I don't answer, I just smile. Not yet. Timing matters.
“There are individuals,” I say slowly, “who do not rely on linear progression to understand outcome.”
Xalith frowns. “Speak clearly. You are exciting me with riddles, Vaedros.”
“A seer,” Maelrik says, arriving at it quickly.
I glance at him briefly. “Yes.”
Understanding spreads, though unevenly.
“The forest cannot be mapped,” I continue, “but outcomes can be observed. If we cannot track the path, we track where it leads, and adjust accordingly.”
Drathis shifts slightly in the shadows. “You already have one in mind.”
Of course I do. I do not present possibilities. I present solutions.
“There are reports,” I say, “of a human with unstable precognition. Untrained. Hidden.”
Xalith’s expression turns sharp, predatory. “Then we take it.”
“Carefully,” I correct, my tone unchanged. “If the ability fractures under pressure, it becomes useless.”
Veylan studies me, longer now, measuring not just the plan, but my confidence in it. “And you can control this?”
Control. Such a simple word for something far more intricate.
“Yes,” I say.
Because I can. Not through force. Through structure. Through pressure applied in the correct places. Through understanding exactly how far something can bend before it breaks, and ensuring it never reaches that point.
Then Veylan exhales. “You will lead this.”
Expected.
Xalith’s gaze lingers, sharp with something that borders on anticipation. “If you fail, you fall with it.”
“I’m aware.”
Failure is not the concern. Uncertainty is.
Maelrik watches me as though searching for something beneath what I’ve shown him. He won’t find it.
“It seems,” he says quietly, “we’re placing our future in something unpredictable.”
A reasonable observation, but an incorrect one. I let the faintest trace of amusement settle beneath my words as I answer.
“No.”
I meet his gaze.
“We’re placing it in something that can be directed.”
Veylan does not look away from me when I finish speaking.
“Directed,” he repeats, slower now, as if testing the word for weakness. “You’re suggesting we rely on something unstable and call that strategy.”
“I’m suggesting,” I say, just as evenly, “that instability can be shaped into something useful when it is contained properly.”