Chương 25: Chapter 23 ~ Fortune Telling

04/11/1111 EotTS 19: 00 When Wyohla and Gysel returned to the common room of dorm '54,' Lyma's door was slightly ajar, and all was quiet. Wyohla did not bother to break the silence by vocally inquiring about Lyma's presence; instead, she sauntered straight to Lyma's door, pushed it open, and walked in, looking around. Stopping at the foot of the bed, Wyohla turned back to Gysel, and shrugged, shaking her head, then left the room, leaving the door open.

"We can start without her," Wyohla said, as she produced the wooden deck box from her coat pocket and placed it on the table. Taking off her coat, she hung it over the back of the chair.

"I need to put this away," Gysel stated, and turned for her room.

"Go for it," Wyohla said. Gysel did just that; she went into her room and placed the pots on the right side of the seatboard. Taking Kawvel from his watch atop her pillows, she pointed to the pots and the seeds that were inside them and whispered: "You need to remind me to plant those on the sixth."

She returned from her room with Kawvel in hand; the hearth was lit and crackling softly, but without Ardhy, the flames were only the standard reds, oranges, and yellows, and the bottles of wine Wyohla had stuffed into her pockets were on the table, with one already uncorked, but Wyohla had not removed her gloves. Gysel sat down across from Wyohla, looking at her through the deep green bottle. Wyohla met Gysel's gaze through the bottle, her visage twisted by the blown glass.

Wyohla slid the box across the table to Gysel.

"Before you open it," she said, "I want you to add up every digit in your birthday."

"All right," Gysel said—two, one, one, one, one, zero, nine, two, that makes seventeen.

"Seventeen."

"Good, now open the box and find the Seventeenth Shynaox. It will be 'the Witness.'" Gysel flipped through the deck: the cards felt firm and well-made, with a nice smooth texture to the cardstock, but the cards were in no sorted order, and some cards were upside down, but others were not; even if this was an intentional choice by the manufacturer, it felt sloppy. When Gysel found the Seventeenth Shynaox, the Witness, it was upside down. She removed it from the deck and set it on the table.

"Is it supposed to be upside down?" Gysel asked.

"Yes." Speaking slowly, Wyohla eyed the card with a queer gaze; she seemed to be thinking as she talked.

"What does this card mean?"

"Well, generally it means to observe, or to witness, but when it is a birth card, it is usually not that simple, and not something you should let someone else decide for you, what it means is inside you, and only you can find it. Just, do not do that yet. I have an order for this that I think you should work through." Gysel nodded; in a strange way, the card felt fitting.

"What do I do with it now?"

"Set it aside, then take the whole deck and put it in order and make sure all the cards are upright. Starting with the Shynaox, then the Ladies of the Lamps, the Ladies of the Mirrors, the Ladies of the Looms, and finally the Ladies of the Daggers. You have to do this in order, sifting through the deck each time. It might take a while." It did; it took about five minutes to complete. Once finished, Gysel looked to Wyohla for her next set of instructions.

"Now look through each card," instructed Wyohla, "take your time with them."

"But I do not know what they do."

"That's fine. Right now, they need to get to know you more than you need to get to know them." It took Gysel twenty minutes to go through each of the seventy-nine cards, not including the Witness.

"Now," Wyohla started, "I want you to put the Witness upright on top of the deck and shuffle it. Don't worry if things are upright or reversed, just shuffle. After that, go back through all of the cards."

"When can I ask it questions?" Gysel asked; there was nothing wrong with Wyohla's austere and ritualistic approach (if a method worked, it was best to never stray from it), but one was supposed to ask these cards questions, so all this meandering was doing was building anxiety as to how accurate these cards truly were, and excited over the thought of pestering them.

"After this." Another twenty minutes passed with no sounds other than the crackling of the fire and the ticking of the clock. Gysel went through the cards quicker this time, and when she was finished, she placed the deck face down on the table. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Ask it a question and draw the top card, try to pick something that you can verify." Gysel took the deck and held it before her face.

"What will I have for breakfast tomorrow?" She set the deck down, drew the card, and set it in front of her. It was the Eighth Daughter of Looms; the card depicted a woman seated at a loom, but she was gazing out the window at a figure in the distance. Gysel looked up to Wyohla.

"What does this mean?"

"The Eighth Daughter of Looms represents mastery through repetition, something you do unconsciously and will not change without actively trying to change it." Wyohla paused to give a brief laugh.

"I would say that is right."

"I agree." The front door opened a crack and stopped, and there was the sound of a kiss, two barely audible good-nights, then it opened all the way, and Lyma entered.

"Oh, hello you two," Lyma said, her cheeks flushed, and she rushed to shut the door. Gysel caught a glimpse of a figure passing as Lyma closed the door: it did not look like Visi, but it was not an observer's place to ask.

"I got Gysel a divination deck," Wyohla said.

"She is asking it questions now."

"How's that going?" Lyma walked to her room, threw her coat onto her bed from the doorway, and took a seat next to Wyohla.

