CHAPTER 18 - PROPHECIES AND SPIRITS
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Natirra observed Gaid, confused. Their eyes met. At one point, she crossed her arms, leaning against the wall of the structure next to him. The sound of people in the background faded, and Natirra seemed to be transported to another dimension, with the same strange feeling she had in that dream. When she heard Gaid speak, she realized the situation she was in was deeper than she had expected.
«"You probably don’t know what a prophecy is, right? But I assumed that."» The fact that Gaid already assumed something negative about her annoyed her. Though, in some ways, he was right: she didn’t know what the hell a prophecy was.
«"Listen to me carefully. I don’t know if you believe in spirituality, but regardless, since you have concrete evidence in front of you, what I’m about to say will make sense."»
Natirra sat down, ready to hear him out. Gaid looked up at the sky, still with his arms crossed.
«"When a soul feels a strong emotion, it’s capable of picking up spiritual waves. Invisible to us."»
Natirra tried to internalize this first bit.
«"Of course, it’s all subjective. What is strong for me might be less for you. This is to say that every emotion, in a way, drags these waves with it, but not all of them are picked up. In fact, very few are."» After saying this, he raised his hand to the sky.
«"When a soul feels an extremely strong emotion, which is usually something out of the ordinary, the waves are picked up, and the signal in question turns into a means of communication that flies through the wind."»
Everything she had heard sounded like fantasy, but Natirra was starting to get a decent idea. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have believed it, but the opposite had been shown to her. Natirra asked a question.
«"And what emotions can lead to this strong signal?"»
«"That’s what I need to figure out. There are several cases in which this can happen, but the most common is also the most concerning. It could be that whoever sent the message is no longer alive; it all depends on what was said in the signal."»
Many doubts arose in Natirra, and her need for answers grew at the same time.
«"How is it that you received it too?"»
«"If everything went the way I think it did, then we two have something special, probably. Some kind of energy that can pick up those waves."»
Gaid finally took his eyes off the sky and fixed them on Natirra.
«"When we sleep, our functions don’t stop. We are still alive, from that point of view. But our mind and soul are on the same spiritual plane as the spirits. That’s how we pick up their prophecies, but it’s normal for most people not to be able to do it or to forget by the time they wake up."»
Natirra was confused, but she understood the basic message. Gaid, however, had more to explain as he moved closer to Natirra.
«"Listen, I need your help. And I suppose you need mine. You’re the only one I saw in that dream. So clearly... This thing involves you too. I want to help you."»
«"How is it that... you know so much about spirits?"»
Gaid turned in the opposite direction. His tone sounded hesitant, and Natirra realized she had asked a bad question. Gaid replied shortly after, with a tone of omission.
«"Personal studies."»
After saying that, he turned to Natirra again.
«"The person who was in that dream. Do you know her?"»
Natirra, after everything that had happened, didn’t know whether to share her thoughts with someone she had genuinely only seen twice, but on the other hand, it was the only way she saw to solve the matter in a way that satisfied her. She thought for a moment; she needed to organize how she would explain the whole issue, and instead of explaining the details, she decided to be a bit more concise and summarizing.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
«"I didn’t know her for long, actually; she was in our room. Yesterday morning, she disappeared."»
«"Disappeared, you say?"»
«"Yes..."» she decided to omit the pirate situation for now, wanting to remain reserved.
«"We haven’t heard from her since, and everyone theorizes she ran away, but if this signal you’re talking about is real..."»
«"Something happened to her. That’s certain. And what’s even more certain is that she didn’t run away; she’s still around here somewhere."»
«"Is she hiding?"»
«"That, I can’t be sure of. Something might have happened to her. Listen, do you remember what she told you, in particular?"»
Natirra once again put her mind to work. She tried to think, but remembering a dream was difficult, she knew that. Despite this common fact, she remembered the words she heard exactly, as if she were still in the dream.
«"She told me to leave, to save her and save myself. And... she mentioned the pirates."»
Gaid turned, as if he had heard thunder.
«"Pirates, huh?"»
«"Yes, she talked about them when we met her before she disappeared."»
Gaid moved closer, seeming intrigued.
«"It’s common in prophecies for instructions to be given. Did you receive any kind of suggestion?"»
Under that pressure, she gave in and decided it was worth revealing the little bit she had left.
«"The office, the militia chief’s office. The last time we saw her, she was returning from that place, she had seen something that must have terrified her, a lot. But... we didn’t believe her. Or at least, the others didn’t. I had my doubts too, but... there’s something more to this. I fear the pirates are involved in this."»
«"Mmmh..."» Gaid scratched his hair.
«"Your friend may be giving you instructions. Listen..."» Gaid sat down as well.
«"I’ll help you with this, and find your friend. That is, if nothing has happened to her. I get more knowledge for my research, and maybe I’ll find a way out of this camp. I know many things you don’t know."»
Natirra didn’t know how to feel; after all, this was the same Gaid who had gotten into a brawl over a rather idiotic reason, and now he wanted to present himself as a master follower of prophecies?
Natirra easily trusted people, and in this case, she had reasons to do so. If he was the only way she could gain more information, at least regarding Eneas’s fate, then it was fine.
«"Do you... want something in return?"» She expected such a request. But Gaid frowned.
«"More information for my research is enough. You’re going to the office, right? We can manage to meet, but you have to be careful. Since your friend disappeared, they’ve increased security to prevent night escapes. I’ll come to meet you."» From that point of view, Natirra was glad she hadn’t left that morning, or she would have been caught.
Suddenly, they were all called back; it was time to return to lessons. Natirra quickly explained to Gaid the location of her tent, and they both returned to their class.
...
Prophecies were something new to her; she hadn’t heard of them before. Such an abstract concept, allowing mental communication through the spiritual plane, which one could access during sleep.
Natirra was now certain that, according to what Gaid had said, everyone was aware of the events that had taken place. But most either didn’t have enough context to understand or had completely forgotten. Gaid and she were the only two people who knew what this was about, for now. But that was fine. She felt much safer knowing she could go with someone else and not be alone.
Natirra wondered why Gaid knew so much about spirits, enough to give such an accurate explanation.
"Strange interests..." There was definitely something behind it, but Natirra didn’t want to think about it.
In a way, she was placing herself in a situation above her own. In the worst case, she would take the first chance to escape. But for now, that wasn’t really an option; she first needed to understand what to run from, right?
After all, she was in a good place, she had support. She might as well make use of it.
The class had finally ended, and Natirra felt her head was about to explode. Gaid had disappeared from her sight, and Natirra had finally reunited with her group, which had questions.
«"Where did you disappear during the break? We were going to come find you."» Monomia asked, curious.
Igre, however, seemed to be fishing for a theory.
«"After a useless lesson like that, I would have tried to escape like she did."»
Riaca commented.
«"Are you trying to escape?!"»
Natirra brushed away those strange theories.
«"Cut it out, guys. It’s nothing. I just wanted a moment to myself."»
«"Got it!"» all three said at the same time.
The group of narwhals then headed towards the mess hall, following the line of other soldiers.
…
Gaid walked, observing the main offices. The wind pushed the trees, and while everyone was in the mess hall, he found himself outside, in the deserted training field.
«"Prophecies, huh? So they really work. I can talk to spirits."» He kept staring at that distant structure, with a fixed and threatening gaze.
«"I better find something important, to advance my project."»