Le Jeune Guilavene

Chapter 4: Wheel of Fortune

Van remained with the gypsies. They were all headed towards Palas anyway, and there had been no harassment on the caravan or in his dreams since he had joined them. He suspected it might have something to do with the old witch and Hitomi. He had learned that they were in fact quite accurate fortune tellers and masterful in the ways of spirits. Perhaps even a demon as powerful as the Strategos had something to fear from them.
However, the scraw still followed him and he doubted that the demon had given up yet. So he remained more vigilant than ever, with his sword always close at hand.
The Fresians themselves quickly included him in the camp, and Van was always surprised when someone would just come right up to him and tell him go help pitch the tents or collect fire wood, like he was expected to do these things all along. His camp dutiesludeluded hunting since even out of his forest he was adept at catching ground spriggins and long-eared connies, and better with his bow than the wandering entertainers. For this reason they were very happy he had shown up. They were getting tired of bread and salted meats.
In the evening, before everyone went to bed, they would crowd around the campfire and talk and tell stories. He learned a great deal from these gatherings, and not just about the gypsies either.
There were a thousand tales about the Fae and the spirit folk. Primarily because the Fresians fancied themselves to sprung from some of these mysterious deities. Some thousand years ago, a Fae fell in love with human girl and they had a three thousand children. Quite a achievement considering both of them were female.
But after a few discreet mentionings of living near the demon forest, Van managed to get a few stories of demons out of them. Demons, he learned, were in fact just a term used for ‘other than the Karugara‘, the Karugara being a society of nature based deities like fairies and ents. The Zaguraha was the demon equivalent of the Kuragara, though it only included about half of the
sentient demon races. Van suspected Folken was part of this society, remembering his manner of dress, speech, and his title of Strategos.
The Zaguraha were not technically evil, though because of their constant struggle with the human race they were endlessly destructive. There were many stories of demon and human wars, though the last one had been in Istad almost a century ago. Now, like most of the Karugura and demons, they had retreated deep into their lands to either fade away or regain their strength. No one could say which.
Perhaps he could ask Folken?
Van smirked at that thought. His pursuer had not shown himself for almost three days now, and when next they met they would most likely speak with their swords.
The young hunter mentally shook himself free of those distracting thoughts and turned to the task at hand. Somewhere ahead of him he had heard the gentle cooing of ground spriggins. He waded slowly through the thigh-high grass, his hand holding tight to the end of his tightly drawn arrow. If they were anything like sprig geese he could get within ten paces of them before they panicked and flew. He moved cautiously forward, reminding himself not be startled when they finally sprang out of their hiding places.
Not far behind him, he could hear the caravan making camp for the night. They were setting up early, because a storm could be seen heading their way from the north, and pitching a tent in the rain was always difficult. He wanted to get back quickly to help them unload. He liked the work. It made him feel like he was a part of them, the way he had never felt in his village.
A soft rustling of wings caught his attention and he aimed his arrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hitomi watched, transfixed, as the dark hunter let loose his arrow. A small flock of fat round birds the color of the prairie grass leapt into the air and beat their little wings frantically. A flash of lightening in the distance suddenly blinded her. In that confusing transition between sight and blindness she thought, just for a moment, she saw the boy draped in armor, two swords drawn in either hand. It faded quickly and left only the simply clad peasant, and two spriggens pierced by arrows. He turned and smiled at her, and she returned a shaky grin.
“What did you see, child?” came her grandmother’s hoarse voice from behind.
She did not even turn to answer her, instead keeping her eyes on Van as he casually gutted the birds with the tips of his arrows. Had it been a vision? This scrawny creature destined to be a knight? But there was something more. Something had been off about his armor that she had not had the time to figure out what and now could not remember.
“I do not know. Maybe nothing,” the gypsy girl replied.
“Or maybe something, yes?” the old woman cackled.
“I do not know.”
“Mm,’ murmured the witch, turning her piercing gaze to young hunter, ‘I don’t suppose you’ve noticed it then?”
Hitomi turned to her grandmother this time, her expression serious..
“Noticed what?”
The old woman snorted.
