Pieces of Sonder

“So, diviners have prophetic dreams?” Freya asked a little miffed shaman didn’t have prophetic dreams.

Diviner Houkyu nodded, “We often get them before we become trained diviners. Our dreams can even lead us to the diviner profession. I had a very clear dream where I went to the old auwani tree just outside my hometown and met a stranger. When I followed that dream, I met my master, who taught me everything about being a diviner.

The vision I had about this meeting occurred just after I became an official diviner. That was seven years ago. I thought it was never going to come true.”

He looked at each of them, “May I know your names?”

They quickly introduced themselves.

“Freya, Infamous Biscuit, Heilong, and K13. Good names,” Diviner Houkyu said. 

It never failed to amaze Freya that people thought ‘Infamous Biscuit’ was a normal name. Diviner Houkyu did seem troubled, but she could tell it was unrelated. He took a deep breath.

“In my dream, I was told the people with the ‘special person I cannot sense as special’ and the ‘giant sea spirit’ would help me in my most dire time.”

He scratched his chin and massaged his temples, “I don’t know if this is truly my most dire hour, but coincidently I did receive another vision just two days ago. The vision told me I need to find people with good blood and awaken them so that they can take care of the odd happenings I keep seeing in the north-west forest. But it was such a strange vision. Not like any I’ve had before. It just felt different. And it had a warning at the end: if I didn’t find anyone Kai Nai would be in danger.”

“That is odd timing,” Infamous Biscuit said. “Can you sense any ‘good blood’ in any of us?”

“I can check,” Diviner Houkyu said, taking each person’s hand.

Heilong bit her lip but said nothing as the diviner checked each of them. He shook his head each time.

“I don’t sense anything.”

“Our ‘good blood’ might be blocked from your perception,” Heilong blurted out. She looked at Freya, “Don’t you think this ‘good blood’ stuff is like what you call ‘qi’?”

“It seems like it,” Freya admitted. “I felt you examining my qi when you held my hand earlier.”

Diviner Houkyu raised an eyebrow. In the background, Freya also noticed K13’s confused expression. 

“Here, let’s confirm if it’s the same thing,” Heilong said, taking out something from her inventory. She held a stone out to Diviner Houkyu.

[Incomplete Enchanted Light]

[Item Class: Uncommon]

[Made by the wizard Mecha Terminator 3010, this light was a special commission meant to be incomplete]

“Channel your energy into this,” Heilong instructed.

Diviner Houkyu took the stone and held it up close to his eye, “Ah, this is a wizard made enchanted light, isn’t it? But it is missing its mana stone connection. We diviners use something similar when training our blood, except it creates a sound. I never considered a light.”

The stone immediately lit for him.

Heilong took it back. It took a few seconds longer, but she also made the stone light up.

“That’s impossible!” Diviner Houkyu said. He took the stone back and looked at it closer. Then he asked to look at Heilong’s hands. She held them out plainly for him to inspect. Taking her hands again, he closed his eyes to concentrate. He shook his head but smiled with frustration.

“Hold on, let me get my blood sound stone,” the diviner said enthusiastically. He rushed into his backroom. 

“Interesting name, ‘blood sound stone,’” Infamous Biscuit commented.

“Much cooler than ‘incomplete enchanted light,’” Heilong agreed.

Diviner Houkyu hurried back carrying a pale blue stone. Runes covered its surface, just like their enchanted light stones. 

“Try your technique on this.”

Heilong took the stone and concentrated. A quiet whistle-like sound began to emanate from the stone.

The diviner laughed, “This day keeps getting stranger and stranger! Can the rest of you do this as well?”

“Freya and I should be able to,” Infamous Biscuit said. “I don’t know about K13…”

“K13,” Freya said, approaching him. “Can I see your hands?”

He looked at her in the eyes. Then he slowly held out his hands. Freya delicately held them. Despite Diviner Houkyu finding nothing, she saw potential just like she felt before with Infamous Biscuit and Heilong.

“You have strong meridian lines, ‘good blood’ I guess. I think you can learn how to do this too.”

K13 shifted slightly, “What is this?”

“Meridian Manipulation,” Heilong said.

He blinked in surprise, then looked to Freya for confirmation. She nodded.

“How- how did you learn?”

“I’m a shaman. I ended up teaching these two for various reasons.”

“An NPC shaman,” Infamous Biscuit clarified. Since Freya already brought her secret up, he went along with it.

K13 looked above Freya’s head.

Heilong answered his question before he said it, “She picked up a player card, so her ID screen is green like a normal player’s now.”

Diviner Houkyu watched the conversation with keen interest; however, he only asked about one fact, “So you’re a shaman, I heard they are Vansyl’s equivalent to diviners. And you awakened these two?”

“I haven’t heard of the term ‘awakened,’ but I did help them control their qi–their energy, and enable them to push it out of their body.”

Diviner Houkyu nodded enthusiastically, “That’s what we call awakening. How fascinating!”

Then he turned more solemn, “So maybe you are the people I need to help me with the things I keep seeing in the north-west forest. If you have good awakened blood, maybe you can help me.”

“We would be happy to help,” Infamous Biscuit said, speaking for all of them. “But first, we should also ‘awaken’ K13.”

The short messy-haired boy looked down, “I- I would be honored.”

“We can start the process,” Freya agreed. “But I would like to ask one thing. Diviner Houkyu, earlier you mentioned in your vision that Kai Nai would be in danger if you didn’t find anyone to help you. How long do you think we have?”

Diviner Houkyu shook his head, “I don’t know, but the vision sounded urgent.”

A bad feeling welled up in Freya’s stomach. 

“Can we investigate the danger first? Just to be safe.”