Caleric stared at Thisia. Thisia stared back. No one spoke for a moment before Thisia finally broke the silence. She glanced to the side as she said,
"Caleric, you know too little about the world of manalogy."
What does that mean? And Caleric knows too little? The manalogy freak?
Caleric was slightly confused, but he didn't show any of it on his face. His expression remained the same, blank, staring directly into her soul.
"I am not a seer. I can't tell what exactly will happen to you, but what I can tell is that our fates are tied together, and that you and I have to work together to get out of our predicaments."
Woman, what nonsense are you spouting?
"Tell me, do you know about formations? Do you know about the secret organisations that work in the underworld? Do you know about dark rituals?
"You don't, or maybe you do, and even if you do, you know only a part of it."
At this point Caleric was getting more and more confused and he was losing patience. He didn't quite understand this woman whose every third statement contradicted the first.
"Come to the point," Caleric said, his tone this time had no emotion.
"Heh, let's divine your future then. You'll see what I mean."
Didn't she just say that she didn't know my future and that she wasn't a seer?
Before Caleric could say anything, Thisia had already prepared various items on the table in front of them.
"Pick one method. Card divination, crystal gazing, astral chart, or maybe selenomancy."
"Do as you like."
"Alright then." She placed the glass globe in front of them and put the rest of the items away.
"Caleric, look at this globe. You will see what I mean."
Caleric shifted his focus to the globe. After staring for a whole minute he felt nothing different. But just when he was about to leave again the globe sparkled. Then something round, white with a large green circle and a black dot in the middle appeared.
It was staring back at him. It was an eye.
Caleric felt a sudden jolt go through his body, then he felt something in his brain. It was as if something was trying to intrude.
The feeling became dull and vanished. However Caleric had a different understanding of Thisia. First he had thought of her as a swindler posing as a seer, however the glass globe, which wasn't exactly a glass globe, had made Caleric rethink.
"What's this?"
"I can't tell you right now, but just so you know it is in a way a relic. It has properties of divination. You can think of this as something directly connected to my psyche, and I get revelations at times.
"The latest revelation I got was about you. It showed me that you were walking down a dark alleyway with multiple eyes staring at you from dark corners. The second scene was of you wearing a pitch black crown, sitting on a large throne. The third scene was of you falling endlessly in a void; you desperately reach out with your hands but are unable to hold onto anything."
Caleric was a bit confused. He had the general knowledge of how divination and revelations worked, or how they were said to work, in which vague scenes had deeper meanings, but he was unable to make out any meaning from this.
"I don't know what the later two scenes refer to, however the first scene could most probably mean that you try to enter the underworld, which is portrayed by the dark alleyway. The people of the underworld are unwelcoming; those were the eyes. The scene does not have an outcome.
"There was a scene, the first time I got it was on the very day we first met. This was the first revelation about you, which matches exactly with your family's death. The scene showed a big tree, you were sitting under its shade. The tree was full of fruits and leaves, and then suddenly it started losing colour. Branches dried up and crumbled one after another, leaving only a lonely trunk under a gray sky.
"The tree can be thought of as the family tree, though I had doubts because the Gnalets were not related to you by blood. Withering is symbolism of death."
Caleric listened carefully. He wasn't as impatient as before; he was now interested in knowing more. The scenes, all of it, could've been fabricated by the woman who claimed to be a seer while also not a seer, but Caleric was good at telling when someone was lying.
The reason why Caleric was staring at her earlier was not because he was frustrated or annoyed in any way; it was because he was trying to focus on every subtle micro expression she would make. For the young genius Caleric, who had been a psychology freak, this was nothing difficult.
Caleric had confirmed that the woman who was sitting in front of him wasn't lying. The other fact that was in favour of this possibility was that Caleric had actually been thinking of getting into the underworld.
Caleric had an urge to get revenge on whoever was behind the death of his new family. In order to do that, he would have to get as much information as possible, and he knew exactly where he could get valuable information. The only problem was the underworld wasn't forgiving; one little mistake could prove fatal.
