Welcome brave adventurer, to the uncharted waters of my imagination. Hereafter is a story that does not require any foreknowledge, but you might enjoy it a little more if you read its predecessor.
The ideas for this tale frothed like the quantum foam at the boundary of the real, and I had the devil's own job resolving them into some sort of coherent... narrative. What that pseudo-scientific gobbledygook boils down to is that I didn't plan this very well so there a few (minor) continuity errors betwixt the previous instalment and this. Such is the lot of the hapless writer. I will (I promise!) get around to resolving them at some point but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy what I've written.
Dialogue in other languages - except for the argot of Creation - is as per Google Translate. Suggestions for vernacular (the vulgar, the better!) are welcomed and will be incorporated into a subsequent revision.
As ever, any resemblance to mundane or fae, living, dead, or in some terrible unresolved Schrödinger duality, is purely coincidental.
Constructive criticism is very welcome.
Divination
Other than every waking minute, the Wizard was not thinking about his upcoming nuptials. He loved Frances, there was no doubt about that, but he fretted about the future. His lifespan was unknown but there were legends of practitioners that had lived for over a thousand years. The Iskian battle mage Manjate was around the five century mark. This meant living unchanged while Frances aged and ultimately died. This was what most mundane humanity expected and was - more or less - prepared for. He took a deep breath. The future is, what was that lightning Skazen phrase?
'The future is tekkon!' (Best translation: 'not only stranger than we suppose, but stranger than we can imagine').
So, one day at a time, best foot forward, and all the other clichés that dealt with living in a non-determinate universe. But practitioners did have a foot in the door...
"I think," he said, looking at his apprentice, "that it is time to test your ability for divination."
Melissa took an equally deep breath. She knew that this was not a trivial Work. How 'not trivial' rather depended on her ability.
"Will I see the future?"
"The future
and
the past."
She thought about this for a bit. The Wizard liked this in his student. She was a Queen and a strong-willed young woman but not afraid to admit ignorance and take instruction.
"If I can see the past, can I change it?"
"The past is dead, nothing lives there," he said, shortly.
Melissa looked at him. "But how can that be? I remember-"
He cut her off. "Yes. You
remember
. What is it you remember? You remember the things you saw, the things you heard and felt with your senses, you remember your feelings. But do you remember all the things you
didn't
see, the things you
didn't
feel? The feel of the lichen on the stones in the graveyard, the taste and smell of the meal the serving staff ate in their dining room, the sound of the storm lashing the walls of Hekaa in far Lonyan... in a word,
everything else.
What we remember is an imperfect fraction. Think what the past would be like if it were built out of our memories. There is a charming Acapeste folk song, "
I remember it well.
"
"I know that song!" said Inaya.
"That brilliant sky."
"We had rain!"
the Wizard responded in a surprisingly good baritone.
"Those Etian songs!"
"From sunny Hain?"
Melissa rolled her eyes. Her assistant and her mentor could egg each other on endlessly. "Shut
up!
" she whined.
The Wizard and Inaya grinned at each other. He continued, "Only a God could encompass the whole. So, believe me when I say that all life is here, in this instant."
Melissa nodded, trying to process what Edmund was saying. He continued.
"Now, the past is fixed, like a picture. But the future is different. There is some certainty about what might happen in the next few minutes, the next few hours, but as the viewpoint moves further and further away, the possibilities multiply one on top of another until all is a blur." He hesitated. "Although some events loom out of the murk, too difficult to see clearly but enough to give a sense of foreboding. It does not do well to dwell on the future. To do so can lead to paralysing indecision."
He looked sideways at her and chuckled. "Sometimes I forget how young you are. Let me stop waffling and give you something practical to do."
Melissa's face lost its distant look, and her eyes focussed on his face. She smiled. "I love listening to you talk. Which is most fortunate because you talk a lot!" He had quite taken the position of favourite uncle.
"Very well, then! A lot of divination looks for patterns, hoping to find some resonance with the universe. They cast bones or yarrow stalks, deal cards or slaughter chickens and then pretend to interpret the patterns. As above, so below, and all that nonsense. True divination means opening yourself up to infinity - and hoping you have the capacity to withstand it."
"What do you mean?"
"This is a cousin of your fire cantrip in the same way that a drop of water is akin to an ocean."
Melissa paled and he took her hands. "Do not worry. I am not about to invite a firestorm, nor am I going to leave you to do this alone. This may be a Great Work. Your first. If you are successful, it will change you irrevocably and you will be the first Witch practitioner in more than a thousand years."
The young Witch's eyes gleamed with ambition, and he held up a cautionary finger.
"Be warned. When you are an ant, you are beneath notice. When you are a fly, you may be ignored. When you are a mouse, you are prey for cats, owls and snakes, but you may, with care, still pass by unseen. But these are mere metaphors. You are none of these, you are a practitioner, and you have teeth and claws to match. Do you see where I am going with this?"
"That there are more powerful mages than myself? Yes. Although I have only met you."
He chuckled. "And you are fortunate in that, although..." He grew serious. "I still wonder about the unseen hand."
"Your notion that this is all more than coincidence?"
"Yes, but that is a matter for another time. I mean that you will become
visible
in the wider world; much more than if you were only (only!) the young Queen of Hain. If you successfully perform a Great Work, then you may even come to the attention of the
fae
."
Melissa sobered. "Am I a danger to those around me?"
"We are all dangerous in our own measure. Do not shy away from knowledge. Learn, understand, control. Now, are you ready?"
