abraxasnet | · TO EVERYONE ·

Several moons ago when we first headed into Nocwich, there was a fortune teller named Lady Elin. I'm sure many of us went to her tent to have our fortunes read. Perhaps you've forgotten what it was she said. I know divination is met with a lot of skepticism.

Would you be willing to share your fortune with me, if you remember it? I'd like to know if it relates to anything in your life, whether it be from your time before Abraxas or since being summoned.

[and because you cannot expect something without putting yourself on the line...]

She would say "I see" and "you hold a tie to". For me, it was 'many lost souls under the night sky' and 'old lands that find new roots'. It makes me think of my home country. Many hundreds of thousands died because of the war waged in it. The country no longer exists.

I don't want to bore you with more details, but that is my basic interpretation of it.

Even if it could be pretty personal, thank you for reading this. I'm just being curious. If you want to talk privately, my name is Wanda.

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She saw dying embers hungry for kindling.
I apparently am meant to hold a tie to doors that cannot be closed once opened.

There are any number of things it could be tied to, here or back in my Sphere, so I hardly found it helpful.

Do you think you would mind telling me how it'd relate to here?

[she's following a very specific thread of significance for these fortunes.]

[ that is the question, isn't it? how it'd relate here? yennefer realizes in this moment how much she hasn't said to wanda - though there is that gut feeling within her that the other sorceress already knows. has always known.

and yennefer finds she does not mind. not after everything, not after all of this. ]

I had something taken from me by fire back in my own sphere.
And that loss followed me here.

The process to have it returned involves a great sacrifice, arguably a greater sacrifice than what I would regain.
And that path, if I did choose to go down it, could be found here as well.

You'd say it struck a little too close to home for you, then.
Quite significantly, too.

[that symbolism for fire... doesn't sound like just a random symbolism chosen for the purposes of being dramatic, if there was a history to it.]

Have you been considering that path?

If I thought her divinations were anything more than educated guesses, possibly.
But if she had wanted to prove her capabilities, details would have worked just as well.
Why? Do you believe this woman?

[ this is where it becomes dangerous, where yennefer has to really wonder what - if anything - could be read. if honesty really is worth the consequences if shared.

but this is wanda, and once again she finds she still doesn't mind. ]

I've considered a great many paths.
And am still considering a great many more.
But not that one.

But is fortune telling, reading cards, reading palms nothing more than a mix of educated guesses and a sense of the universe divined into words? I always thought of them as being incapable of locking someone's fate in place, offering instead options, to take accountability for our choices.

A possibility of many, like the many paths you're considering.

Perhaps if you were to see her again your fortune might have changed? I know there isn't a timeline to them.

I suppose if you want to look at it that way, perhaps.
Most fortune tellers I've come in contact with have had no more a sense of the universe than an average human, but there could always be exceptions.

I suppose my greatest issue here is that if this teller had any real insight to give me, I could simply give it to myself.
Everything we do is derived from our choices and what it is we make of them.
But perhaps - I will have to see if I have any patience for it next time she appears in the square.

But I am curious if you believe there to be more to this Elin.
Or if this is spurred on by something else?

Edited 2023-05-15 21:00 (UTC)

I don't doubt yours or anyone else's ability to provide insight, if that is a skill you possess.
It's just... different, isn't it? The way Abraxas works.
The arcana here are similar to the ones of my world, and yet they don't quite match.
Magic has its rules and exceptions, and then surprises.
Maybe there's nothing to what Lady Elin provides, but she's from here.

[and, thus, her insight is born from the foundations of this world.]

I don't know if I'm making sense. I'm still new at this.

I helped someone with a problem they were having by stepping into their mind.
I — felt and saw some things, and... when I tried to get rid of what was causing the problem in the first place — well, I had a vision. It felt real. They had the same one, too.

I was pushed out of their mind, and they told me their fortune when I asked them if it had meant anything. It was word for word the same.

If you wanted to look at it that way, then it is possible.
But why would she limit herself to that of a fortune teller?
Why wouldn't she further her studies with any of the academies available to her?
Or offer her help when everyone went missing?

You are making sense, or as much sense as anyone can in this situation.
And I trust your judgement over just about anyone else's in this matter.

Have you tried it again with someone else?
To know if it was just that one individual's fortune or something applicable to the Summoned at large?

Why do women with great magic hide themselves in roles that many could mock and allude to as just guesswork?

[witch, a term that has been used in the past as an insult, even if wanda hasn't carried that title for long. yennefer would know, that a woman with power is one that is feared, yearned to be contained.]

Your other questions might require actually talking and asking her about it.

But, no, I haven't tried. What I've gathered is that those who got their fortunes read either got something from their pasts, something that is accurate for them in the now, or something that might come to pass. I don't... think there's enough data for me to go off to an actual theory.

I do know that I want to look into it some more.

Because men fear what they cannot control.

[ which is to say: yes. she does know. she knows more than most. it does not mean she hates it any less. ]

Then I guess we'll have to wait until the portals to Nocwich open up again and we can ask her directly.

I don't know if I believe her to be anything more, but if your instincts are telling you otherwise, it's worth looking into.

Edited 2023-05-31 23:59 (UTC)

[this is a conversation they've had before, but never quite in the context of them. always relating to the queen, to (the possibility of) lady eldin's 'powers'—always traipsing right over their own familiarity with that sentiment.]

Best case scenario, she is as you think.
That just means I'll have to look for answers somewhere else.

[julie's purple lightning vision/fortune still worries her.]

[ but they still know it is about them. about their shared understanding of the world and their different, yet still very similar, experiences of it.

and it will probably be one they have again. ]

I wouldn't consider that the best case scenario.
I'll be the first to admit some answers would be nice.
Or even a direction to move in.

[wanda thinks that a dead end is still an answer, even if disappointing.]

I'll keep you informed.
Not much I can do until the Nocwich portals open up anyway.

I will see you in Nocwich, then.

· TO EVERYONE ·

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