“ah, well. part time seers, perhaps…- the popularity of the noble art has certainly sunk over the past few… decades…” honestly, she’s made a little flustered. it’s EASY to bestow kindness onto lavender, who had always shown such honest interest in her subject ( and had such talent for it ! ). it’s far harder to admit & deal with the harsh reality of theirs being a dying art. it was a horrible thought that someday her talents might be rendered useless entirely - though there was a bit more concern for what that would do to her financial affairs than much else. she chuckles and agrees that she does remember lavender’s preference, voice kept down so as not to break the others concentration. frown appears quickly. “nothing?” maybe she’s just unused to honesty. most of her students have a history of making it up even when they can’t sense anything, after all. “i’m sure- my dear, i’m sure you’re not. everyone has an off color day. it’s important to let the fates work at their own speed, let them tell you what they want to when they want to - of course… they might decide never to speak to you again…. but that’s- i’m sure that’s not what’s going to happen here. maybe you’ve over exerted your inner eye.”
“I cannot be shut off from the fates,” Lavender’s voice cracks as the panic sets in. “If I don’t have this, what do I have? Let me try again -- I can get something this time, I’m sure of it.” There’s no grace in her frantic reach for Sybill’s hand, or in how she clumsily turns it over, palm up, and leans in. Her search for answers is desperate. She is willing to cling to any fleeting feeling if it meant the fates were still speaking to her. “It’s not nothing, it’s like...” She squeezes her eyes shut. How does she put this into words? “I sense you standing on the edge of a cliff, at the very edge of some huge mass...like an entire continent. Behind you is a great expanse of rivers and roads, mountains and memories. All at your back, flaring out like some magnificent cape. But ahead of you? An abyss. The nothing. What use is divination is I can only tell you where you’ve been, and not where you’re going? How do I under-exert my inner eye? Professor, please. Help me.” Lavender gives Sybill’s hand a pleading squeeze before letting it drop.