"Something bad will happen to your mate at some point between now and the conflict with the king. It will not end up killing him, but will be harrowing in some way. You begin to see what I mean by irritating vagueness, I believe. Three more questions to the best of my ability will cover the remainder of that bow and arrows, I believe."

"—will it happen to him before I turn him?"

"It will be a minute, picking apart the strands."

"Yes."

She

freezes

"What if I turn him tomorrow. What if I turn him now." She twitches. In fact, she blurs, moving in staccato without going anywhere. "I can't turn him now without him asking but—" She focuses on the centaur again. "Can you find any more details about it?"

"That - may well be the cause of it. It is rather unclear on this point. The threat is close to certainly not physical, and may be magical or psychological or political or legal."

She wordlessly whines. "I said—he asked—I—I—" What a fucking great moment to find out vampires can stutter. "Okay. I—have one more question—right?"

"You are- stressed... You may have three more instead of one, in exchange for fifty more of these impressive arrows."

She can produce a hundred more of these impressive arrows with barely a hundredth of her attention, and does so. She thinks about her question very carefully in a fraction of a second. "Is this harrowing event not the pain of turning?" it occurs to her to ask.

"It may be. To use the vague metaphors again, it feels like a... A tragic necessity. But it may equally be him splitting off a friendship, or being driven out of somewhere, or the death of a family member. I'm seeing this mostly by how it affects you. I would get more detail if he visits me as well."

"Okay. If I bring him here—how long are you gonna stay here? I still have two questions, right?"

"Two questions. You can't buy more today - at least from me, though my brothers don't enjoy prophesying - sifting through the threads is mentally draining."

"Can I bring him here—later, during the day—and have him ask my two questions?"

"That would be acceptable. Or you can return alone, if he does not wish to travel here."

"Okay. How long are you staying here? ...I didn't catch your name, how can I find you?"

"I am Loqil. I live here, so you need not worry about finding me today. This particular spot, until sunrise."

"Okay. I'll—see you later."

He sighs. "It's always sad to cause distress with the future, though it would be worse to lie."

She shakes her head. "I thank you for it." And takes off.

The invisible wall does not stop her on the way out.

She hadn't expected it to.

She flies really fast, and then she's standing in front of Terel's building and she listens (she can recognise his breathing by now).

He's asleep, peacefully.

Okay. Okay, good. She'll just. Stand around. Until he wakes. Or something else happens.

Something else happens. Someone is calling Campus Security about a suspicious character lurking outside one of the dormitories about a block away.

Ugh. Of course. She takes off when she hears that and goes as high as she can without becoming unable to hear Terel.

That's pretty high.

He wakes up to an alarm clock during twilight hours and starts taking a shower.

He's out the front door twenty minutes later.