I looked through the Ruler’s mind to see if he found me suspicious, but still didn’t let down my guard when I realised he didn’t. Right now I didn’t have a weapon and my Gift wasn’t strong enough to kill him. Not that I wanted to either. “Why are you here,” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
“To find out more about you,” he said calmly. He looked at the ground and a glowing white circle appeared on the flooring, with the Ruler and me inside it. After the circle was completed his demeanour changed, becoming cold and calculating. I felt my Gift become suppressed and I frowned. I tried to read the Ruler’s mind but found that my Gift failed to respond to my will.
I felt fundamentally broken. Like a crucial part of me was destroyed and for a second, I mourned the Regulars who had to live their whole life without a Gift. Even though it hadn’t been gone for even a minute, I longed for it the way a cold person longed for the sun. I mentally apologised to all the Regulars I had looked down on before and looked at the Ruler.
“What did you do to me,” I growled without realising it. I briefly wondered if I should strangle him right now and fulfil the Seer’s words, but I knew I stood less than no chance against him with my Gift and even less without it.
“This is a Circle of Truth. Everyone inside it has their Gifts sealed and will always tell the truth when asked a question,” he said calmly.
“Even you?” I asked.
He nodded without inflection. “Even me. Now, tell me, why are you here at the Academy?”
I decided to lie just to see if he was lying about the circle but I found my mouth couldn’t move. Instead, chose to test the boundaries of his Gift in a different way. “Because I want to learn more about my Gift,” I said. It wasn’t the only reason, but the Circle of Truth didn’t seem to care. So his Gift isn’t absolute.
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“Do you plan to harm the Academy in any way?” he asked before I had the time to formulate a question to ask.
“No,” I said because it was the truth. While the Seer foresaw me killing him and that would harm the Academy, I didn’t have a plan to do it. I merely knew it would happen. “What are the full details of your Gift?” I asked.
His eyes widened in panic almost imperceptibly and he snapped his fingers, banishing the Cicle of Truth before he could say anything about his Gift. I felt my powers return to me and relished its presence. The Ruler frowned at me as though realising something. “You can read my mind, can’t you,” he said. He stared at me for a moment and I didn’t dare move, didn’t dare breathe. “I’m afraid I can’t have that.”
I felt a blinding pain go through my head, and realised that while I could feel the minds around me, I suddenly couldn’t feel the Ruler’s. “What did you do,” I whispered.
He shrugged with a smile. “Everything inside this academy is under the control of my domain. Every brick, every speck of dust, and even you. I have secrets. I’m sure you can understand.”
I glared at him, hating him with every fibre of my being. My Gift was the only thing in my life that felt absolute. Until everyone around me started showing me it wasn’t. The Seer had removed me from Vera’s mind and concealed herself and Vera from my Gift. I had always understood the Seer as an absolute being, so it didn’t faze me. In my head, she was akin to a god. But the Ruler was someone who I hadn’t heard about until I entered the Culling, and he had taken away my Gift without effort. I had thought my Gift was weak but absolute. Unrivalled in its ability to gather information. I was just beginning to realise how naive I was.
The Seer’s words gave me hope though. I knew I wasn’t going to be weak forever, and so I steeled myself. I resolved myself to be strong. I lessened my glare at the Ruler and started to grin knowing that eventually, I would grow strong enough to kill him.