My tainted thoughts reminded me that there was another way. And so I was taken back to the day I was asked to accompany Farah to the city centre to buy cleaning supplies.
As I exited the cluttered shop, I was startled at the loud croaking noise that pierced my ears. My head snapped up. A sharp-eyed raven with glossy black feathers was perched atop ashop sign. It twitched its wings and tilted its head with sharp jerks. Then it stilled. The raven’s intense look made it seem as if it were staring straight into my soul. It croaked again, demanding more attention, before flapping its wings into the shadows. My eyes fell onto the sign.
Aunt Maibee, Fortune Teller. Know Tomorrow, Today.
The arrow beneath it aimed into the heart of the twisting alleys. I was about to dare a step, but Farah caught my elbow.
“We’d better get going.”
The following day off, I found myself winding through the narrow paths. I hurried, ignoring the filthy men who taunted me with their disgusting thoughts. The rats, too, made my skin crawl. I glimpsed the little shop in a deserted alleyway, and I rushed into its shadows, questioning its sanctuary. I peered through the braided fabric.
“Are you going to stand out there all day, or are you going to come in?”
The adorned curtain rattled when I parted its middle. I was in a small room, its walls framed and decorated from floor to ceiling with a variety of bones and embalmed animals, their heads mostly. And whatever little space was left on the gloomy walls was painted all over with shapes and strange symbols.
“Sit, girl, if you want me to tell you your future.” I stared at her, at her giant bush of salt-and-pepper hair flowing around her thin body. “If you’re here for the contraceptive drops, you’re in the wrong place. This is not the black market…at least not for that,” the dark woman said, her tone flat.
“No, I’m here because I want to know my past.” My voice lowered. “I don’t remember it after an accident.”
She looked at me for a while, then said, “I’m sorry, girl, I’m afraid my abilities allow me to see one’s future and not their past. I can tell you if you’ll ever find out.”
“No,” I blurted. Hope was all I had left, and I’d rather cling to it, even if in vain. “Thanks anyway, then. Good day, Miss.”
I was struggling with the curtain. “Wait, girl.” I turned around. “I may have something that could help you, but it costs.”
She opened a dusty cabinet using the key that hung on a long chain around her neck. She handed me a small black vial.
“What is it?”
“Thatis your door to the Seer.”
My eyes grew wide. “Th—the Seer?”
“Yes, you heard right. Drinking this will allow you to see her, to ask her.Sheknowseverything. But, lady, this comes with a warning, all right. You would be in a very vulnerable state.Do notlet her grab hold of you. You must remain grounded, anchored to this Land. Do you hear me, girl? Do not let her get to you, or your soul will be forever lost. You won’t be able to come back and she’ll keep feeding on it. She’ll feed and feed and feed until your body on this Land rots to its core and withers into nothing. No god would claim your soul then; nothing of you would remain. Do you hear me? Do you unders—”
“How much?”
“Four gold coins.”
“Four gold coins!? But that’s absurd. That’s…one hundred silver coins.” I had ninety-nine. “I don’t have that kind of coin.”
“How much have you got, girl?”
“Eighty silvers.”
“Do not lie to me.”
“Ninety.”
“You have ninety-nine, but I’ll let you have it for ninety-five.”
“I’ll come back next month with ninety-two.”
“Fine.”
I lifted the loosened tile beneath the chest of drawers. I had spent all my savings when I bought it and I just left it there, hidden in a hole beneath the floor. It remained still as a vial of pure black, just as it had been the first time I beheld it. The room darkened as I moved it towards the candlelight.
I always chickened out in the end. With this, I could ask her anything, but thegrabbing-hold-of-mewarning stopped me whenever I attempted to. That lady made it sound as if Daekon’s wrath was less menacing. And in a sense, it was. Losing my soul would mean that no god would be able to claim it in the end. Not Amfir. Not Daekon. It would just vanish, as if it never existed.