"Gysel asked what she would have for breakfast tomorrow and then drew the Eighth Daughter of Looms." Lyma snorted a laugh, rolled her eyes, then grabbed the open bottle of wine, and took a drink from the spout.

"I'm not surprised," she said, her words whistling over the top of the neck.

"Keep going," Wyohla said, and took the bottle from Lyma.

"Do I shuffle it again?" Gysel asked. Wyohla nodded, the sound of the sloshing wine was the unspoken 'yes.' Gysel shuffled the cards and held them in front of her.

"Will—""You don't need to do that," Lyma interrupted.

"You can just need to speak to the deck. Draw three this time." Setting the deck on the table, Gysel began her question again.

"Will I be going home for the winter break, and in time for the solstice?" This was an easy question to verify, as there was no reason to go home, as home was starting to become the Academy; there was also studying to be done. She drew three cards and laid them out: the Fourth Daughter of Mirrors, the Sixth Daughter of Mirrors, and the Eighth Daughter of Daggers.

As for the illustration: on the Fourth Daughter of Mirrors was the reflection of a person disappearing behind a door; on the Sixth Daughter of Mirrors was a woman gazing into a heart shaped locket, the mirror on the right reflected a somber visage, and the portrait on the left depicted a faceless woman; on the Eighth Daughter of Daggers there was a woman slicing through a curtain with a blade.

"You only have two maidens off, Gysel," Lyma said.

"You won't be able to travel home and back again in that time..." She trailed off.

"Oh, that's interesting." Wyohla shifted so she was kneeling on the chair, and leaned over the table.

"Why?" Gysel asked, looking over the cards.

"Well." Wyohla pointed to the Fourth Daughter of Mirrors, but her finger only hovered over it.

"This means an intentional withdrawal or retreat: you will not go home by your own choice."

"That is correct," Gysel said.

"I intentionally would not like to go home; I would like to stay here." Wyohla moved to the Six Daughter of Mirrors.

"This means that you will reminisce over something. A tender memory which will produce a new set of circumstances." She paused, as if waiting for a comment from either Lyma or Gysel; she did not get one and continued to the Eighth Daughter of Daggers.

"This means that you will forcefully remove an obstruction to where you want to go."

"What do you think of all of this, Lyma?"

"You will stay here intentionally," Lyma answered.

"A situation will arise where you wish you could go home, but something will be blocking you, which you will have to cut through, but it will not be towards home."

"I cannot verify that," Gysel said, as she picked up the cards and placed them at the bottom of the deck.

"No no no." Wyohla and Lyma exclaimed together, but it was too late; the cards had been shuffled back into the deck. Gysel set the deck back down and looked at Wyohla.

"You told me to ask it questions that I could verify. I cannot verify any of that, but I will willingly stay here."

"Well, yes." Wyohla ran her hand down her face.

"But that was really interesting." Lyma only sighed.

"What is the difference between drawing one card and drawing three?" Gysel asked.

"Detail," Lyma answered.

"One card will give you a simple answer. Three can tell you a story—like what you just shuffled back in."

"Can you draw more than three?"

"Yes, but it's recommended not to," said Wyohla.

"How many do you draw with the Lunar Divination deck you showed me?" Lyma gave Wyohla a glare sharp enough she might find herself illustrated as one of the Ladies of the Daggers.

"You usually draw seventeen," Wyohla said, then paused to take a swig of the wine before continuing.

"One for each maiden, sister, and Luhnylla."

"How do you read that?" Gysel fidgeted with Kawvel.

"Figure out how to read these first," Lyma said.

"Ask it another question."

"Will I be exempt from Operational Alchemy?" She drew the top card—it was Fifteenth Shynaox: 'the Wound.' The illustration on the card was a woman cutting her palm open above a scrying pool. Wyohla looked at the card and sucked her teeth.

"Yes, you will be exempt, but the exemption will come with its own new set of consequences."

"Bad consequences?""'The Wound' doesn't really imply good things, now does it?" Gysel shook her head and added the card back to the deck—what could the 'bad things' possibly be? likely just the phony professor looking upon his former 'student' in ire, but that will be all. Wyohla's stomach growled loudly; she giggled and recorked the wine bottle.

"Dinner?" Gysel put the cards back in the box and stood.

"Yes, I'm going to put Kawvel in my room." Lyma concurred with a nod and went to her room to get her coat; once Lyma had her coat, and Wyohla had her jacket, they each took one of the bottles and put them into a pocket: the pockets of Lyma's long, brown overcoat did a much better job of hiding the bottle than Wyohal's shorter jacket.

"Where are we going?" Gysel asked from the threshold of her room.

"Just the cafeteria," answered Wyohla.

"All right." The three headed to the cafeteria and dined; none of the staff seemed to have an issue with Wyohla and Lyma drinking, likely because it was such a late hour. Upon returning to the dorm, Gysel declared she was going to bed. Taking the divination deck from the table, she went to her room and locked the door behind her. Wyohla's muffled voice came through the door.

"Sleep with the deck under your pillow and try to ask it at least one question a day for a maiden, that way it will get used to you." Even though there was a shut door between Gysel and Wyohla, Gysel nodded; she would do just that.