Who: Madam Eva — the elder and seer of the Tser Pool Vistani. Ancient, dark-eyed, and in no need of introductions: she had ours already.
Where: The great tent at Tser Pool.
Status: Behind us on the road now. Will we see her again? — “Signs point to yes.”
First met: Session 6.
The reading
Candles, black velvet, a crystal ball on a gold stand, and two decks of cards — a tall “common” deck and a smaller “high” one. “It took you all long enough. Are you ready to learn your fate?”
What she told us, before a single card turned:
- We are here for a reason. It is no happenstance that the mists took us five.
- The reading was given freely — no silver crossed any palm. (Fëanor’s ruling: therefore not devilry.)
- Refusing the reading meant failure. Guaranteed.
- Asked about our heirlooms: “I know many things. I cannot say all. The cards will tell. I will not.”
Then five cards for five fates, and a personal reading each — every verse is copied into the field notes, and the short form lives on Quests & Threads. Her parting words: “I have read what may be, not what must be. You could still fail. But with this knowledge, you have a chance.”
The blank card
Only Sirius she turned away: “Even if you wanted a reading, I could not give you one. Your fate has already been read.” She pressed a card into his hand anyway. We looked over his shoulder. It is blank. He stared at it a long, long time, and has not really stopped since.
Character witness
- Sirius drew from the wrong deck and was called an “imbecile” — twice, with relish — by a woman who explained that “an old woman is given many affordances.” He took it for the team. It is in the minutes.
- She fetched him wine first, though. Fair’s fair.
- She knew things the cards shouldn’t need to tell her — our names, our pasts, the shape of Lily’s trouble (“something sweet has taken root in you, little one”) a full day before the windmill proved her right.
Open questions
- How long has she known we were coming — and how?
- Who read Sirius’s fate, if she couldn’t?
- “I know many things. I cannot say all.” — cannot, or will not?