A Burning Within [Leo Please]

[Gossamer]

The door with the palm on it had no latch. It swung freely open and revealed a small store filled with candles which were almost all burning creating an ambiance that spoke volumes. The woman herself was unpacking a small wicker basket full of what appeared to be herbs that she'd purchased somewhere else in the castle. At the sound of the bell chimes that hung over the doorway, she turned and stopped what she was doing to smile. The woman had been loading up a glass display case.

"Greetings. I am Kasav'ii. Is there something I can help you with? You've come to have a reading no? To have questions answered?" And with that she picked up the basket and moved over to small square table that was inlaid with ceramic tiles that strange runes fired into their glaze. A glass bowl, half filled with a strange silvery water, rested in the center of it. Two chairs sat opposite, while the rest of the shop curved around behind the small seating area. A door lead off past a small counter top. She set the basket down in the chair that rested in front of the scrying bowl, but didn't halt there. She kept moving. As she did so, Leo could observe the room carefully.

The store was neat and clean, and with no visible dirt or cob webs. The woman herself, somewhere around halfway through her lifespan, carefully took a seat. She did not sit at the seat with the water bowl though, she instead pulled out one of the large wing-backed chairs that flanked a modest fireplace tha and sat down, indicating he should take the second one. The fireplace must have been against the main outer wall, otherwise they were cumbersome to manage in inner rooms... which was odd since there was no windows and the corridor had stretched further down.

She said no more though, and waited for his reply.

Kasav'ii watched him with a friendly open smile.

[Leo Varniak]

A fortune teller. Leo thought he must be quite desperate if he was willing to resort to this as an investigation method, but he needed all the help he could get. He did not know exactly what to make of the craft that tried to open windows onto the future. That clashed with his strong principle of free will - if things had been predetermined, then how could he rightfully punish someone who had no choice but to commit a crime? Intent was what mattered most to Leo. That burning little thing that flared in the heart and made the rest turn around. He could not conceive intent as anything but total freedom.

Divining into the past and present, though, he was perfectly fine with. He maintained a healthy amount of skepticism about it, of course, but he felt it could work in theory. Besides, he had precious little to lose in here. "They call me Leo Varniak," he replied. His step was regular and devoid of hesitation. He looked around, with a trace of curiosity, trying to identify each tool of the trade and how it might be used. There were herbs, substances, and he wondered if drugs were involved in the scrying process.

"Most of my questions have no answer," Leo spoke calmly, studying Kasav'ii's smile with scientific interest. "But there are some that might not be as hopeless." He seated himself in the chair that the Konti had gestured for him to take, next to the fireplace. He thought he could feed off its warmth like a plant off the wet earth of the fields.

"I am looking for a man called Baltio. He used to sell tapestries around here years ago, though you could say he is just a hook to something greater, something I still do not understand." His dark eyes glittered with mirrored flames. "I feel like I am losing myself in the trees and fail to see the forest. Can you help me?" A thought occurred to him. "I am not normally one to seek this kind of counseling. Do I need to believe in it for it to work?" That would likely pose a problem; then again, Kasav'ii might be able to give him information she had acquired about Baltio and call it a "reading"; which would be enough to make both of them happy.

[Gossamer]

Kasav'ii raised an eyebrow. "All questions have an answer. There is no truth in the world that cannot be discovered, either over time or through witness." The konti seer said, looking confused at the young man's statement. "Regardless, be welcome here Leo. I can help you." She said, and gestured over the crystalline bowl of water. The waters swirled and rose up, unexpectedly, forming shape as if its liquid substance was more the consistency of gel than actual water. The water took on a life of its own and rose up and formed the small shape of a man, no more than five inches high, but perfectly sculpted like a statue. It was the shape of an old man, stooped over, even though he was sitting on a bench. His hands formed motions as if he was sitting at a loom, weaving. The water was animated, and the little watery man wove as if he was actually sitting there.

