like Podana. That was overwhelming, hundreds of consciousnesses. This was just me. Witnessing something terrible."
"You didn't drink the hallucinogenic tea, right?"
I shook my head. "It was probably just withdrawal from the sleeping medication that I missed. Or maybe stress about the letter from Alar's family."
I'd forgotten that I hadn't told him about the letter. Ravel also didn't know who Alar really was. Only Saphir, Codric, and I knew who he really was.
"What was in the letter?" Ravel asked.
"His father is ill, and his mother wants him to come home." It was the truth, just not all of it.
"He can't go," Ravel said. "If he goes now, he can never return."
I turned to look at him. "What if his father is dying?"
"Then he will have to make the choice. He can't go home and return to the Citadel. It's too dangerous."
Well, that was one way to solve Alar's dilemma. He just couldn't go.
"Besides," Ravel continued. "Alar is part of the prophecy of the seven, which means that he cannot die as he did in your dream or go home."
I felt the weight of a mountain lift off my chest. "So, it might not happen?"
"Probably not. But most likely because you prevent it from happening. That's why you were shown the attack."
"How am I supposed to prevent something when I don't know when or why it happens?"
"I don't know. That's the burden of prophecy."
I groaned and buried my face in my hands. "I hate this. I hate not knowing if what I saw was real or just my fear taking shape. I hate that my abilities are so unpredictable that I'm afraid of dreaming the future."
"No one said that being a seer was easy."