“Something follows that boy. Something hunts him. You can see it in everything he does. The way he moves. The manner in which he eats. How he sleeps and where. So many things, really.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
This was not entirely true. She had seen Van wander out of the camp at night and stand vigil over the direction they came from. He would come back before anyone else was awake, sometimes with food, but always with his sword and bow. After everyone was loaded up and on the road, he slept through the morning in the back of tent wagon with Magoman clutched in his hands. She had figured it was long established habit he had gained from living near the Silver Forest.
“Hn. I’m sure you don’t. Well then,’ her grandmother turned her gaze to the flock of shadowy birds perched in a nearby tree, ‘what about those?”
The girl looked at them, quizzically.
“The scraw? So? What about them?”
“They have been following us.”
“Scavenging birds are always following us. They feed off the crumbs and scraps we leave unguarded.”
“They did not show up until the boy appeared. They were with him when we found him, if I remember correctly.”
“So they follow him so they can feed of the remains he leaves from his prey. Look, they’re doing it now.”
As the young hunter began his return to the camp, the scraw quickly descended to rip and devour the remaining bits of organs he had left after gutting the birds. The old woman ‘humped’ and shook her head.
“You’re daft child, if you can’t see something is happening,” she snapped and hobbled off.
“What was that about?” Van asked as he approached her.
Hitomi shrugged and smiled.
She was just being her cryptic self.”
He chuckled and motioned towards the camp.
“Come on. Lets cook these up before it starts raining.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A loud rumble shook the little trailer, rattling the lamp above them and making the shadows dance around the tiny room. Van and Hitomi had taken shelter together in the costume trailer to get out of the rain. It was cramped and dark, but also the warmest and driest place in the camp. They wrapped themselves in some cloaks and talked under the hanging lantern, their
empty food bowls shoved carelessly in to the corner.
“So why did you run away from home?”
Van flinched. He had figured someone would eventually ask him, but he still had not thought of what to say about the matter. He would like to be honest, but look what happened at Fanelia when they figured out? Or at least thought they did.
“I did not run away. My parents are dead. There is nothing for me there anymore,” he said softly, hoping she would just drop it.
She looked appropriately sorry for asking, and changed the subject. This subject was, however, just as bad as the first.
“So what do you plan to do now?”
“Mm… I’m not sure. I’m just making it up as I go along,” he said.
Telling her he intended to become strong enough to kill a powerful demon, while interesting, would provoke more questions than he liked to answer. Besides, he was just improvising. He had no idea how to get that strong.
“That’s a rather … difficult way to go about life, isn’t it?” she said.
Van just shrugged and stared at Magoman as he twirled him in his hand.
“Hey!’ Hitomi exclaimed, startling him. ‘I got an idea!”

The gypsy girl suddenly vanished into the wall of costumes behind her, and the boy could hear her crawling about and occasionally cursing the inventor of skirts- they’re so damn hard to crawl around in. Finally, she reappeared with what looked like box. She tossed it to him, and when he
studied it closer he found it was actually a stack of square cards tied together.
“You want to play cards?”
“Ch’. Of course not! Those aren’t playing cards. They’re fortune cards,” she explained.
“Fortune cards?” he asked, pulling the first card from its twine binding.
The lighting was not very good, but he could make out a roaring beast with six horns standing on the ledge of a mountain, a flock of sea birds circling above. The art was gorgeous, and he wished the lighting was better so he could see the full range of colors.
“That’s the Guardian card. See how he stands before a cave and keeps the birds away? He symbolizes the need to protect something. Actually, he has a couple meanings, but then I would have to explain all about fortune reading, and that could take weeks,” the gypsy girl explained.
“You want to tell my future?” he asked, his dark eyes regarding her cautiously.
“Yes and no. It’s hard to explain. I would have to show you for you to truly understand what they do.”
“I don’t think I want to know my future.”
“Then you really might want to do this. These cards tell you where your current path is leading you. If you don’t like where it is going, you can always change your path. The only irrevocable one is your destiny card, and you don’t have to look at it if you don’t want to. Come on! It’s fun! You’ll like it!”
Van looked skeptical, but finally agreed. He was not sure what he would be shown, but he doubted it was anything good. Still, it might show something helpful. And like she said, he did not need to look at his destiny.
“Yeah! I haven’t done this in forever. The village people are too superstitious of fortune telling. They say it’s an act against natural order of things. What nonsense,” Hitomi bantered as she began to untie the cards.
