Strings of Fate

120- Predictions and precognition or | run to the door and swing it open just in tfor Shaun to nearly hitin the face, his fist raised to knock. He stumbles backwards and lowers his arm. Amber is standing beside him looking amused. Her unnaturally red hair is a little windblown and the ends just brush her shoulders. She's thin and with her bright blue eyes she looks a lot like a little porcelain doll. Eyes are another common misconception that people have about Oracles. Just because one two of them were blind and becfamous for getting by using their ‘other sight forever ago, now people seem to assthat they're all blind. | remember Amber lecturing someone about it once when they insisted that she couldn't be an Oracle because her eyes were functional. She then continued to telllater that just because sfanatics think that they have to blind themselves to ‘unlock their potential’ that doesn’t mean she wants to destroy one of her senses.

“Sorry Miss Gale!” He says, looking horrified. Amber flicks her hair behind her ear and laughs.

“See, | told you that you didn’t need to knock. You should really listen toin the future. It'll save you trouble.

Now, in we go.” Amber invites herself in, pattingon the arm as she passes. Shaun follows, carrying a couple of large brown paper bags which he takes straight to the kitchen. | have to fight not to grin at the red thread that | can see floating between the two of them. | wonder if Amber knows... | mean, she sees a lot, but not everything, so it’s hard to say. While Amber shares a lot more of what she sees than | do, | know she still holds a lot back. It might be why | always liked her. Aside from her being a generally nice person and a not-awful supervisor at work, | feel almost a sense of camaraderie with her. We might see different things, but we both know more about the future than the average person and have to choose what to do with that information on a regular basis. She might be the only person who knows about my magic and has never tried to ask about her own threads. Although until today, I've never seen her with any.

We all head into the kitchen and Amber begins making herself at home, unpacking the brow bag and getting plates out of the cupboards. (She must have seen something because she finds everything far too easily.) “I brought lunch from Borderline. | figured since they calledin to work on my day off to sort out sstupid that feeding us was the least they could do.” She lays out four servings. One for each of us, plus Shaun and Megan | guess.

+10 Bon 04: 1/4 120- Predictions and precognition “Awesome, thanks. I'll call Megan to eat then.” | suggest.

“Take the plate with you.” She prompts and | shrug. Amber is usually right. | take Megan's food and head upstairs. | knock on her door and enter as she calls out. She has her back toand is focussed on something on her laptop.

“Hey Megan, it’s lunch time.” | inform her.

“I'm in the middle of a lecture, | want to finish. Sorry, | can cdown later.” Megan responds, without looking up. | just place the food by her on the desk. She glances up and smiles.

“Thanks.” “No problem. Make sure to eat before it all goes cold.” Megan promises to eat and | head back downstairs. Shaun and Amber have set the plates at the dining table and are sitting waiting forto join them. Shaun is unusually quiet and | notice that he keeps sneaking sideways glances at Amber as we eat. She is either very oblivious to his attention or very good at pretending not to notice his awkward behaviour. From what | understand, Shaun intends to stick around until Bellamy gets home. He did want an extra guard with us at all times, but we have all the other guys out investigating stuff for us. I'm surprised Bellamy left us alone, even if it was only for an hour or so until Shaun showed.

Once Amber and | have gotten through about half our meals and are no longer stuffing our faces and are now picking at the plates at a far more moderate pace, we talk.

“So, | don’t know how much you know about why | wanted to talk to you, but I'm hoping you 1 can helpwith learning a bit more information about Oracles, Seers and visions in general.Bor I've been having dreams and | am fairly sure that the stuff I'm dreaming about is actually real.” | start. Amber nods her understanding.

“Yes, | know. | have been thinking about the best way to explain it all. | don’t know what information you already have.” She starts.

“Not much. | just know that Oracles and Seers both have visions or current or future events.” “Okay, so the pre-informed for dummies version it is then. First, there is one main difference 04: 2/4 120- Predictions and precognition between an Oracle and a Seer. A Seer is a specialty in magic, usually associated with Witches. They use magic, spells and anything else they can to divine future events. They actively seek the information and they have to have a specific goal to search for. An Oracle is someone who has visions or knowledge of the future regardless of if they want them or not. | couldn't stop seeing the future if | tried. An Oracle also doesn’t need to be a Witch or any other type of Magic. They could be a Human like me.” She pauses speculatively.

“Your own abilities are closest to that of an Oracle. You see threads regardless of choice. It is an Oracle ability, although the way that your knowledge presents is different and seems more linked to fate and carved in stone.

Which is | suppose why you aren't considered an Oracle yourself, although it’s possible you have ssimilar abilities. Essentially though, anyone with magic, determination and perhaps a little bit of natural openness of mind is capable of learning to be a Seer. Oracles are born, not learned. Does that make sense so far?” | nod enthusiastically. | had never really thought of my abilities as being like an Oracle’s. But | suppose she is right that | am still seeing the future, or at least the results of future events.

“How do Oracle abilities work then?” | question.

“It’s a little hard to explain and it's not the sfor all Oracles. But | can tell you how it works for me.” | nod my agreement. | notice that Shaun is watching Amber talk, rapt with attention.

“Well, in my case | usually see no more than a few weeks ahead at most. | also only tend to pick up on stuff related to things and people associated with me. So | get a lot of information and visions about events at Borderline, stuff about my family and friends, but | couldn't tell you the results of a sports match unless | knew someone playing or attending. | also can’t guarantee that | will see something, sure | pick up on a lot, but | don’t choose the content that | see. It’s like the universe is constantly talking toand trying to givehints about my own future, but it has no idea on what is actually important to me, so | just get piles and piles or random visions. Sof it is useful, sof it completely pointless. | also can’t completely rely on it as | don’t see everything and it’s easy to miss something important if I'm not paying proper attention.” she sighs.

“That sounds really overwhelming.” 1 comment.

“Like a movie constantly running in the back of my mind.” She confirms.

+10 Bor 04: 3/4 42-00(1) 25. Productiont and preeeisgnition L mi Langi pour Sound gas and in te wag inne put mong non aje pristal sauraNNIES SARA ), way to turn it off * “know the feeding one diradi porywhere all the time, pen if I've seen the threads Jul 31 can be annoying and rally acting an ana i to crowded they can even start ocurem veion with along with her this time. | then prepare to return to my Chapter Comments 10 120-Predictions and precognition “I can sometimes pretend it’s not there and not focus on it. But it’s still going and there’s not way to turn it off.” “I know the feeling. | see threads everywhere all the time, even if I've seen the threads before. It can be annoying and really distracting. If an area is too crowded they can even start. to obscure my vision.” | sigh along with her this time. | then prepare to return to my questioning.