IC Timeline: Months after An Unprecedented Request and First Impressions.
This place was in a constant uproar of lions and hyenas coming and going. Speaking with Gever was the last thing she needed, the way her head was throbbing. Her limbs were leaden, and her eyes saw a blurry world of named strangers. Rapha-oma, the Xakaav Oma, Niu once looked at as she passed. Gable-kal, Muvukol, had punished her for it. He spoke three tongues but only knew political pronouncements in each of them. There were others, less than she'd expected, but still so many she'd waited days to relay her vision in privacy.
Secrecy, they'd call it. Everything she did as kaar not spoken to the ears of the her superiors was criminal.
For a moment it seemed Gever hadn't heard her, or maybe hadn't understood a thick accent speaking weary native words. No relief, no pleasure, no appreciation for her good news. As he stared off into his own world of possibilities, the memory of Moto'Seide by the training grounds came back to her, how Niu had wondered if they shared abilities beyond mortals, beyond Gods.
"Gods can't see the past or the future," she'd told Gever. "Not how..."
"Kaar," Gever had provided, as he always did. He gave her food when she was famished, courage when she was craven, and words in this rough language when memory failed her.
"Yes, kaar," she'd said. "They don't see things as kaar do. Even the hares can be kaar, because the Gods take the shape of more than lions."
He looked at her now as he did then, intrigued but cautiously suspicious. If not for the land behind him being less verdant and their language that of his people, she'd have wondered if this wasn't another glimpse into the past. "Are you sure?" Like an echo, those words.
"I saw it," Niu said. "A red lion from the desert kills her. There will be a battle with the Firekin."
Hari was an awful b***h no matter what her name happened to be. Here, it was Basha. Her skills were known throughout the land, as seers tended to be. Her ambitions just the same. She hadn't been pleased to see Niu here.
"She could have seen it too." Gever frowned. "And if she hasn't, then better we don't give her reason not to go. The less kaar in our way the better. It's too much of a risk to mention that part, but the battle..."
Kaar Oma: The seer revered more than any other, with powers unmatched and burdens disguised as privilege. More competition for it agitated Basha. She'd rather the Nergui have one seer to shoulder sole responsibility of their demands than a prosperous army of them for as long as it was her they turned to.
Unbeknownst to her and all but a few, for the last several months Gever had groomed Niu for the position. It had been her brother before her. To spare him, she'd proved herself a better investment. Her visions were unstable, but they were frequent. Byu would have earned him twice the amount of praise, for he'd been a lowly slave from the start, where as Niu joined willingly. But Gever was like her, and his primary objective to benefit his home, even at the cost of personal glory.
Mchawi held the Kaar Oma rank at present, undisputed for "too long," so told by Gever. He didn't like her, liked her mate even less. "They'll use her visions to appoint a new visionary when Rapha-oma passes," he'd explained. Rapha would be assassinated in time, Gever claimed. As a female her body was weaker than her sixth sense. No one dared speak ill of her, but he told Niu there was unrest over her gender. That there must be. It would only take one crazed lion who feared change more than Graos Oma. And when her blood ran cold and her replacement searched for, he wanted a say in just who it was. A male, and one like him, so this inclination to mock bright coats could be quelled from society. A small step to the future, but one paw print left to follow was better than none.
He'd explained himself only once. They'd call him huria in the Firekin, Niu had thought. He's right. It's ridiculous. They're both so ridiculous.
Gever was pacing. "We'll go to Gable-kal first," he decided. "And let him go to Rapha-oma."
Niu suspected Gever was blissfully unaware of just how much he hated Gable. His eyes always squinted when he walked by, and afterward he pawed at the scar on his face, left there by the muvukol himself. She'd heard from others how, why, and when he'd obtained it. A slave he hadn't converted fast enough was to blame.
"You're sure? Niu?" He was staring at her.
"Yes," she said. "I saw the sand and their coats. Others fall too, a Firekin and... With the red feather and the dark mane? He wears the skull on his face?"
Gever guessed half a dozen names. "Muunokhoi," he suggested.
"Muunokhoi," agreed Niu.
"We'll tell them about him, but once the hunting party has left, and only if he's with them. If you're wrong..." Gever's claws came out and dragged through the dirt. "You can't be wrong, Niu." She had been too many times before. He'd been smart enough to keep her visions between them until he was certain they weren't wasting a prime opportunity to make a flawless debut.
"I saw it clear as I see you now," Niu insisted. "I watched it over and over, all night, and this morning I heard they're preparing to leave."
"Then go find your brother. Stay with him and keep busy. When they go, I'll warn Gable-kal, then I'll rush to find them. I don't know if I'll be able to deny it was you this came from if you're —"
"I'm not wrong," Niu said again. "Go. Tell them."
As he left, she closed her eyes. Be careful. To whom she prayed, and for which side, she wasn't as sure as she'd once been.