The Bone Season

Liss is a soothsayer, a fairly common type of voyant, one who requires a numen—a physical object—to access the aether. As a cartomancer, her numen of choice is her tarot deck. The symbolic importance of the tarot is both in its power to allow Liss to see the future and in its ability to sustain her. When her deck is destroyed in a fire, her connection to the aether is severed, and she is reduced to a near comatose state. For voyants, that connection is as vital as lifeblood, and if Liss cannot touch the aether, an essential part of her identity is stripped away. The tarot is thus a numen specific to Liss, but soothsayers may also use other ritual objects such as mirrors or bones. The connecting thread is that all these numa symbolize a bridge to a voyant’s life force, and without that bridge, life is slowly drained from them.

Aether is the spirit realm accessible only to voyants; it serves as both an outlet for and an expression of their unique abilities. According to Shannon’s glossary, aether is also known as the “Source,” suggesting that, for voyants, aether represents a necessary and primal component of life and serves as the connective tissue that binds voyants together and gives them a common purpose. Without that connection, a voyant is little more than a hollow shell. Aether thus symbolizes a voyant’s most profound identity, the medium by which they can exhibit a power that amaurotics can never imagine. When stripped of that identity, a voyant may just as well be deprived of oxygen. That difference, rather than being celebrated, is condemned by the non-voyant masses who are unable to—or refuse to—understand that differences are not necessarily to be feared. In that sense, aether is both a blessing and a curse, but for voyants, aether is so intrinsic to their very being that they learn from an early age to accept the contradictory nature of their existence.