"Come gather and about!" A soothing feminine voice was cast and about. "Learn to lean on luck! For the lady shall lower the likelihood of life's lotto's loss, for the lazy and the like!"
"Cease the tomfoolery, Kcul." Zerath said as the party approached the shady stall on the side of the road. They had also unlocked themselves from the invisibility spell. "I've come with the thing you ordered."
Behind the counter of the stall was a youthful woman with a striking appearance. Pair of draconic yet elk-like branching steel-textured horns, while enigmatic red feathery wing-like organs sat on top her head like a pair of animalistic ears.
Adorning them was a straight and pristine crimson hair that overflowed beyond her waist, and with a twintail made from a small amount of those many strands, created a rather iconic silhouette that was easy to discern even from afar.
She wore a rather mystique clothing with a beautiful robe patterned with many unknown hieroglyphs-like symbols raced in gold. There was also an eccentric capelet that connected to a cold-hue crystal carved into a draconic emblem.
"As the Weaver of Ornamental approved, Mr. Zerath." Her eyes were sharp in shape, with her left bottom eyelid wrapped by a five red dots tattoo, making her look menacingly dignified. Her dot-like eyebrows and thick eyelashes of crimson color empowered those feelings even further. "Told you that there would be an eccentric encounter heading your way," she smiled, and glanced at both Yroa and Azel.
"You seem to be really speechless right now, Azel," Yroa cast a signaling gaze at his own familiar. "But being speechless won't help me know what is transpiring."
"Master, I've just noticed that we have approached a Fate Attuner," Azel said with a face mixed with awestruck and the intention to scream, but unable to because that would make the situation awkward and embarrassing. "I have no adept information in this topic but to put it simply, she can peek into the future and the past, while also affecting them to a certain extent."
"... I see." Not a second after, Yroa's face of eternal poker smile suddenly paled as sweats began to race due to anxiety. "That is very intriguing! Can I go to the bathroom real quick?"
There was a slight shiver from Yroa's words.
"But, didn't you just flaunt your newly crafted spell that dispels the impurity of the body, five days ago?" Azel wryly snickered. "You even said that you get a surplus of bodily energy back from it, and you don't need to defecate and urinate any longer thanks to it."
"Don't worry much about it, Mister Yroa," the crimson haired Fate Attuner said, casting a slight hint of disgust in her gaze. "I have no intention of looking back further beyond your time in that literal hell."
"Much appreciated," Yroa gave the crimson-haired lady a thumbs up.
'... Did she mean the literal hell in a literal way??' was what popped up inside Azel's mind.
At first, Yroa was afraid that his whole bullshitting of his own background would need to be dismantled, but now he didn't need to worry about it anymore that the Fate Attuner was cooperative.
"Now, rusty old man," The Fate Attuner faced Zerath with a smile yet close-eyed gaze. "Where the fuck is my bloody object of desire?"
'... Her mouth is foul!' was both Yroa and Azel's reaction to that.
"Rusty is a little bit too much, isn't it?" With no visible disdain on his face, Zerath directed his open palm towards the stall counter.
Soon enough, something clicked and forced itself to open within the signature of space. The surrounding natural ohr stirred and there was an anomaly within Zerath's soul that could be sensed.
Seeing the Fate Attuner's happy reaction, it seemed to be supposed to be this way.
Then, not a second later, an apparition began to form before condensing into a solid and hellish, familiar form.
It was a Gehenna Crystal.
'This is interesting,' Yroa told himself.
The clink tingled everyone's ears as the ominous, soul-shrieking object fell on the wooden counter. Both Zerath and the Fate Attuner didn't show much reaction to it, but Yroa noticed that Azel was heavily perturbed by the crystal's presence and began to shiver and shrink behind her master's back like an intimidated little kid.
The Fate Attuner gloved hand gently snatched the pristine crimson evil from the counter. Her impressed blood-hued eyes investigated the object of her desire with mature curiosity. "Looks like you have gone deep into hell to get this one for me, old man."
"As the sealed deal between us, Kcul Dasnaya."
