Cross watched as the clock ticked down the final minute. Almost all of the girls had arrived with the last few stragglers running in just as the bell rang. He waited for them to find their seats before standing from his chair. The class went silent as he picked up a piece of chalk and began to write.
"Good afternoon. I will be your professor this session. We will primarily cover the subject of Clairvoyance and other aspects of Sight. As a Clairvoyant myself, I hope to give you a rather unique insight to the subject. My name is… Christian Cross." Cross's teeth ground together as he heard a slight inhalation of breath that he knew to be Lexi stifling a laugh. Servilia had found the name equally amusing. He took in a small breath and continued. "You may call me Professor or Professor Cross."
Cross dropped the chalk and turned back to the class. A number of girls had their hands raised. Cross nodded towards the nearest one, a light haired girl with dull blue eyes.
"How old are you?" she asked. A number of hands dropped.
"I am twenty-four," Cross lied smoothly. Servilia had added a few years to his actual age. He pointed to another girl.
"Are you married?"
Cross resisted the urge to sigh, instead keeping an easy half smile on his face. "No, I am not married."
"Dating?" Another girl in the pack chimed in.
"Not currently, and please wait to be called on before speaking," Cross answered as the class tittered. Seeing a few hands still remaining Cross reached up and adjusted his glasses. "Are there any more question… that pertain to the class?"
Every hand fell except for a lone girl sitting near the middle of the class. Cross gestured to her and she cleared her throat, taking a moment to compose herself. She had the rigid posture of a noble. The moment she opened her mouth Cross knew she was from Dumas. He had heard enough of that accent from Romeo to ever misplace it.
"Yes, professor this class is about 'Clairvoyance' you say?" She gave off an unimpressed noise.
Cross nodded slowly. "Yes, and your name is?"
Vivian," she said it as though he should have already known. "My father says Clairvoyants and Seers are nothing more than frauds and liars."
"Your father is correct, Miss Vivian," Cross said.
The girl's eyes widened for a moment and the class went silent again. Cross started to reach up to loosen his tie, but caught himself before his hand was able to raise more than a few inches. Clenching his fists he instead paced back and forth at the front of the room.
"Clairvoyance is completely unique in the field of magic. Unlike the magics that rule over light, shadow, fire, water, or any of the many others, clairvoyance cannot be seen. A Seer must be taken at face value," Cross said before stopping and gazing at the girl for a moment. "You're a noble from Dumas. Your father holds a rather prestigious position and you are being groomed for a similar position. Your mother is also a noble, but from a lesser family background. Correct?" Cross blinked slowly as Vivian's hands clenched together.
"Well, yes, but-"
"But that is all information I could gleam from simply talking to you and knowing a general history of Dumas, you are absolutely right. It is good that you question me. Many people don't, either wanting to believe what they hear or because the actor is very skilled." Cross interrupted her. "The key to the trick is making broad, generalized speculations that appeal to the masses."
"Well then," Vivian composed herself. "How do we know you aren't simply a liar as well? By your own standards you haven't done anything special."
"True." Cross reached up and brushed his fingertips along his temple. "By the way, I'm quite sure that book you have in your bag is not on the school’s approved reading list. Even if you put a different cover on it. Please refrain from bringing such items to my class in the future, or I will be forced to confiscate them."
Vivian nearly recoiled back and her hand dropped to her bag, pulling it tight against her body.
"Anymore questions? No? Good. Let's begin." Cross looked over the class as Vivian went silent. "There are multiple levels of Sight, but we will simplify it into a few broad categories. Of course, these levels are all subjective and the spectrum is quite large, but this is an entry level class and I'm going to do my best not to overwhelm you." Cross tapped his glasses into a more comfortable position. "Now, the most basic and common types of Sight are readings. They are mostly limited to the near future. Things such as Card readings, Tealeaf reading, Crystal ball readings. These are also the most likely to be faked. Now do any of you have experience with this type of Sight?"
A number of hands went up.
Cross nodded.
"As is to be expected. Even as magical ability waned over the last century, these readers stayed largely prominent. That is not to say all were frauds, but it is likely many of them were and continue to be. With any Seer, be very careful in trusting what they say, especially if they leave you with even more questions. It is a tactic to get you to return." Cross noticed a few girls fidget uncomfortably in their seats. "The next level of Sight is more advanced. Seers on this level have the ability to see briefly into the minds of others, along with the short-term images of the future."
There was another uncomfortable shift.
"For those of you worried, mind reading is not a simple act. It takes extraordinary discipline and control. Furthermore, the human mind is not like a book. You cannot simply crack it open and look for information. When viewing another's mind, most Seers' can only see hints or read emotions, and even then there are ways to mislead, deceive, and hide your true thoughts. Only those with highly developed Sight could truly read deep into your mind."
A hand went up.
"No, I do not have that ability, nor do I have any interest in reading any of your minds." Cross said easily. Only half of that was true.
The hand went down.
"Seers on this level will also often have the ability to 'sense' things around them. For example, I can roughly divine the contents of a book I have never read before. Minute details are often lost in this translation and the ability is far from perfect."
