Cards Reshuffled

There are many ways to divine the future, and I can’t claim to be equally adept at them all. Yet I always like to speak to another person skilled at it, to watch the way others work and hopefully learn from them. And if they promise me true love with an attractive and adorable special person, then so much the better.

Excerpt from ‘Ruminations Of A Master Bard’

“Hi! Are you an elf? You look a little bit like an elf, but different.”

Zaerini blinked at the small dark-haired boy who watched her curiously. He had been drawing in the dirt with a stick, it seemed, just outside the genie tent, and looked like he might be seven or so. “Hi yourself,” she said, smiling at the child. “I’m not an elf exactly, I’m a half-elf. Part elf, part human. And who might you be?”

“I’m Rinin!” the boy said. “I live around here…sort of. Why are your eyes that color?”

“Well…”

“I can do a trick! Wanna see?” The child stuck his tongue out, then wrenched his face into a hideous grimace. “See?” he said once he was back to normal. “Just like a troll!”

“Very nice,” the bard said in a serious voice. “Here, I’ll show you something else.” Putting her hand behind his ear, she used a small sleight of hand trick, pretending to extricate a coin. “I can’t imagine you didn’t feel that in there,” she said, spinning the coin across her palm before flipping it to him. But since it was in there, it’s yours of course. Have fun!”

“Wait!” Rinin called out. “Want to come home with me? I’m sure mother wants to see you. And you’ll want to see her too, she knows everything, and she can do magic, and tell the future!”

“Surely we have more important things to do with our time?” Jaheira said, but in a low voice so the boy wouldn’t hear.

“Maybe…” Zaerini said. “But I don’t think it could take all that long…and I want to see what he meant about telling the future.” She, too, had lowered her voice by now. “Perhaps it’s just a trick, but perhaps this woman really knows something, something to help me get better at interpreting my cards. It’s worth a try.”

“And if it is a trick,” Jan cheerfully said, “then I have just the thing to deal with it.” He held up a twisted, purple bottle. “Would you look at what that genie outside the tent was carrying around, making an unsightly bulge in his pocket? I’m sure he’ll be very grateful that I helped him removed it, this way it won’t cause him an unsightly hernia or something. Can you imagine a genie with a hernia? Wonder if he’d swell like a balloon, just like my cousin Jiminy Jansen did after he accidentally ate the magical dough that a wizard had baked for his next clay golem? Poor Jiminy…he turned bright green, and afterwards everybody called him ‘The Incredible Bulk’. Made him really angry it did, some people have no patience at all.”

“Jan!” Jaheira snapped. “What about that bottle?”

“This, my dear Jae? This would be a Genie-in-a-bottle, or actually, judging by what my divination spell told me, an Efreeti-in-a-bottle. Wonder why it’s always a bottle and not, say, a saltshaker or a jar?”

“Actually,” Rini said, remembering her first memorable encounter with a djinn, “that reminds me of this madwoman we encountered near Firewine Bridge who carried about a genie in a jar…”

Jan’s eyes lit up. “A story!” he exclaimed. “Go on, tell me all about it!”

“Do you ever get tired of stories?” Anomen asked.

“Of course not, Ano! I may know a thousand and one of them, all of them true, but I’m always on the lookout for more. Have to vary myself in order to entertain my audience, after all. I wouldn’t want my friends to get annoyed with me. Did I tell you the one about the paladin and the Flesh Golem yet, by the way?”

Anomen groaned.

Rinin’s home turned out to be a cluster of tents of different sizes, a short distance away from the Trademeet town wall. People moved among them, talking, sometimes laughing. Somewhere close by food was being cooked, and it smelled lovely, hot and spicy. All the people among the tents were similarly dressed, the men tending towards wide-brimmed hats, and impressive mustaches, the women wearing wide skirts, and while the young girls all had their hair braided, the mature women had theirs hidden by a scarf. Children ran here and there among the tents, playing. She passed a craftsman working on a silver necklace, and marveled at its beauty. Hardly had she turned her head away before she was instantly distracted by the hauntingly beautiful and sad sound of a violin. “Rinin?” she asked, as the boy led her towards a dark blue tent, chattering excitedly all the time. “Who are your people?”