"Well, this bonker of a hellfire makes up for three 'Fate Tuning'." Kcul smirked. "You want to hog all of that fortune by yourself, or will you share it amongst the three of you upon this miraculous acquisition?"
"What do the two of you say?" Zerath gestured his glance. "This person is clearly hinting it for both of you."
"What does this 'Fate Tuning' service entail then?" Yroa asked.
"Many," Kcul outright answered. "From attuning your so-called 'luck', to peeking into what the future has in store." With a calm yet devilish smile, she leaned slightly with her elbow pivoting on the counter and tilted her head. "However, everything that should have happened originally will be slightly altered the moment it is opened and interacted upon."
"Like a Schrodinger's cat, then." Yroa smirked.
"M-Master, this is my first time interacting with a Fate Attuner," Azel gulped. "But I think we shouldn't risk anything related to our fate to this lady over here!"
"Well, if someone as wise as old man Zerath cared enough to meddle with her, I assume that it's not a big of a problem to get ourselves into," Yroa smiled, barely containing his overflowing curiosity with his cat-like gaze. "So who's gonna go first."
"Let these kids have it first," Zerath suggested.
"Well then," Kcul snickered, donning her half-lidded side glance. "Who's gonna go first between the two of you?"
"She goes first," Yroa pointed at Azel almost immediately.
"Ehh??"
"Alrighty, Azel Flegor." Kcul casually pressed the surface of the counter with her index and middle finger. Immediately after, a strange ohr signature seeped out as fingerprint expanded into a cosmic mark, opening a pseudo-gate beyond time and space. "Your new Master seems to be really curious about you. So, instead of looking into your future and the rest of the crap, how about I look onto your past and lay those down here on our merry encounter?"
The cosmic mark unleashed numerous psychic strings incomprehensible to mortal eyes, but it was there, leaking and churning out.
"You haven't peeked into her past like you did to me?" Yroa pointed out.
"Your past is unrestricted, anyone of my 'weaving' capability can easily peek into yours. Though, I admit, there are some missing pieces that I can't open between your time in that barbaric place and your birth." She then grinned as she changed her glance onto Azel. "Hers, however, are riddled with traps and interference as if someone or something really wants nobody to pry it open."
"Would you look at that?" Yroa smiled widely. "Looks like I got my hand on a very special demon as my first familiar."
"I don't know if that is a looming threat to my wellbeing or a truthful compliment from you, Master…"
"So what do you say, Azel Flegor?" Kcul's fingers on the counter waved in anticipation, triggering the activity of the psychic strings to freak out for a moment, before returning to their sublime state of escaping the cosmic gap. "The moment I lay my hammer and break the vault of your history awake, there might be something far hidden from your senses and imagination, notified of my skullduggery attempt."
"Ahaha, that's very reassuring…" Azel sarcastically replied, now brimming in cold sweat.
"Just pry it open." Yroa snapped his finger.
"M-Master!"
"Just ask the lady if I'm going to be responsible for it in the future," Yroa shrugged as he was being shaked back and forth by his frightened familiar.
"Will he be responsible for all of this in the future??" Azel whimpered.
"Uhm, probably," Kcul casually answered.
"See?"
"You two are so casual in this!"
'... I'm surrounded by weirdos,' was Zerath's impression of the situation at the moment.
"Well then, without further ado." And then lo and behold, Kcul's hands weaved upon the psychic strings as the surrounding ohr rippled into the tune of the otherworldly music. As her soothing voice humans by the cosmic tune, she sang with rustic boon. "In lands where shadows dance their dark embrace~"
"She's singing," Yroa pointed out.
"She's singing," Azel pointed out.
"She's singing alright," Zerath pointed out.
"I dare you parrot that one more fucking time," Kcul audibly threatened as veins started to tighten on her face. She then cleared her throat, before letting her voice follow the cosmic rhythm once more. "In lands where shadows dance their dark embrace~ There's born a princess with a holy's grace, and the joy—is—all time's glow~!"
