When they heard her say she was the Diviner everyone gave her looks of surprise.
"So now that we are all properly introduced, let's get back to the matter of Teutober–" "Erik, is she really? Are you really a diviner?"
Prince Fredrik had completely changed how he addressed Emilia, he had even unconsciously got up from his seat and leaned close to her, but before he would get too close Erik stopped him.
"I'm sure you understand what a Diviner means, so my dear Prince how about we go back to why we are here" Erik said.
"Sorry about that, I got carried away for bit," Fredrik said while sitting back down. "As we have agreed, I will share the information i have about the remaining five territories we have to invade."
Porsche Berengar, the blond noble sitting on the same side of the tent as Fredrik, quickly spread a map on the table and began to explain. "Right now, Teutoberg has been completely subdued, but that's because they didn't put up much of a fight in the first place. As you can see from this map, what they have done is simply give up all the territory they can not defend and take stronghold in the last quarter of the kingdom."
"The current territory they have won't be easily infiltrated because of its position." Heidi Faramund, another of the nobles with Fredrik added. "Without care, the first Prince and his supporters have slain all who are not of their kind and seized these remaining territories"
"They understand that they are outnumbered so they have retreated to the most difficult areas to attack. We can't go around them because of the seas, yet if we try a frontal attack the ordinary troops would have a hard time scaling the higher ground." Oberon Fritzi, the last of the nobles spoke before the Prince finished.
"Not only can they use the mountainous land as an advantage for their regular army, but there's also the issue that they have seiteme leading some portions of their forces." The Prince said to everyone in the room. "Those monsters could easily discover our movements with their sensitivity to Fate." He added, focusing on Emilia the whole time, especially when he spoke about the seiteme.
"But we don't have to worry about all of this anymore, since the diviner here should be able to change everything, right?" Kasper Maxi, the scantily dressed knight said excitedly, pointing a finger at Emilia.
"As they are sensitive to Fate, it is easy for them to understand where we plan to attack, but Emilia here is a Diviner, meaning that she can understand the movements of the seiteme as clearly as they can understand ours." Olga Adelgarde, the half elf knight added after Maxi.
"The plan is to create a diversion by ourselves since only we high leveled knights are capable enough to get past their normal defenses, and even if the seiteme come out, they won't be a problem to some of us." Erik said and looked at all the knights wearing black armor like him, and at the knights wearing blue armor.
"All we have to do is neutralize their information advantage using the Diviner, and they would be completely overwhelmed by our superior numbers. That is something everyone here understands, but more importantly, what about the attack force that will be creating the diversion? Who is going to command it and which roles will everyone play? And the diviner, for none of us to know her means she's newly awakened. Can she even use her powers correctly?" Fredrik said as he matched the look Erik was giving the knights on his side.
Most of the eyes in the tent went to her again, but this time they weren't looking at her like high-class nobles regarding a peasant, but people looking at a tool.
Emilia was barely able to understand that she was an important part of the plans, the people in the tent had acted surprised to learn she was a Diviner, only to immediately go back to conversing like she wasn't present. They did not ask for her opinions and would only refer to her as "the Diviner", so she didn't know what to do when Fredrik brought up the possibility that she could be useless to them.
"Emilia doesn't know much about her ability but I believe she is a fast learner. Nevertheless we should come up a plan for if she can't be of help right now. I say we excuse her for a day to try to get a grasp of her abilities while we discuss other strategies" Erik said after the prince.
Before Emilia could fully process what just happened, Brynner had led her out of the tent and the knights continued their discussion.
***
Emilia and Brynner left the Knights' tent to another smaller tent for the high ranking knights.
"Bry- Brynner, What just happened?"
"Emilia, it's best for you not to worry about those people, my father only brought you here because he is not comfortable with you being too far away from his eyes. In that meeting just now your only purpose was to show Prince Fredrik that we now have a potentially better alternative than his trusty information."
"I don't understand what you are saying Brynner–"
"And you don't need to."
"But I'm a diviner, I can help. There's so much fighting that I do not understand but I know that I can help."
"The only way you can help is if you learn to read Fate. Do you even understand what that means? And what do you even think you can do? Emilia what are you thinking?"
"Those monsters, the seiteme. It's because of them that all of this is happening. They are evil and I have the power to do something about it. Those Knights who aren't even Diviners are planning on fighting because they have the power to help, so why shouldn't I?"