“We are Rom, young traveler,” a woman’s voice said from inside the tent. “And you are welcome among our tents, as long as you come as friends. I am Kveroslava.” Then the tent flap was pulled aside, and the owner of the voice emerged. She was a middle-aged woman, tall and a little bony in the body, with an elongated and vaguely horse-like face, dominated by a pair of dark and knowing eyes. Her wide skirts were blue, the same deep midnight blue of the tent, and had so many petticoats that they almost seemed to walk on their own. A few strands of black hair peeked from beneath her cream-colored scarf. As Rini briefly introduced herself and her friends, she noticed that the woman never took her eyes off her. It was just a little bit unnerving.

The Rom, she learnt, after having been invited inside the tent and offered some very hot tea, normally lived deeper into the forest, moving around now and then. Yet now the forest had turned dark and dangerous. Wild animals attacked in ways they had not done before, large groups of them teaming up, deliberately seeking humans out. People had been killed, far too many of them, and then the Rom had fled, seeking the relative safety of the city. Unfortunately, Trademeet had not given them a warm welcome at all. “They accuse us of bringing the darkness of the wild with us,” Kveroslava explained, shaking her head with exasperation. “They accuse us of practicing evil magic, and rousing the animals against them, and of being in league with the druids.”

“What of these druids?” Jaheira asked. “I am of the druidic faith myself, it is my duty to seek the heart of this mystery out.”

“There is a druid grove a little over one day’s journey from here,” Kveroslava said. “A wild but beautiful place, it is said, though I have never seen it with my own eyes. The druids have always co-existed peacefully with the city before – why this would suddenly cease I do not know, and I have been able to learn nothing of it.”

“We should go there as soon as possible,” Jaheira said, turning to Zaerini. “There is not telling when the next attack might come.”

“Maybe those stuffy guards will finally let us inside the town if we do something about the druids,” Jan suggested. Then he winked. “But if you prefer it, your Worship, this nimble gnome could always get across the wall and go on a little ‘shopping’ expedition first.”

“It wouldn’t do any good,” Edwina said. “The genies, remember? The tradesmen of Trademeet will have nothing for you to steal. (Sometimes I wonder how these people would be able to survive without me pointing out the obvious. Probably they’d forget to keep breathing.)”

“Oh yes, thanks for that, Red! Sure you haven’t chosen the wrong path in life? You might have become a good thief, you know. I could teach you some…want to try getting this turnip out of my pocket?”

“I most certainly do not want to touch your turnip, you disgusting little root-vegetable fetishist!”

Kveroslava briefly cleared her throat. “If you enjoy konáfni, short one, then I have an excellent recipe for a soup containing both them, chicken and garlic. Let us discuss this later.”

“You like turnips?” Jan said, looking about ready to kiss the Rom woman’s feet. “Want to elope with me, oh uncommonly-wise-one?”

Kveroslava smiled briefly, her eyes glittering. “I am a wife and mother already, friend. I fear it is not to be. But I still hope you will aid me. The Rom would like to return to the forest. Are you intent on bringing this about?”

“For you, oh fair turnip-lover? Anything.”

“Minsc and Boo are always ready to kick Evil’s Butt, wherever it tries to hide!” Minsc said, raising Boo to eye-level and stroking him adoringly. The hamster squeaked with satisfaction. “Minsc would rather not hurt any more poor animals though…that makes him sad, even if Boo says he had to.”

“If there is indeed some dark force corrupting this place, and not simply wild animals grown dangerous with hunger, then it is our solemn duty to banish the foulness in the name of Helm,” Anomen said in a very earnest voice. Rini noticed Edwina making a disgusted face, and sighed inwardly.

“I suppose we are,” she said. “I’d rather have had a promise from the Mayor first though, that he will pay us after it’s done. If they try to send us off with a pat on the back after risking our lives, then I won’t be happy. Jan, if you can really get us into the city unnoticed, then I think we should do that first. And then we can see about these druids.”

“You will aid us too then,” Kveroslava said, her voice decisive. “If you can do this, we will be very grateful. And for now, I wish to offer what aid I can. I am not only the heart of this clan, the mother of the family…I am also a drabarni, what you would call a teller of the future. If you wish, I will see what I can see about each one of you, and hopefully find something that may help you in days to come.”

Zaerini looked at her friends. “I don’t know about the rest of you,” she said, “but I’m going for it.”

