I was starting to wonder if people were pulling my leg about this whole magic business.

I mean, it wasn’t very consistent. There were solid, believable things like the healing magic McFarlane’s man had used on my leg, or the elemancy Kuro used, and then there were things like this so-called “divination” that Sheena claimed that she was a student of. Thunderbolts and lightning? I could believe that. Seeing the future? That was a whole different story.

Kuro wasn’t pleased about my behavior in the throne room. He made it very clear that I had been skating on thin ice (whatever the hell that meant, since we didn’t have ice in Ishmar) the moment we were standing outside the divination chamber, which had a door emblazoned with a circular orb sitting upon a wooden table. I admit, I wasn’t really listening to him all that much. But one thing did stick out in particular.

He called me immature.

I remember seizing his collar and pulling his head down half a foot so his eyes would be level with mine. “Look, Kuro, you better watch what you say. I may not be a princess anymore but I can still crush your windpipe like cheap glass if I feel like it. That…witch thinks stealing peoples’ contracted servants is fair game, so you’re lucky I didn’t feel like smashing her head in like a clay urn. Which is exactly what I’ll do to you if you ever call me immature again.”

When I let him go, Kuro scowled at me. “You know, maybe it’s just because you were spoiled rotten growing up, but that has got to be the most entitled comment I’ve ever heard in my life. When we walked into that throne room, the only thing you were thinking about was how to get Sheena to help you. But then you call her out in front of her entire ruling council. You need to start thinking about the consequences of your actions. You let your temper own you like that again, and even Alverd might not be able to stop what’s coming to you.”

I was about to punch him when what he said clicked in my head. I had indeed gone and done exactly what Kuro had said. I felt the strength in my knees fail me, and I almost tilted over and fell. Luckily I caught myself. “Oh gods…you’re right. I came all this way to ask the Witch-Queen for help, and I ended up screaming at her. Ugh! How stupid could I be?!” Kuro scrunched up his face, as if he were trying very hard to keep his opinion to himself. I was too worried about salvaging my own standing in the Witch-Queen’s eyes, though.

Kuro composed himself, then tried to talk to me. “Look, maybe if you apologize, tell her you just ran a little hotter than normal, and that you’re just a stranger in a strange land, you don’t know how to act around mages, maybe she’ll just let it go? She seems the sort to let water flow off her back, if you get my meaning.”

I didn’t, so Kuro had to explain that ducks, for some inexplicable reason, couldn’t get wet, as water just flowed right off their backs. As I had never seen a duck in my entire life, it sounded like rubbish to me, but he told me it was the thought that mattered. We rehearsed an apology between the two of us, so that we could get back in the Witch-Queen’s good graces.

Kuro and I waited outside the divination chamber for a few minutes. Suddenly, the Witch-Queen appeared, rounding the nearby hallway corner with none other than Alverd still on her arm. Apparently they’d been on a tour of the halls, because the witch was smiling ear to ear and wouldn’t stop blabbering. Alverd, good natured bloke that he was, listened with patience and indulgence. The damned girl clearly couldn’t tell she was running her mouth.

It brought that unfamiliar feeling bubbling back to the surface, the same one I’d felt the night we arrived in Ethenia, when she’d taken him to see the castle town. But as much as I wanted to let it speak for me, I had to be diplomatic. Hard to accuse her of something I didn’t understand, too. So I took in a deep breath, and waited for the two to come within speaking distance.

Finally, the pair came to a stop in front of the divination chamber doors. “I’m so glad you let me take you on this tour. I’m sorry if any of it seemed terribly boring…mage history is not something one can take all in one sitting, heh heh heh…” She blushed again and fiddled with the brim of her hat. When she finally noticed me and Kuro, the blush faded. “Oh. You two are quite early, aren’t you?”

As I had rehearsed, I bowed my head. “I’m sorry about what happened in the throne room earlier, Your Majesty. It was hardly appropriate for me to act in such a manner. I bring shame on myself and my ancestors with such a display.” It was hard to say the words, but they needed to be said. Then I straightened up and looked at the Witch-Queen, waiting for her answer.

