The Seer

This dream left me feeling as if I need to stop watching Dr. Who before bedtime...

A knock on my door, at such a late hour, must be wholly important. I answered and there stood the Junior Seer. He was very young, unexpectedly so, but he wore the insignia and I had to obey. He said the Master had called for me, specifically for me.

I gathered my cloak and followed the Junior out into the cold and dark. I covered myself to ensure I was protected from stray rems, as we weaved through the streets of our city, until we finally came to the Master's gate.

The Junior entered a password, which I'm sure was different from the one I had known when I lived at the compound, as a young Junior-in-Training. But that was a path I had turned from so many years ago. I had fled from my Master's hand and was thus no longer welcome. All the passwords would have been changed the moment of my departure.

Still, why the Master had called for me was anybody's guess. Were it not for his training, the Junior Seer would more than likely be seething with jealousy. But emotions are frowned upon for all those in training, and simply not allowed for the selected Juniors. Indeed, you did not get to that level without proving you could resolve any emotion at will, and it was but one specific ability in a long list of abilities that were necessary to qualify for the ring.

Yet here I was, a simple clerk within the Monarchy, whose emotions need not be checked. I was befuddled to be able to pass through the gate, traverse the walkway, enter through the door of the Master's home, step into his very bedroom and stand here, beside his bed. Waiting silently for him to acknowledge my presence.

It was a simple gesture. His finger slightly raised and my years of training returned. I kneeled at his bedside and let him rest his hand upon my head. I heard shuffling behind me, and dimly realized that the Master had dismissed the Junior. But it was a whisper of a thought that quickly disappeared as the Master's hand grew warm.

Slowly, his thoughts became my thoughts. His life's history became my history. The pain of his dying became my pain. And when he was gone, I was the Master risen anew. I placed his ring, my ring, on my forefinger and remained standing quietly by his bedside for some time. There were memories of many lives swirling in my head, and I needed time to remember them, one by one.

When I finally opened the door to the bedroom, the Junior Seer saw me and knelt as his training had bade him. I placed my hand on his head, felt it grow warm, and saw the entire life of the Junior up to this moment. It was a good life, and he warranted some explanation. I knew, from all the Masters' life histories held within my mind, how to control the sharing. Thus, I gave the Junior just enough to understand that his time would yet come.

On this good ship Planet Earth, we are not unlike the Monarch butterfly. Generations will be born and die for eons, as we traverse this vast and infinite universe. Eons are what is necessary for our Earth to repair, and for our kind to mature from ignorance to benevolence. Indeed, that maturity is what we would depend upon for the inevitable encounters with other ships.

But that is a future yet to be. Here and now, this observer weeps that we are closer to annihilation than ever before. If it is the fate of our kind that we hold, to determine if the Monarch reaches it's destinations, then this observer understands that we are now ready and willing to be part and parcel of the journey. Regardless that we will or not reach our destiny within the lifespan of the Seer that shares this dream. Hope springs eternal.

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