"The royal seer?" Lucien asked, staring into Viral's eyes with such intensity that Rowan could just barely make out the smell of burning flesh as if a hole were being bored into the king.
"Yes, the most esteemed seer in all the eastern lands, her visions almost prophetic in their accuracy. You heroes must obtain your fortunes if you want to better increase your chances of survival."
As the king responded to Lucien's inquiring call, he lifted himself up off his chair, quickly waving his cape behind him with his left arm and turning towards one of the many willowing hallways that allowed traversal out of the dining hall.
"The seer's room is this way." He added with a quickened pace, pointing down towards the dark hallway.
"Wait, hold on!" Lucien bit out, slamming his hand on the table. "You still haven't told us why we need to see her. Let me remind you that we are your guests, and I can't quite trust you yet."
Lucien's sudden outrage almost flung the heroes back, staggered by the spontaneity of his words.
Rowan in specific was taken aback at Lucien's sudden shift in mood, although he felt a mutual understanding in how difficult it is to simply trust someone.
Although, in Lucien's case, it's a little extreme.
"Oh, I didn't mean to offend, Sir Lucien. Please forgive me."
Viral turned around, extending his chest forward to enter into a high bow, closing his eyes and smiling just a tad bit while crossing his right arm over his chest.
After a few seconds of sitting still, the king began tilting back upwards, opening his eyes to look on at the quiet heroes as his cape's drape along and down his shoulders and back ceased.
"Yes, it is as you say. I should properly explain the seer's role." Viral grinned, pointing his index finger up.
Suddenly, seven blinding lights of different hue blipped into being, manifesting in mere milliseconds.
A vrrrvvvvv buzzed as the orbs circled around his finger, jetting into a single blur of light as they ramped up in speed.
Rowan instinctively covered his face with both hands in response, squinting his eyes to save himself from the white-hot pain that was surging through his retinas.
Eventually, the orbs slammed into each other, turning into one flat plane of crystalline shards to form a cohesive projection.
"We've seen this before..." Elias said, his words slowed by his confusion.
"Yes, I showed this projection to you before in order to present language, but it has utilizations far beyond simple script."
Everybody's faces in the room lit up, a violet red draining out the before vibrant colors that popped out in the form of food and decor.
The only thing or person unaffected was Kaia, her face enshrouded in the same red that sprawled out from her scalp, not very different to how she looked when blush in anger or excitement.
Rowan's eyes caught glimpses of fire, a familiar warmth crawling across his skin as he closed his eyes in flashes of light--so engulfing that they encompassed the entire earth--again reminded him of a deeper, hidden fear that he'd repressed mere moments after coming across it.
After seconds of remembering foretelling of destruction and devastation, Rowan clenched his chest, his heart pounding against and weakening the integrity of his ribcage.
The physical ramifications from his hastened heartbeat forcing him to bite down on his lower lip, his canine teeth dug into flesh, blood beginning to trickle down to the lowest extremities of his chin.
Rowan reeled a little bit in response, squinting his eyes while he fell to his knees, the clattering of his tattered clothing shaking against the floor evidencing the fear seizing his limbs.
Rowan looked down upon the ground, taking note of the disparity between the images flashing in his head and the real, solid state of the world around him.
Reassurances of his security quelled Rowan's seizing ever so slightly, his heartbeat slowly reducing its pace to match his emotional state.
The other heroes--while not as extreme--exhibited similar signs: Lucien staring in wide-eyed terror, Kaia silenced with grit teeth, Elias maintaining his balance by propping himself using the dining table, and Liora heaving large gasps of air with buckets of sweat dripping from her face.
Unprovoked, Lucien swatted at the air, pushing his hand forward as if he were reaching for something.
"Wait, don't do that!" The king yelled, his body transitioning into a blur as the ground keeled to his might.
Clasp!
Just barely, the king grabbed Lucien's hand, half contracted into a grab.
Lucien's wrist pulled back, and his fingers loosened ever so slightly, the glistening of a familiar white thin strand prompting him to immediately remember his past experience.
"What..." Lucien muttered, his fist finally loosening to a complete relaxation.
The king released his grip, stepping back slowly to maintained Lucien's quelled state of being.
"That's your soul thread, tethered by the projection arcana I have just cast." The king remarked, smacking his hand on the edge of the arcana that had been projecting images of the world's destruction, the exact same foretelling observed in the knowledge scroll he showed them.
Lucien shuddered in response to the king's words, shakily throwing his hands back as fast as he could to best lower the possibility of accidentally brushing up against it.
"This thing--the pain I felt when I tugged on it with the god sphere... thank you." Lucien muttered, his face turning pale from the fear.
The king simply nodded his head, acknowledging Lucien's thanks but still staying on topic.
"That was one of Nerethis' prophecies, said to play out seven years from now. Not only has she foreseen a conflict so great that millions would lay dead in just a single day's battle; she has also foreseen the destruction of the Way and reality itself." The king's face was now far more somber, the solemnity of his expression bleeding into the screen as the violet red darkened to match the coloration of blood.
The crisping stagnation in the air stuck to Rowan's nostrils, the atmosphere tranquilizing to any thoughts he may have wished to express.
Despite this, the king still waited a few seconds for any wandering questions, finally giving up after the heroes turned to look at each other but could only nod in content.