She shuffled them a little and then gave them to Van and told him to shuffle until she told him to stop. When he was done, she took them and laid them in a circle in pairs face-down until there were twenty cards laid before them.
“This is called the ‘Wheel of Fortune’,’ she explained, ‘Each pair represents an aspect of ones life. In this case yours. Most fortune tellers only draw ten, but it is tradition amongst my family to draw twenty in respect to the fact that are lives are driven by multiple forces and when you don’t take these forces into account something is lost in the telling.”
Van nodded in understanding and waited for her to continue, his eyes glued to the circle of cards. A wry smile crossed Hitomi’s face, before she replaced it with a serious expression. She tapped the cards closest to the boy.
“These cards represent your current position. It shows the atmosphere and area of influence in which you presently exist,” she explained.
She flipped them over. One was of a white stag, similar to a garuuk but smaller and more delicate, running through a forest. The other was of peasant carrying a sack of something and standing at a fork in the road with identical paths and no sign.
“Every card has the symbol of the world, the sun, the silver moon, and cursed moon printed on their sides. These tell me how to interpret the card that his been drawn. This one,’ Hitomi said, pointing to the stag, ‘has the symbol of the sun pointing towards the inner circle. This means it represents an actual event. It is The Running Stag. It means you are fleeing from a situation, emotions, person, or people.”
Van frowned slightly. That was too accurate to be a guess.
“This one, The Lost Traveler. It has the silver moon facing the center
of the circle. It represents a positive emotion. In this case, personal
growth. It means you are growing as a person, mentally and spiritually.”
She flipped the cards closest to her. Each had a man on them. One an elderly man in rich clothes and sitting on a throne, the other young and weeping with a quill tucked behind his ear.
“These cards represent immediate influences. They show the nature or immediate sphere of involvement or obstacles which lie just ahead. This card, The Emperor, has the world facing the inner circle. That means it represents a real person or thing. This person or thing influencing your life has great power, and not just over you.”
Folken. The Strategos.
Hitomi saw Van’s features darken, and knew that this card had been dead on. She was relatively certain that this card represented a person. Perhaps this was who he was running from? The person whom her grandmother had said was pursuing Van? And was it because of what The Grieving Poet said?
“And this one?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“That one is The Grieving Poet. With the sun facing the inner circle, it represents unrequited feelings. Whether of love or hate, passion or respect, it does not say. I have drawn this a many times for children who did not feel loved by their parents. It is a very tragic card.”
“Ah. I do not know what it’s suppose to mean to me. I have never felt grief for unrequited feelings,” Van said, looking at the crying man skeptically.
“It doesn’t necessarily represent you. Perhaps it represents some aspect of The Emperor card? The Wheel of Fortune leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Oh well, you can figure it out later. Next cards!”
She pointed to another pair, but did not flip them.
“These are the Goal card and the Destiny card. You have to decide now if you want to see them.”
The dark child thought for several moments. Goals were changeable, but destiny was destiny. Did he really want to face something he could not change? He looked up at her.
“Can I just look at the Goal card and not the Destiny?” he asked.
Hitomi looked slightly disappointed, but nodded. She flipped it over. A goddess dressed in white with ard ird in one hand and a peace blossom in the other, with the silver moon pointing towards the center of the circle.
“Phruma, Goddess of Justice. You wish to achieve justice. Hm. Not a bad goal, I suppose. Most people end up with The Emperor there or The White Dragon or nonsense like that. But really, what is the point of it if you you’re not happy with yourself?”
She moved to the next pand fnd flipped them.
“The Lovers and The Merchant. The Lovers, with the world facing the inner circle, represent a person, well, persons most likely in this case. Likely your parents. The Merchant, with the sun facing the inner circle, represent a business dealing. These are usually related in some aspect, so your current situation had been caused by a business dealing by your parents, perhaps? Ah, now I’m assuming a lot. My grandma says I should never try to interpret these too closely without knowing the Questioner real well.”
Theories suddenly flashed through her young mind, despite her grandmother’s warnings of assumptions. Her favorite was that Van had been betrothed to marry some rich man’s daughter whom he did not love, and had run away with the vengeful father now out to get him. It sounded so romantic to her, though Van was looking more sullen than ever. She moved on to another pair of cards.
