Chapter 2

Kalex's eyes fluttered open to reveal the ground at his eyeline with pebbles strewn throughout his entire field of vision. As he tried to send his presence out to get an idea of what had happened, an intense inner pain suffused his entire being. “I see you enjoy the new model of holorope, it works wonders, doesn’t it?” Kalex knew this voice.

Throughout his time as a Royal, Kalex had weekly meetings with Elder Tora. She would run tests and examinations on him to extrapolate his Seer status as well as act as a guide in the process of understanding the power a Seer held. She had always regarded him politely and had advised on general topics when in the view of the royal family or any onlookers. It could be said that she had made the biggest impact on who Kalex was today.

With the knowledge of Kalex, Tora had used one of his best tricks to get close to him. She exuded a false presence of one of the creatures she was most familiar with. She had cared for Nurdles for most of her life and used her time with them to create a presence signature indistinguishable from the real thing, the perfect cover to get close. For some reason, Kalex could not stand the presence of Nurdles. He always explained it away by saying that the claws of the creature didn’t sit well with him, but Tora knew better. In her Lexidex, she kept a memory of when Kalex was a child in the forefront whenever searching for the Seer.

As a child, Kalex was always curious. The desire to know everything around him always seemed to be his goal. During a casual walk through the forests bordering the Wounder Empire, Tora noticed something odd.

During these trips, Kalex was a ball of enthusiasm when it came to the flora and fauna of the forest. He would ask questions about everything he discovered with his presence and politely demanded she tell him everything she knew about the topic at hand. Passing through a particularly thick grove of trees, Kalex suddenly went silent. To Tora’s surprise, this patch of forest was teeming with life but not a question from the boy graced her ears. Looking further with her presence, she noted a large group of elusive Nurdles and began to question Kalex as to why he was keeping quiet.

He responded with a very unenthusiastic version of not liking their claws and Tora took it at face value. Later in the return trip, Tora had taken Kalex through the grove containing the Nurdles to see how Kalex handled the situation. After they had left the first time, Kalex continued his over-the-top behavior in asking about everything they passed but when they entered the grove for the second time, something was different.

Pulling with her presence, Tora gathered a few Nurdles onto the path they traveled. As Nurdles were small and generally docile, she did not fear for young Kalex’s safety and wanted to see how he reacted to having them nearby. To Tora’s surprise, as Kalex walked side by side with her, eyes closed to experience everything with his presence fully, he tripped over one of the Nurdles blocking his path as if he hadn’t seen it.

With a thought and a quick sweep of her presence, she dismissed the Nurdles and checked to see if Kalex was hurt. Luckily for her sake, he was fine and just disoriented. She sat next to him and started trying to figure out why he hadn’t seen what was directly in front of him. She knew his presence control was exceptional and wouldn’t have missed something so obvious. “Young Kalex, Are you alright? I thought you would have seen that Nurdle sitting on the path. Were you not scanning your surroundings as I’ve taught you?” Kalex looked up with his pale verdant colored eyes. “Miss Tora, I was watching as you told me to.”

A flash of anger lit up Tora’s face for only a moment. “You fell over a Nurdle, Kalex. We can’t have the Wounder heir tripping over everything, your father would not be pleased.” Tora said with a hand on her hip.

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“Please don’t tell Father! I can’t do remedial pathfinding again!”

Tora took on the look of a doting guardian. “Okay, tell me why you fell and we can fix the issue here and now. As a bonus, I won’t tell your Father.”

Kalex looked into her eyes for a moment then peered down to the ground. “I don’t like Nurdles is all. I’ve learned my lesson and it won’t happen again.” Kalex solemnly said, withholding information. Tora saw this and let it pass, She would continue her tests.

As they walked through the grove, Tora pulled more Nurdles as well as other creatures onto the path. Kalex seemed unfazed as he avoided any obstacles in his path, although he grimaced every time it was a Nurdle. When they returned, she had a lot of studying to do. If her hunch was correct, Kalex was actively filtering his presence to exclude Nurdles. As to why he was doing this, she did not know, but if he turned out to be a Seer, she was hopeful this knowledge would be beneficial.

___

Pain engulfed Kalex as he attempted to break free of his confines to no avail. Tora leaned Kalex against the tree he had been seated at as another spear of pain rattled through his body.

“How?” The hoarse voice of Kalex called out.

“You see Kalex, I’ve been tasked to search for you because the normal bounty hunters weren’t up to the task. The Council’s thoughts were that if you saw a familiar face, you would let your guard down and there would be a chance to finally capture you. Although you did not let down your guard, I was still able to see you."

"When you transform your presence, you also essentially delete your own and all I had to look for was the lack of you and the odd town signature that didn’t quite fit with the rest of the population. It was still just a working theory of mine, but it looks to have borne fruit. The only reason I’m telling you this is because of the rules on Seers. The rule that rogue Seers must die immediately after being captured. The information I gave you will not assist you in the grave as I will be the arbiter of this sentence. It is with a heavy heart that it is me that is here and not someone else, but the rules must be upheld and I hope to see you again in another life. Please Kalex, don’t think poorly of me.”

The pain Kalex felt before was nothing compared to what he was now feeling. With all the strength of his presence and all the knowledge of his binds, he pushed. The holorope wrapping around his body remained stalwart and taut with no evidence of being strained or beginning to break.

This was the end, Kalex felt it in his bones. He had thought himself the best Seer on the planet with nothing being able to hold him down, but his confidence had led him to the situation he was in now. Tora began removing the sheath of her ion blade, the only weapon known to be able to kill a Seer. As a last-ditch effort, Kalex pulled on his presence as hard as he ever had. "If the blade doesn't touch my presence maybe I can make it out of this." Kalex thought to himself.

His presence did not want to be held in place inside his body, it yearned to reach out. As much willpower as Kalex had, his presence was not cooperating until he noticed it lingering on the storage cube. Grasping at anything that might see him walking out of this alive, he focused his presence on the cube, surrounding it as much as he could.

Kalex felt the blade enter his stomach, shearing off the presence that still inhabited that portion of his body. Like a wildfire, the blade’s power quickly began eating away at his presence. If the power made it to his storage cube, his presence would be eradicated.

Kalex felt his death quickly approaching. His thoughts were an incomprehensible tangle. Using the last shred of willpower he had, he opened the storage cube and tried to cram the remainder of his presence into it. His presence poured into the cube but once it was fully absorbed, the cube started ejecting the power, as a presence was not meant to be contained in anything other than the body it belonged to. The last thought Kalex had was a simple command to close and lock the cube.

The small amount of presence that had escaped was quickly destroyed by the Elder Seer's blade. When there wasn’t any more presence to consume, the blade started on the physical body. In a mote of ghostly blue light, the being known as Kalex was no more.

A single tear from the Tora was the last memorial of the Wounder Seer.