Fortune

We always have a choice
Or at least I think we do
We can always use our voice
I thought this to be true
We can live in fear
Extend our selves to love
We can fall below
Or lift our selves above
Fear can stop you loving
Love can stop your fear
Fear can stop you loving
But it's not always that clear

She was just a peddler woman in the marketplace. He wouldn't even have taken note of her but for the bright colors she was wearing. The golden colored jewelry in her ears, around her neck, her wrists, her ankles. It was out of place in this dour village with mud walls and offal in the streets. He remembered a time when humans had more care for themselves than this, or perhaps that was just them and the humans only lived in cleaner surroundings because they made sure of that. People walked with their heads down, barely meeting the eyes of strangers. Hard faces. Lined with care and old earlier than he thought they should be. He walked among them sometimes, mourning for the world they'd lost, lamenting their defeat by the Milesians that had led to this. Today was such a day, though he moved invisibly. These people feared magic, hated it with the poison in their heads. He would not have fit in, and he didn't care to don a disguise this time.

The woman crouched there on the side of the street and the colors of her clothing seemed to shimmer in the sun brightening her drab surroundings. She fascinated him and he drew closer to her, looking at the cards she was dealing in strange patterns. She muttered slightly as she looked them over. A tilt of her head as he stood before her, then crouched down. She looked up frowning, eyes staring through him, unable to pierce the Veil around him. He looked back steadily, but she finally shook her head and looked back down at her cards, shuffling them from hand to hand.

She drew one out. A King with a wand beside him. She laid it on the ground.

"The King comes calling from time to time, leading them, stirring them up, pushing, always pushing. Love him, hate him, he is what he is and it will take much to change him. Some say it ought not be done."

Her voice was light, conversational, younger than her face. People stopped and stared as she spoke, then made the sign to ward off evil and moved away from her.

( The journey )