*Has this girl gone mad? Just a few weeks ago she was living the life of a peasant and now she has seen so much bloodshed. Mayb–*
"Brynner, teach me about fate"
They went into their own tent.
"Okay, have you heard about Tamara, The creator?"
"We're taught that before people come to this world, there is an agreement that is made between God and all Her creations, and that this agreement will contain the details of how that particular person will live and die." Emilia recalled.
"That is correct, I thought the Teutoberg Orthodox would have changed that. Well, that agreement we make with God before we are born is called Fate, and inside our hearts there is actually a physical manifestation of it. I do not know what they teach about the Diviners and Seiteme in Teutoberg but you should learn now that the seiteme are people who have lost portions of their Fate. Some are born like that but others are turned by other seiteme. Do you understand?"
"Err, I think I get it. The reason why the seiteme eat hearts is because our Fates are inside them?"
"Exactly"
"So what about Diviners?"
"I actually don't know about that, and it's not even important. What you want to know is how to read Fate, right?"
She nods.
"Fate, in it's physical form looks like solid rock at first but if you squeeze, it will bend. One thing about fate is that it is actually more like water, it is said that it is made from a primordial river that the world used to be."
"Brynner I don't understand, what are you saying? That fate is like water?"
"I noticed that you are able to tell the difference between seiteme and normal people, like that priest from that town. When he was around, do you remember feeling like water touched you?"
In that moment the realization hit Emilia; every time she had used her powers or encountered a seiteme, she had felt the sensation of water touching her heart, it was a very strange feeling, something hard to describe but easy to remember.
Judging from the way Emilia's facial expression changed and how she went silent when he mentioned it, Brynner knew she was on to something. It actually surprised him a bit – his grand father was a Diviner so he knew a bit about them, enough to know that it was too early for her to grasp the most basic sensation of Fate.
"Focus on that feeling, and if you can make yourself feel it all the time, then you will be able to read Fate."
"Focus on that feeling..."
Emilia began to transform into her ghostlike form and back to her normal self and back again.
*She's really trying to grasp what I said even though I'm not a diviner. She's definitely insane* Brynner thought to himself.
After going back and forth at shifting between her two forms for a while, Emilia stopped transforming, but something was different about her. Brynner felt it, but he couldn't tell since there would be no physical difference that could be used to tell if she really learned to read Fate.
"I think I get it now, but I have a quick question. What does it mean to read something?"
Brynner laughed at himself for forgetting that Emilia was a commoner. "Well, to read something means to look at it and interpret its meaning, but reading Fate is slightly different, since you can't see it with your eyes-"
"I can do it" The girl cut in.
"What do you mean?"
"Fate, I've learned how to read it. It was hard at first because I didn't know what I was trying to do, but I focused on that feeling like you said."
"Emilia, are you alright?"
"How do prove that I can read fate?" She pressed him.
"That's easy, if you can read Fate you'd be able to tell where people are without seeing them, but that doesn't answer my question. Emilia, are you okay?"
"Your father and Sir Lukas are headed this way. The meeting with the other knights just ended."
Brynner looked at her, the entrance to their tent was behind her and she had been sitting in front of him the whole time. There was no way she would have know if anyone was coming. He was a bit confused but she sounded so convinced that she was reading Fate, so he took a peek outside the tent finding Erik and Lukas approaching.
"How did you do that?" Brynner asked her.
"I told you, I can read Fate now"
"What are you two going on about?" Erik inquired as he reached the entrance.
"Father, I think Emilia just learned how to read Fate."
"You can read fate now? What does it feel like?"
"It was Brynner that helped me out. After he explained, it was easy for me to understand, and when I focused like he said I realized that the whole world is actually flooded, but the water isn't there at the same time, and the water only moves when something is about to happen. That's how I knew you and Sir Lukas were heading this way, there was a very strong current coming towards this tent."
"The world feels like its underwater?" Erik laughs.
"That's how it feels, did I get it wrong? I just thought that–"
"No, not at all, if you feel that the world is underwater then you have completely learned how to read Fate. I always believed that you would be able to do it, but learning this quickly? You really are something special."
"So do I get to join you and the other knights?" Emilia asked hopefully.