"You don't have to believe in anything. If it is real, it is truly real, Leo Varniak." Kasav'ii said. Her smile was for the divination though, not necessarily for Leo. "I knew him. He was talented. He wove rugs that changed peoples lives. His birthing rugs guaranteed babies were born alive and healthy. His marriage rugs provided fertility. And there was no one who wouldn't come talk to him - wouldn't seek his advice, and there was no one he would refuse to help." Then the Konti turned and really looked at Leo. He could tell because her expression changed, in fact, her whole demeanor changed. "But you weren't interested in rugs were you? You're more interested in what lies in the hearts of the men and women of this city. Are you here to restart the circle of Zai? The one that's been missing?" The Konti asked, looking intrigued. "You seem... a bit fanatical for such work. But then again, most people have heard of the fire, Leo. Most don't know there was a son that survived that really wasn't a true son. I knew your father while he was here. And he wouldn't have wanted this for you. The Zai's are strong people, strong like you are, but they are gently raised... not tempered in the fires of a ceramic forge... pounded and repounded like clay destined to be something other than clay." The woman said, looking worried.

The image in the bowl shifted, and formed three watery balls of fire that swirled in a circle around each other.

"But even my sight isn't good enough to tell you how to proceed. I can only give you information, Leo... and a bit of a warning. The Circle here failed before. I know why. I think you want to know as well, so it doesn't happen again. But are you ready? And how do you propose to pay for such information?" She said, studying him intently.

[Leo Varniak]

The fortune teller had Leo's undivided attention. There was no such thing as distraction to him; he either obsessed or ignored altogether. He laid the shopping basket on the floor and leaned forward on his seat to examine the scrying bowl filled with some strange watery fluid. His fingers laced together, he watched as if in a daze, hardly batting an eye as the liquid began to stir and take on unforeseen purposes. This was no hallucination, and Leo burned every second into his memory.

Baltio... an old man with an extraordinary talent. An ability to weave good fortune into his work... an ability strangely at odds with what Leo had imagined the followers of Ivak would be like. A good man, it seemed, and unsurprisingly one who had disappeared. 'Who are you, Baltio? What did you do here besides weave charmed rugs? And who did you anger?' Then Kasav'ii entered more personal territory, and Leo looked up from the scrying bowl and into the seer's eyes. He did not flinch, but inwardly he was deeply impressed. She got all the facts right, and even the intentions behind the facts. This one was truly blessed by Avalis.

When Kasav'ii went silent, Leo lost himself for a moment in the swirling patterns of the three teardrops before giving his answer to the Konti. "Your sight is strong indeed; I apologize for doubting you," he began, "but as far as I am concerned the son that wasn't a son really died in the fire. He saw everything he was meant to see, and did everything he was meant to do. He never really existed to begin with. Everything about him was a lie inside a lie. There was only one person who should not have died that day, but it was not him."

"However, without the son that wasn't a son, I am left with nothing." His reasoning was linear, methodical, and just as judgmental on himself as it was on everything else. "I pride myself on being able to survive on very little, but 'nothing' is a stretch even for me. For that reason, I wish to understand. I will decide what to do with that understanding once I have reached it. No, I do not plan on starting a Circle of Zai. I do not think I can start anything," he said, "only end."

Leo's entwined hands were in front of him, index fingers sliding up and down each other in a manner reminding on a fly coating its front legs between two flights.

"There are many things I do not understand. Oftentimes, I only think of myself and I cannot see the truth as others see it. The woman called Lina, my mother... she always escaped my reasoning. Why did she keep everything secret? No life could have been worse than the one at the ceramic forge... then why did she not ask for help? My father stated in no uncertain terms that he would have helped her, had he known. I have a feeling, Kasav'ii," he switched to her name for the first time, "that she has not been fully avenged yet. A man may have laced his wicked fingers around her throat, but I feel that others bear a part of responsibility if things ended that way. Since the day that she died, I have not felt affection for another human. I have only lived for the fire within and without. And I have always known I was missing the final chapter... no, I was barely past the introduction."

