“Calm yourself,” Elena thought.

Her heart was racing, every inch of her body on edge.

“This isn’t like you. Anchor yourself.”

She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the old woman as she took a deep breath.

“Her power… I don’t understand how, but she managed to completely suppress my suspicions of her. Even my unease right now…”

She moved her back foot slightly closer to the door, widening her stance and lowering herself closer to the ground.

“I can’t sense her Possibility Density at all…”

“Who are you?” she asked, still not relaxing her body.

“Hmm… let me see…” the woman replied, her words drawn out.

“She’s still reading me, but…”

Suddenly, Elena’s eyes widened. The reason she couldn’t sense that woman’s Possibility Density wasn’t because it was small or absent—it was because it had already been there the entire time, even before she stepped foot in the Center Hall.

Without waiting for further response, Elena declared, “The eyes are an extension of you.”

Just like that, her unease vanished. The onlookers had gone to sleep.

“‘Eyes,’ huh? Is that what they are to you?”

Elena didn’t respond.

“Hah, come on in then.”

She snapped her fingers and the destroyed doors repaired themselves in an instant, now hanging wide open.

“You’re the ‘Madam Overseer.’”

She chuckled, admitting, “Yes, that is what some call me. Now, have a seat.”

Elena remained standing.

“What did you learn from your test?”

“Test?”

“If your goal was to kill me, you’ve had dozens of chances to do so already. You were testing me.”

“And what if my plan was simply to lure you into this office?”

“It’s not. Your eyes tell me so.”

Suddenly, the woman began to laugh as if Elena had just told the funniest joke she had ever heard.

“The Tides were right about you. Did you know? There are some out there already calling you the Tenth Dreamer.”

“I don’t want their title.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s not exactly a choice. You will learn the weight of that role eventually.”

With a sigh, Elena finally took a seat on the opposite end of the table.

“Only time will tell. So, why did you want to meet with me?”

“Right now, in all of the Confluence, you are the only one my ‘eyes’ can’t read. In fact, I could barely even detect you until that breach occurred.”

Elena scrutinized the woman’s face. Her expression gave no tell of a lie, but it was the implication of her explanation that concerned Elena most.

“I’m the only one? That means she can read every other person here…”

“What exactly are you?”

“‘What?’ That’s quite a direct question, don’t you think?”

“Your invitation was fairly direct as well.”

“Hah, alright. I’ll entertain you. I am the head overseer of the Confluence, but some also know me as simply the ‘Seer.’ As for my abilities, if I observe a person enough, I can learn their name and mark them. If I learn their name, I can observe more of them.”

“And do the people of the Confluence know this?”

“Even without me explaining it like I did just now, they understand its necessity. Our watch is the only force that can keep the Confluence stable forever.”

Elena only replied with an “I see.”

“Future sight… is it?”

“So what will you do if a calamity comes knocking at your door?”

The woman pointed towards the door behind Elena.

“Were you able to knock on my door back then?”

Elena shuddered—an almost instinctual response. She cleared her throat before asking, “Is this all you wanted to see me for?”

“Well, yes. I simply wanted to meet you in person. That’s all.”

Elena rose from her seat, giving a curt, “It was a pleasure to meet you,” before turning towards the door.

“Ah, before you head out, would you mind telling me your name?”

“So you can monitor me as well?” she thought, deciding to keep the quip to herself.

“Elena.”

Her name hung in the silence that followed, only being broken by the closing of the door.

Staring at where Elena once stood, the woman smiled to herself.

“Elena, is it?” she thought, closing her eyes as she envisioned the entirety of the Confluence. However, her smile soon faded, being replaced by a grimace as her forehead wrinkled. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, her body slightly trembling as she could only take shaky breaths.

“The Adventurer’s Branch… I can’t read it anymore…”

Throughout her descent, Elena replayed her encounter with the Seer in her head.

“Her attack felt like it directly followed the line of sight of one of those eyes…”

She turned her gaze to the skies, trying to recreate that sensation of being watched she had experienced before.

“I stopped feeling their presence once I pointed it out to her as well… Is it because I became aware of it? Or did she purposefully stop trying to read me?”

“And if she can see what happens and what will happen in the Confluence, why did she allow those two dream leeches to break through? According to Irin, attacks are usually very rare…”

Elena froze.

“She let it happen. Those dream leeches targeted the adventurers specifically…”

She now turned back to face the Central Hall, narrowing her eyes at the uppermost floor.

“She’s been aware of my presence since the beginning… but for whatever reason, she can’t seem to understand me… That means she was willing to sacrifice two guards—two lives for an insignificant name.”

Before she could fully decide how much she could trust the Seer, her attention snapped to the sound of a familiar voice.

“Elena!”

Off to one side of the bottom of the stairs sat Irin, who now had turned around on a bench and was excitedly waving at her.

“I guess I can set this aside for now then.”

For some reason, after the time she had spent on her own, she felt an almost warming reminiscence seeing him again.

“This memory… so he really does remind me of him…”

She gave the Central Hall one last glance before sitting down beside Irin.

“Well… I don’t need to take any stances just yet.”

“Here, try this,” Irin offered, extending his arm with a paper bag in hand.

Elena accepted with a nod of acknowledgement.

“It’s from one of the most famous bakeries in the Confluence. Supposedly their business started in a world where shaping surrounded food. We haven’t had a chance to eat since coming here, so…”

She took a bite, realizing, “It’s just a cream-filled donut—” but even so, the taste couldn’t be compared to any pastries she ever had back on Earth. She never once had any significant memories related to cream-filled donuts, but even so, its rich airiness evoked a sense of nostalgia she just couldn’t place her finger on.

“It’s… comforting.”

“Yeah. I never got to try any food from my homeworld, but… even so, it still makes me feel a longing for ‘home.’”

Elena didn’t know quite how to respond, so she only wistfully gazed towards the skyline, the previously massive walls surrounding the Confluence now reduced to a distant backdrop.

“Anyways! I got this for you as well—” he blurted, handing over the bag that had been resting on his other side.

“What’s this?” she asked, pulling the sides apart and taking a peek.

“Well, you’ve been here for a little bit now, and I was thinking… it might be a good welcome gift… if you were deciding to stay, that is,” he explained, slightly avoiding her gaze at the end as if expecting her to decline it.

Silently, she pulled out a neatly folded set of clothes, resembling what one would imagine when picturing the typical garb of fantasy adventurers in those sorts of stories. Its color closely resembled her current outfit of mostly greys and blacks, only this one was highlighted with several portions of brown as well. She glanced down at her own clothes, belatedly realizing her travels thus far had essentially been done in her sleepwear.

She fiddled with the cloth in her hands, testing its texture—durable, yet surprisingly soft to the touch.

In this sort of silence, she typically defaulted to adjusting her glasses—an unnecessary action to give her body something else to do—but once again, her fingers slipped right through where they usually were.

“Right…”

She had done the exact same thing when she first arrived, but this time, her failed motion led to a realization she never acknowledged before.

“I can still see just fine without them…”

With a smile, she turned back towards Irin, nodding before replying, “Yeah, I think I’ll be staying.”