Sheena waved her hand dismissively. “There’s hardly a need for that, Princess. Lord Kertouli ambushed you with that accusation about Ishmarian assassins. Truth be told, we have no way of knowing for sure if they were Ishmarian. They did indeed have dragon-tooth weapons, but such things could be purchased at black markets all over the world. And the documents we recovered from their bodies were written in cyphers, which we never cracked. For all we know, the assassins could have come from anywhere. But we’ve been blaming Ishmar for all of our political woes for years, so it’s hardly a surprise that the assassins would be blamed on them too.”

She then shrugged her arms. “As for your outburst, you were put on the defensive and needed something to latch onto. When I mentioned that divination wasn’t perfect, you saw an opening and you pounced. Anyone in your position would have done the same. I’ll be sure to let the Council know in the future that antagonizing diplomatic guests, even ones from Ishmar, isn’t acceptable.”

Well. That went better than it had any right to, I guessed. I nodded to show my appreciation. “I thank you for that. I know I’m not the easiest person to get along with, but I really do thank you for your understanding.” Eager to change the subject, I cocked my head in the direction of the door. “So, tell me about this divination ritual. How does it work? What does it do?”

Sheena tried to elaborate. Divination wasn’t so much seeing the future as “reading things” about people. Whatever difference that made. To me, it sounded as though she was trying to say that what she could find out through her divinations was completely random. I told her I’d had to see it to believe it.

The redheaded witch snapped her fingers. The door opened with no fuss, as if it had been awaiting the command. “Yes, well, that IS what we’re here for, isn’t it? Come in, make yourselves comfortable. There’s much to be done in very short order. And don’t worry about the door, it’ll close itself.”

The divination chamber was a medium-sized room with no windows, with only four torches for light, and four incense burners hanging from the ceiling. With an absent wave of her hand, Sheena lit the torches, red fire roaring to life out of nothing. She took each individual incense stick and lit them from the torches, placing them back in their burners gently, circling the small room while murmuring to herself, too low for me to hear properly.

Alverd and Kuro sat next to me on soft rugs, while Sheena sat across from us, a small table separating us. A small, clear crystal ball was seated in a dais on the table, polished to impeccable standard and reflecting my face perfectly. Sheena procured a deck of cards in her hands, humming to herself. Every so often, she would perform little feats of sleight of hand; making the cards disappear only to reappear in her other hand. She explained that the incense was part of entering a “trance state”, whatever that meant, though to me that just meant a bunch of extra nonsense that was meant to mislead me. The cards, she explained, were a set up to the actual divination, which involved seeing what the cards foretold in the confines of the crystal ball, or scrying crystal.

Finally, she set the deck on the table, and pointed at me.

“You were the one who asked for this, thus you shall be the first to have your life read.” Sheena’s normally refined voice had taken on a dull, monotonous tone. Her eyes had lost their youthful glow, and the color had drained from her cheeks. Sheena drew three cards from the top of the deck and laid them face down in front of me. After a moment, she flipped the one on my left face up.

The card had only one word on it, below the numeral VI, “Messenger”. As Sheena pushed the card forward, she spoke. “The Messenger signifies that you have a higher calling. You seek to fulfill a greater purpose, one far larger than you can carry alone. You seek aid in order to fulfill this purpose, and thus you come to me.” As Sheena’s hand lifted from the card, I could see that it depicted an angel passing a scroll to a priest, who was accepting it on bent knee.

Sheena’s hand went to the middle card, and flipped it over. This time, it had the numeral 0, and was titled “Traveler”. Sheena continued to narrate. “However, you have no experience or knowledge of how the world is outside your longtime home. You are beyond naive, and have made little progress in growing since you left the comfortable life you took for granted. But there is hope. From here, the only way to go is up.” Sheena’s hand lifted, and the card depicted a man carrying a pack, walking up a mountain.

I thought her remarks were cutting too close to home. I made to stand and retort, but Alverd stopped me, pulling me back down. He motioned for me to be calm, and look at the last card. Sheena flipped the last card over.