Van recognized the one. Siskos, God of Death. A black shadow clothed in
red and riding a great black bird, sword gleaming the moonlight. The other
was less impressive. A dirty man carrying a sack and looking dubiously around.
“Siskos and The Thief. With both suns facing the inner circle. These represent recent events. Skiskos, signifies the death or destruction of a person or thing. You mentioned that your parents were dead? And The Thief. A dishonorable act or crime has been committed, but it does not specify what or by whom.”
“Move on,” Van demanded quietly, releasing Magoman so he did not crush it in his clenched hands.
“Okay! Okay! Aren’t we eager for someone who didn’t want to do this? Alright, who do we have now? Mm? Swords. The Golden Sword and The Silver
Sword. That’s very odd,” she said, frowning at the cards.
“What is?”
“Well, both swords have their worlds pointing towards the inner circle. They represents two things. One magical and the other personal. They both provide a certain type of strength to the owner. These are future influences. I can not even begin to guess what they mean.”
“And this is odd because?”
“It’s just that The Gold Sword and The Silver Sword are direct opposites. The Gold Sword symbolizes strength gained through magic, while The Silver Sword means strength gained through will power or personal prowess. Having strength in one area usually weakens your strength in the other.”
“But you said they were objects. Perhaps it doesn’t count with objects,” he offered.
Hitomi looked skeptical, but shrugged. She could not offer any other explanation yet.
“Well, lets continue, you have a lot more cards left.”
She turned another pair. One he recognized as Lamya, the Wind Goddess, her beautiful features outlined in pale white as her ghostly form flew through sky. The other, was an albino dragon with its wings extended and head raised high. He was awe inspiring and frightening all at once.
“These represent environmental factors. It shows your influence on other people who also have an influence on you. Lamya, with the cursed blue moon towards the inner circle. Someone perceives you as resistant or flighty. Like Lamya, herself, you are hard to hold on to.”
mentmentally smirked. So the Strategos found him hard to hold on to? That was rather comforting.
“And this… this is the The Great White Dragon. With the world facing the inner circle, it means you are a greatly admired and respected person.”
They shared a look.
“Well… maybe someday in the future?”
“Don’t look at me, you’re the fortune teller.”
“Brat.”
“I’m not feeling very admired, Hitomi.”
“Oh, shut up. Lets move on to The Questioner cards. They’re suppose to represent some aspect of yourself.”
She looked at the cards and grinned.
“They say you have a way with the ladies. Look, you’ve got one on her knees and the other in your bed,” she said slyly.
Van turned bright red and scowled at her.
“They don’t mean that at all! If you’re going to do this, at least be serious about it!” he snapped.
The gypsy girl just laughed.
“Alright… hm.. the Praying Priestess and the Sleeping Princess. Well, the Priestess represents hope in this case and the Princess is unrealized potential. Blah blah. Next cards!”
Van stared at the first card, his heart aching slightly. A beautiful exotic bird with feathers the color of the setting sun, beat its wings against a gilded cage as it desperately tried to escape. In his heart he knew exactly what this card meant. Knew it in every fiber of his body what that creature must feel, so desperate for freedom.
“The Caged Bird,’ the green eyed fortune teller began, interrupting his intense study, ‘with the sun facing the inner circle, means imprisonment, servitude, or if you’re really unlucky- marriage.”
He had been correct in his assumption, but that card held more meaning than he thought she was telling him. Perhaps something more complicated than she knew how to explain or for him to comprehend.
“And The Questing Page,” she continued, pointing to a card he had not noticed.
It was boy, a few years younger than himself, carrying a sword and a flag.
“With the sun facing the inner circle. It represents the growth of boy into a man. When this card is drawn it usually means the transition is very quick, and sometimes very hard.”
Van nodded. For all intents and purposes, he was a man now with all the responsibility a man must have over himself, but he still felt like boy pretending to be an adult. Not even his body, as strong and coordinated as it was, reassured him of his maturation. He still looked like a skinny little kid.
“And the rest?” he prompted.
“The Final Result cards,” she said.
That sounded a little too close to destiny for Van’s liking and he was about to tell her to leave them be, when the girl simply turned them without a second thought. One was of two knights, one in red armor and the other in gold, locked in combat. The other was of a man kneeling before another. Fear coursed through him as he looked upon it. He picked it up and stared at it.