"I will not stop until every dark corner of this story is in plain view. I will know no peace. I will overturn every stone. I don't care how - magic, words, fists, nails, whatever. But I will make sense of it all. The Circles of Zai are my only lead to the truth, and I need to know what fate has befallen the one in Syliras. It is quite strange, that the Zai would not seek to re-establish a cell in what is likely the biggest city in the world now. Moreover, if Circles are made up of three members, there must have been two more, correct?" Leo's hands curled around the basket. Too many things were not adding up in his calculations. Where had the other two members gone? Had the attack been from the outside, or the inside?

"I have little material to offer, Kasav'ii," Leo concluded, "but if there is a task that you wish completed, as long as it does not force me to betray my justice, I will see to it. I always get things done. And of course, this truth that stifles even your sight... I will tell you about it when I find it."

[Gossamer]

Kasav'ii nodded. "I agree. Everything about him was a lie. But he was born again, and the truth of what he really was emerged from the chrysalis he wove around himself during those unfortunate events. If Varniak hadn't tempered you, something else would have, sooner or later. A Zai cannot be truly be contained or made to fit into a mold in which they do not belong. They have too much passion which translates into mental strength to be broken in that way. I always thought it was part of their charm." She said softly, with almost a laugh that was filled more with joy than anything else. "I knew Baltio like a sister would know her younger brother. He shined brighter than most men ever could. Light like that cannot be easily snuffed and yet he was. Somehow. I woke one day with a sense of dread and he was just gone... gone. When you are Konti and as old as I am, the people that delight you are never far from your awareness. A single thought, and you know what sort of day they are having. One day, he brought me strawberries from his window garden, and the next day it was as if he never existed. I looked... oh I looked incredibly hard. But it was to no end." Kasav'ii said.

And then she frowned, gave Leo a sad little smile, and nodded. "I had hoped for a different answer from you. A new circle that was aware of the danger would be bait for whatever it was that destroyed the first one. You would need a second and a third though, and that would mean you trusting two others in your search for the truth and for justice. Cities without circles suffer. And I know you carry a message in your mind, it lingers at the fringe of your thoughts like the need for ale lingers always at the edge of their mind... seek the circle of zai. I have no idea how you do that when others have sought and sought." The konti woman sighed then her piercing blue eyes met his.

"Lina...." Kasav'ii gestured, and the water in the bowl changed its form, swirling from that of a limping elder to that of his lovely mother. She wasn't beautiful, not in the classic sense, but the watery figure had a grace and tiredless poise that spoke of inner strength beyond measure. Kasav'ii studied the figure carefully, as if looking upon it for the first time with virgin eyes. "This woman is out of place, you are correct. She was waiting for something, waiting in a timeless manner, with patience that made the events of her life meaningless in the face of what she was waiting for. Untouchable too... somehow again outside of the events that moved around her. She was loving, but not the best mother she could be, because there were parts of herself that were already devoted in a way that eclipsed all things, even a son. Powerful, too powerful for the death you remember. She is part of the mystery, Leo, and plays a bigger role than you understand." Kasav'ii looked up, abruptly, and studied Leo again, before her eyes turned back to the figure. Her words seemed to imply that Lina wasn't dead or perhaps shouldn't have died the way Leo remembered it, but both things were started.

"You are not alone in your lack of understanding. We aren't meant to know everything, being only mortal. You should trust your feelings Leo. For the most part, you are detached from them except for the strongest of them. But the little ones, the nagging feelings, are just as important. You feel that she hasn't been fully avenged. Is that it? Or is it that her story hasn't fully unfolded because you know inside she's not truly dead, even though your eyes witnessed it. And why, if you have been cut loose, did she allow you to wander without help, wearing the scars of the fire if she is indeed alive?" The woman said, reaching out to stroke the water. "And yet... if feels very much like she is alive."

