Soulseer ✔️ *COMPLETE*

Chapter Forty

"Take it down!"

Diarmid's jaw drops and everything floods with anger. "Listen, here, missy! I've had about enough -"

I throw Emry's tattered remnant across the table in his back room and let it scroll open. Seeing them together, it's so fucking obvious.

"I knew it!"

Diarmid follows my eyes from his enormous tapestry to my worn mess on the table. From his expression I know: he sees it too.

"It's clear they're two different scenes," he says stepping in closer as the anger is replaced by intrigue in his soul, "but they've similarities in style that are pushing the realm of coincidence." His enormous hand gestures at my half-a-carpet. "Where'd you get this?"

I spin it on the table and eye the images in both. Two different places. The same overly simplified imagery. Same shitty weaving.

When I flip back the corner with Uma's name, Diarmid lets out a squeak of astonishment. He leaps over to his tapestry and practically rips it off the wall. With my Seeing on, the playful flickering of the secret Seam leaps into view. Diarmid lays his hanging on the table, flipping it easily. We both hunch over it, scanning for -

"There." I can hardly believe it myself. But I tap a finger where the same three letters are roughly stitched in the corner of the pub's tapestry.

"UMA-fucking-Bright-Weaver," Diarmid swears, reverence lighting his eyes and soul. "SHE did this?! Uma did this - these?"

I nod.

"What does it mean? Why did she make these?" He asks.

I shrug. You tell me and we'll both know, buddy.

"And why must they be so ugly?" A voice behind us asks.

Diarmid and I turn to see Galina has slipped silently into the room, her faraway eyes fixed on the two tapestries.

It's such a funny thing for Galina to say - so mean - that a laugh bursts out of me. Insulting the great Weaver of lore seems scandalous. Maybe that's why Galina said it: to let me know that even the wondrous Uma Brightweaver was not brilliant at everything. For now, that's the only takeaway I have from these two Uma creations.

The usual fireworks have lit up in Diarmid's soul as he drifts closer to Galina, moth to flame style.

"Luca will use this when she wishes," Galina says nodding at Diarmid's Seam. He freezes, flustered.

"Ah, well, it's not really-" he splutters out.

But Galina nods. "Good." This is settled in her mind. Watching Diarmid be topped is seriously funny. Then Galina turns to me.

"You will go."

Facing the full force of Galina's wide green eyes is a little overwhelming. Makes me almost miss the usual moony-eyes. Her soul flutters behind her in that slightly menacing cobra fashion. Oh. She means like ... now!

I start to gather up my tattered weaving but Galina makes a clucking sound. "No, no, no," she says. "This will be here when you are back." Her fan snicks out towards the glimmering Seam. "Go!"

Wait. She wants me to use the Seam now? By myself? With a lockdown in effect? Shouldn't we ... talk through this new discovery? Or is this more of Galina's vision - that I need to-

"GO!" Galina flicks her fan -open all the way -at the Seam.

I turn to the vaguely flickering hole in the wall. I mean, I can Enshroud now. I could actually do this - and come back. And that forest on the other side. How heavenly would that be to just ... be there? The longing hits me like a sugar rush.