The card’s number was XIV. One word was upon it, “Catastrophe.” Depicted on the card was a city, burning as lightning struck it from a blackened sky. Sheena spoke. “But lo, your path is paved with destruction. Your goal lies at the end of a road steeped in suffering, not just your own. Innocent and guilty alike will be brought before the gates of judgment as a result of your desire for peace, princess. Only the strength of your resolve will tell whether these lives will be claimed in vain or not.”

I shuddered. Even if Sheena was indeed yanking my chain, she was telling the truth on some counts. If I marched into Ishmar at the head of an army of mages, there was no guarantee that the people of Ishmar would support me. In fact, in my heart, I feared that it would only paint me as the greatest traitor of all. How many of them would take up arms and resist the Algrustians out of fear or hate? If I succeeded, would they even appreciate the sacrifices I made on their behalf? Such thoughts had plagued me ever since the night I lay looking up at the stars back in Ishmar.

Sheena pulled the three cards off the table and shuffled them back into the deck. She waved her hand over the scrying crystal, and the interior of the glass ball became cloudy. “Gaze upon but one future, one branch of the river of time. See what lies down but one path, should you pursue it.” I leaned closer, to see what was within the deepening shadows of the crystal.

I saw…myself. Locked in battle with someone all too familiar. It was a still image, but the person whom I was fighting I would have recognized plain as day in the middle of a howling storm. Dressed in splendid dragon tooth armor, a mantle of finest silk draped across her shoulders, was Eliza, my elder half-sister. She had a wide-eyed look of maddened glee on her face, and her bloodstained rapier was angled at me. I was suspended in midair, looking to bring my hammer down on her head. But the most unsettling thing was the crown, my father’s crown, perched on Eliza’s head. She was Queen. The Queen of the dragon tamers.

And then the image vanished back into smoke. I shook my head, trying to control an outbreak of goosebumps on my arms. If this was what this kind of magic could show, just one possibility among countless others, then maybe that was why mages weren’t all powerful. They could easily be dissuaded by what they saw as much as they could be motivated by it. It was all a matter of perspective, not hard truth.

I leaned back and took in a breath. Alverd and Kuro were looking at me, concerned. “Hey, what’s with your faces?” I asked. Alverd spoke. “Your face went ashen, Princess. We didn’t see anything in the crystal, but your face went whiter than a sheet.”

I was about to reply when Sheena interrupted me, still in her monotone, but now with a bit of an edge to it. “In this room, what is seen is for the seer only. If she wishes to tell you, it must be outside the confines of this room. I’m sorry, but this is how it must be.” I gave an inward sigh of relief. I wasn’t yet sure what to think about this development. Meanwhile, Sheena finished shuffling the cards again and laid the deck on the table.

She gestured to Alverd, but he held up his hand. “I’m a bit shy about this. But fair is fair. Deal away, milady.”

She doled out three cards onto the table before her. She placed her hand on the leftmost card, and flipped it face-up, revealing it for the three of us.

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It bore the numeral II, and the word “Knight”. Upon it was a knight in armor and horse, holding a jousting lance. Sheena waved her hand over the card. “You are a man of great character, above reproach. More than a decade’s worth of training and learning have made you a paragon of justice in a dim time. Your kind is exceedingly rare, and getting rarer by the moment. But sometimes this quality makes you a thorn in the side of great and terrible people.”

Sheena turned over the middle card. Upon it was the numeral IX, and the word “Rival”. It depicted two men with swords crossed. “You have many enemies, now and in your future. Why they are your enemies will change from person to person, but all of them will share something, some small thread that binds them to some greater evil. But what that greater evil may be, I cannot say.”

Sheena reached for the third card and turned it over. It revealed the numeral V, and the word “King”. The King in question was dressed in a robe of gold, with both hands grasping the handle of a flawless silver blade. “But you are a born leader. Had you time, you would have ascended the ranks and become a fine captain. Your honor and your natural charisma are as much weapon as your sword and shield. So long as you remember this, you will prevail over any obstacle that rises up in your way.”