Leos admission of not stopping until every dark corner of the story was revealed made the konti woman study him with new eyes. "Your passion reminds me of the diligence I felt from just learning your mother's name. I suspect you are not so different than she is Leo, whatever her reasons are. You are right in your thinking... three are missing. The circle has not been rebuilt because as Konti sometimes talk, we know that other circles are missing as well. Either something has befallen them nefariously, Ivak has acted, or they have all departed. I know they have not departed - for I could tell you which direction to look. And we both know that if Ivak acted, everyone would have realized it. That god has no ability to be discrete. Baltio's purpose here was too important. His weavings made too big of a place to walk away. He was bound to the lives of these people. He is dead. That has always been my feeling. So too are the others. Canvia and Truvin - brother and sister, completed the loop. They too are beyond my abilities to feel for. Lina though... Lina is not. And I sense a powerful tie to Ivak, a lot like yours but even moreso. If she even had two gnosis marks, she could have walked from that fire untouched and unknown depending on her other talents, rather than perish from it in death. And I have no ability to see the dead." Kavas'ii said softly.

"And as for what price you will pay, you've already stated the price I want... to know the truth and the whole of the story. I know parts of it as well, you are filing in other things I had not enough information to ask about. Lina gives me another piece, but she was not a Zai, and she was not anything else I know about. I know you are her true son. I know it important, somehow, that you are. I feel a burden falling on you, Leo... encasing you... a legacy you never asked for yet one you embrace far more than you realize. Revenge is part of it... a revenge so long running that its origins are lost in the history of this world. You are part of a circle that you yourself need to complete, or one you need to produce another generation so they too can get that work done. My price is simply the truth. You've offered to pay it before even knowing what it was." The old woman said.

"The Circle fell because their eyes turned from their main purpose and branched out into their secondary duties that they assumed. Baltio wove, and wove magic into his weavings. It distracted him and let his enemies approach. That enemy...." Kasav'ii waved her hands over the bowl of silver sight water, and it moved again, from the form of Lina sitting and throwing pieces on her potters wheel to that of a serpent, coiled around itself. It's body formed runes, like a mages glyphs, which continuously spun and spun, until it formed the shape of a hand, pushing its way up through the silvery water. The hand darkened and turned black, in its palms center, waters swirled curled into a mouth that formed laughter. It was silent, deadly, and hideous all at once. Kasav'ii's voice changed then, and her eyes took on a vague look as her features contorted and she laughed as if becoming the voice of the silent lips. "I never got credit for what I did... for that day. Three others took the spotlight, two of which died. But I will eventually.... and I won't rest until I finish what was started then. You are part of that Leo Zaital, and I won't rest until you take your place, feeding the worms like the rest."....

Kasav'ii reached out then, even as her lips formed the last word 'rest' and tipped the bowl over. It seemed to break the spell causing the old woman to slump forward, panting, with her eyes wild with fright.

She looked like true evil had just spoken through her lips. What little color she had washed from her lips, completely, and she took on a bluish green cast to her flesh.. even her scales.

[Leo Varniak]

'Baltio. Rugs. That which is woven together, like destinies. Legacy. MIssion. Zai. Death. Baltio. And we come full circle.' Leo was digesting the information Kasav'ii gave him, hopping from one concept to the next in a circular fashion that was actually more like a spiral winding off towards the unknown. Her words added little in the way of how to locate the Circle of Zai, however they fell on him like an anvil, making him feel like a pawn in a cosmic game that was being played as they spoke. A game he would be playing without even knowing its rules.

Kasav'ii believed Baltio to be dead, and Leo also suspected that was the truth, though he wondered about the disappearance. Kaja had also been very clear about that, not speaking of deaths but of vanishings. But how? Why? There was always a chance of someone witnessing the act, and people could leave behind all kinds of dangling threads. Making someone disappear without a trace was a harder task than most people could ever imagine. Doing so repeatedly and at different times, places, not to mention circumstances, was definitely something out of the ordinary.

