She reaches for my hand and clasps it. “They’re not safe anywhere, little one. I understand why you're scared, Lena. After everything that happened to your brother…” I instantly stiffen and try to jerk my hand free, but she holds tight. “I know you’re trying to protect them, but you can’t. Everything you’re doing, everything that has already happened, all of it will be, whether or not you include them in your plans. You can't do this alone, no matter how much you believe you can. They are necessary to your success.” She finally releases me to arch a single stern brow. “You will report to them after you leave Seboia,” she orders, leaving no room for argument.
Nodding in reluctant assent, I pass my gaze over the room, taking note of all the baubles and knick-knacks scattered throughout. Items that seem to have accumulated over several years as opposed to a few months. I assumed she arrived here when I did, intending to watch over me as she has done many times before, but after seeing all this, it seems I may have been mistaken.
“When I was younger and you went on your travels, you refused to tell me where you were going. Were you coming here? To Seboia?”
She nods, her gaze drifting absently over the shop. “I opened Fortunes and Truth not too long after you were born.”
My heart drums in excitement at this admission. As a child, it drove me crazy that she wouldn't tell me where she went when she left home several months out of the year. I imagined she went on these epic, exciting adventures, and I knew if I could manage to convince her to tell me what she was doing, I was sure I could weasel my way into tagging along. Knowing what I know now about Seboia, I'd have to say that child me would have been severely disappointed.
“You’ve been here the entire time I have, haven't you? Why didn’t you show yourself?”
“You needed to discover some things for yourself before I could reveal myself,” she says in that blasé tone all Seers speak.
“And have I?”
Humming, she bobs her head. “More or less.”
“Feels a lot like less,” I grumble to myself, feeling a pinch of hurt knowing she's been here the entire time I have without even so much as a hello. But that pinch of hurt is instantly forgotten when I make a startling connection.
Practically vibrating in my chair, I lean over the table with an eager smile. “So if you’re here and I'm here, that means I’m meant to be in Seboia. It means I'm on the right track?”
She smirks. “Perhaps.”
Slouching in my chair, I drop my head back and groan. “Gods!”
“Hmm… fitting.”
“It's like pulling teeth with you!” I shout, tossing my hands up. “I'm so sick of being handed these tiny breadcrumbs whenever you deem it necessary. Just tell me what I need to know.”
“I have told you what you need to know. If I tell you any more, it may change the future,” she says, unconcerned by my mini tantrum. “You need to trust yourself.”
She makes it sound so obvious, like it should be easy to believe in myself just as ardently as she does. But it's not that simple. Not when I've been the cause of so much death and pain. Why my family is forever torn apart because of my actions.
“Trust in myself,” I say bitterly. “How can I trust myself after everything I've done?”
Sighing, Zenith reaches for my hands again. “That was not your fault. There was nothing you could’ve done to change the outcome. These events in your life, although horrible and tragic, had to come to pass for you to be where you are today.”
Staring into those brown eyes boring into my own, I can see a glimmer of the power hidden beneath, that vast knowledge she wields without recourse. There's never a moment that Zenith doesn’t know where I am, what I’m doing, or where I should be, occasionally maneuvering me as if I’m a chess piece on a board in this game of war. It can be frustrating, but I'm not bitter towards her for it. It must be done and it's through no fault of her own. It’s simply the lot we've both been handed in life.But occasionally, I do wonder…
Did she maneuver me there? Did she in some ultimate, cosmic plan allow those males to take me? Did she know that I would one day lose control and destroy my family and home all in the same instant?
I've always been too afraid to ask. Too afraid to know that my aunt, whom I love so dearly, would willingly break me so thoroughly, just so she could remold me into this Stars-chosen shield. But as I peer into those all-seeing eyes that I used to believe could prevent anything, could see anything, I finally feel a spark of courage.
“Did you know?” I ask quietly, my voice void of emotion. “Did you know those males were waiting for me that day?”
Clutching my fingers to near breaking, she squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head. “No, it's one of the few times the Stars did not allow me to see. I suspect they knew I would not have sat idly by and allowed that to happen.”
A flash of lifeless, golden eyes appears before me and I ask in a guttural voice, “What about Faygar?”
Releasing my hands, she sighs, weary and sad as she sips her tea. “What happened with your brother was … different. I did not foresee that happening, and I don't think the Stars did, either. Fate changed that day. It realigned to something I never could have predicted.”
“To what?”
Her saddened gaze clears, brightening with an eager hope. “A much clearer path.”
Unsure how I feel about Faygar’s death creating such optimism, I clear my throat and veer the discussion to a more bearable topic.
“And has Queen Adelphia met this dappy Zenith?”