Page 174 of Seer Prophet

I found myself trying to think instead, to make sense of this.

The Lists. She left the Displacement Lists for me to find.

I shoved that out of my mind, knowing it was meaningless.

My head hurt. I felt sad. I felt flickers of grief, guilt and irrationality, like I was betraying my human parents somehow, by even sitting here with these people.

Revik knew them.

I didn’t know how I felt about that, either.

It was too soon to feel anything about it, I guess, but I could feel that panic in his light, coupled with a debilitating guilt that he hadn’t told me.

I watched the woman who introduced herself to me as my mother, and also as Kali. She leaned towards Revik. She touched his arm, saying something to him in a language I didn’t know. Whatever it was, it sounded Asian, but not like anything I’d heard in China.

The man who’d introduced himself as my father stiffened subtly.

He watched his wife with Revik.

I saw him look at Revik with an open distrust, and felt my muscles grow taut.

Uye. He said his name was Uye.

I saw wariness rise to his blue eyes as Revik and his wife spoke. I felt aggression there, unmistakable, along with that denser scrutiny.

When he caught me watching him, though, he smiled. That smile touched his light blue eyes, making them dance.

“Vietnamese,” he said.

I stared at him blankly, trying to ignore the conversation still going on between my mother and Revik, even though Revik was squeezing my hand tighter, and sounded almost angry as he spoke to the female seer.

Uye motioned between Kali and Revik with his fingers, smiling again as he offered me a plate of what looked like pieces of fried fish.

“The language,” he explained. “They’re speaking Vietnamese.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“They met in Saigon,” Uye added. “Your husband was stationed there.”

I nodded, still unable to think of anything to say.

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”

The male seer, Uye, leaned towards me. He clasped my arm with his hand, sending a furnace blast of heat at my chest. So much love lived in that, I felt my chest fight to keep up, my heart stutter as I fought desperately to push it away and let it in at the same time. When I looked at him next, I fought not to cry, seeing tears rise to his pale blue eyes.

He didn’t let go of my arm.

As he held it, I found myself remembering him again.

I honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted to. Remember, that is.

He sent me another dense pulse of heat.

I’m so sorry, daughter,he murmured in my mind.

When I looked up, he still had tears in his eyes, but he smiled at me, even as he seemed to be at somewhat of a loss. I could tell he wanted to hold me, but he didn’t know if he should do that, so he just continued to grip my arm, holding out the plate of fish towards me with his free hand.

“You should eat something,” he said, still smiling at me.

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