Sightwitch (The Witchlands 0.5)

Ryber drew the pictures for me and added the notes. She says it’s better to have pictures in our diaries, but I can’t draw.

“Not yet,” Ryber told me, “but you’ll learn.” Then she read what I’d written about her above, and she laughed. A big sound. The kind Gran-Mi would’ve called “catching.”

“You can call me Ry,” she said next. “And I’m sorry I nagged you earlier. But Rule 8 says, ‘Obedience is holy.’ So you see? Only by following the Rules will Sirmaya know which Sisters are good enough for her to Summon.”



Serving Sisters are acolytes at the Convent. They serve the Sightwitch Sisters by helping to clean, cook, and garden.



Summoned Sisters are acolytes who have been Summoned by Sirmaya to go into the mountain. For up to two days, a Sister is underground meeting the Goddess, but I don’t really know what that means.



Sightwitch Sisters have the Sight, meaning they can look at something once and remember it forever. They also can use their knives (like the knife Sister Hilga gave me) to remove memories from corpses. And, when they pray together, the Sisters can see visions in the scrying pool at the observatory.

“Oh,” I said, thinking back to the massive list of Rules that Hilga had showed me earlier.

There were a lot.

Ry seemed to know what I was thinking because she laughed again and said, “Don’t worry. You have time to learn it all. I’ve been here for five years—since I was four years old!—and I’m still learning.”

Then she smiled big, and I smiled back.

“What about the Nine Star Puzzle?” I asked. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Me either! And I’ve been trying to solve since I got here.” She shrugged. “Sister Hilga says that it takes some Sisters their whole lives to find the answer.”

I winced. “I hope it doesn’t take me my whole life.”

“It won’t, Tanz. It won’t.” Ryber laughed after that, a bright sound that made me laugh too.

I like how she called me “Tanz.”

“Do you have other questions?” she asked while neatly turning down her half of the bed.

I hesitated. I did have a question, but I did not want to be rude. My curiosity got the better of me in the end, though. “Why did Sister Lindou say I was lucky to share a room with you?”

“Oh.” Ryber’s face fell, and I knew right away I shouldn’t have asked. I should have “practiced restraint” like Gran-Mi always taught me.

“They tell me I will have strong Sight one day,” Ryber answered eventually. “Stronger than other Sisters. So I guess being with me is… special.”

I wanted to ask her why her Sight would be stronger and why that made her special, but this time, I was smart enough to stay quiet.

Poor Ry. I don’t like how worried she looks now.


A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE SIGHTWITCHES Sister Toria Avé

INTRODUCTION

Sightwitches are not born; we are made.

Welcome to the Sightwitch Sister Convent. After years of mentoring Serving Sisters, I decided to compile all the rules, orders, and requirements that new arrivals must learn, as well as all the questions they most often ask.

To understand what life here will be like, you must first and foremost understand who our Goddess truly is. Her sleeping form beneath the Witchlands is not only the source of all magic but also the reason we exist. She is life; She is death; She is the ultimate creator.

Many cultures have different names for her, but we know her by her true name: Sirmaya.

The Sightwitch order was founded almost fifteen hundred years ago, when the first Sightwitches appeared in the Witchlands.

At that time, there were no other witches save for the Paladins, whose duty it was to protect and maintain peace across the land. While those chosen twelve were born with magic, our Sightwitch magic is a gift gained simply by devoting our lives to the Goddess. Time spent inside the mountain on which we now reside leads to a buildup of Sirmaya’s magic, and ultimately the ability to see into the future.

Over time, the Sisters have honed other talents with this unique form of magic. We have learned that a small cut beneath the ear of a corpse allows us to access the memories of the dead. Additionally, we have found that our own memories are thorough and infallible—every detail around us can be seen a single time and never forgotten.

These three types of magic are what we now swear to protect each morning when we recite the Memory Vow, the Vow of Clear Eyes, and the Vow of a Future Dreamed.





Ryber Fortiza

Y18 D153 — 1 day since Tanzi was Summoned

DREAMS

I don’t remember my dreams. As usual.

And I already miss Tanzi. It’s strange to wake up alone. Strange to write this without hearing her quill scratch nearby. Strange to sit in this cold space with no one asking, “Did you sleep well, Rybie-Ry?”

Oh, it is true she will be back tonight, but her eyes will no longer be the dark brown of most Kritians. They will be silver.

She will be clear-eyed. A true Sightwitch Sister.

It is worse, though, knowing she will no longer be allowed to share a room with me. She will return from the mountain at the dolmen in the Grove, where all newly gifted Sisters arrive, and then she will move two stories above me in the Convent. She will have a new roommate, a new room, a new life.

I cannot help but wonder if our Threadsister bond can survive that.

A week after Tanzi arrived at the Convent, Hilga assigned us sheep duty with Sister Gwen. But Gwen fell asleep, the sheep wandered outside the glamour, and Tanzi and I got horribly, hideously lost while searching for them. Ever since that day of rain, cold, menacing forest, and unruly sheep, we’ve been best friends.

Please Sirmaya, don’t let that change. I cannot take fake kindness from her. The gift of Sight changes everything. It digs a chasm between friends as wide as the mountain. As deep as the scrying pool from which the spirit swifts fly.

And it happens every time. First there was Sister Margrette, then Sister Ute, then Lachmi, then Oriya. Fazimeh, Yenna, Birgit, Gaellan. They were all my friends; now I hardly speak to them.

No doubt there are even more lost friends who I’m forgetting since I do not have the gift of Clear Eyes. Once seen, often forgotten. Once heard, usually lost.


MEMORIES

I wish I’d been the one Summoned instead of Tanzi.

I hate myself for that.

And just as I predicted, I was charged with clearing the mountain paths today. Summer has fully awakened in the forest that hugs the slope. The weak, fighting buds of spring that I saw last are now full leaves. Green, green everywhere.

On a normal day, it would have made me feel better to be outside instead of cooped up in the kitchen. And on a normal day, Tanzi and I would have played the game we always played when no one is around to hear us.