"You said card readers and whatever can only see briefly into the future," A girl in the front row said, resting her chin on her fist. "What about the famous Prophets? Didn't they predict things that happened like, way into the future or something?"
"Ah." Cross nodded. "That is an excellent point Miss?"
"Bellina."
"Miss Bellina. You are correct. The level of Prophet is considered by many to be the highest term of recognition a Seer can gain. Prophets, however, come with a very large flaw. Do you know what that is?"
Bellina shook her head.
"Does anyone know the number one issue with Prophets? Or indeed, any Clairvoyant, Fortune teller, or any other form of Seer?"
A few students tilted their heads, deep in thought, but the majority gave him blank, unknowing stares. Cross was about to speak when Lexi's hand slowly raised.
"Yes Miss?"
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"Alexis, Professor Cross!" Lexi answered him. She had pepped up tone and it took a good portion of his self control not to grin.
"Miss Alexis. The issue, please?"
"Seers are wrong a lot?" Lexi ventured.
"Well put," Cross said, moving to the chalkboard and picking up a piece of chalk. "Class, could anyone please tell me how time moves."
"Forward?" A voice called out.
Cross nodded. "What else?"
"It moves in a line." Bellina said.
“Ah.” Cross drew a line on the blackboard before turning back to the class, on hand pointing at the line. That is the common idea. Time moves in a single, unbroken line. This however, is false."
Cross drew another line parallel to the first. With his other hand he reached into his pocket and produced a large silver coin. He tossed it to a girl in the front row. She caught it with a small fumble and looked up at him, confused.
"Please flip the coin. Catch it, but do not tell me how it lands. Miss?"
"Tia."
"Miss Tia, if you will?"
She nodded and flipped the coin, catching it in her palm. She looked up at Cross.
"Again, please."
She nodded and flipped the coin again.
"And one more time." Cross said.
Tia complied.
"Now then. The coin flips were tails, tails, heads, correct?"
"Yes!" Tia leaned forward. "They were!"
Cross tapped the line he had drawn. "By having Tia flip the coin without my input, I was able to see how the coin fell. I can repeat this over and over again without fail. The coin and Tia are on a specific timeline. However…." He looked back at Tia. "Tia, the next three flips will be heads, tails, heads. Now, please flip the coin again."
Tia nodded and flipped the coin the first time.
"Heads!"
"That's one." Cross nodded. "Again."
"Heads?" Tia looked down at the coin confused before looking back up at Cross.
"Again, please." Cross gestured.
Tia flipped the coin a final time, a look of confusion on her face as she stared down at the coin. "It's tails."
"So it is." Cross drew a new line, cutting through the first two. "Time is not static. There are more factors that can ever been accounted for. Minute changes that can send you veering from one destiny to the other. By telling Tia the outcomes for the next flip, I have influenced the timeline and set it on another path. Without conscious thought, you changed the way you would flip the coin, this changing the outcome of time. It is for this reason, I am here teaching you young ladies instead of gambling to a life of wealth and fortune."
Cross gave the class a wry smile and was rewarded with a few giggles.
"So nothing is predetermined?" Tia asked, her fingers fidgeting over the coin. "Then how did the prophets manage to predict the future?"
"I'm glad you asked that." Cross gave her an encouraging smile. "There are, in fact, certain points in time that have been predetermined. They are known as Absolute points. They cannot be changed, they cannot be broken, and they cannot be ignored. It is impossible to know what event will be an Absolute point, but with proper speculation some prophets are able to accurately predict events they believed to be Absolute. It is for this reason that history is also riddled with many more false prophets than real ones. What they say may have indeed been the future at one point, but it did not stay that way for long."
"What makes a point Absolute? Or who?" Bellina asked.
"That, is a good question and one I do not have a satisfactory answer for. It is unfortunately impossible at this time to even know when these points will exist, let alone who or what cause them." Cross said before looking around the class. He was relieved to se the majority of them seemed somewhat interested in his lecture. "Now, does anyone have any questions on the basics?"
"Professor?" A bespectacled girl with a dusting of freckles and curly, light red hair held her hand high in the air.
Cross nodded to her.
"My name is Lucy." She gave him a cheery smile. "I was just wondering, I know you said this is all subjective, but is there any level of Sight above Prophet?"
Cross's mouth opened to say 'no' but a sudden spike of pain fired through his skull and leveled out into an intense pressure. Clenching his teeth, Cross was able to keep from flinching, but only barely. He gave a thoughtful nod to mask the pain as the pressure continue to build and the idea as to what would ease his sudden suffering sprung in the back of his mind. He tried to ignore it, but the pressure suddenly doubled, threatening to send him to his knees. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Alright," he breathed, so silent the words barely took form. The pressure was relieved almost instantly. He felt Lexi staring at him, along with the rest of the class.
He had been silent for far too long.
"Ah, sorry," Cross gave his head a gentle shake. "Yes, there is a level above Prophet, however it is very rare. You are unlikely to find much information about it in the school's library, or any library for that matter." The words continued to tumble out of his reluctant mouth and he gave Lexi the briefest of glances. "Do any of you know what the Void is?"