But then again, was there anything ordinary in all of this? The more Leo inquired, the more he found himself at a loss. In a way, strangely, that did not feel as bad as he had originally thought. Any purpose, he knew, was better than no purpose at all - which was more or less his life so far. Sure, he had killed a few people and made lists of others who would likely deserve a similar fate, but other than that? He'd been a headless chicken flapping its wings around the yard. He was tired of the usual pettiness life had long since exposed to him - fed up with witnessing such bleak vices and individual crimes. He wanted something grand, something that would burn magnificiently. Perhaps that time had come after all.

He tilted his head slightly as Kasav'ii mentioned trusting two others to form a new Circle. That would require him to find two more Zai's and share his justice with them. He could not see himself doing that, frankly. On the other hand, Leo did not doubt that he would be able to bait their unknown nemesis to himself even without a Circle. His mind wandered off briefly as he considered the reason behind choosing Triads. Leo suspected the three members were to look after one another, helping each other "release" just like they helped the entire community to "release" their pent-up feelings. Either that or it was just some old tradition or an order from Ivak himself.

The swirling of the vision water brought Leo back to reality, and to a sight he had not expected to behold ever again. He bent over in his seat, slightly incredulous, as Lina took form before his eyes, just like he remembered her, yet different in a sense. It had been years since he'd last seen her go down in the fire, and his childhood image had been biased, as it always is. Now he could see his mother in a better, fuller light. She was way grander than everyone, Leo included, had ever given her credit for.

Leo opened his mouth as if to speak, to protest, but no voice came out. The implications of Kasav'ii's words were tremendous - Lina, alive? A cold shiver suppressed his overheated state for a moment. Leo knew Lina had loved him, and he had loved her, but what else did he really know about her? Not native to Syliras, Lina had been a Benshira employee of Allistir Varniak... his best employee. Her life prior to the Varniak workshop was a mystery. He had never asked her, not thinking there was anything special to ask about.

He closed his eyes, and the fire flashed behind his eyelids, the scene of her death, Allistir strangling her... Leo judging him and belching a cloud of fire on him. Then he had left the house to the voracious blaze of the flames, never turning back. News of the tragedy had been on everyone's lips for a while, but as with everything else, life went on. Leo learned to live on the fringe of society, surviving off the odd job and spending all his time and effort into his dark philosophy of justice.

Six months later, he had killed again, for the first time since the fire. He had noticed a woman sporting new bruises every few days as she hung her clothes to dry. Overhearing conversations with the neighbors, she always claimed to have bumped into furniture or fallen off the stairs. Nobody in their right minds could have believed the story, but everyone just minded their own business and allowed the beatings to continue. Leo had collected proof, then had lured the man out of the Syliran gates with a stratagem, and burned him down.

He remembered being very satisfied with himself, even though the woman cried at the funeral for some reason. Then, of course, there had been other times. He could not act too often, as the modus operandi would eventually give him away, but outside Syliras everyone was fair game. Once, he had been wounded pretty badly for overestimating his ability to ignite things on a rainy day. He still carried the scar on his left shoulder - it had been a useful lesson to remember.

All of Leo's memories of his life after the fire were like this. Hide, think, burn, live another day. Would it have been different if Lina had been by his side?

He breathed out and relaxed a little. No use thinking about things that could have been. They had not. If Lina was still alive, though, Leo was certain that she had left him for a valid reason. To think less of her would not do justice to the dedication and love she'd always lavished on her family, even when it had been undeserved.

"My mother alive... stranger things have happened," he commented, slowly. "I will consider that as a working hypothesis." He found himself wondering if Lina would be proud of what he had become, or at least show understanding of his reasons.

He said nothing more, just listening as Kasav'ii shed more light on the demise of the Circle of Zai in Syliras. She also said things about him, a burden, a legacy that seemed entirely serious. He would have been skeptical, but her skill until now had been so overwhelming that Leo did not doubt her words for a second. He was about to reassure the Seer that, unlike the Circle of Zai, he was not going to get lax anytime soon, but Kasav'ii had yet another vision in store for him.

