“What do you mean, Lupanya?” asked Seurat.
“What Mister Lupanya is saying is that, the apprentice did see a vision, but he’s too weak to sustain the ‘connection’.” The speaker was a cocky-looking young man not far from them.
“But that’s impossible!”
“Nothing is impossible. The mysteries of stars call for fortuitous incentives. Perhaps that young apprentice happened to grasp a tiny inspiration. Hey, Seurat? People say that those who cannot understand art will only see true artists as idiots. It makes sense, don’t you think so?”
Seurat closed the book he was carrying with a “bam”. “Are you perhaps mocking me, Ivan?”
“No, of course not,” Ivan spoke as he gave Seurat an insulting smirk that suggested otherwise.
The other Prophets present looked at each other and weren’t sure how to deal with the sudden conflict. Weren’t they supposed to talk about the wounded apprentice?
Lupanya intervened by saying, “Backfire or not, let’s ask him and find out, shall we?”
Since the leader of Starliege Temple said so, Ivan and Seurat both decided to take a step back and look at the said apprentice again.
The apprentice looked better after receiving Maya’s treatment. He had his eyes open, though he wasn’t specifically looking at anything as if he was still lost in hallucinations.
Maya slightly shook her head and nudged the apprentice using her walking cane.
The young man returned to senses with a start and immediately met eyes with Lupanya, who was gazing at him with a pair of clear and vigorous eyes unlike that of an old man.
The apprentice felt stunned briefly. He thought he just saw stars glimmering in the wizard’s irises.
“What is your name?” Lupanya spoke gently.
It took the young apprentice several seconds to realize that the wizard was talking to him.
“Dodoro. I’m Dodoro.”
“Dodoro? That’s a curious name...” Lupanya’s eyes twinkled. “I cannot see your past. It’s hidden behind something I can’t penetrate. Do you know why?”
The other wizards all grew confused. What could possibly block the sight of Lupanya?
Several Prophets also tried using their respective arts to check Dodoro. And just as Lupanya said, they failed to see anything.
Ivan was speaking to Seurat using the same, mocking manner, “Can you read him, Seurat? If not, is it not too reckless of you to judge him so soon?”
Seurat glared back but didn’t say anything, for his spell also ended up in a failure just now.
“I don’t know.” Dodoro shook his head at the question.
“He doesn’t know his past?” a wizard questioned.
Maya stood up. “He lost his memory. Dodoro only learned how to speak and the way of our world in recent years.”
“That might not be a bad thing. Sometimes, even I would hope that I can erase certain memories I kept in my mind.” Lupanya gazed at Dodoro again. “What did you just see before you were hurt?”
Everyone looked at Dodoro and waited for his answer.
Dodoro’s pupils constricted as he recalled the image he encountered.
He saw a “vision” before entering the observatory, which showed blazing fire, blood, a demon in chains, and a young man wearing white laughing madly beside the demon.
By that time, he understood none of what these meant. However, the star map just helped him see a similar vision. The fire, blood, and the individuals all appeared again, but with an extra presence right behind the man in white. It was a faint and huge shadow that exerted boundless horror. When Dodoro looked at it, the monstrosity unleashed even more aura of dread that invaded his mind, across time and dimensions.
Dodoro couldn’t recognize what that was, but the silhouette of it clearly showed a pair of spiky, membrane wings, long horns, and a gigantic weapon covered in flames.
However, the demon-like shadow wasn’t what scared Dodoro most. Inside the new image, he saw another individual floating at the opposite side of the man in white. This second figure had a series of green, cobweb-like marks growing on his back and spreading. Those green marks were the “decisive blow” that forced Dodoro to quit his vision.
“So you did see something?” Lupanya’s calm yet commanding voice pulled Dodoro out of his trance.
Dodoro didn’t reply, but his look was enough of an answer.
Ivan whistled. “It seems Mister Lupanya is right. This young man gained knowledge from the star map, despite someone’s careless remark.”
Seurat ignored Ivan and gazed at Dodoro. “What did you see? Speak.”
Dodoro remained quiet.
“Heh. An apprentice plays stubborn?”
When Seurat wanted to use a spell to force Dodoro to spill, Lupanya stopped him. “Not everything we see from the stars is proper to come under the light. Surely you know that, Seurat?”
“Yeah. But what could an apprentice possibly see that cannot be spoken?” Seurat protested.
He still decided to quit. It was a convention among Prophets that they should not bend the way of how prophecy was played using external force. Sometimes, a small disruption could cause bigger consequences.
“Let’s conclude today’s observation now and be on our way,” said Lupanya.
Those words got everyone’s attention. For most people, the final conclusion was why they came here in the first place. By “concluding” what they each saw, they would exchange information and hopefully use valuable clues to gain an advantage, should any of them actually reveal something vital.
For instance, a Prophet once predicted that people would find an unusual cave somewhere remote. Later, an organization sent a team to investigate and successfully discovered an old lab room left behind by an ancient wizard.
There was another time when a Prophet foresaw violence and bloodshed at the Shallowtomb Plane. Soon after, a war broke out there among groups of wizards who fought over a bottle of demon blood, which ended up with countless deaths.
“Who shall go first?” Lupanya looked around the room.
“I’ll do it.” Seurat closed his book as he stepped up. “I saw the Parmigi Highlands from the star map. I believe everyone here knows about the coming plane fusion? It will bring us a great destiny, which will be claimed by... someone. Other than that, I also tried to see where the entrance to the other plane will show up...”
Everyone pricked up their ears. Being able to travel to the other plane ahead of everyone meant seizing more resources and loot.
“... But I did not find it. Maybe the entrance will not open up at Parmigi Highlands.”
Several wizards moaned in frustration.
Maya was the most disappointed among all because Brute Cavern could claim most out of the plane fusion if the entrance was near.
As for the other detail Seurat mentioned, which was a “great destiny” and that someone could ultimately take it, nobody asked.
“As expected, not helpful at all,” Ivan mocked again.
“Humph. Let’s see what you have to say then.” Seurat glanced that way.
“Rest assured, what I will provide to everyone is at least better than that.” Ivan nodded to Lupanya. “I tried to find something that’s been bothering me for a while. It’s about the missing Mystery Item we failed to get at Silver Palm Isle.”
“Wanderer of Balance” Ivan was one of the Eighteen Overseers of Starliege Temple. These Overseers usually stayed peaceful. But recently, Ivan and Seurat suddenly began to oppose each other in many ways, and people believed that it was originally caused by this missing item.
It was Ivan who helped Summerdew locate the Mystery item, while Seurat went to help “God of Seas” Flunza. Even if no one got the item in the end, Ivan and Seurat became rivals after the incident.
What Ivan said greatly surprised Seurat. They had both tried to locate the item again many times but never succeeded, because the item was hidden inside an anti-prophecy effect.
While shocked, Seurat also wondered why Ivan would offer such a valuable clue instead of hiding it.
It had been over half a year since the item disappeared, but no wizard or organization claimed ownership of it. People were itchy to know where such a “tactical weapon-like” asset ended up at.