Alverd looked torn. I immediately remembered his confession that he had abandoned his post to go searching for Kuro and their childhood friend during the Ishmarian invasion of their homeland, Marevar. Instead of staying to hold the line, he had left his comrades to die and run from his responsibilities as a knight. It was one of the things that haunted him. So for him to hear such things, that he was noble and brave, was probably the last thing he would have believed.

There was nothing I could do or say that could make up for that.

Alverd took a good look at what lay within the scrying crystal, and his face darkened. When he sat back on his cushion, his face was a mask of disbelief. Again, there was nothing I could do. What he had seen was for him alone, and no amount of prying from me would get him to confess to it. I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked at me. I tried to smile at him weakly, to show him that everything would be okay. He smiled back, but I could see that he was still rattled.

With that, Sheena took the cards and placed them back in the deck. “Kuro, it is your turn.”

Kuro gulped. Sheena turned to face him, then fanned out three cards onto the table. When she flipped the leftmost card over, the numeral IX was visible, along with the words “The Lost”. The card depicted a man at a crossroad. A nearby roadsign was of no help, having a large question mark painted upon it.

Sheena narrated, in her unnerving tone. “You are plagued by doubt and misgivings. The source of these doubts comes from within and without. You wonder how you can emerge from the trials ahead with your honor intact while staying true to your beliefs, however misguided they may be.”

Sheena turned the next card over, and a surprise awaited. The card was upside down. It had the numeral XV on it, and the word “Hope”, but Sheena’s tone grew darker. “But despite your efforts, you will tread an increasingly darker path that will take you where you never dreamed to tread. And there, you will find the greatest foe of all…”

Sheena’s hand hesitated above the last card. Finally, she flipped the card over. When she did, she finally broke her monotonous tone and drew back in horror. Kuro, too, gasped at what had been revealed. Alverd and I leaned in for a closer look at the card on the table.

The numeral on the card was XIII. It depicted a tiny mage at the bottom of the card, but rising above it was a massive shadow, with a nightmarish face, looking down at the mage with a look of malice and evil. The two words on the card were “The Detractor”.

After a moment of silence, Sheena finished her divination. “…the greatest foe of all. Yourself. For even when demons whisper in your ears and monsters crawl into your dreams, only you can choose to answer them or not. Even if the great Master of Chaos, the Detractor, Imbalancer of Scales, tries to tempt you, so long as you resist, you can stay true to yourself no matter the trials.”

Kuro nervously leaned forward to gaze into the crystal. But instead of screeching in terror, as I was expected, his brow furrowed and he leaned back, his mouth moving but not making words. He looked around, puzzled, as though something in the room might have explained what he had seen, but to no avail. As he did, I took a closer look at the card.

I may not have been a mage, but even I could tell that something like this “Detractor” was bad news. I mean, with a title like “Master of Chaos” or “Imbalancer of Scales”, it was hard not to assume the thing was evil as all get out. I was just about to ask more when Sheena took the cards and shuffled them back into the deck, then laid the deck back on the table. After she had done that, she closed her eyes and breathed out heavily. When she opened her eyes, she was back to her normal self.

“Well! I do believe that was an interesting little diversion! I think you all learned something about yourselves today! What shall we do now?” Sheena moved to get up, but I cleared my throat loudly. Kuro jumped in his seat a bit. “Not so fast, Witch-Queen. I have a few questions for you.” Sheena blinked, then looked into my eyes. “Very well,” she ventured. “What do you wish to know?”

“First off, what is the big deal about this Detractor thing? I mean, is it just some kid’s story to frighten them into behaving?” If there was one thing I didn’t need at the moment, it was to be left out of the loop. And in my deepest heart of hearts, I was genuinely curious. I wanted to know why two mages looked as though I had insulted their mothers merely for asking about this subject.

Kuro and Sheena stared at me for a moment. Kuro then looked at Sheena with a face that seemed to say “should I?”. Sheena nodded. Kuro turned to face me. “The Detractor is the most powerful of a series of spirits of Chaos, Alicia. In this world, spirits are all around us. Many of them are neutral beings that have differing amounts of interest in the affairs of humans. But spirits of Chaos, they’re different. They take an active role in plaguing humanity. They take pleasure in seeing men suffer. And the Detractor is the worst of these spirits. It is old and powerful. Ancient records even state that at one point, the Detractor even ruled the world, and forced the masses to worship it at shrines placed all over the known world.”

