’Chosen by chance?’ Cury thought to himself. ‘What chance?’

“Yes, by Chance, you!” The old lady continued.

Cury stared at this short ‘Seer’ from top to bottom. Her brown hair, full of twigs and leaves, followed by her blue robe obviously worn through a tad bit too many hardships. Her shoes torn, with pointy old toes peeking out. No matter how she looked at her, there was nothing showing him signs of her being a powerful all-seeing ‘Seer’ as the tales in The Great Library suggested.

“The manners of todays youth... can’t even see greatness standing in front of him! And I am the one in need of glasses?” She sighed.

Cury hesitated, then asked “Are you really a Seer?”

“You wouldn’t know what a Seer looks like staring right at one, that much I know!” The old lady hissed and clubbed Cury right on top of his head with a twig Cury never saw coming, nor where she was hiding it earlier!

“Ouch! Can you not be more civilized!? I helped out just now, is this how you thank me?” Cury cried, eyeing the old woman angrily with a fierce green glow.

The old woman simply giggled at him, with her hand covering her mouth.

Cury holding his already swollen noggin with a hand stared daggers at the woman, but swallowed his pride and asked, “What brings you to Poz, and how do you know my name?”.

“I already told you, I am a Seer. Knowing such trivial things as ‘your’ name is child’s play!” The old Seer answered, slightly bothered by how Cury couldn’t recognize her greatness.

She continued, “Besides, the business of a lady such as me is none of your concern. I may travel wherever I like!”

Cury, not having more of the all Seer talk decided to backtrack the conversation, tie up some loose ends and followed up with another question.

“That thing about chosen by chance, what does that mean?”

The old woman sent a glance at the slowly fading green glow from Cury’s eyes and said “Chosen by chance is a way to describe random encounters, such as our encounter could have been. The idea of chosen by chance means that Chance decided to, despite what Fate had in mind, make our paths cross”.

‘So, it means nothing?’ Cury thought to himself.

“No, it definitely means something. However, in our case, our encounter was not chosen by Chance, but by Fate. Fate brought us together, so I could explain a couple things to a young, ill-mannered chap such as yourself!” The Seer answered his thought.

“I had my suspicions at first, but now I am sure of it. You can read my mind!” Cury exclaimed.

“Such an easy task as reading your mind, I can’t be bothered. Your whole body is basically shouting out what you are thinking about!” The old lady laughed.

“Like I am that obvious!?” Cury retorted.

To that, the Seer replied with some questions. “Have you ever stared into, let’s say that red-glass vial in that you so carefully tucked inside your pocket?”

“Have you not seen anything amiss with your eyes, while doing so?” The old woman added, with a slightly amused tone.

“I have! My father hand-made the finest mirror in Poz for us!” Answered Cury, now with a feint grey colour of confusion emerging from his eyes.

“And?” The old Seer said

‘And? What does she want me to say?’ Cury quickly thought.

The old lady looked him straight into his eyes, with a smile growing ever bigger and her eye slightly opening wider. That’s when it hit him.

“You are talking about eyes?” Cury said

“Well yes, haven’t you noticed that your eyes are slightly different from others’?” She calmly answered.

Again, he pondered. ‘Something different about my eyes?’

Not reaching any conclusions he simply shook his head.

“No, I can’t think of anything different” He said, with gears still grinding inside his mind.

“I should have been able to predict that I, a simple old lady, need to explain everything to such a young and ignorant child as yourself” She sighed.

And continued “Very well. Your eyes change colours. Well not exactly change colours… To be more precise, I would say that they glow.”

Confusion spread through Cury’s mind. ‘colours, glowing? What has that got to do with anything?’

The old lady’s smile ceased to be, and a frown spread. A new revelation spread through her mind. “It seems I was wrong about one thing” She said.

“Yes, explain to me oh so wise elder!” retorted Cury with a violent green, slightly blue colour emerged from his eyes. He was very annoyed. Increasingly irritated and a cold sensation spread through his body.

The old Seer, taken aback by Cury’s sudden snarky remark and violent emotion, made a small, almost silent gulp.

“Well, how do I say this… What you are doing now I would say is a sufficient explanation?” She said.

“What I am doing now? What exactly am I doing now?” Cury responded, with the blue glow slowly filling in wherever the green had decided to retreat.

“Your eyes glow in colours, ours don’t.” She said in a cold manner, with almost no hesitation. She was obviously angry, but another feeling was sneaking about. Cury felt it but could not quite put it into words.