“What does this mean?” he asked her.
She took the card from his hand and studied it.
“It’s The Servant and Master Card. With the sun facing the inner circle, it means you will be part of an unequal relationship. Whether dominant or submissive, it doesn’t say. Oh, don’t look so horrified. It’s nothing like that. More likely a soldier to commander or worker to employer
kind of thing. So don’t freak out! If it was going to be anything that sadistic it would have been The Marriage card,” she teased light-heartedly, and Vanked ked a little better.
Not much, but a little.
Hitomi looked down at the forgotten card and picked it up.
“The Two Warriors with the sun facing the inner circle. It means your life is leading you up into an important battle or struggle,” she stated .
A long moment of silence stretched between them.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
They remained quiet for a little longer. Van stared at the cards still laying before him, but he could make nothing out of them that Hitomi had not already said. He gave a mental sigh and grabbed his sword from where it rested again the trailer wall. He stood and hung up the costume cloak he had been wearing.
“Van, where are you going?”
“I have some things I need to think about. Alone. I’ll be back in a while, okay?”
“Okay,” she said softly.
What he meant by ‘a while‘, was just before sunrise. It had to be just before dusk now, though the clouds would make it as dark as midnight. The stubborn boy did not even bother with a lamp as he quickly stepped out of the shelter and into the rain.
Now alone, the young fortune teller turned her attention back to the circle of cards. She stared at the unturned destiny card. Van might not have wanted to know his destiny, but she certainly did.
She flipped the card.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The young hunter walked cautiously out of the camp, completely blind without the moon and stars and with the rain splashing him in his eyes. Rummaging through his mental map, he managed to find a large over hanging rock they had passed by earlier.
He climbed beneath it, scaring some furry creature from the shelter, and attempted to keep warm. It was not too difficult. Despite the chill the rain brought, it was still summer and the earth was still relatively warm. He laid down and curled around his sword, his back touching the cool stone. He stared out into the blackness and listened to the rain, the occasional lightening bolt illuminating the endless prairie briefly.
He remained like that for a long time, until the lightening stopped and all that was left was the lulling sound of the falling rain and endless black. Without even realizing it, he fell back into a deep sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Van sat up abruptly, the white sheets tangling around his body as he did so. He stared around the large stone room in confusion. He had not been here in almost a week, and even then he had never felt like this before. In all his previous visits, he had felt nothing but calm and a pleasant indifference. Now though, he felt all the fear and anxiety he did in the waking world. He gave himself a slap.
He felt something, but it was not really pain. Like his brain knew he had been touched, but it could not identify the sensation it was suppose to be expressing. He was dreaming then.
He grabbed his sheet and wrapped it around himself. He paced the room, looking at all the things he had been too ambivalent to have noticed before. The window for instance, opened to the north, and he could see and hear the ocean, even though he could not smell the salt. He watched it for a while, the beautiful black waves that broke silver against the cliffs along the shore.
The young adventurer pulled away and headed towards the door. He had never been here without the demon, and he wanted to explore before he got caught or the strange detached feeling came back. The door was unlocked and opened silently for him. There was an empty hallway, with an arched ceiling like he had seen in the Qurian temple. Unlike the temple though, the ceiling was high, higher than the tallest Ruao tree and with beautiful columns on either side. He wandered, awe-inspired, down the great corridor.
As he looked closer, he could see gaps between the columns where there was no wall, and he understood that these were separate floors. This must be an immense castle, he concluded, and continued his exploration.
He was not sure how long he wandered, but it had to have been most of the night. He saw many rooms, some of them empty and others filled with things he could have never imagined existed, some small and others large, some beautiful… no, all of them were beautiful. But through his entire search he saw not a single person, demon or otherwise.
That is, until he returned to the room he woke up in.
Van had been hoping to fall asleep in his dream and awake in the real world, so he had wanted something comfortable to lay on. When he entered the bedroom, he found a casually dressed Folken laying on the bed, a book in his hand and the most shocked expression on his face as he looked at him.
“You came back,” the Strategos said, amazed.
Van quickly slammed the door shut and ran down the hall. A moment later, the door slammed opened and the demon began his pursuit. He only got about half way down the hall, when Folken grabbed the sheet wrapped around him and pulled sharply. He was spun for moment as he was unwound from his sheet. Then he lost his balance and fell, his blanket tangled around his legs. Before he could regain his footing, the albino had grabbed his ankles and dragged him back down the corridor and into the bedroom, where he tossed the boy unceremoniously onto the bed.