I snorted at this theory. “Yeah? So what happened to this all-powerful being?”

Kuro shook his head. “Well, obviously, the world isn’t ruled by an all-powerful spirit of Chaos. So, either the records are wrong, or something happened. Maybe the people rebelled, or maybe something happened to force the Detractor to give up its throne. Who knows? Why do you want to know?”

I crossed my arms. “Well, I just wanted to know what the big deal was. I don’t like not being informed of things that other people know of. And while we’re on the subject…” I picked up the deck of cards and pushed it in front of Sheena. She looked at the cards quizzically. I also punched Kuro in the arm. “You, spellslinger. Do that divination thingy on Sheena.”

Kuro looked at me with his eyebrow raised. “Uh, you realize that divination isn’t really my strongpoint, right? I mean, I can enter the trance state and all, but I may not be as effective as…” He finally saw the look on my face and shut up. He picked up the cards and began shuffling, breathing in and out. Sheena, however, began to protest. “This isn’t really necessary, is it?” I gave her my best homicidal grin. “Turnabout is fair play, Witch-Queen. You think you can peer into my head and say a bunch of hoo-ah and get away with it? Oh, no. It’s your turn now. Suck it up and stop being such a baby.”

Sheena looked at me with an expression of dismay. “But…you asked me for this. You specifically asked me to demonstrate this because you wanted me to disprove your theory that all of this was a load of bunk. I remember that quite clearly.” Sheena looked to Alverd, partly for confirmation and partly for his support.

I waved my hand impatiently. “Details, details, details! Nobody needs them at this point! Just be a good girl and accept it with grace already.” Sheena, a look of defeat on her face, settled back into her seat dejectedly. Inwardly, I smiled at my little win over the self-righteous spellslinger. Yes, it was incredibly immature of me, but no one ever accused an Ishmarian of such.

At least, no one had ever gotten away with it without grievous bodily harm, that is.

Kuro finished shuffling the cards and placed them on the table. He laid out three cards in front of Sheena, and flipped the one on her left over. It had the numeral IV, and said “Queen”. Much like the King card, it had a simple depiction; that of a Queen, dressed in great finery, holding a scepter with a gleaming diamond with beams of light streaking out from it.

Kuro spoke, using the same monotone that Sheena had used when it had been her turn. “You bear a great responsibility that you are not wholly sure you are ready for. You are riddled with worry that you will let both yourself and your people down. But your fears are unfounded, for the most part. You have the strength you seek, but you don’t yet realize it.” Kuro moved his hand to the next card.

The card he turned over was also upside down. I realized by now that, if the card was upside down, it must have meant that the card’s original meaning was reversed. The card bore the numeral I, and was titled “Mentor”. It depicted a man in a robe reading a scroll to a young boy, a lantern illuminating the words he was reading. Kuro continued his drawl. “But beware. All those who teach, all those pledge to serve, among them there is one who delights in your weakness, in your reliance on them. Someone among those who are meant to be allies will betray you. Those whom you would trust whole-heartedly wait like wolves to devour a sheep who trusts too easily. There is a fall coming in your future, and not far off.”

Sheena shuddered. A chill ran down my own spine. Alverd, on the other hand, did not even flinch. He shot Sheena a reassuring look, the same look he had given me many times to say that everything was ok. A pang of irritation shot through me again when he did so. Grr…again with this feeling…I still couldn’t figure it out. But every time he gave Sheena that smile or reassured her, or encouraged her behavior, I felt this twisting feeling in my heart…blast it all, I’d figure it out sooner or later. Until then, I’d take it out on Kuro. That was all the little bastard was good for anyway. Speaking of the diminutive mage, his hand had moved to the last card and was just about to flip it over.

