The Vaticinator

by Namita Singh

enjoy the privileges I offer and oppose my ‘unethical power’ that I don’t even use for the negative.”

  “Doesn’t mean that you’re right.” I mutter.

  Neal rolls his eyes, “Can we not be bitches and get over this?”

  I mimic his rolling my eyes, “I still think you’re wrong.” I tell him. “And I think the occultist requires you to develop the future…”

  Neal sighs, shrugging, “I don’t know…” he hesitates, “But I’ll definitely not like working for somebody else, even the mighty witch.” He says sarcastically,“It’s enough draining for me as it is.”

  I frown, “What, it drains you of your power or something?”

  “No, you idiot.” Neal snaps, “What am I? A power plant?”

  “Well, you used the word ‘draining’.” I accuse.

  “It’s tiring of course. But equivalent to ‘doing math homework’ tiring.”

  “That’s pretty tiring.” I say, slipping lower in my bed.

  He squints his eyes at me, “You don’t like mathematics?” he looks as if I am the biggest freak on this planet.

  “I don’t even have that as a subject anymore, Neal.” I say.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. Math is such a cool subject.” He exclaims.

  Nerdy mode on. Nerdy mode on. I can literally hear Aakir iteratively saying that in my mind.

  “Well…if it’s that cool….then how can doing math homework be tiring for you?”

  “Exactly. It’s not the unpleasant tiredness.” Neal explains, “Just a little exhaustive, you know.” He shrugs.

  “I see.”

  “Yeah, so I always settle on doing the whole future thing only once a week. Generally I do it on Saturdays-”

  “Hold on a second.” I say.

  “Hmm?”

  “You can’t spontaneously see the future?”

  “…What do you mean by ‘spontaneous’?” Neal asks, squinting at me again.

  “Well…” I say, “Can’t you tell me what’s going to happen tomorrow?”

  Neal hesitates, “I can…but I am going to need a few hours for that….I guess that means that I am not spontaneous…Plus I need to be calm before hand which may pose a problem as I am kind of twitchy as of now…” he trails off.

  “You don’t randomly get images or something of the future? Maybe nightmares as premonitions?”

  Neal grimaces, “Where are we, in a movie? I was joking about the gypsy shop, you know.”

  “Well.” I say, “How do you go about it then? What would you need a few hours for?”

  “Meditation.” He replies.

  “….”

  “That’s what I meant when I said that I am normal.” Neal says.

  “Bending the future at your will is not nearly normal enough.” I say.

  Neal grimaces, “I was…actually not intending to tell you that. But since you told me about therians…I felt kind of owed…”

  “Yeah, well. Pay your debt then. Go on.”

  Neal sighs, “As I said I need to meditate to visit the future. Many other people practice this too, the ones who practice soul travelling-”

  “Astral travelling.” I say, understanding what he means.

  “-Yeah, you know about it.” He says slowly, looking surprised. I give him a glare at his assumed inferior knowledge that I have according to him. “Hey,” he says, “Many people are blank when I mention the word ‘astral’. They usually end up relating it to stars.”

  I chuckle, “They are not half wrong.”

  “Or otherwise,” Neal continues, “They just find it too bizarre an occurrence. They just don’t believe it is possible to separate your consciousness from your body.”

  I simply shrug.

  “Yeah,” Neal says when I don’t say anything,“So, now you know how I do it. I astral travel. To the future. The only added advantage I have is that I can somehow mold the futuristic events at my will.”

  “That’s…actually sort of cool.” I say.

  “I know, right.” Neal grins.

  “But I don’t understand why it isn’t spontaneous? I mean, why do you need a few hours?”

  Neal rolls his eyes, “Astral travelling is no kid’s game. I need to meditate for long, long hours before I even feel getting separated from my body. Then I need to be accurate in what I want to see. Then again, I need to be accurate in mind about how I want the approaching situation to change, if I want it to change at all. It’s as much exhaustive as thrilling as it sounds. And,” Neal looks dubious as he continuous, “Somehow my ability to project my astral body has been diminishing as I am growing up. So, now it requires even longer time for my meditation to reach that stage where I can project. And as I said, I also need to be calm in mind to perform the task. There have been times when I have failed to manage this because of how excited or tensed I am.”

