Page 118 of A Dance With Fire
“We’re here.”
40
The Seer
“Mana save you.” The harrying words came from Clay.
The line of Fae males came to a cautious stop, blocking the view. Shula’s heart thrummed slowly up to her throat. And then Clay shifted, and Shula reeled back, a gasp tearing through the polluted air at what she saw before them.
A latticework of iron twisted up from the ground like rusted vines that formed a gnarled cage. From between the bars, a pale face peeked, skin clinging to a sharp facial structure, stringy strands of hair clinging to dirty cheeks.
Valerio braved a step forward, and white eyes flew open and thin lips curled into a smile. Shula flinched at that gaze, bereft of pupils and irises but seeing just the same.
“Are you The Seer?” Valerio’s harsh voice cut through the space that separated them from… the creature.
Shula couldn’t discern whether the figure trapped in iron before them was male or female. So twisted were the confines, they twined around a skeletal body, pinning The Seer in place.
“I have not been called that in a long time.” The Seer’s voice was hoarse with disuse, as rusted as the bars that kept the Fae in place.
A flicker of movement caught Shula’s attention. The Seer’s boney fingers twitched and curled around the bars. The Seer’s nails were flecked brown with dried blood, and the movement caused fresh blood to drip down skinny wrists.
It was then that Shula realized how the iron was holding the Fae up. The twisted tubes cut through The Seer’s body, impaling the Fae through many directions. Arms held up at the sides, toes barely grazing the ground.
The pain of that position was mesmerizing, making it hard to look away. Everyone seemed so entranced by it that their own pain was momentarily forgotten.
“I foresaw your arrival decades ago, much like I saw the fall of the Fae,” The Seer continued.
The impact of those words had Valerio’s hands tightening into fists and stepping back a single step.
“I see many paths of the future. It flows, like the currents of a river. There are many pathways, many currents, yet always only one outcome, destined, decreed by Mana.”
Those words reminded Shula so much of Davina that for a moment her chest ached with the familiar pain of loss.
The Seer’s head shifted, lifted. The bars and the Fae’s bones groaned in unison. Blood slipped down The Seer’s neck, staining the already brown ground even darker. Like blood had long since accumulated and soaked through.
“I know why you have come.” The Seer’s eyes found Shula’s, and she felt the impact of that blind gaze keenly. “I know what you seek, Fire Dancer.” That face shifted towards Valerio. “And you, Prince Ashera of the Seelie Court.”
More blood dripped with each movement. Shula could only imagine the agony The Seer was feeling. That was nothing to say of Ryker, who seemed to stagger towards the Fae, his palms inadvertently glowing.
“Do not try to help me, Ryker Valda.” The Seer stopped him before he could get close. “It is futile. I am one with the iron now. I have lived decades like this, and I will die like this.”
“What happened?” Ryker growled. His hands furled and unfurled, like he was barely restraining himself from going forward and ripping the iron away.
“The humans happened. The iron chased the Fae from Tir na Faie. It killed the old magic of nature and evolved with this industrialized world, tainting what Mana should be and becoming something new. Something dark that spread and became a blight on the land. I have been trapped, hovering on the edge between life and death. To remove the iron would kill me, and I cannot die yet.”
“But how is that possible?” Valerio demanded.
Shula echoed the sentiment.
Iron blocked magic, yet this iron had evolved and spread. It explained so much, and yet nothing at all.
“Mana works in mysterious ways,” The Seer said. “Mana absorbed the iron. It evolved. It changed.”
“Impossible,” Julius dismissed almost angrily.
The Seer’s thin lips pursed in what seemed to be amusement. “Yet the Fire Dancer burned the iron bars from a cage. Nothing is impossible. Magic evolves, and Elemental magic is the greatest mystery Mana has ever given.”
“Why?” Shula boldly asked, stepping towards The Seer. She moved so close; close enough to feel the pain emitting from the iron and smell blood, old and new. “Why are Elementals so important, other than our direct connection to Mana?” Her heart beat faster in her chest. The answers she so desperately wanted were grazing her fingertips.