“You should go last though, young drabarni,” Kveroslava said, a small smile playing around her lips. “Yes, I can sense your power. Would you not sense a blazing fire if you sat down right next to it? But I can see that though you are very strong, you have had to learn on your own. If you wish, I will be happy to tell you about our gift, but it must be afterwards.”

“Oh…” Rini said, feeling a little flustered under the Rom woman’s dark gaze. “All right. I’d like that. But why must I go last?”

“The currents of fate around a drabarni are always strong. If I focus on them, they will distract me so that I cannot see your friends’ fates properly. Now then…who wishes to go first?”

“Minsc and Boo will go first, to make certain it’s safe for their witch,” the ranger said, stepping in front of Zaerini. “Boo knows the future too, he says that anybody trying to harm Minsc’s witch will have a very short one.”

“Of that,” Kveroslava said, “I have no doubt, large one. Now hold out your hands…yes, both of them. The…Boo…can sit on your shoulder for a little while, can he not? Good. Now let me see.” She peered intently at the rangers palms for a little while, completely immobile, her body looking almost frozen in place. When she eventually spoke, her voice sounded hollow, and as if it was coming from very far away. “Your heart is as great as your body is strong, it will protect you well in the days ahead. Much you have lost, but there is goodness and compassion in your heart, and much love. You are wiser than you know, and more than you seem, as is your small companion.”

“Minsc knows this,” Minsc said. “Boo is a miniature giant space hamster, after all. But it was nice to say kind things all the same!”

“The druid…” Kveroslava said, still in a trance, and she turned to Jaheira. “Teetering always on the edge, striving for balance. Your quest for equilibrium will become even more difficult in the days ahead. There will be choices to make, and if you choose wrong, then all is lost. A heavy responsibility rests on your shoulders, and it will not be lifted until you are granted forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness?” Jaheira asked, scowling, but there was a hint of nervous tension in her voice. “Woman, what are you saying? I require no forgiveness, I have done nothing wrong.”

“So you say, and so it may well be. But in your heart of hearts you yearn for it still, and that is why your hatred burns so brightly. Be warned, fierce lioness! Those flames may consume you yet, you must be on guard.”

Before Jaheira could respond, the fortuneteller turned her attention to Anomen, who watched her with some apprehension. “You strive for honor and goodness, young man. Yet there is also a darkness within you…and soon the time will come when you must face it, one way or another.”

“I will always fight darkness, and conquer it,” Anomen said, a little stiffly. “My purpose is clear, and I will hold to my honor and righteous purpose.”

Kveroslava sighed, gently reaching out to touch his cheek. “So you may, though it is still unclear. But know this: You too have choices ahead of you, dark choices. If you fail, if you betray yourself and others for the sake of temptation, then you will lose the very thing you hope to win.”

Anomen looked deeply troubled by these ominous words, but he said nothing.

“And you, turnip-lover!” Kveroslava told Jan, smiling kindly. “An old friend will soon return to your life. There will be sadness, but happiness as well, as long as you are loyal and true. And this will be important to your friends as well, for it is they who will find the way, and they will learn something that will be very important in days far ahead. The Hidden awaits, and if you aid him you will not regret it.”

Edwina had crossed her arms across her chest, and glared at Kveroslava. “If you tell me I’ll get married to a tall dark stranger, and make a journey across deep waters, then you will get a fireball up your nose, hostess or not! (Promises of power and fortune I will accept though.)”

Then she startled a little as Kveroslava took her hands, and spoke in that distant, echoing voice again. “Tall dark stranger?” the Rom woman said, chuckling in an eerie manner. “Why, you are quite right…though marriage is not an option to that one. Nor is he a stranger to you, at least not in the manner you think.” Her voice turned serious once more. “He is here.”

“What?” Edwina said in a rather shrill voice, looking nervously into every dark corner of the tent. “What are you saying, you doddering old hag? Where? Tell me, at once!”

“Not in this tent, accursed one. But closer than you think…he will find you soon, though you will not know it at first, and nor will he. Choose your words carefully when you do know him, young one, that is what advice I give you. Nobody can hurt us like the ones we love, or forgive as much of us.”

And now Zaerini faced the older fortune teller, and felt the other woman clasping her hands in hers. Those dark eyes in front of her seemed to be looking at something else entirely…and then there was a jolt, and she felt the world disappear around her.