It had been three weeks. She knew her way around the seemingly endless woods as well as any of the dwellers there, courtesy of her hostess, the one the rest called the Seer, the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. She still did not understand why the Seer lived in such a small dwelling, when it was clear that she had endless wealth available to her. And of all the things that the Seer could possibly want, the one thing she had asked for was the name of her visitor.
"I would call you Sojourner," she said, a small smile upon her face, "but that name has long been claimed. You have asked what I require of you. My answer is simple. I require nothing but your name."
Her Guide had told her this day would come, when she would need to open her heart to the one who needed her, and she knew the request was not for the name by which all the others she had helped had come to know her. To them, she had been Sasha. But now she was being asked her real name, the one that told of who and what she was, of her essence and of her soul.
"I am Nillina," she told her hostess, and was not surprised when she immediately understood.
"Ah," the Seer said, "of the air, no?"
"Yes," Nillina replied. "It is my heritage, my destiny." She waited only a heartbeat before asking, in her turn, "And what is your name, if I may ask?"
The Seer smiled again. "You may ask, of course, but I may not answer until you are ready to hear."
Nillina, who was well-versed in the art of the poker face, kept her frown of disappointment well hidden. She should have known by now that answers to the really important questions never came just for the asking. She smoothed the lines of her face to show a placid acceptance of an answer she now found herself desperate to know, and went back to the stew she had been making for dinner.
"He will come soon," the Seer said, in what appeared to be a random shift of focus.
Nillina had grown used to these shifts in conversation over the last three weeks - indeed, she had learned the most at those moments - and so she simply waited, tasting the delicate flavors of the gravy she had tipped into her palm with the wooden spoon. A little more garlic, some paprika, and one of those hot peppers, put in whole for two minutes, and all should be ready.
"I know you have never been to the place from which he comes to us, Nillina," she continued, "but I want you to meet him with courage. He is a hard man, weathered and beaten by his own travels through time. He is still learning the art of patience, and you will be his best teacher."
She was pacing the floor before the window in the small sitting area at the front of the little cottage, much as she had been doing the evening Nillina had first arrived, but now she stopped, and faced her.
"I will show you the way he will take. You will see more clearly what you will be up against when he arrives."
Nillina removed the hot pepper from the pot, and put the spoon back on its little rest on the stove top, before approaching the other woman, stopping before her and waiting quietly.
"Look into my eyes, and tell me what you see."
The vista that appeared before Nillina's delighted gaze showed a broad river, bounded by mountains, fed by a thundering waterfall. And there was a road, marked in an odd way that she had never seen before and what could only be a vehicle of some kind with beaming eyes, crimson-hued, moving on the shadowed side. the air was bright and quiet above the scene, but the shadow on the vehicle seemed to speak of darker things, of danger, foreboding pain and loss.
Nillina wondered who would suffer pain because of this stranger she was to teach patience as she recited what she saw to her teacher. She fervently prayed that she would be spared this time around, though even as she did, she knew no lessons she had learned would have been long-lasting without the pain she had borne.
"And what of the darkness?" her teacher asked quietly.
"It does not bode well for one of us," Nillina replied without subterfuge. She had long since suspected that the Seer was clairvoyant, and able to read one's thoughts as well.
"He chose well, your Guide!" the Seer said with a pleased smile. "I am confident you will win this new challenge, and pass this final test."
Nillina blinked, breaking the connection, and echoed the Seer's last words.
"This final test?" She could not stop the confusion from spilling over with the question in the words.
"All your journeys have been a test, Nillina," the Seer said, "and so far you have done well. Here is your chance to bring an end to them, and to find what you seek in your secret heart."
Nillina walked slowly back into the kitchen and sat on the hard chair at the table. She felt the weight of her years, of her travels, of her knowledge, pressing down on her, warming as it weighted her, calming as it energized her.
This was her final sojourn. She would pass the test...
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