Chapter narrated by: Lira
Date: 15/14/95
I could not believe this. She was here, truly here in the middle of the adventurer's guild. I thought she would take at least a few months until I saw her again, but here she was.
The attention of everyone in the guild was on her—even Sera, who had been all energy since we left Holt's office, was quietly observing her. I say was and not is because most of that attention dissipated when she said she was a rank one mage after saying she was "very high end."
I heard some laughs all around the guild, and almost everyone went back to their own conversations.
Poor Ali probably got confused, knowing she probably meant she was rank ten. I'm honestly surprised that she got it mixed up; I remember explaining the ranks to her at least a few times, and I could have sworn by how the warmth felt that her full attention was on me.
How weird…
"That girl truly has a lot of confidence in herself," said Miss Ezra. "I would not have been able to deliver such a speech before saying rank one. She seems fun."
By now I would say I was the only one at the table looking at her; she seemed to be discussing something with Marcus, though I could not hear it very clearly. Sera and Fin were talking about a contract they had a long time ago.
"...so there I am, mid-air, right?" Sera leaned over the table, her hands waving wildly as she mimicked a free-fall. "I'd used every ounce of momentum to try and clear the fence, but I didn't realize the 'soft landing zone' Fin pointed out was actually a cart full of oversized cabbages!"
"I told you to aim for the hay, Sera," Fin interjected, leaning back with a smirk. "You're the one who saw green and assumed it was grass. That's just a lack of basic scouting."
"It was pitch black! Besides—" Sera started, but I wasn't really following the cabbage tragedy anymore. My focus was anchored to the center of the room.
I felt a sharp nudge in my arm.
"Hey, Earth to Lira," Sera said, her voice dropping the comedy for a tone of pure, unadulterated mischief. "You've been staring at the back of that girl's head so hard I'm surprised her hair hasn't caught fire."
"I'm not staring!" I snapped, the words jumping out faster than I intended. "You know I can't stare, Sera. Physically impossible."
"Oh, shut it. You know exactly what I mean," Sera countered, her grin audible in her voice.
"I really don't." I felt my heart skip a beat—traitorous little organ!
"Yes, you do! Your cheeks are red, Lira. You look like a tomato, Lira." She started laughing, a bright, bubbly sound. Across from us, I could hear Fin and Balyn trying—and failing—to suppress a giggle.
"Stop it, Sera! You're being loud," I hissed, trying to shrink into my seat.
"No chance," Sera teased. "So… spill. Who is she?"
Wait, how does she know that Ali and I know each other?
"What makes you think that I know her?"
"Because," Ezra chimed in from the edge of the table, her tone dry, "you've been looking at her the same way Marcus looks at that new sword of his—like you're afraid if you blink, she'll disappear or break."
"And with total focus," Mary added, her voice professional but laced with amusement. "You haven't touched your drink since she opened the door, Lira. The guild could have been raided and you wouldn't have noticed as long as she was talking."
Balyn frowned, his chair creaking as he shifted. "Wait, but Lira is blind. How could she recognize some girl just by looking toward her?"
"She's got that 'warmth vision' thing," Sera explained dismissively, waving a hand. "Perks of being the Oracle of Aelith."
"Wait, Lira is an oracle?" Balyn asked.
"Ah, right. I keep forgetting that part," Ezra muttered.
I blinked, turning toward Ezra. "Wait, you knew? I thought I hadn't told anyone."
"Mary told me," Ezra said.
"Marcus told me," Mary added instantly.
"Great," I sighed. "I'll have to remember to thank Marcus for his discretion."
Fin let out a long, contemplative breath. "An oracle who still started at Rank One... honestly, that makes me feel a lot better about how long it took me to hit Rank Two. If even a direct line to a goddess has to grind through the mud with the rest of us, there's hope for everyone." He paused. "No offense, Lira."
"None taken," I muttered. "Being an oracle doesn't exactly help with most contracts anyways."
"So, how does it actually work?" Balyn asked, leaning in. I could feel his curiosity. "This warmth vision. Is it like… seeing through walls? Or do we all just look like glowing blobs to you?"
"Oh, it's…" I trailed off, searching for the right way to put the world into words. "It's like a map made of temperatures. During the day, everything has a pulse. The sun-soaked stone of the street is a bright ribbon under my feet, and even this table—it has this very faint, woody hum of warmth that tells me exactly where it is."
