Soulseer ✔️ *COMPLETE*

Chapter Seventeen

Maia motions for silence in the Hall again with her soul but her eyes never leave mine.

"Connected?" she asks bluntly.

I turn to Sahar for support. But she stares at me wide-eyed.

Has she forgotten? Maybe I'm just doing a crap job at explaining it.

I face Maia again. "Like with a Soul tether - almost invisible. But these looked more ... solid? ... and kind of ... fiery, I guess."

I look again at Sahar to offer context but she is staring open-mouthed at me. It's enough to make me wonder if I saw what I think I saw.

An incredulous look grows on Maia's face. I dart a glance over to Sorren. But they're gone. Just gone.

"Do you mean to say that those who attacked you were Woven together," Maia says drawing my attention back, "and you could see the Weaving?"

Is that what I'm saying? Also where did Sorren go?

Sahar swells with pride and grins at me.

"Uhm," I say with great authority, "I guess so. Yah?"

More gasps and murmurs from the crowd. I hear a few "Artos!" and "The Covenant!" in the general buzzing.

But it's Seer Adamu's low rumble that breaks through the crowd, "And lo I saw them, linked soul to soul, as a spider's web of fine strands, glimmering in dawn's ruby light."

A sigh of relief escapes me and I nod at Seer Adamu before I remember to vocalize. "Yes! So you've Seen it before?" Thank goodness. For a moment there it seemed like things were about to get really weird.

But Adamu shakes his head. And my stomach shoots back up into my throat.

"Those are not my words," he says softly, the way you might speak to a tiny bird to keep it from flying off. "Those are the words of one of the finest Soulseers the world has ever known, Uma Vever." He gestures with both hands, palms up to include all of his surroundings. "The last Weaver to create a Gathering: Six Seas - our close friends. Long ago, she was a frequent guest here."

I'm not the only one now staring skyward, imagining the extraordinary effort and skill that must be involved in creating a freaking Gathering. Enshrouding huge plots of land and then - somehow - sewing them together into a cohesive whole. Building the folds, the seams, that allow the flow of people and objects through areas of space that used to be separated by oceans and mountains and, often, entire continents.

But then all the other eyeballs eventually drop back into the room. And land on me.

Holy shit. They think I'm somehow connected to someone who can build a freaking Gathering.

I make a sound that is something between a maniacal laugh and a choking sob and my head starts shaking as though I can deny the title being dropped on me. Sorry, officer. There's been a huge misunderstanding. You got the wrong girl.

But Maia stands and beams at me. She raises her hands and the wings of her soul rise up behind her proudly. She is like an archangel of hope and happiness.

"Noviciate Luca," she says, waves of elation radiating from her, "you bring us tidings of great joy."

And the hall erupts with a cacophony of cheering and backslapping and flourishing of Souls in more ways than I ever could've imagined possible.

I turn to Sahar. I just said I could see those other seers were connected to each other. I didn't say I was the next coming of Christ!! "Sahar. I don't understand."