She froze as she heard those words, turning slightly in terror. The fortune teller's hood fluttered softly in the cold breeze. Oz gulped, her hands sweaty within her mittens. Her first instinct was to bolt, to run as fast as she could to Nahern. But instead, she turned and walked back. The woman squatted down to the fortune teller, arms thrown over her knees. She was no coward.
"What does my future say then?" She asked softly, eyes locked on the sparkling cards within their hands. She dug into a pocket and pulled out a singular coin from her home, perhaps meaningless here but gold was gold everywhere. Source's same blue light seemed to radiate from the fortune teller's cards as they shuffled through the thick deck.
[Deck of Fortune : One of a Kind: Reweave the threads of fate]
The fortune teller shuffled and broke the deck into three piles. Through magic all three piles were still the same height the master deck had been. They tapped each pile of cards with a finger.
"Pull in any order, saint, and I will read your fortune."
Oz glared at the three piles, a wild itch burning in her fingers. She dried her hands off on her pants before flipping the top cards of each deck out of order.
The cards were simplistic, with golden rims and just the delicate brush of a painting on each one. As she stared into the endless space of the card, it was like the holographic cards of her youth. Pictures shimmering and shifting in the light.
From her fingers, the three cards floated up and before her. The fortune teller pointed to each card in time, their hood ever so slightly floating in the breeze.
"Ah the Fool. How fitting. Sweet, foolish, beginnings. You are on a journey of self discovery, but be careful. The Empress, she will call on you to remember your feminine charms, but you must be wary not to fall for others selfish purposes. Remember the shining Moon, her light will advise you to look for the answers hidden in the darkness around you. But you must be patient, for it might take quite some time to come to light."
Oz bit her lip, annoyed at how fitting the cards were.
Then all at once, the three cards shimmered, twirling around one another before they fused. Stars danced before Oz's eyes as a new card appeared before her.
['The Saint']
The card landed in Oz's hand, sparkling. Pure black with only the smallest flickering of stars. As she stared into it, it was like trying to see a galaxy with the naked eye. In the darkness she could just barely make something out.
"What does this mean…." She asked, only to look up and see that the fortune teller was gone and she was alone. Only the card remained in her hand. Oz felt an odd feeling in her stomach, her eyes drifting back down to the card.
[Follow the Nine Pointed Star and Climb the Tower.]
The words glowed in the darkness before they whisked away, becoming stardust in the lightyears away galaxy.
[Obtained the Saint Card. 1/23 . Bonus +50 to Magic, +30 to Wisdom.]
Her eyes bugged in disbelief, such a booster was unheard of. On the auction house, such a card would go for Billions of dollars.
Billions with a B. And there were twenty-three of these cards? What would happen if she equipped an entire set!?
'I would be a god…far past a Rank A hunter. A goddess.' She thought, the human greed boiling in her heart.
She shouldn't…she shouldn't equip it. Such power was not for a human to have. Yet she couldn't stop herself. Who would blame her?
The card dissolved when she tapped it, a weight grew in her chest right beside her heart. Like something grew inside of her chest cavity, flooding her blood with warmth and purpose. The world all at once came into razor sharp focus, even behind her eyepatch.
She could feel the waves and flow of magic around her, her eyes watching as leylines floated above her head. Drifting in the breeze, sparkling rainbows of magic. Like threads just waiting to be pulled, remolded, rewoven into different shapes. She could feel the power of the leylines, the potential for magic that they held. She could see the possibilities, the ways in which she could use the magic to create, to destroy, to heal, to harm. The temptation was there, the urge to reach out and touch the leylines, to feel their power coursing through her veins.
Like an apple, red and shiny, perfect for the plucking.
The threads of reality just within her grasp. Her hands drifted up, fingers just barely brushed an invisible thread before suddenly someone grabbed her.
"...le….el! OZEL!"
Oz gasped, broken out of the spell. The web and flow of the leylines disappeared from her sight. She looked up to see Nahern's panic stricken face, his skin sickly pale from shock. His hands flew to her chilled face, anger and fear obvious in his eyes.
"Where have you been, stupid thing?" He all but hissed, fingers tight and dug into her skin. She slapped his hands away, "I've been here."
"I have been looking for you for the last hour. I told you to stay close. I thought someone had grabbed and taken you."
Oz's eyes drifted back over to the empty spot and held her head. If she was anyone else, she would lie and say it was nothing. But Oz was herself, she had no reason to lie or miscommunicate.
"There was a fortune teller and they gave me a reading. …Something changed."
"Of course something changed." Nahern pulled her hood back much to her surprise, Oz had to squint her good eye against the overcast light. An odd sensation came over her as she realized he was touching her ears. Oz reached up and touched where he was, a confused squeak of terror trapped in her throat.
She was changing.