I write a letter immediately after getting back to my room after classes and sneak out the same evening to put it into the cupboard, leaving the key on the outside of the door again. I don't know if the boy will know to check there, but if he doesn't, I'll just take it out and put it between the history book on Tuesday. Until then all I can do is wait.
Sleep comes to me late that night.
~x~
The next day is Saturday and we have another sword class. I am very excited to be practicing with the boy again, but after a few minutes of every conversation starter dying down and getting one too many hits on me, I realise that he is too preoccupied, not to mention irritated, to socialize and I stop trying. We focus instead on the fighting, which he is incredibly good at. Eventually the class ends and we go to hand back our swords. I decide to try to get him to talk to me once more.
"You were really good today," I say with a smile. Nice and neutral, but still complementing to him. He shrugs in response.
"Yeah, well, if you don't try, what's the point of training at all?" he says, voice indifferent, and oh gods is that a rhetorical question or does he want an actual reason? It's probably rhetorical. I open my mouth to say something witty about trying too hard or something but luckily am interrupted when his friend calls his name. I quickly snap my mouth shut.
It's the same dark skinned girl I saw with him on the first day, though I still don't know her name. Her eyes are a deep purple, which is... surprising to say the least. I haven't seen anyone with purple eyes in years, aside the possessed girl but that's hardly the same - it was the pixie that was purple, not the girl. I almost miss when Knute addresses me again, telling me he'll see me next time, and I drag my eyes away from the girl and nod. He leaves, but the girl stays behind. She's looking at me curiously and I blink.
"Hi," I say finally, flashing her my most charming smile and put out my hand. "I'm Oz, Knute's sword training partner. I never did catch your name, miss...?"
"Oh, Tauria," she says and shakes my hand. "Just Tauria."
"Tauria? A beautiful name for a beautiful girl," I say and she laughs, amused but not entirely unimpressed.
"That is such an old line," she says, still smiling. I do get the feeling she's not taking me too seriously. That's probably for the best.
"Doesn't make it any less true," I say. "Your eyes especially are a remarkable colour. I must say, very unique."
She stops at that, mouth falling slightly open. She seems like she wants to say something but isn't quite sure what. Then she frowns, studying me, trying to figure out what I'm after. I study her back with an innocent smile.
"Are you..." she starts, squinting. "Are you hitting on me?"
I burst out laughing. I guess it did come out like that.
"No, no," I chuckle. "I'm not hitting on you. I just live by the belief that when I feel something is worth complimenting, it is always worth complimenting."
"Oh," she says. I smile at her. "Alright then. Not that I wouldn't be flattered, it's just.. I have someone I like, so..."
"Not at all! That person is a very lucky person." She looks surprised for a moment and then smiles, a sweet, small, real smile. I knew it. "Besides, I myself am already in a relationship... of.. sorts." I pause, uncertain as to how to explain the situation, or whether to just leave it at that, but then someone is shouting my name and I turn to see Gil jogging towards us through the courtyard.
"Ah, Gil, just the person I wanted to see!" I say with a bright smile. He's slightly out of breath as he stops next to us and he gives me a quizzical look.
"Really?" he says. I clap my hand on his shoulder.
"Always." His ears flush slightly but then his attention turns to Tauria, and he gives me a quick, quizzical look. "Now, Miss Tauria, this is Gilbert, my roommate, best mate, right hand et cetera. Gil, this is Tauria."
"Hello," says Tauria with a bright smile, offering her hand.
"Hi," says Gil shyly, and takes it. "So, uh, Oz... Did you hear about the caravan? They're going through town today!"
"Yeah, I heard. You wanna go?" I ask and the grin Gil gives me is more than enough of an answer. "Well, I am very sweaty, so we should probably make a pit stop at the dorms. Have you seen Alica today?"
"I ran into her before I got here. Told her you'd likely want to change before heading to town so she's waiting at the dorm already."
"Good thinking," I say and he smiles. I turn to Tauria and give her a small bow. She blinks, surprised. "It was lovely to meet you, Miss Tauria, but I'm afraid we will have to take our leave now. We'll probably run into each other again, if not in the town tonight, then some other time here at the academy. In either case, I wish you a good evening."
"Wow, are you always this polite?" she asks, smile playing on her lips.
"Only to those I deem worthy," I say with a grin, give her a salute and a wink and then turn to go back inside with Gil. I think I hear a huff of laughter as we leave.
