Today, I received a knife with an amber on the hilt. My mentor, Sister Hilga, told me it is the “key to the past” and that I must not lose it. “Every Sister at the Convent has their own key,” she said. “And they are not to be shared.”
She also gave me a huge book called A Brief Guide to the Sight-witches and this diary, in which I’m supposed to record all events of the day. Then, upon waking, I must record all of my dreams.
I hope I can remember my dreams. I’ve never remembered them before.
Today, I learned the hierarchy of the Sightwitch Sisters. I don’t think I’ll forget the three kinds of Sisters, seeing as I live here now and will be seeing them every day, but I also do not want to disobey my mentor. Especially since my roommate, a girl named Ryber Fortiza, has now scolded me twice for not following the rules.
Ryber is from Illrya, and she’s just like Gran-Mi always said the Illryans were: focused and serious.
“Your bed is not made right,” Ryber pointed out earlier. Then just a few moments later, she said, “You will get us into trouble, Tanzi. The lanterns are snuffed at the twenty-first chimes, and lighting a candle after that would be breaking Rule 33.”
Her dark eyes have been narrowed ever since and her brow sloped so low. Gran-Mi would say that she has a face for telling stories, because it is so expressive.
I miss Gran-Mi. I hope I don’t cry tonight. I don’t think Ryber would like that.
Oh, no, Ryber is staring expectantly at me again. I had better write what I remember from my lessons.
First, we were assigned something called the Nine Star Puzzle. “Given the nine stars,” Hilga said, “connect them all with only four lines and without lifting your chalk from the slate.”
The nine stars were laid out like this:
But I still haven’t figured out how to connect the stars with only four lines. And I’ve tried a hundred different ways.
After that, we learned the three kinds of Sisters.
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.