Tia's hand went up immediately.
"Yes, Tia," Cross said.
"The Void is believed to be where Seers get their ability to foretell the future. The basis of their magic," Tia said
"Wait!" Another girl in the back interrupted. "I thought that magic came from the Gods?"
"No, it's from nature."
"It's only one God, I thought."
"I thought humans were taught by the Fey?"
"My great-great nan said it was dragons who taught us magic."
"Settle down, everyone." Cross rapped his knuckles on his desk. "Miss Tia is correct. That is not to say any of you are wrong, however. Magic is a complex subject, and in this class we will not spend time debating about how it came to be. There are many theories and each have validity. It is quite possible there is no one true origin of magic."
A few girls raised their hands.
"We can discuss it another day when we have more time if you feel that strongly about it," Cross assured.
The hands dropped back down.
"Now then, what Miss Tia here said is correct. All Sight is connected to something called the Void. A simple way to imagine it is to picture a thread that connects you and everything else in the world to a single central point. Seers have the ability to touch on this thread and that is how they are able to utilize their magic." Cross hesitated and felt a pulse in his temple. He closed his eyes for a moment. "The highest level of Clairvoyance is known as Void Walking. Seers who are able to enter the Void itself. It is a type of Sight that cannot be taught and thus, only a select few have the ability. How and why they gain this ability is unknown."
"But…" Tia's face scrunched up in thought. "If the Void is the epicenter of their magic and knowledge, wouldn't being able to enter it make them all knowing?"
"Very good, Tia,” Cross said, honestly impressed. "But the Void is more complex than any of us can even begin to fathom. It contains everything than can, or ever will be, but it also contains everything that will not be."
"But then how do Void Walkers know what is real and what isn't?" Tia pressed.
"They don't," Cross said simply. "Those who walk the Void are highly secretive individuals, possessing an overwhelming desire to keep the knowledge they gain to themselves. They see things. Things that people should never see in a single lifetime. More often then not, they become obsessed with knowledge, obsessed with the Void. They look deeper and deeper into the vast nothingness. They grow so hungry for a truth they can never find that they begin to lose their humanity. They become blind to pain, to suffering, to evil itself. Their emotions are stripped away until they are nothing more than husks of their former selves." Cross paused, taking a moment to gaze at the shocked faces of his students. He could feel one set of dark eyes in particular boring into him. He licked his suddenly dry lips. "In almost every recorded mention of a Void Walker, and believe me, they are few and they are excruciatingly hard to find, they eventually killed themselves. Driven mad by the truth that ever alluded them."
"Professor," Vivian asked without raising her hand after a moment of uncomfortable silence. "What level of Clairvoyant are you?"
The rest of the class went still, waiting for Cross's answer
"I am not far from the lowest level, I am afraid." Cross said softly as he ran a hand through his hair. "Not that I am complaining." He glanced at the clock. "That will be all for todays introduction. Next class we will go more in depth on the history of Clairvoyance. Please read chapters one and two in your assigned textbooks. I will see you all then. Class dismissed."
Cross waved his hand and moved back behind his desk. As the students filed past him he gave polite nods to those who bid him good day until the classroom had emptied completely, save one student who had stopped in front of his desk.
Cross lifted his eyes up to Lexi's. Her arms were crossed in front of her and her brow was furrowed. She stared at him through black eyes, waiting for him to say something, anything. But he remained silent.
"Void Walking." The words slipped from her lips like a curse.
Cross nodded, fighting the urge to look away from Lexi's piercing gaze.
"You never told me."
"I never told anyone."
"Then why now?"
Cross lifted and lowered one shoulder. He felt some pressure in his skull but he pushed it back. "It seemed appropriate."
"How long?"
"Lex…"
"How. Long." Lexi's fingers curled and uncurled as the lights in the room flicked.
"Before I met you," Cross said with a heavy sigh.
"Were you ever going to tell me?" Lexi's voice betrayed her for the smallest of moments. A barely perceivable waver, but Cross still heard it. His stomach wrenched.
He didn't have an answer to give her.
"I see." Lexi swallowed hard gave him a curt nod. "I'll see you tomorrow then, Professor."
As the door clicked shut Cross yanked his tie loose and slumped down in his chair.
"Why?" he asked the empty room.
"I thought it would be a good experience," Kosu replied, appearing above him. She twirled around until she landed in front of him, dressed in the Academy's uniform. "You shouldn't keep secrets from your friends, Cross. Especially dangerous ones."
“She didn’t need to know.”
“If she had been the one keeping secrets, you would have been upset, wouldn’t you?” Cross’s deepening frown was his only answer. Kosu smiled at him, reaching down and cupping his cheek. “The longer you had put it off, the worse she would have taken it. I'm just trying to help.”
Cross leaned back, pulling free from her touch and resting his hand over his eyes. “Yeah, I know, Kosu. I know.”
General Map of Lost Magic [https://66.media.tumblr.com/dafb90bcd2d3fd08ed1ac3e52fa58bc9/tumblr_n32fp9UdeL1tpazgyo1_1280.jpg]