  “That’s…hard work.”

  “No shit that I do it only once a week.” Neal says, “It used to be easier when I was a kid. Sometimes I wouldn’t need to concentrate at all and I’ll start floating…I mean, I was pretty young to not realize that I was astral travelling. I had told my aunt a few times when I happened to ‘see’ something both in my astral form and later in reality. She’d always just brush it off, not heeding it much attention….And now suddenly I get a hint that she might be aware of my condition even before me.”

  An awkward silence follows as both of us stare in opposite directions. After a moment, I clear my throat, “I am pretty sure she thought it wise to keep you oblivious.”

  Neal quietly huffs but doesn’t say anything.

  “I am slightly surprised…” I start again, “because I never thought it takes you so long to…you know…”

  “Astral travelling generally requires long hours of relaxed meditation.” Neal says, frowning.

  “Aakir doesn’t require it.” I blurt.

  “What?”

  I sigh, “Aakir…he is a spiritual therian. Another kind of variety amongst us. His astral form has the capability of turning into an animal. He can’t flux physically.”

  “Flux?”

  “Oh, that’s a term we use for…our transformation.”

  “What, you guys heat up and then cool down or something?”

  “Actually, we don’t as such feel any sort of sensation. It’s one of the benefits. We feel no pain upon transformation. Our skin, bones and muscles, they melt, mold and take adaption to whatever animal we are thinking about.”

  “I didn’t need that mental image.” Neal says, grimacing.

  I chuckle. “The technical term for the whole process is known as ‘fluxing’.”

  “I don’t know why I even asked.” He mutters, shivering briefly, involuntarily.

  “Yeah, so,” I go on, ignoring his discomfort,“Aakir projects his astral form whenever he wishes to transform into an animal. And his astral projection hardly takes seconds. I have seen him numerous times. He comes, relaxes and closes his eyes, falling asleep instantly. The next thing you know there’s a giant wildebeest standing in front of you.”

  “You can see him in his astral form?” Neal asks, bewildered.

  “Not as such. We can see him only if he fluxes into an animal. In fact we can even touch him in his animal form. Otherwise we can’t see his astral body.”

  “That’s weird…”

  “I know. I don’t know why we can’t see his astral body otherwise.”

  “I meant that Aakir’s ability to abruptly project is weird. And that you can touch it.”

  “Oh.”

  “So,” Neal says, looking at me with curiosity, “What variety are you?”

  “Physical therian.” I tell him. “We form the majority. We can physically shift into an animal…as you’ve already seen.”

  “Yeah, I don’t want another demonstration.” He says quickly.

  “It’s actually pretty cool, you know. We are more adept, we can move with exceptional legerity, our senses are better-”

  “Is that why you keep
warning me that everyone can hear me?” Neal says.

  “Well…We can hear perfectly clear at even twenty-thirty spaces. That’s not a very bizarre feature but at the same time it is better than the features of an average human.”

  “What else? You guys can shape shift into an animal, you can hear better. You can see and smell better too? What about speed? Strength? You have strength, no wonder you fare so well in fights.”

  I smirk at him, “None of our characters are so far gone to label us as ‘non-human’. Yes, we can hear better. Our speed is better too…but not exceptionally out of the blue. We can run as fast as thirty five to forty kilometers per hour.”

  “That’s…” Neal trails off, looking at me weirdly.

  “That’s not too bizarre. The fastest human can run at around thirty kilometers per hour. The difference is not much.”

  “Okay…if you put it like that.” Neal consents, “Only, the difference is that you may probably not look human…” he trails off again.

  “Hold on.” I say, “Are you assuming that I am narrating my characters as an animal?”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “We are that fast in our human form, you idiot.” I tell him.

  “Oh.”

  “We don’t usually prefer to flux into a whole animal. Save for Aakir, he prefers the whole thing. The rest of us just usually convert a part of ourselves. My father and I prefer to flux only our arms for better strength.”

  “I noticed.” Neal says dryly. He sighs, “I thought…”

  “What?”

  He clears his throat, “For some reason, werewolves are running in my mind.”

  I laugh, “There are records of therians who can convert only into a particular animal. They are listed amongst the ‘defective’ therians. I mean, our species has been growing since a long time now. So the reproduction between therians sometimes ends up