“You aren’t wrong, but I’m sad you can’t hear more.” She picks up her own card. “This is a tradition amongst wise women. It is an exercise akin to tuning an instrument. It should, in theory, open up your soul.” She reaches up and taps my forehead. “It should also open your mind. Perhaps you will have another vision.”
My brow crinkles under her strong, warm fingertips as I look back down at the cards. A few are still drying from their fresh paint.
“Can I touch the others?”
She nods. “Yes, but mind the edges. Why don’t you pick the three that you feel the most called to?”
“I don’t?—”
“You want to get better at magic?”
I sigh. “Yes.”
“Learn to connect to your greater self. As mortals, we call tothe stars above. We ourselves are made up of ancient spheres long since crushed to dust that traveled to our planet and created all that we are. If we are merely another configuration of dust, then why not speak to our kin?”
He’s going to be in the room while I pull on my lyre string and release my magic?
I look at Vann once more, and she sighs. “Kor’Vann, leave us be.”
He looks down at the half-painted card in one hand and his paintbrush in the other. “But I’m not?—“
My power has been an important tool, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of it. Having him watching, even if that observing is good-natured, blocks off my desire to pluck my mystical lyre string and make the gem glow to life once more.
“Please. This is difficult for me.”
He takes a deep breath, and I dislike the hardness I find there. He is such good friends with Teo, but we have little interaction outside of that.
But his large, silver-blue eyes soften as they watch me. “Very well, My Queen.”
Relief flashes across my body.
“Thank you.” I smile as he carefully sets down what he was working on and leaves the cavern with a friendly wave.
Satisfaction blossoms in my chest as I watch him go, but Liana is insistent.
“We are alone now.”
Watching the wise woman trail her fingers across a line of beryl and quartz is mesmerizing as each stone flickers for a second, like a light bug, and then fades back to their glimmering darkness.
I swallow hard.
Liana frowns while she watches my reaction. “Enough. Turn off your worries for a second—listen.”
My eyes return to the sparkling ground and scan the different images, taking particular note of the image of the human woman and Enduar entangled together like two swirls of water rising up from the ocean. They crash together in a mess of browns and blues. It’s a beautiful sight.
Slowly, I pick up the card and bring it closer to my face.
Liana is silent, but I can hear her pleased expression through the stones around us.
How strange..
It is as if each crystal is fine-tuned to her and all her needs. Even I can admit that kind of skill is appealing.
Shifting the stone in my hands, a jagged edge nicks the side of my finger.
I hiss and place the injured digit in my mouth as I look at the others. It’s no great harm, and the bleeding stops in a few moments, thanks to the Fuegorra.
As it does, the enormous piece of Fuegorra crystal in the middle of the room flickers to life.