"But that alone was not why you were summoned here. No, she says you are required for a purpose even greater than that, one that neither her nor I could ever know."
...
Rowan was quiet, walking beside Liora in what felt like an endlessly stretching hallway.
A crisp sizzle burned out his other senses--a strangely calm feeling, yet still carrying with it a sickness that he couldn't put his finger on.
The feeling of bubble wrap being popped right next to his ear drums was a result of the silence making a noise of its own, a stopgap from complete sensory deprivation.
Rowan had tried to make sense of his surroundings, but despite pacing down the same hallway for over a minute, his eyes couldn't properly adjust to the complete lack of light.
It was so dark that for a second, he couldn't distinguish between when his eyes were and weren't open. In defiance, he attempted to look down on his hands to at least quell his insecurity, but the same sickness grew in intensity once he'd been unable to see even himself.
"Hey, seriously, where are you taking us!" A higher-pitched male voice yelled, reaching out for the void but meeting only air--if this place even had it.
Rowan took notice and speculated that it was Elias, the person's diction far too scattered to be Lucien or Viral.
"To the seer I'd mentioned to you heroes, previously. Patience, Sir Elias--please." A deep, impressionable voice popped out, the one that Rowan presumed to be the king.
There was only silence as the group continued their travel, some reaching both arms out in search of walls and obstacles, others chiming in every minute or so to confirm the proximity of their companions.
After a certain point, time stretched and contracted at the whim of Rowan's mind, the mutual understanding that minutes and hours passed flashing by him at the same time.
Hairs even rose along his left arm while he felt the heat leave him, a vibration travelling from his hand all the way to his shoulders and neck as something cold and slimy brushed up against him.
Rowan yelped out loud, tugging his hand back while he raised his left leg to kick off whoever touched him.
However, it was only after he felt no such slimy residue on his arm and no form of resistance against his attack that he realized there was nothing there--nothing physical, anyway.
"Are you okay, Rowan!" Liora cried out, vying for some type of physical contact with him.
She eventually met his right arm, sliding her hands up to where his face was.
Feeling for his chin, she used the back of her hand to rub against his right cheek, attempting to look up at him but failing to see what his expression was.
While she'd taken his delayed response as signs of injury, the real reason was far more innocent, Rowan simply taken aback at how much contact there was between the two.
He almost let out an audible moan, holding it back by the tip of his tongue.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine!"
The other heroes and even Viral paused, their heads subtly tilted toward the source of the outburst, as if the silence itself had taken offense at Rowan's cry.
"Are you sure; You're not hurt anywhere?" Liora asked, squeezing his biceps muscle.
Rowan could've swore his head was going to fly off, his spine a stiff board from the sudden onset of her grabs and squeezes.
"U-Uh, yeah, it was just my mind playing tricks on me." He said, just barely finding the nerve to calm himself down after she'd pulled her hands back.
"Phew, I'm thankful. I can't see you in this dark, so I was worried that you might've hit your head onto a wall, or something."
Although Rowan couldn't see, he was still able to tell that Liora had a big smile on her face, both hands behind her back to look up at where Rowan was.
'Well, good thing she can't see me, or she would've seen how much I was blushing,' he thought, silently nodding in response to her words and waving his hands with open palms as if she could see him.
"Hah, I understand your sudden outburst, though, Sir Rowan." The king said, speaking a tad bit louder than he usually does just so he wouldn't have to get closer to Rowan. "It's said that spirits freely roam these halls."
The spry movements and audible sounds of breathing from the heroes suddenly fell, all signs of animation gagged by his words.
"Spirits?" Asked Kaia, stepped back a half-step while the bright gleam in her skin befell into a pale, colorless complexion.
"Yes. After all, while Nezethar specializes in Ryudo as one who ventures in riding the waves of time, just being able to be a seer of her stature requires extensive mastery over Seido."
Seido was the stillness of the soul. Ryudo, the river of time.
Rowan thought back to when the king had first explained these terms, not quite recalling their meanings.
He pulled at tiny hairs along his chin, cursing under his breath that he should've committed the seven arts of the Way to long-term memory.
"Wait, you don't mean..." Lucien responded, his voice not evidencing any signs of inhibition or fear, "her usage of Seido, one of the Seven Arts of Way pertaining to spirits, has brought actual, dead people into this hallway?"
The other heroes all stepped back, a couple shaking at the prospect of being in the same area as undead spirits.
The king did not move nor speak, simply standing still with his arms crossed behind him.
That is, until a thunderous howl reverberated through the corridor.
It wasn't human--wasn't animal--wasn't anything that should've been able to exist in a place so silent.
Rowan stumbled back into Liora, who clutched his shirt with both fists. The howl grew louder, closer, as a frigid gust tore through the hallway like a blade.
Then...
A face emerged from the dark. Hollow. Screaming. Its jaw unhinged, its eyes leaking black tears as it phased through Kaia, Elias, and Rowan in a single terrifying sweep.
Everyone screamed as the ghost passed, stealing heat from their bodies and sanity from their nerves.
"Nezethar," the king growled, his voice booming with authority. "Enough of your theatrics."
The air stilled.
And then, like a veil being lifted, the darkness parted just slightly to instead reveal a purple light emanating from an open door--revealing a tall figure of womanly charm.
"You're no fun, Your Majesty," she cackled, her hands on her hips while she bent over in a teasing frenzy. "I'm only warming them up."