Elio Freyr: Burn Thy Wounds

Chapter 5: The Seer

"You can see me. I'm sure of that." 

Elio kept his head up high and fixed his sight straight at the hallway he was taking. 

Students were still scattered everywhere taking their lunch break productively by practicing their magics and abilities, and chatting with people they know around the Academy. 

There were students in the hallway that Elio was passing by who were showcasing their own abilities to their peers, and making sure that they would be the center of attention. 

But when they noticed him, they were all stopping, and making a way for him to walk past through the hallway. No one wanted to bump into him or even just make contact with him, and so they were all avoiding him. 

"Why are they looking at you like that? And why the heck are they avoiding you, El?" 

Elio turned to the nearest hallway from his right, and turned left to the next hallway after. 

There were no students in that hallway and he knew that because it was the way to the lecture rooms, and no one would want to be there at that hour. Students prefer outside than being stuck in those rooms, but Elio has different plans. 

He entered an empty room at the end of the hallway where his next class would be for the afternoon session, and locked the door behind him. 

"A lecture room still feels suffocating even without classes." 

"So you're hiding here." He turned and faced the person he has been trying to ignore since he left the cafeteria. 

"You really can see me." Her eyes were a little too astounded as he met his eyes looking straight at her.  

"You were the very first person to see me while I am in this form, Elio. There's no doubt, it's you." 

He crossed his hands over his chest and pushed himself against the wall behind him, leaning on it. 

"I heard what happened to your kind. Why did you choose to hide in the Academy Esther? It's safer outside." 

Esther turned her back from him and pulled herself a chair and sat on it. 

"There is no safe place. Not anywhere where I am." 

It was evident to her voice that she was in so much difficulty. It was full of sadness and misery, and she was filled with a sudden gloom. 

"Then why are you here?" 

"I was here when the attack happened two years ago, just like you. When everyone was getting out of here to help their families in town, I stayed here. My mother told me not to go, and so I did. And before I knew it, all Seers were captured, and others were killed on the spot." 

"And where is your family?" 

"They died. And I failed to see them for the last time."

Silence filled the room that made both of them feel so uncomfortable. It was the very first time Elio had heard her story, and it was her very first time talking about her family after what had happened to them. 

"When I decided to leave the Academy, Headmaster Hugo saw me and let me stay for good." 

But Esther still chose to continue her story even though it was hard for her to talk about them, believing that sharing her story to someone would free her from her past. 

"He promised to give them a proper burial but he said no bodies were retrieved when he came back. I was forced to stay here from that moment on." 

"Did the Headmaster let you live like that? Living a literal invisible life?" 

She slowly nodded. "I accepted this already in order to live. If someone saw me alive, they would do everything to kill me." 

"And how sure are you that I won't do the same? I saw you already, and your secret is not safe with me." 

A faint smile appeared on her face as she looked at him. 

"I am ready to die any moment, Elio. I already anticipated that. And I am a Seer, I would know if you're going to kill me." 

"If that's so, then why did your kind get killed when they can foresee what's going to happen?" 

Esther looked away and sighed. 

"They know. That's why my mother told me not to go there. But the problem is, those people knew how to alter visions which is still a mystery. And that's what I have been studying for the past two years." 

Elio pulled himself away from the wall and walked towards the nearest chair from him and sat there. 

"So what have you learned so far?" 

"So far, I only learned that they can do that when they know that you are a Seer. They can't if they don't."

"Then they can still control what you're seeing." 

"Maybe. That's why I don't fully trust my visions now. Lately I've been seeing a mark. But I can't see it clearly."

"A mark? What kind of mark?" Elio's attention was fully on her because of that. He has also seen a mark, and it didn't let him sleep that night after he had seen it. 

"Something like triangles. A skull. I don't know. It's always blurry when I am seeing it, and they're in pieces, not as one." 

"Have you told that to anyone?" He remained composed, even though he felt a little nervous about what they had seen. For him, it was his first time seeing that, and it was clear already. But with Esther, it was different. 

"To the headmaster, yes and you. Why?"

"Nothing." He stared at the door where they had entered just on his left. 

"Go back to them. The students will be back any moment from now." 

"I can't. This is the first lecture room that I have entered after I became this way, you know, invisible. Their class will start soon, and if I leave, I'll just be roaming outside and nowhere to go." 

Elio gave her a glance with a flat expression. 

"Then stay at the back. No one sits beside me." 

Her face reflected light as a bright wide smile appeared on her face. 

"Thank you. I'll be quiet. I promise." 

"The Esther I know, doesn't know that word."

Elio pulled himself up from the chair and faced the way to his seat at the farthest side of the room.

"I've changed. Just like you, Elio. After that."