A moment after, visions of the distant past began to seep into everyone's mind. The vivid hue of the afternoon hues, the adoring scent of the garden cues.
"But then enters the night, with wine still alight." Conflict began to arise within the ballroom court, as one of the sprung out their wings and claws, tearing other noble's asunder and apart. "A poisonous yet malicious face, left the castle devoured by the devil's taste~
"As it left the royal ball—in a crumbled state~~" The screams and the color of red thirst, turning every single one of them into mindless monsters with no semblance of freedom and humanity. "But a faithful maid snapped out of daze, as she began to leave with little trace~
"Then she struck the enraged, corrupted Queen and King right at the throat before heroically snatching the newborn princess while fighting a horde of mindless corrupted monsters, she then stumbled upon the devilish perpetrator and managed to survive with the princess but she was wounded to her death door while a curse was put on the newborn princess that transform her into a demon of random essence that just also happen to turn her into a male.
"On her way to escort the genderbend princess, she met with an ancient horror, fought it with only an arm and a leg, and then managed to anger a certain entity from the vast unknown void which corrupts the very understanding of historical record in every conceptual manner, rendering further investigation of her past at this sequence of event to be nearly impossible without much assumption.
"And then a traveler picked the princess from the road, before giving her to the nearest demonic tribe for adoption." After the sudden rapid-pace storytelling, Kcul then went back with her singing voice to end the vision. "And thus, the tale was born~"
"You stopped singing halfway through," Yroa pointed out.
"That's very inconsistent of you," Zerath pointed out.
Meanwhile, Azel could visibly be seen breaking down every second as if her reality had just been shattered in this instance.
"M-my original mother and father, did they survive!??"
"Nah, they are dead," Kcul answered casually. "Dead as hell."
Azel broke down even further.
"Still, a curse that turns her into a Dream Devourer?" Yroa thought deeply. "I wonder if it's fully shattered when our contract is formed."
"Maybe, who knows, don't care," Kcul casually shrugged. "I only like the part where there is blood and murder all around." She then struck her gaze towards Yroa's soul. "Like your future, for example~"
"Oh my, such a shiver to my spine," Yroa said with a tone of excitement. "So it will be a peek of the future in my case, then. Will you also sing those out for me?"
"No, I hate singing."
',,, Why did you sing then??' was what immediately appeared on everyone's minds.
"Well then, this forecast will be a little bit special." Kcul weaved the psychic strings once again. "Yroa Ingram, what I'm going to describe to you is nothing sort of a vision nor fortune telling, because every word that is about to escape from my humble throat is nothing but the truth and pillars to guide you into that truth.
"From the darkest pond of depravity, a pair of glowing red eyes shall gaze back into the utmost depth of the abyss." This time, there was no vision to be inscribed, but there was an eerie leaking of unnatural signatures of life that could be felt, watching them from somewhere. "Long and flowing silverish hair blanketed him who sought madness in the eye of the moonlight, as the ancient godly figure emerged from the seven sins, he stood unbridled.
"This birth of an all-consuming monster will swallow Yassimhre whole," Kcul said with an eerie, unhinged smile. "There will be curses on him, and his offspring. He shall be cursed, him and his offsprings.
"There's no items, no blessing, nor godly endeavor that can reverse this entrance of evil. Everything will be purged, for he will poison every life that touches nature's womb and her very blood.
"None shall escape, the End is near, and he hunger for the knowledge that makes Yassimhre whole~"
Then the cosmic rhythm ended.
"I'm still troubled by the fact that you didn't sing it," Yroa casually pointed out.
'... You're still on with that??' was what both Zerath and Azel thought immediately after, especially after that ominous future reading done by the Fate Attuner.
The quips aside, Yroa was quite perturbed by the ominous fortune telling that he received just now. Such a harrowing and evil incarnate described, Yroa didn't believe that a pure-hearted person like him to be able to become that kind of individual.
Of course, there was also a chance that this person with silver hair and red eyes that Kcul described was someone else that she was going to encounter in the future, and not necessarily be him.