And this one completely electrified him. The Konti herself took the role of the unknown character, as the vision water could not convey spoken words by itself. A serpent, a dark hand, a laughing mouth. A promise of vengeance, and deadly threats on the basis of Leo's lineage alone. Kasav'ii was left drained by this particular form of possession, assuming it could be called that. He blinked a couple times, taking in the significance of what had just transpired while the old woman recovered.

Then he could not fight it back anymore, and it was his turn to laugh.

"That was magnificent!" he exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. Flames were dancing in his eyes, but it was not clear whether they were reflections from the hearth or something blazing in Leo's inner furnace and showing through. "I do not know what that presence right now was, but at long last I am happy to be here, alive in this world that is too small for the both of us. Fire needs to be rekindled, or it will die out eventually. So do I." He willed himself to calm down from his childishly excited state, lest he start a fire in Kasav'ii's shop, which she certainly did not deserve.

"Anyway," his voice suddenly reverted to normal, as if the outburst had never taken place. "you should not exert yourself for a while. Those were pretty destructive emotions you just channeled, if I say so myself. But... I have always wanted an enemy like that. Finally, after a lifetime of waiting, I am at war."

[Gossamer]

Kasav'ii color continued to darken. Her bluish cast turned to a deep sickly gray that drifted into the ugly yellow bruises sometimes looked like after a day or two of lingering on the skin. She tried to say something more, but slumped forward as she was, her position made it difficult for her to get enough breath to speak. She gasped, like a fish thrown high on a bank well out of the safety of its water, and her eyes went wide. Something flared behind them, almost an acknowledgment or understanding, and then she convulsed. It wasn't dramatic, and there were no hands clawing at the wooden table. It was a simple twitch, and then her whole body relaxed. Breath exited her lungs, but no more was taken in. The strange viscous silvery water that pooled out across the table without truly running off - from the tipped bowl - oozed around the body, clinging too it, as if trying to retain the seer in this life rather than letting her pass to the next.

But it was simple. It was quick, and then she was gone... just like that. Where a lively if not elderly konti once sat at the table, now a simple corpse lay. While Leo was rejoicing with the fact that now he actually had an enemy that gave him the war he seemed to want, Kasav'ii was fighting a battle internally, one she could not win.

The first casualty of the war seemed to be claimed. It was a message to Leo. A clear message. He was fighting with someone who had the power to take life, just like that... whenever and however they wanted. And since the konti was of no more used to the voice, it simply discarded her.

And it was true he had new facts, no information, and a whole host of new questions. Regardless of the fire in his eyes, the excitement no pure joy in his heart, there were new issues... a body - did it need to be reported? Abandoned? And what now? What steps did Leo want to take to make the next move. He had more information, the fact that his mother was alive, and Kasav'ii knew the others. But the pathway from here looked dead.

[Leo Varniak]

Leo had been so engrossed in the new revelation that Kasav'ii's inner battle for life completely escaped his notice until it was too late. Suspicion started to dawn on him when the Konti did not answer him. The smile died on his lips as he realized he was alone in the room, that the Seer's life had been snuffed out by the entity overtaking her. Tragically ironic, the way these prophets could never seem to divine their own fate beforehand.

He slowly stood up and bridged the short distance between their bodies. He checked her pulse, and found none. Even the vision water seemed to cling to the elderly Konti, but to no avail. Leo felt a sudden emptiness draining the joy out of him. One of the only people who had the potential to understand him a little, had just been taken away from him for a senseless reason. Now he would never be able to repay his debt.

"Have I killed you, Kasav'ii?" he murmured, recalling his decision to enter the house out of all the other choices he had. If not for that singular choice, the Konti would still live. It was but a short moment of weakness, however. A blink was all it took for Leo the merciless analyzer to take back full control over the situation. "Unknown Assailant, Charged With At Least Four Murders. Punishment Is Death To Him And All His Associates. Many Will Burn For This," he gave his summary judgment.

Now, as for his next actions, it was painfully clear he could not report this to the Knights. At best, they would file it as an unsolved crime, claim to be "working on it" and take advantage of their immense talent in making themselves look busy.