Van tried to leap off again, but Folken quickly pinned him down by sitting on his back and pushing his shoulders down with his hands. The boy did not have to struggle long to realize he was in a hopeless position and would not be able to escape. When the demon was certain the boy was finished flailing, he began again.
“You came back,’ he said, ‘I was wondering where my sheets had gone.”
“It was an accident,” Van growled back.
A soft chuckle and the hands moved from his shoulders to his back, exploring the plains of flesh and bone there. The boy blushed, reminded of his nudity in this extremely vulnerable position. Slowly, he felt that strange detachment from before beginning to seep into him and he relaxed under the exploring digits.
“How fortunate for me. I was beginning to miss you,” he whispered into
the dark child’s ear.
“Mm… where am I?” Van asked, not really caring right now, but knowing somehow when he woke up he would.
“You are in my home. Our home. A dream aspect of it anyway,” the demon explained.
He kissed the back of the boy’s neck and made his way along his spine wishing he could taste thark ark human skin.
“You live alone in this place?”
“No, but not many are sleeping now. How much of the castle did you see?”
“I don’t know. A lot,” he offered, unhelpfully.
Folken turned him over onto his back and looked down at the curious little elfin creature. Very pretty, as far as humans go, and when he was not under a spell, like now, very passionate and challenging. Challenging in that he had such amazing luck. Despite his rather clumsy attempts at escape, he had managed to stay just out of his grasp. First at the village, safe inside
the temple’s sacred walls and then in the gypsy caravan with its old witch and powerful wards. If he did not know that Gods did not give a damn about mortals, he would have thought the boy was blessed.
He kissed the young hunter’s lips, his body pressed completely on top him and almost feeling the warmth beneath him. Slender powerful arms slid around his neck and held him closer and helped to press their bodies closer together. The demon shifted his hips, pressing his growing erection against his dream lover’s, and feeling it respond.
He had come to this ‘between realm‘, a place between reality and the subconscious, hoping to rest his body while he read ‘The Gyluguad‘. He had expected a very long boring night with just him and the manuscript, his pursuit of Van momentarily halted until he left the protection of the Fresians and that obnoxious little red-winged spirit.

It would seem, however, he was going to have an interesting night after
all.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a clear morning when Hitomi left the little trailer. She had barely slept a wink last night, the lovely morning did nothing to improve her mood. Huddled around the campfire, eating breakfast, she could see Van stumbling into camp almost an hour after sunrise. The latest he had ever been, in fact the only time he had actually been late. He looked utterly miserable and drained as he stumbled exhausted into the little wooden trailer, where he undoubtedly collapsed.
Hitomi flinched. She had found Magoman shortly after he had left the trailer. Van must have forgotten it after he dropped it during the Wheel of Fortune reading. She had left it on top of his pack in the costume wagon, so he would likely find it.
“You seem troubled, granddaughter,” her grandmother said, sitting next to her.
“I did a reading for Van last night,” she said.
The old woman nodded her head.
“And you saw something that disturbed you?”
Hitomi scanned the rest of the gypsies nearby, but they were all thoroughly distracted.
“It was his destiny card that had me disturbed, grandmother. When we first did the reading, we skipped over it because he did not want to know his destiny, but once he left I looked at it,” she said in hushed tone.
“And what was it?”
The young fortune teller did not say, but instead pulled the carom rom
her shirt and showed it to her. A picture of a beautiful globe was seen shattering like a glass ball. The old woman gasped and made a religious gesture.
The Broken World.
The most devastating card one can draw, or the most monumental. Most card sets did not carry that card anymore, and the ones that did had that card immediately burned upon its purchase. As if burning it could change destiny. It was only the old woman’s adherence to the true essence of her trade that had kept her from destroying the card when she had inherited it
from her mother. The card represents a complete change in the world of the Questioner, a destruction of the old world if you will. Whatever the case, it effected not just a few of those surrounding him, but potentially an entire city or even an empire.
The two fortune tellers turned to the little trailer. What slept in there was no longer just a young wanderer.
What could that boy do to change an empire?