I shifted my focus toward the heat signatures gathered around us. "People are different, though. You aren't just shapes; you're like distinct hearths. Sera, yours is high-energy, constantly flickering and jumping. And Balyn…" I turned slightly toward him, "yours feels like a deep, steady glow, huge and serene."
"And what about her?" Sera asked, her voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper that was anything but subtle. "The 'High-End' Rank One. What does her warmth look like?"
I hesitated. How could I put it into words? Should I say she felt overwhelming? Blinding? The truth was, even with the sheer power radiating off her, the best way to describe Ali's warmth was…
"Familiar," I whispered, almost to myself. "She feels like coming inside after playing in the snow all day. Like the exact moment you sit down by the fire with a bowl of hot soup. It's… home."
"So you do know her," said Fin.
"Wait a second. Lira, didn't you just say your warmth vision only works during the day? Because the sun went down hours ago," asked Balyn.
"Now that you mention it, Bal… that is weird. Really weird," added Sera.
"Oh… Yeah, normally it only works during the day. Today is different; I don't know if it is an exception or maybe my ability is getting stronger." Or maybe because Ali was right there…
"That would make sense," Mary said, nodding as she polished a glass. "It's only natural for an Oracle's gift to mature, especially considering your current baseline."
"My baseline?" I asked, a bit stung.
"Well, no offense, Lira," Mary said, "but compared to the heavy hitters, your warmth-sensing is… well, it's on the gentler side. I've heard the Oracle of Reval can reach into the Vault of Reval and pull anything he needs right out of thin air. And the Oracle of Valek? His ability makes it so he is always at the right place at the right moment. He doesn't even have to try; the world just lines up for him."
"Don't forget the Oracle of Miren," Miss Ezra added. "She can read a dusty manual on ancient sword styles and, the second she hits the final page, she can execute them perfectly. It turns theory into muscle memory in a heartbeat."
"And that's just their passive gifts," Mary pointed out, lowering her voice. "That's not even accounting for them using the full domain they have. When an Oracle really opens the floodgates to their God's power… well, they stop looking like people and start looking like forces of nature."
"The two of us haven't seen it, but Marton—an old adventurer who was in the Disaster of the Eighty-one—told us he saw the previous Oracle of Reval go all out. He said, and I quote: 'It really put into perspective how terrible the Consolidation War must have been if that was just one Oracle.'" Miss Ezra said.
Mary turned back to me, her expression softening. "So you see, Lira? If your vision is starting to work in the dark, don't overthink it. You're just catching up to where you're supposed to be. No need to feel bad about it."
The thing was that my ability had not become stronger; it was only working now because Ali was here, so listening to that really did put into perspective how far I was from other oracles.
"Wait, wait, wait," Sera cut in, waving her hands. "We are getting further and further away from the point. Lira, are you going to tell us who that girl is or not?"
I was about to answer but the voice of Marcus sounded all over the guild.
"Family name?" he asked.
"Aurelios," Ali answered.
"Wait, isn't that Lira's family name?" asked Mary.
"It is! Is she one of your family, Lira?! Why didn't you tell me you had a sister, Lira?" said Sera.
"She is not my sister, she is—"
I was cut off before I could finish.
"Look, she's coming! Everyone act normal!" Sera hissed.
The table erupted into a bizarre, performative display of 'normalcy.' Fin and Balyn began moving their lips in silent, nonsensical conversation, while Sera leaned back so far she nearly tipped her chair, wearing a grin that was anything but casual.
I didn't look at them. I couldn't. My focus was narrowed entirely on the approaching warmth.
Up close, Ali didn't just feel like a hearth anymore; she felt like the sun had decided to walk across the guild floor. The air around her seemed to hum, vibrating with a frequency that made my skin tingle.
I felt her stop right beside me. Then, I heard the light thud of a hand resting on the scarred wood of our table, just inches from my own.
The table went silent. The fake conversations died instantly. I could feel the weight of everyone's stares, but Ali's presence was so vast it drowned them out.
I turned my head toward her, looking up into the space where I knew her eyes would be. For a heartbeat, the noise of the guild—the clinking glasses, the distant laughter, Marcus's grumbling—simply ceased to exist. In the dark of my vision, she was the only thing that was clear.
"Hi," she said.
The word was small, almost fragile, lacking all the "high-end" speech she had been shouting at Marcus moments ago. It was just Ali.