Kuro’s hand did not hesitate, unlike Sheena. He flipped the card and revealed it to us all. On the card was the numeral VII, and the word “Deliverance”. On the card was a picture of a man being guided to heaven by a beautiful angel. “But through the actions of another, you will emerge from your trial a changed woman. Although your circumstances will have changed drastically, you will have gained much…and lost much as well. But such is life. It all is a matter of perspective. Where you go after the journey brings you to this point…is up to you.”

And with that, Kuro exhaled heavily, and exited his trance. He opened his eyes, and blinked a few times. He looked at Sheena. “Sorry, I’m afraid I’ve never done this before…so I wasn’t sure how to make the crystal for you. But given what was said, you probably might not be too keen on finding out what lies in your future, are you?”

The witch girl frowned. “No, you’re right. As much as I’d like to know who is plotting against me, to accuse someone on the flimsy evidence of a divination ritual wouldn’t be enough. As I said, a divination only reveals one such future among hundreds, and only to the one who gazes into the scrying crystal, so nothing I could say would be verifiable. You did well for a first attempt, Kuro.”

Kuro’s face did this thing I’d seen once when my very well-endowed sister Leila had given a dancing partner a seductive wink that meant so much more than words could convey. His mouth scrunched up in some lopsided grin, and his cheeks went red, and he giggled to himself a bit. Had his mouth been open any wider I would have worried that drool would come falling out of it. It was a dumb, pointless expression, and I knew exactly what was going through his useless mind.

But then he actually punched me in the shoulder, and with more force than I expected from him. “Are you happy now? She wasn’t trying to be invasive with her readings, you know. You can be such a handful. I can’t believe how petty you are.” Kuro continued to scowl at me.

Huh. Fine time for the bastard to grow a spine. The only reason he was being so outspoken was because he wanted to impress Sheena. I didn’t need magic to see that. But he would definitely need magic to escape from my wrath later. No Ishmarian worth her salt would let a mage get away with something like what Kuro had just pulled. But before I could start planning my revenge, Sheena made a choked sound over where she was sitting.

She looked distraught. Granted, she had every right to be. Even if all of this was just tripe, it had to be jarring for her to be told that someone was planning her death. Sheena’s hands fell to the table, and they were shaking visibly. But Alverd scooped them up and held them tight. Again the agitation shot through me.

“Do not fret, milady Queen. We are here to help. I don’t always profess to believe in things like fate or destiny. And there are definitely times when I believe that something like divination can’t be trusted. But if it causes you distress, then all you need do is ask, and I will do everything in my power to set your mind at ease.”

Mother Evros, I don’t think Sheena’s face could get any redder. She looked quite ready to pass out. She stammered as Alverd squeezed her hands tight. She tried to get the words out, but failed over and over again. I could almost see steam rising off of her head. I could also see a look of pure resentment on Kuro’s face. It was the first time I had ever seen such an emotion…I knew that he and Alverd were best friends, so it was odd for me to see such an expression directed towards his friend.

Finally, Sheena pulled away from Alverd, her face still as scarlet as her hair. “W-W-Well, I think w-w-we’ve had enough f-f-f-fun today. Maybe we should focus on something else…anything else, really. All this incense is starting to get to me.” She waved her hand around. “Let’s go get something to eat, yes? A good meal after a divination can’t go wrong, right?” She stood up and marched out of the room at top speed, giggling awkwardly the entire time. Kuro stalked out after her, and Alverd after him. I took up the rear.

I still didn’t want to believe in this divination nonsense. To be frank, I didn’t put much stock in any magic. Maybe it was just the way I was raised. And to be honest, it would probably be the way I would continue to feel for the rest of my life. I had no reason to believe that any of the things I had witnessed in that room would have any bearing or significance. Kuro’s divination of Sheena could have been completely off the mark, even if it had unnerved her.

But apparently, divination was an ancient art, still practiced today because it was grounded in truth. Mages had supposedly relied on divination in many different forms for as long as Ishmarians had been forging dragon tooth metal. If Sheena was rattled, then she might have already known who was coming after her. In Ishmar, we were taught to never trust magic and those who wielded it. And like they so often said in Ishmar, where there’s smoke…

…there’s fire.