Then again, Yroa could just ask.
"So, this person you're describing, is that going to be me?" Yroa innocently pointed to himself.
"Who knows~"
Looks like he will find out about it somewhere in the future.
"Alrighty, now that both of you have received your part of the service, it will be this old man's turn to get his revelation," Kcul said. "However, due to the nature of the Tuning that I'm about to do to him, both of you can't listen nor perceive the vision I'm about to unleash because of some sensitive reason regarding this old man's fickle future." She then shooed both Yroa and Azel like some stray cat.
As both the master and familiar created a distance from the shady hall, Kcul and Zerath began to be enveloped by a darkish spell. Their mouths moved, but neither of them let any sound escape, as if they were in their own private dimension, unbothered by everything outside.
"So, how's your feeling knowing that you aren't a true demon to begin with?" Yroa cast an empathetic smile.
"Conflicted…"
"As it should be," Yroa said. "That means you still have a piece of humanity within you, an organ resembling a human heart."
"Should I even be proud of that?"
"Should you be proud of being yourself?" Yroa asked back, but it seemed like that question wasn't directed only to Azel. "There's a matter of relationship and social bond that comes from our own nature and behavior. If you care for those who have bonded with you, and your true self didn't make them suffer more than they deserved? Then yes, you should be proud.
"But what's better is a bond that is able to welcome you regardless of your true self."
"... You're saying that I'm being true to myself, right now."
"You always grab your horns whenever you're stressed and conflicted," Yroa pointed out. "Your words stay true to your action that you're in conflict and in need of confirmation, what else is that but being true to yourself both in mind and body?"
Flustered, Azel immediately stopped gripping her own horns as she huddled on her own legs. She could be seen blushingly pouting. "Am I that easy to read for you?"
"Well, it's not technically 'easy', per say." Yroa warmly smiled. "It just means that I'm making an effort to understand you."
"I-I see."
Azel's cheeks became redder.
Yroa also noticed that there was a change in the ohr fluctuation in both of him and Azel's reservoir, implying that there might be a further increase in Lvl since the last time they checked it.
Yroa didn't really care about that for now. As of now, he saw a lost lamb trying to be in touch with reality, and he wanted to ensure that this lamb's effort was being confirmed and encouraged to ensure a healthy fluff of cloud that was in his current care.
As long as Azel stayed as his familiar, she was his responsibility until the very end.
"Looks like 'teach and the Attuner Lady is done with their shenanigans," Yroa hinted Azel to approach the stall again.
There, they saw Kcul being her own usual happy and weird self. There wasn't much change in terms of expression and energy in Zerath's case, but Yroa felt like he was severely exhausted mentally after getting his own future tuned by the crimson-haired lady.
"Doing good, old man?" Yroa asked.
"Never have been better." Zerath said with a slight smirk.
Before any further adventure on either side, Yroa decided on a final meal before Zerath departed on his own merry way, as both Yroa and Azel wanted to go to the Town of Ariah, while Zerath was more assured than ever to go to his fated destination that was pointed by the Fate Attuner.
"..."
As the afternoon feast ensued in Yroa's usual fashion, Kcul was also invited as a gesture of appreciation for doing the Fate Tuning for them. Though, this was more on Yroa's suggestion, since he never let any inch of goodwill unreturned.
"Is the soup too spicy for you, Miss Fate Attuner?"
"... Marry me," Kcul said out of nowhere.
"What?" Yroa replied.
'What?" Azel reacted
"Huh." Zerath understood what Kcul really meant, but he didn't really care and proceeded to indulge in the mixed drink that was brewed especially for him. "Not surprising."
"I have never eaten anything this divine." Kcul said with a shaking hand, barely capable of holding the wooden-carved spoon on her grip. "You only used the local ingredients in this surrounding area, just what kind of vile and hidden Ohrmancy that I was exposed to?"
"You said it like I made all of this from a witch's pot…"
The unexpected reaction aside, Yroa was glad that he was able to save up some exquisite spices and herbs along his journey for this feast.