Soulseer ✔️ *COMPLETE*

Chapter Forty-Three

The sun has warmed the cobblestones by the time Rimi and I make our way to the Bazaar for food. I feel lighter than I've felt in weeks. Maybe months. Maybe ever.

Many of the stall owners are just setting up in this late morning hour but they nod or greet us with knowing smiles, moving slowly but peacefully. Sahar's party has dialed the tension back by several notches. Despite the countless hangovers that I know will be suffered today, last night's celebration was the perfect medicine for our Gathering.

Rimi gives my ass cheek a squeeze. This is apparently her way of getting my attention. It works.

She nods her chin towards the cafe where two bedraggled Seers are opening up for business.

My soul swells with approval and I send it her way, connecting delicately with hers.

We are halfway across the central square when I notice a figure in my peripheral vision, cutting towards us with haste. I pull up short. It's Emry. Rimi gets a few steps ahead before turning.

An enormous grin stretches Emry's face. Brilliant white teeth gleam in their dark skin, toga flapping with the speed of their approach. Their ability to move so quickly is in stark contrast to the majority of the residents of Circus. All the locals - what few there are up at this hour - proceed sluggishly about their business. Emry waves, animated in their excitement. I vaguely recall seeing Emry at the wake last night but we never had a chance to talk. I owe them a good bye before they return to the Six Seas hidey-hole.

When another group rounds the corner across from Emry, my eyes dart to that movement as well. One central Seer with four others arrayed behind them.

At first I think the central person must be Sorren, the gait is so familiar, but when their hood is thrown back and their soul rises behind them, I see that this is categorically not Sorren.

My brain trips over itself trying to make this person's face fit with this venue because they do not go together. They belong to completely separate worlds. AJ belongs in the mental hospital back in the outside world. Not here in Circus, the Soulseer Gathering. That's my first mental stumble: AJ is a Soulseer? It throws me for a big-ass loop.

But a goofy grin forms on my face as I give Rimi's hand a squeeze and adjust our course towards him.

So many things happen at once.

The four Seers behind AJ also drop their hoods. They must have come from somewhere cold. I wonder what brings them here? And why would AJ not share that he was a Soulseer when I was obviously Shaping my own - and threatening him with it -in the waiting room that night?

But I beam a what-the-heck-bud kind of smile and bring my soul over to Greet AJ, shifting on as Emry sees my eyes slide to a figure behind them and then they literally trip over their own feet.

Terror lights in Emry's soul as they turn and bring up both hands as though warding me back while their soul arcs up defensively. When my focus returns to the new group, with my Soulseeing shifted on, I See the fiery lines stretching from AJ's soul to the base of each of his friends in a glimmering web.

And I realize a millisecond too late that this is my second erroneous conclusion. AJ is not a friend.

"AJ?" His name escapes my lips in a whisper. Rimi tugs at my hand to get my attention cause what the fuck is going on but I can't take my eyes off of him. Deer in headlights.

There is nothing awkward or dorky about AJ now as he swaggers down the middle of the Bazaar, four souls in tow. Four souls in tow? My eyes rake over the group again as though I can't possibly be seeing this. AJ has four other Seers connected to him like spokes on a wheel. How has this happened?