"Hey Coran."

"Oh welcome back number five."

"Hello Coran."

"Hello- GAH."

Kiera leaped back an inch or two at his outburst. Her hand was still pressed to her nose.

Coran smiled "Welcome back Kiera. Need a towel?"

Kiera nodded "Yes please."

Coran came closer "This is your sixth break right? That's rather impressive. And the blood running down your arm is impeccably glamorous."

Kiera smirked at his sarcasm "I know right? It's a new accessory for a look I've been working on. You know the 'beat up thief' outfit. It includes the ripped clothes and raw skin around the wrists from restraints. Isn't it fabulous?" She twirled and he laughed.

"Yes, it is. I'll go grab you a towel." He patted her on the shoulder.

"Thanks Coran." She smiled and he left the room.

Allura spoke "As soon as he gets back, we will wormhole away from here. Based on your previous record of falling every time we wormhole, Kiera, I suggest you either sit down or hold on tight."

Kiera nodded guiltily "Thanks for the warning." She walked over and grabbed the back of a chair with her free hand.

Coran dashed into the room and tossed the towel at Kiera. It landed on her head, covering her face and she grabbed it with her already bloody hand and held it to her nose. The blood flow was starting to slow down so it wasn't that bad but it still felt weird as hell. You know, the feeling you get when you get a nosebleed and it feels like all the fluid in your head is draining? That feeling.

The Paladins were already all in their seats and Pidge hopped into hers. Kiera grabbed the back of her chair and cling there. Allura turned to Coran and nodded then she summoned the energy pole things and she used her magical princess powers to zip the castle away.

Kiera was jostled a little, which felt a little weird but was otherwise fine. It was the first time she hadn't been flung across the room because of a wormhole jump and she was a little bit proud of herself.

Then Pidge patted her arm "You're learning. Congratulations."

"Shut up." She gently shoved Pidge with her shoulder. Pidge laughed.

Kiera changed the subject "Oh! I wanted to show you guys something! I found it at a stall when I was turned in to the Blade of Marmora! They stopped and got me a pastry and when we were leaving I spotted this and thought it might be important so I nabbed it." She reached into one of her pockets and held up a small crystal. It was a turquoise colour with purple at the very tips of the spikes.

"May I see that?" Allura asked. Kiera tossed it to her and the princess caught it and held it up "I think I know what this is. Back in Altea we used to use crystals to communicate special messages that couldn't be trusted over a wire. You just held it up to a light and the message would appear." She held it up to one of the energy pole things on her platform and they all watched as shadows appeared on the ceiling.

Zarkon is turning. Your Majesty, please reconsider your choice of action. He is coming.

-Sage

Underneath the writing were some more symbols that none of them could make out.

Allura made a small sad humming noise before saying "Ah Sage. Poor man."

Shiro turned to her "Who was Sage?"

"Sage was a member of my fathers court, never the best at following the rules. He only ever did as he saw fit, doing what he thought was what he ought to do in that moment." Allura explained "He was beautiful."

Coran nodded with a sad, almost wistful, smile "That he was. Your father did not like him much."

"No, he didn't. I never found out why. Father always told me that he was crazy." Allura giggled, putting a hand in front of her mouth.

"He wasn't crazy." Coran whispered.

Allura turned to him "What was he then? Because he seemed awfully delusional."

"Sage was what we would call a seer." Coran began.

Allura cut him off "But wasn't the man blind?"

Coran nodded "Yes. All seer's were. They were a rare type of Altean that only appeared 1 in every sixty billion children born."

"So what did seer's do?" Allura asked.

"Seer's had once been the most important members of the court, back before your fathers time. But when Alfor became king, he made a ban on seer's. He still allowed Sage to be in the court, mostly because of me, but he did not like having him there one bit." Coran explained "Seer's were people who had extraordinary abilities to see the future. And not just the most probable future, every future that could possibly happen. They could follow any path they wanted for as long as they wanted. Before Alfor reigned, seer's were advisors to the monarch, helping the rulers lead the kingdom down the path of peace and happiness."

Allura was confused "So why did Father ban them?"

"Your father was afraid of them. He didn't want to be directed down a path by a seer, he wanted to do it himself and live through it himself. Not only that, but he thought seer's were just loads of lies; performers looking for a good paying job." Coran spoke calmly, patiently, as if he were speaking to a class of students "Alfor wanted to lead his kingdom down a path of peace and happiness by himself."

The room was silent.

Then Kiera asked "I feel like this Sage person is important to you. Who was he?" She looked at Coran directly and the man seemed to deflate a tiny bit.

"Sage was my son. He meant more to me than anyone in the universe. He looked just like his mother." Coran sniffed before saying "Anyway, this note from Sage was for Alfor. He saw that Alfor was leading Altea down the path of war and tried to stop him but Alfor did not listen. Sage tried desperately to get the king to hear him. He was fired from the court and was eventually arrested and jailed for trespassing in the castle. He was killed when Altea was destroyed as far as I know." Coran turned away from the group but Kiera would have sworn on her life that he wiped a tear from his eye.

Allura reaches out and placed a gentle hand on Coran's shoulder "Coran. I'm so sorry."

"Thank you, princess. But you mustn't worry about me." He turned around with his usual smile on his face "We should probably try to figure out how this crystal got on the market."

Allura gave him one last concerned look before turning back to the Paladins "Right. Obviously Sage put it up for sale at some point, hoping it would end up where it needed to go. Or maybe he saw it coming to this point in time and needed us to know something."

"Which probably means that something is going to happen soon and he was trying to warn us." Shiro said "Does anyone know what it could be?"

Lance said "Maybe the castle is a time bomb?"

They all just kind of looked at him.

Lance shrugged "Just a suggestion, you know, throwing out ideas here." The group rumbled a small laugh.

Kiera could see what he was doing. Coran was sad and Lance was trying to cheer them all up with a little bit of humour. Kiera realized that she had a surprising amount of respect for this boy who was supposedly dating her brother. Did anyone else on the team know? Probably not.

Then Kiera remembered the symbols at the bottom of the note "Hey, Your Highness, could you hold the crystal up to the light again?"

"Of course." Allura blinked "Why?"

"I want to look at the symbols under the text again. I may know what they mean." Kiera said.

Allura nodded and held the crystal up. The shadows appeared on the ceiling and Kiera narrowed her eyes, scanning the symbols. She started nibbling on her lip, thinking.

She whispered "I definitely recognize those symbols. I've seen them before, recently. I just don't know where." She turned to the group "Is there a way I could get closer?"

Coran pressed a button and a little panel on the wall opened and a hovering device zipped in. It zoomed over and bumped lightly into Kiera's feet, almost like an affectionate nudge from a cat. It was a white disk with a light blue glowing circle in the middle.

Kiera cocked her head to the side "High tech alien hovering roomba. Not the weirdest thing I've ever encountered." She hopped onto it and it jolted upward, nearly sending her flying off. She yelped and waved her arms around to gain balance. The hovering roomba stopped just close enough to the ceiling that Kiera could clearly see the symbols in the shadows. She examined them, eyes narrowing again. She drummed her fingers on her leg, thinking, processing.

Then it hit her.

Her eyes shot open and she sat down hard on the floating roomba. She gasped sharply.

Keith yelled, sounding nervous "Kiera! Are you alright?!"

Kiera just whispered "Oh shit."