~x~
Alica is indeed waiting for us back in the dormitory and after a quick wash and a change of clothes we're off to the town to see the caravan. She's in an amazingly good mood, humming and skipping the entire walk. It's rather contagious and I too have a spring in my step by the time we arrive in the town square. It is filled with carts and tables and people and everywhere we look there's all kinds of items on sale, ranging from fine jewelry to foods and spices to inks and papers and even books. We all let out a collective "woah" at the sight.
"So, what would you kids like?" I ask as I pull out my purse from my bag. Both of them look at me, eyes sparkling. "My parents' treat."
We spend most of the afternoon crisscrossing through the caravan, looking at trinkets and occasionally buying things. It always makes me feel good, when I'm able to get things for my friends they wouldn't necessarily be able to afford themselves. Because let's be real, my family is loaded, way too loaded in fact, and I get to piss off my parents while simultaneously making my friends happy. Win-win! Except for my parents, of course, but they've learned to accept this minor inconvenience in their funds because they know I could be doing much worse things. And it would probably be bad press if it was found out that they had forbidden me from "giving to charity".
There's all kinds of great things to be found, but in the end the items I buy are charcoal and large parchments for Gil and a new dress and a small dagger for Alica. She would've wanted a real sword, but gave up on that idea when she realized she couldn't possibly carry it around with her all the time. I haven't really found anything for myself yet, but I don't really mind, as long as my friends are happy.
"Oh, that place looks interesting, let's go there!" Alica is saying, tugging on my sleeve. She leads us to a tent made of purple and blue fabrics, with golden ribbons and bands and tufts decorating it. There's an eye on top of the entrance. A purple eye... Huh. We duck into the dim tent.
"Welcome, children," says someone from the back. "Here to get your fortunes read, yes?"
A fortune teller, huh. I guess that explains the decor, which is just as mysterious on the inside as it was on the outside, except there's a lot more scarves and stuff hanging from the walls. Alica is already walking to the small table the fortune teller is sitting behind, shuffling a deck of cards in her hands.
"Yes, please," Alica says, sitting down on the small chair. Everything in the tent seems very small, even the fortune teller.
"Very well, young lady," says the fortune teller. "What would you like to know about? School? Family? Love?"
"Oh, I'm all set on the love side," Alica says, waving her hand. The fortune teller looks up at Gil and I, where we're still standing by the entrance. I get chills as her gray eyes bore into me. "But there is a.. project I'm working on, and I would like to know if it'll be successful. Is that possible?"
"Of course it is," she says with a smile, turning back to Alica. "You ask the right questions, the cards will answer."
She shuffles the cards once more and then places her hand on top of them, closing her eyes and bowing her head. She mutters something in a language I don't recognise and then starts to lay down cards of the table in a circular formation. The symbol on their backs is the same eye that was on top of the entrance.
"Now, open three cards," she says and Alica does. I'm too far to see what the cards are, but judging by the look on the fortune teller's face they are good cards. "You will experience some trouble and soon, but once you push through you will succeed with what you try."
"Really? That's great!" Alica says, clapping her hands together. "Thank you so much! You guys have to try this too!" she says to us. Gil shakes his head.
"I like not knowing, thank you," he says. Alica turns to look at me. I shrug. What's the harm? It should be interesting.
"Sure, I'll play," I say and Alica let's out a small 'yay' and pulls me over to the table, sitting me down. Now that I get a closer look at the fortune teller, I can tell that she is indeed very small. Not dwarf small, but still very small, almost like a child. For a moment I wonder how old she is. She smiles at me.
"Well, young master, what would you like to know?" she asks sweetly. I shrug.
"I don't know... Can you do like... a general reading? Big things that will happen?"
"Certainly," she says and offers me the cards. "If you could, please?"
"Oh, okay," I say, taking the cards and shuffling them. It's a lot harder than it looks. After a moment, I ask, "Now what?"
"Now, lay down two cards in front of you, two to your right side and four in the top. Then, one more card, diagonally, on the left side and put the rest away." I do as she says and then give her the rest of the deck. She nods. "Open them, one by one, in the order you put them down."
I open the ones in front of me. Page of Swords and Six of Cups.
"This is you," says the fortune teller, pointing as the Page of Swords. "It represents your person. It is straightforward and knowledgeable. But also can be crude. This," she points to the other one, "means something or someone from your past will be revisiting. Whether good or bad, cards do not tell." I swallow. My past... I think at the book tucked away in a drawer of my nightstand.
