“You want your fortune’s told?” I asked, mildly curious.

When it came to the idea of a fortune teller, I had very little opinion. I had heard of the soothsayer nearly as sparingly. I only understood after processing Roth’s dungeon that the soothsayer was seemingly a single person of some renown in Dioshin.

“Due to tribal disputes, the airship still doesn’t have clearance to go through the birdkin lands. As a result, to get to Dioshin, you will head north and then travel along the Abyss anyway.” Duran explained.

“The Abyss, you say?” I had heard about the Abyss even less than the soothsayer. “What is the abyss?”

“It exists along the northern border of Dioshin and Jespain, cutting off Shie Gescar from the southern countries. It’s why there is no safe path to Shie Gescar anymore.” Lord Duran explained. “The easiest way to explain it is that the Abyss is a massive canyon, except that it is so deep the bottom can’t be seen, and if you try to cross it, even with an Airship, you will be dragged down into the dark depths. It’s an anomaly that has existed nearly as long as the tribes of Dioshin.”

“The airships get sucked down?” I asked.

“Yes… no magic can pass across the abyss. It seems to absorb all of the mana. Although, even a bird wouldn’t make it across. Everything gets dragged down into it. That’s where the name comes from. No one who has ever been pulled into the Abyss has ever left it.”

“Okay, what does that have to do with the soothsayer?”

The way he had worded things, I had the impression the two were connected, so I asked immediately.

“While no one who falls into the Abyss emerges, that doesn’t mean that no one has ever left it. There is one person who has left the Abyss. That is the soothsayer. Once roughly every six months, the Abyss gives off strange energy. Above the Abyss, it becomes quite breathtaking to look at, and shortly after, the soothsayer emerges. She travels around Dioshin for a week, offering to glimpse into anyone’s future. Then, she returns to the abyss for another six months.”

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“It’s true.” Miki cut in. “I had also heard of the soothsayer. One of the reasons I had been so easily lured to Dioshin was because I wanted to have an audience with her. I had hoped she could confirm whether Master had truly… ahem… it turned out I had missed her by only a few days.”

“So, this soothsayer will be emerging again?”

“Yes, the Abyss lights have already appeared. Where she exits changes every time, but since you’ll be traveling down the entire length, I hope you’ll be able to catch her and ask her to look into Dioshin’s future.

“Hmmm… I would also be very interested in meeting this soothsayer.” Pait spoke up. “If Dioshin has had access to this soothsayer and her talents, it’s no wonder that King Roth kept their existence and that of the Abyss under lock and key. I admit I had always been confused about Shie Gescar. People always considered it inapproachable. I understood that from the southeast, a river and massive mountains made any attempt to reach it difficult, but I never understood why across the borders of Jespain and Dioshin, a route couldn’t be found.”

Duran nodded. “Yes, the Abyss and the soothsayer has always been one of Dioshin’s greatest mysteries.”

While they were looking off distantly in thought, I didn’t feel like it was much of a mystery at all. Perhaps, I had experienced far too much in this world, or perhaps, I was just far removed enough to recognize the narrative flow of this world, but if I had to guess, the identity of the Abyss and the soothsayer were rather easy. The Abyss had to be a dungeon, and that would make the soothsayer the dungeon’s master!