“What do you mean yours don’t?” He said, with the blue and green slowly fading as Cury tried to calm himself. He had been acting out of character. His father had not raised him to talk back at the elder, and absolutely not latch out to them as he had done just now.

“Strange...” The Seer said, seemingly receiving another revelation

Now, it all became clear to her.

“Cury, tell me. How do you see others’ eyes?” She asked.

Confused, Cury pondered it. Thoughts raced through his head, replaying the conversation he had heard. He tried to puzzle together all the words that they had said, from start to finish. As he did, he neared a conclusion.

‘Colours, eyes, something amiss… Change colours?’ He thought.

Slightly hesitating he decided to answer the question.

“Your eyes glow, vivid colours. These colours… They change?”

The old lady’s smile returned.

“Yes, that’s exactly it. What you told me just now explains everything! For the rest of us, it’s only your eyes that change colour. We never notice a different in each other’s!” She answered.

As if his reality had been broken, Cury fell on his bum. Sitting on some grass, in a forest at the outskirts of Poz, Cury had realized that his reality was not the same as everyone else’s.

“I am sorry old lady, but this all feel too weird for me” He said.

“No, don’t feel that way! And By the way, I already told you to call me Seer!” She snickered.

Cury shook his head and put a palm against his forehead. He needed a breather.

The old Seer acknowledged this and decided to leave him be for a short while. She went on a small walk, gathering some mushrooms and herbs that she could find along the forest path.

After some time, she came back, with a basket she got from Idlegard knows where. The basket was filled to the brim with all kinds of plants that Cury had never seen before.

Cury broke the silence with a strong resolution.

“You know, ‘Seer’, I have decided that the only way I can go from now is forward. If I was to believe what you say, that means that I can see something that others can’t!”

“That is exactly it. Not so ignorant now, are you?” The old lady teased.

“So, what now?” He said.

The old lady put down her basket and walked towards him. Once again, out of nowhere she smacked him with a twig out of nowhere!

“What’s wrong with you, what did I do wrong this time?” He cried.

“Oh, nothing really. I just had to free some space in your head so that you could take it what’s next.” She simply said.

Cury stared slightly annoyed at her but decided to cool it and hear her out.

“Good choice, it seems that you are not as ill-mannered as I thought you were” She giggled.

“Anyway, I told you earlier that you were chosen by Chance.” She continued

Looking at her in a confused manner he replied, “Yes, chosen by chance, as in a random encounter. But this encounter was chosen by Fate. What has that got to do with me?”

“Well, if you hadn’t interrupted me earlier, I could have told you. Maybe I should leave things be for now?” She asked.

Shocked, Cury was about to retort. But then he saw the feint glow of red in her eyes and realized that she was toying with him.

“Ruining all the fun… All right, I’ll get on with it. There is another way to be Chosen by Chance. That is when, by Chance, you develop a strange ability. This ability could take form in the most mysterious way. Almost incomprehensible to most people!” The old lady explained.

The gears in his head finally seemed to work as intended, and he now understood what she was talking about. “So, you are saying that I have developed an ability, by Chance?” He asked.

“That is exactly what I am saying!” She replied.

The old Seer put her hands on her waist and looked up towards the sky, obviously proud of herself that he finally understood.

“And what does that have to do with anything?” Cury said, interrupting her moment of pride.

“Well, little boy. It got everything to do with everything! At least for you!” She joyfully exclaimed.

Cury, once again confused, stared at her with a blank look. There was too much new information for him to handle. He couldn’t understand what she meant or reach a conclusion as he usually could.

The old Seer suddenly placed a hand on her ear and stared into the distance.

“Yes, Good day! Yes, I am there right now. Yes, I have explained… No, I haven’t reached that topic yet... there… yes, no I understand. I will do as you say.” She said to herself.

Cury felt a headache coming. What was this old ‘Seer’ doing? Was she purposefully trying to confuse him?

Before he could ask, she let go of her ear, looked at him and said

“Little boy, it has come to my knowledge that I’ll be doing things slightly different than usual. I will give you some piece of advice on how to use your ability. After that, I shall send you on your way, leaving you to your own discretion. Starting tomorrow!”

‘Starting tomorrow!?’ He thought. ‘Is this grandmother going to follow me until then?’

“Yes, tomorrow. But don’t worry, once I am done with you, you will be able to control your ability slightly better. After that, you will know what to feel for with your senses. Think of all the research you will be able to do!” She replied, not bothered by the fact that he didn’t actually ask his questions.

At the mention of research, he realized that this was a whole new world that he could learn more about. That he and his father could spend more time together, researching these colours!

‘But first I need to get home.’