With that, his focus shifted toward the other two scenes which Thisia wasn't able to decipher. Caleric was similarly confused. The scene with the black crown could refer to him achieving something big, but the next scene of him endlessly falling would usually refer to something like a great loss. Things didn't line up.
Can it be that the scenes are not in the correct order? If that's true, then maybe it would make sense, but then the very first scene with the tree wouldn't make any sense. Hm... this is an interesting puzzle.
While Caleric was deep in thought, Thisia said,
"There is another scene, a fifth scene."
"What?"
"I don't know. As of right now it is very blurry, but I can tell that it is also related to you," Thisia said.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Experience."
"The blurry scene gradually becomes clearer, so I should eventually be able to see it," she added.
Caleric thought for a moment. Ever since he had come to that place nothing was making sense. What exactly was Thisia's purpose? She had only been speaking in riddles and roundabout statements.
"So, what exactly is it that you want? What is your purpose?"
"As I mentioned earlier, Caleric, you and I both have our own predicaments. In order to get out of them we have to provide each other with aid."
"So?" Caleric asked.
"So, I ask you to join us."
"Join you?"
"Us... We are a secret organisation, and you are the perfect member to be recruited."
What? Thisia has connections in the underworld? Well, I did guess something similar. But she has an organisation backing her; that's unexpected.
Why is she recruiting me? And also she used the word recruit, as if this is an honourable position—heh. Anyways, I seem to get what's happening; she saw the second scene and inferred my venture into the underworld.
The next two scenes didn't make any sense to her; however she inferred something which I am not quite able to understand as of yet. Using that, she came to the decision that it would be better to have me as a teammate rather than eventually facing me as an opponent in the future.
There is another possibility that the thing, the relic, also tells her what she should do, or that there are more scenes that she is hiding. From her expressions I can tell she isn't lying...
After thinking for a while and sorting out his thoughts, Caleric finally spoke. He had made his decision.
"Fine, but I have two conditions. First is that you make me familiar with your group, second is that you give me 48 hours to make a decision after we meet again."
The reason why Caleric had put up these absurd conditions was solely because he wanted more information. He wasn't planning to join them at all; instead he was trying to create an opportunity for him to leave safely.
Now that he knew about Thisia being a member of a secret organisation, he couldn't simply leave. Leaving would be equal to suicide.
He had planned to decide what to do after analysing Thisia's reaction to his absurd conditions. If she accepts without hesitation, it would mean danger. In such a case Caleric would try to lead the conversation into rescheduling the meeting and, as soon as he was out, he would go to the police, the Iron Patrol, or any local enforcers.
If Thisia was hesitant but accepted, it would mean there was relatively less danger and that he could actually play along. Although it was highly dangerous, Caleric planned to join the organisation and, when he was back home, he would again contact the police.
The third possibility was if Thisia was hesitant and declined. In such a case he wouldn't negotiate the deal and would abruptly end the conversation, pretending to be angry and sad, showing grief and putting on a little show of emotional backlash. This would be completely unexpected for Thisia and, using this disarming tactic, he would leave at once. Later he could contact the police.
With his plan set in stone, he focused on Thisia's facial expressions. Little did Caleric know, something completely unexpected would happen.
After hearing the conditions, Thisia was hesitant, but she didn't say anything for a while. She glanced at the glass globe relic that was kept in front. Suddenly, she agreed to his conditions.
What? Her hesitation was clear, but then suddenly she wasn't hesitant anymore, as if someone told her what to do, as if someone else took the heavy burden of making the decision off her shoulders... Could it be I was right, and that relic really tells her what decisions are correct?
Caleric wasn't prepared for this outcome, but it did align partially with the second possibility. There was less danger in going and meeting the group. He, of course, wanted connections, because without connections he would never be able to reach the roots of the mysterious murder case of his family.
With that, Caleric decided it wasn't a bad idea to go along with things and meet the members of this secretive organisation that Thisia seemed so proud of.
"Alright then. So, what do you call yourselves?"
Thisia paused for a moment, and as her lips curled into a smug, she lifted her chin and spoke with pride.
"We are Blue Preservation."