"I now greettttt you, Thetta Zzzina WolfKnighttt, Thetta of the NorthSsteed Pack and all of the Arctic North."
How could Zina possibly forget the voice that once spelt both her doom and her fortune once upon a ti. The woman that had audaciously declared herself to be a fortune teller who told not just the tale of the one side of the coin, but also spelt the tale of the other side of the coin.
Nothing could quite possibly make her forget such a voice.
Zina returned the woman’s bow with a curt but respectful one of her own. "Seer," she greeted, "you must be the seer from the Two Sides Of The Coin Troupe."
"Indeed." The ancient woman smiled exposing two or three already missing tooth. "Although calling a Ssseeeer might be quite flagrant and audacioussss, Theta. I am but a re fortune teller." The woman hissed the words in an almost taunting drawl.
Zina smiled, although it ca off strained. "Pray tell, what is the difference?"
The woman’s smile stretched into a broad, almost taunting smile. "There’s one difference that standssss between us even now. And that is that you’re a Ssseer, and I a fortune teller."
"What about it?" Zina probed, even more confused by the analysis that the woman was proposing. It wasn’t that she didn’t ordinarily understand the difference in the words themselves, it was that she feared that the woman was intentionally drawing that line to drive ho a point.
"Why don’t we start with why you’ve summoned , Great Seer." The woman hissed in a like manner.
"I am apprehensive though as you haven’t nad a price yet," Zina said in response, "afterall it’s a well known fact after all that there’s hardly a free thing in this world."
The woman smiled shrewdly, and the contrast to her grey hairs that stuck out of place like tiny strands waving to the wind was quite apparent to Zina.
"Indeed, everything has a price. However, if you will permit Theta, then the price I must seek is one that I can only ntion when I am done performing whatever reason as to why you’ve summoned ."
Zina stalked to the woman, hands splayed before her and resting on her abdon. She smirked, "for all you know I might have summoned you to take your life for my disaster which you once spelt. How audacious of you to think that I intend to allow you to leave this place alive."
The woman smirked in return although her stance still looked submissive. "But your disaster is yet to co to pass, blind one."
Zina stiffened; as she had expected, the woman had of course rembered her from many years ago. And as she had feared, her disaster that the woman spelt was yet to co to pass.
It was a different kind of disaster from the one she had imagined.
"You shall rissssse to heightsssss won can only dream of in the dead of the night, but your disssssaster shall follow quickly after, for you will et a man who is ant to take your life away, but instead he will take your breath away. Dissssassster of fate!"
Zina had never forgotten those words for even a day. Not the mystery in the lines, nor the play with words. As she recited both the fortune and disaster the woman standing before her spelt sixteen years ago, the possible anings to it only threatened to have her burst into laughter.
A man who is instead supposed to take her life away but will instead take her breath away? Zina marvelled at the skillful play with words, at the sa ti she mourned how utterly stupid she had been to not see the words for what they actually were.
"I must have interpreted you wrongly," Zina mused out loud, truly befuddled. Sybril though stood as silent as a mouse, taking in their interactions.
"But I told you it was a dissssassster... taking your breath away doesn’t necessssarily an your heart. It could still an your life," the woman drawled fearlessly.
And that, in her words, was the true interpretation to her play with words while telling Zina the fortune years ago. The woman had basically told her that after she had risen to heights that won could only dream of in the dead of the night, then the man who stole her heart would have to take her life away too.
Zina faced the woman squarely. It felt as though missing pieces to the puzzles in her life were falling into place. All the prophecies, all the visions whether from her younger self, or from her mother, or from the five great evils were all true and false in their own rights.
It was only a matter of perspective.
"I however refuse to acknowledge the disaster you’ve spelt for ." Zina gritted in a voice that left no room for objections. Like saying it would convince the world of her own conviction.
The woman’s iridescent white eyes glinted. "And there lies the power of a Ssseeer," she drawled, "the fate is for to read, but at the ultimate point, however you decide to see it is a power that none other can possess."
Zina stalked for the woman until there was no other space between them. "I am looking for soone who can teach the way of the Sight. You’ve been in this business for far longer so I shall trust in your vast knowledge. You once looked down at a blind girl who had nothing save her staff, and yet you declared that she would rise to heights that won could only imagine. It is my belief in that prophecy that has laid the foundation for my belief in your capability. So I ask, will you teach the way of the Sight?"
The woman bowed impossibly lower, "if it’s your command, then this humble servant will teach all that she can."
And finally, Zina asked the question that still hung unanswered between the both of them. "And what is your prize? I must have your answer before we proceed."
There was a slight pause, then the woman said. "All this humble servant wishes is that you see the day that I will die."
Reviews
All reviews (0)