I open the next cards, the ones on the right. Lovers and an inverted Hermit. I snigger. What an interesting pair.
"Your relationships change," says the fortune teller and I look up at her with wide eyes. I'm not sure I want that. "You must keep an open mind if you wish to know the Hermit and an open heart if you wish to keep the Lovers. You would do wisely to remember, for it will be hard to go on alone."
I pause for a moment, my hand hovering over the four cards at the top. I take a deep breath and flip them open. Inverted Page of Coins. Inverted Tower. Page of Wands. The World. I wait quietly.
"You go to Academia, yes?" I nod and she taps the Page of Coins with her forefinger. "You do not know who you can trust, there is something wrong with the students. Something wrong with the school. Big change is coming, a change that can make things as they should be. Make things as is desired. A new beginning. But be warned that along the change will come danger and chaos and destruction. You must take action if you want the change and you must stay alert not to let it consume the world. You will get help, but always remember: it is up to you to bring liberation."
"That's... good," I say, a little dazed. "Right?"
"It is not easy," she says. "But it must be done."
I run a hand through my hair. That... is a lot to take in, assuming it's true. She was right about the school being weird, and the first cards, and surely the Hermit means the boy... My eyes land on the final card.
"Open it," the fortune teller says. "It is key to all."
My hand is actually shaking slightly as I place my fingers atop the card and sweep it off the table.
The Magician.
~x~
We leave the town soon after. I still have trouble concentrating on anything other than the millions of questions and thoughts that the visit to the fortune teller brought up. Gil and Alica don't mind chatting together though, knowing better than to expect me to answer when I'm this deep in thought.
What is really going on in the school? And how big is it? She talked about the whole school, didn't she? Does that mean the teachers are in on it too? The headmaster? What even is it? It's been going on for years now, weird incidents and unexplained mysteries, but I still can't pinpoint all of the happenings into one source. At least in a manner that would make any kind of sense. It's frustrating and time consuming, collecting data and comparing and cross referencing and trying to come up with some kind of logical plan behind it all and of course failing because this is too big. It has occured to me that all the incidents could be unconnected but that would be too much of a coincidence and the universe is rarely that lazy.
I shuffle my hair with a groan. I can feel a hand on my shoulder and look up to see Gil giving me a lopsided grin. I give him a smile back, though it probably looks tired. I draw in a deep breath and try to relax.
I spot something on the side of the road. Something red.
"What the..." I mutter, walking over and kneeling down.
"What is it?" Alica asks, crouching down next to me.
"It's... strawberries?" I say, disbelief coloring my voice. Why has someone thrown strawberries on the ground and then stepped on them? I look around. There's a small cup next to them, evidently where the strawberries were held judging by the reddish hue on the inside of it. If they were bought from the merchants, why would someone take so long to throw them away? Perhaps they hadn't planned on doing it, but something forced them to drop them... But that doesn't explain why they were stepped on. Maybe there was something on the strawberries...
I turn to the road. There's markings on it, though not too clear anymore. Someone fell down right there and someone else took hurried steps to catch them. Now, if I can only find a stem, that could mean... I scan the grass for anything red. There it is, a little further back! A bunch of leaves with just a hint of red still visible. Judging by the distance between the stem and the rest of the berries it took only a few seconds for the person to collapse after throwing out the stem, and assuming they didn't put the entire berry in their mouth at once maybe ten or so seconds more... Which means whatever was in the berries acted within the span of... 20 seconds, tops.
"Do you think there's something here?" Gil asks as I stand up.
"Potentially," I say. "It could all be nothing, but I find it unlikely anyone would've voluntarily squished those strawberries unless necessary."
"Strawberries are damn expensive," Alica says. "It's a miracle anyone even has any ripe ones this time of the year. Or that they'd managed to bring them all the way here from south before they went bad."
"That too... We should take them with us, check is there's anything in them," I say and pick up the cup. Gil hands me a stick I use to scoop the strawberry mush from the ground and then we continue on our way back to the academy grounds, with one more mystery to solve.
_______________________________________________________
Oh my lord. This was supposed to be a short and easy one. Then I spent way too long reading wikipedia articles on Tarot cards. It's still utter bullshit probably. Sorry, I haven't actually studied divination.
Ahhhh it's so late it's actually early. I got distracted all the time this is terrible. I'm just gonna. Bye.
Pie out.
ur topic is "Missing" or whatever
EDIT: Changed the fortune a bit so it makes more sense now. That's all, bye.
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