After having a good laugh with Anwir, Thirteen headed towards Lady Briella's personal quarters to have an important talk with her.
Unlike most Tigerkins, Briella had long orange hair with red stripes in it. Her gray eyes, which were extremely rare among her race, made her stand out from the rest.
Her daughter, Cleo, also had unusual eye colors which were purple and green, which were also an extreme rarity among Tigerkins.
This made these two ladies very special in the eyes of their people.
Both of them were Seers, but they never saw the same vision in the same way.
Briella gains her visions anytime and anywhere.
But, Cleo only saw them through her dreams.
Since he was dealing with two Seers, Thirteen naturally understood that they had already seen him in their visions.
This was especially true for Lady Briella, who had instantly labeled him as her adoptive son, whether he liked it or not.
"Lady Briella, are you in?" Thirteen asked after knocking on the door of her room twice.
"Come in, Zion," Briella replied from the other side of the door. "I have been expecting you."
After gaining permission, Thirteen entered the room and immediately froze after seeing the beautiful lady sharpening a sword in her hands.
"… Did I come at the wrong time?" Thirteen asked as he looked at the sharp blade that glinted in the sunlight.
"You came at the perfect time, Zion," Briella smiled as she made a gesture for the boy to come closer to her. "Didn't I tell you earlier? I have been expecting you."
"Hahaha! I just remembered something just now, Lady Briella." Thirteen scratched his head like an innocent seven-year-old. "I forgot something in my room. I'll go get it before I come back."
But, just as he turned around to walk away, his head collided with something that was as soft as marshmallows.
"Zion, what's the rush?" Lady Briella said as she hugged the boy in a firm hold, having no intention of letting him go. "Let's have a nice chat, shall we?"
Without even waiting for his answer, Lady Briella locked the door and dragged the helpless boy towards the couch.
The boy was forced to sit on her lap, leaving no room for him to move.
She then held the sharp sword in her hand, and lightly pressed the blade over Zion's cheek, and looked at him with eyes filled with amusement.
A sharp blade was pressed against his left cheek, while something soft was pressed against his right cheek.
For a brief moment, Zion mused which was more dangerous. The sword on his left cheek, or the soft marshmallows pressing against his right cheek.
"Well then, let me guess why you are here. You've come to ask me if I knew you before you arrived here, right?"
Thirteen didn't even need to think before saying yes.
He could tell that the time for jokes was over, and the Tigerkin in front of him was no longer the kind lady he knew, but a mother, who was currently grieving the loss of her two sons.
If Thirteen played around when Lady Briella was in this state, he knew that his chances of leaving the room alive were zero.
"Yes," Thirteen replied. "Since Lady Briella has personally told me that she is a Seer, I want to know everything you know about me. Down to the last detail."
"And, what if I don't tell you what I know? What will you do about it?"
"I won't do anything. But, I can make a guess."
Thirteen had completely forgotten that a blade was pressed against his cheek as he held the beautiful lady's gaze fearlessly.
"You could have stopped Percival from being captured by the Barbarians, but you chose not to," Thirteen stated. "Visions are not set in stone, and as someone who fully understood this, you knew the right way of altering your son's fate. But, you didn't stop it.
"The reason? Because you knew that if Percival stayed here, you would only be holding him back from his potential. You understood that even though he is going to be a slave, and face hardships, it was ultimately for the greater good, was it not?"
Lady Briella didn't deny, or affirm Zion's words and only smiled faintly.
"You already knew, right?" Thirteen pressed further. "That your son was going to become my slave, and that is how you knew of my existence. In the end, the real reason why Percival was captured by the Barbarians wasn't because of Anwir's plan, but because you chose to let it happen, right?"
Among Thirteen's Hosts, three of them had been Seers, and one of them had been an Oracle.
He knew perfectly well how their powers worked, so he understood that if an experienced Seer like Briella wanted to stop Percival from being captured by the enemy, she could have easily stopped it, even if she had to pay a price for it.
But, she didn't do anything, and let the events unfold normally.
"Say, Zion, just who are you?" Briella said as her gray eyes glowed briefly with power. "Just what kind of existence is trapped inside this child's body? What is your goal? What is it that you want? What will it take for you to return my son?"
Thirteen remained silent, as he continued to stare at the beautiful lady, who could easily cut his head off in a heartbeat.
"My goal?" Thirteen smiled faintly. "Is to return home to my family."
"Anything else?"
"Mmm, I also plan to kill some Monarchs in the future."
"After that?"
"Beat the crap out of a God?"
"After that?"
"I never really thought about anything past that."
Briella removed the blade from Thirteen's face before tidying his clothes as if nothing had happened, and made him sit properly on the couch.
"Zion, something or someone is blocking my visions," Briella stated. "Something very powerful is coming, and I'm afraid that whatever it is, it will not only spell doom for our race, but every race within the Valbarra Archipelago.
"The last vision I saw was of you being carried to our residence, and I have a feeling that it will also be the last vision that I will be having for a time.
"My daughter keeps having a recurring dream about you standing on a hill overlooking a battlefield, with meteors falling down from the sky, killing both Barbarians and Tigerkins alike. She has been having the same dream, over and over again, so it is already etched in her soul like a curse.
"Unlike me, my daughter's visions are True Visions that will come to pass no matter what. This is also why we never see the same Vision at the same time because the visions I see can be changed, while hers were set in stone."
Thirteen listened closely, as Briella told him what Cleo had seen, down to the last detail.
But, even after hearing everything, Thirteen asked for Briella to bring Cleo t o him, so that he could personally ask her questions that only she, who had seen the vision could answer.
Several minutes later, the young lady appeared inside her mother's room.
The first thing that happened was that her body shuddered uncontrollably the moment her gaze landed on the Human boy, who was sitting on the couch, waiting for her arrival.
It took Briella a few minutes to calm her daughter down, by hugging her tightly, and assuring her that everything was going to be fine.
After regaining her calm, Thirteen asked her several questions that even Briella found very surprising.
She already thought that she had explained her daughter's vision down to the last detail.
But, after Zion's inquiry, she realized that she had missed out on minute details that didn't seem important at first, but after these small details were butted up against each other, she couldn't help but shudder after realizing what was about to unfold.
The seven-year-old's face became solemn after connecting the dots together.
He knew that a third party was involved, but he didn't expect that a nefarious being had actually set his sights on the Valbarra Archipelago.
A being that would make the Diabolical Hyena, as well as the Purple Furred Honey Badger look harmless in comparison.
'Should I consider leaving this place and go to the mainland as fast as possible?'
This thought crossed Thirteen's mind, but after thinking about it carefully, he believed that Cristopher's and the other Wanderer's missions were tied up in this event.
If he left with Cristopher, Rianna, and the others, none of them would be able to complete this mission, and all of them would be trapped in the world of Solterra, for the rest of their lives.
But, this ending was something that Thirteen didn't want to happen.
'Now I understand,' Thirteen thought. 'The Wanderers didn't have to fight the war. They only need to light the Beacon of Hope.'
Things were becoming clear to him, and with this realization, he also understood that whatever the outcome of this war would be after the Wanderers returned to Pangea, the loss of countless lives was already set in stone.
And if the worst case scenario happened, Thirteen would be among those who might perish, for unlike the Wanderers, he had to survive the aftermath after the Beacon of Hope was lit.
'Damn you, Old Man,' Thirteen cursed the System God in his heart. 'You really thought things through. But, you made one big mistake. You gave me time.'
Yes.
Time was on his side.
'Challenge accepted old man,' Thirteen gave the System God the middle finger in his heart. 'You're going down.'
