Cards and Tomes

The darkness from Samhain remains over Speirling though the blood rain is gone. Speirlinium, glowing in shades of amethyst and lavender, illuminates the night along with the flickering candlelight of the lamps set around the islands. The Firth Witch and her priestess, the Lady Aevalle, sit together in the occult library cottage, each doing her own type of scrying.

Aevalle peruses the shelves, looking for yet another tome but finds it hard to concentrate with Aettrynne's muttering behind her.

Aev Shops the Shelves for a Good Book

Aettrynne Greymyst: Did you cast a negativity charm on these cards?

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine: Um, no?

Aettrynne Greymyst tsks as she lays another card on the table.

Aettrynne Greymyst: The message is not looking good.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine plops the latest book on the table and opens it to a bookmark.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine: So you have been saying all night.

Aettrynne Greymyst: Card after card shows that our work will not be successful--in fact, it will bring only grief and death.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine flips the page of the book.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine: I'm not giving up. We have to heal the timelines.

They pass the time in somewhat silence, Aevalle with her nose in her tomes and Aettrynne flipping more cards and muttering at their meaning. As if knowing what is needed, book after book flies off the shelves, dancing and spinning in the air until resting in a pile in front of Aevalle.

Aevalle searches for answers

The Firth Witch reads the tarot

Magical books in the occult library

The Firth Witch finally breaks the silence.

Aettrynne Greymyst: Have you given much thought about what happens if you are "successful"?

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine looks up from her studying.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine: What do you mean?

Aettrynne Greymyst: What happens to the people you have grown to know as family if the rifts are sealed and time is corrected?

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine: Well, they're here and will be trapped here, I suppose. I know Dhampir will have some difficulties getting used to it--that halfling counts it as a point of pride in having attended the best parties in a multitude of decades. Geo may find himself grounded, at least until he figures out a device to get around the sealed rifts. It will be more difficult to get back and forth to the faerylands, the wastelands, and the Araxian deserts--but we'll adapt.

Aettrynne Greymyst flips another card and hisses slightly through her teeth.

Aettrynne Greymyst: We cannot continue on this path. We cannot heal the timelines--at least not now.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine: I refuse to give up. You told me that people I love are twisted by the events there and that Wrath and I are dead. I can't simply sit here, knowing the fates of all of us in those other dimensions--I can't sit here and do nothing.

Aettrynne Greymyst: That is exactly what you must do, or you will lose everything, and almost everyone.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine studies Aettrynne's face, looking for a sign of deception or guile but there is nothing--no sign of emotion either way, just black-rimmed silver eyes shimmering against steel grey skin.

Aettrynne Greymyst: You will not sense deceit because I speak truth. While you may heal the splintered times into what they were originally, it means that Oreo and Waffle would not have ever existed. Mogdalena and Minou would have never existed. Even Dhampir would have never existed because the Fomorian invasion that caused her birth would never have happened.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine shuts the book in front of her and the remaining books in the air fall suddenly to the floor, shaking the entire cottage. 

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine: So what are we to do?

Aettrynne Greymyst: About the splintering? Nothing. About the mess you've made? You're the curatrix--you clean it up. And I will begin planning the upcoming Yule season.

Aettrynne Greymyst dons a rare smile.

Aevalle Galicia-Constantine can't decide if the Witch's expression warms or chills her.