Madam Eva

Who

The seer of the Vistani at Tser Pool: very old, very sure of herself, and expecting us.

Where

The great tent at the back of the camp.

Status

Alive, and behind us on the road.

First met

Session 6, the night we reached the camp.

Expected

We had barely sat down at the Vistani fire when a big man came out of the great tent at the back of the camp and called all five of us by name: "You are expected." He brought us in to her, and fetched Sirius a glass of wine when asked.

The tent was candlelit and hung with black velvet, with a crystal ball on a gold stand and two decks of cards on the table. "Welcome, Drusila, Fëanor, Lily, Osric… Sirius. It took you all long enough. Are you ready to learn your fate?" Someone said no. Sirius said he hadn't had his drink yet.

What she told us before a single card turned:

• "You are here for a reason. It is no mere happenstance that you're brought into Barovia."
• About our heirlooms: "I know many things. I cannot say all. The cards will tell. I will not."
• The reading was free. Fëanor asked whether he had to cross her palm with silver. "No. This reading is given freely." His ruling: "Then it can't be devilry."
• Refusing it was not a real option: "You will fail, though, if you do not take this reading. That is guaranteed."
• And, looking somewhere past us: "You may want to take notes. And I'm talking to you, those who watch from orthogonal angles."

The reading

We drew the cards ourselves, five for our shared fate and two each for four of us, and she read them. Every word is on The Reading, which is where to look if we ever argue about what she said. She closed with a warning and a kindness: "Your threads have now been woven and drawn taut. They pull you to the future. I have read what may be, not what must be. You could still fail. But with this knowledge, you have a chance." Then, "Now, this has exhausted me. Please leave this tent."

Sirius, and the card she gave anyway

Sirius had not been paying attention and reached for the wrong deck. She slapped his hand ("You will disrupt the fates") and called him an imbecile, and then again. When he tried "You imbecile, please?" she replied, "I did not say please." He pointed out that it is not nice to call someone that. Her defence: "An old woman is given many affordances." His: "I will stomach my pride for the sake of my friends." It is in the minutes. Fëanor later asked to draw from the wrong deck himself and earned an imbecile of his own.

When it came to Sirius's own fate, she would not read it: "Even if you wanted a reading, I could not give you one. Your fate has already been read." She handed him a card anyway. To the rest of us it was blank. Sirius sat staring at it and would not answer anyone. Afterwards he told us he had seen a lady of ravens, who spoke to him: "What was stolen is not fully owned, and the land can be reclaimed." His account is on The Reading too.

The morning after

Fëanor cast his detection spell over the camp at breakfast. Her tent blazed with magic, kaleidoscopic, "like looking at a cuttlefish trying to disguise itself." We thought about going back to ask her to help Lily with the pies, and decided against it. As one of us put it, she seemed to be one for giving us the tools to help ourselves.

What we still don't know

• How long has she known we were coming, and how?
• Who read Sirius's fate, if she could not?
• "I cannot say all." Cannot, or will not?
• Roger's band had their cards read, forty-five years ago, by "the old woman out there." We have not asked who that was.
• We told her we would say hello when we next see her. She thinks we will.