And that was the best case. Realistically, if Leo himself had wondered for an instant if he was responsible for Kasav'ii's death, someone else could easily get the same impression - except it would not go away after an instant. He was the last man to have seen her alive. He had literally no-one to vouch for him in this city, everyone was a stranger or worse to him. He could rely on no-one, and as such he would make the most convenient scapegoat for the Seer's death. Everyone would be sure to sleep safer with a perpetrator out of the picture, never mind if it was the right perpetrator.

Yet he did not want to just leave the dead Konti here, without a conclusion. No-one would ever know how important she had been and how far she had been willing to tread for him. Leo only knew of one method to honor her memory. And so, while he did not turn the place upside down looking for hints that he knew he would not find, he simply got himself a quill and a sheet to write on - something he would likely find in a fortune teller's shop, though he would settle for a piece of cloth and berries from his basket - and sketched a few simple containment runes.

Glyphing was perfect for this kind of things... a focus surrounded by a circular barrier and a very simple trigger translating as '10 minutes from now'. Leo then proceeded to conjure flames on the palm of his hand and gently pushed the spell into the runic setup, until it was absorbed.

He arranged Kasav'ii's body into a more dignified position and put the charged seal between her lifeless hands. "I never forget. I never forgive. May Lhex have mercy on your soul, Kasav'ii." Because, he thought as he left the shop, mercy was not something that existed in Leo's world.

[Gossamer]

The glyph infused with Reinmancy was a nice touch. It would ignite on time, like expected, and start just enough of a fire to cause her suite to burn. Kasav'ii's body would go up in flames if no one discovered the fire until it was too late. Asking Lhex to have mercy on her was in a way pointless though. Kasav'ii's life would be decided and judged on how she lived it, between her goddess and gods, and the lives she had touched. Kasav'ii and her time on Mizahar touched others... and she'd be judged for that touch - not on some whim or or by some mercy. Odds are she'd go back to her goddess, to dwell in the Ukalas, and she'd live on in her three daughters memories. Vysa'ii, Avin'a, and Lavik'asa all lived in close proximity to the konti seer, and often checked on her daily - bringing her meals.

And so as Leo passed out of Kasav'ii's doorway and back into the side hall, another pale seer passed by him, this one much younger. Avin'a was on her way, a small pot of stew carefully lidded in her hands, to drop off dinner to her aging mother. There was a furrow to her brow, as if something was wrong, and she could not quite put a finger on it. Seeing Leo in the hallway, the girl sidestepped him and continued on to her mother's doorway. Well into her hundreds, Avin'a, the middle daughter, was just into the adultness of her life. She hadn't stopped Leo, nor gave him anything other than a careful look. But Leo could hear her fumble with the door to the shop, struggling just slightly to hold the pot, its lid, and another small bag that was tossed over her shoulder secure.

When she successfully managed the doorway, the konti disappeared inside.

[Leo Varniak]

The resemblance was too strong for Leo to ignore. The very moment he saw the younger Konti woman, he was reminded that he had never been a lucky man. Fate always had a way of putting him in the worst case scenario... like now. As she passed him by, sheer inertia pulled Leo a few steps forward, but he soon stopped dead on his tracks.

It might have been different if there had been no timebomb in the building, then he might have walked away without a further thought. But no, not like this. He had assumed the Seer lived on her own, and indeed, that was probably true, but he had not expected her to receive a visit from family right now of all times. This threw his plan into disarray. Leo could not allow his fire to burn an innocent under these circumstances. He could only hope her sight would make it possible for her to believe him.

He turned around and followed her into Kasav'ii's house. "She has been taken away from this world," he said in a low tone of voice, closing the door behind him. "But not by me." He added nothing more - even he could imagine the woman would be facing major shock. Grief was something Leo had known in his time; now, thankfully, he had lost everything he might wish to grieve. No matter how cruel his fate, it could not take anything away from him anymore because there was little or nothing left to take.