Sebas_Guzman

  I don’t care what Rav would say. She was a very adorable, awkward woman—way more cute than her character in the game suggested.

  We ended up losing track of time, and before we knew it, we had skipped dinner. It never went beyond kissing and holding, but we were both very honest about the fact that we only did it for so long because of everything we were trying to not do. Being able to admit that to each other was refreshing…

  We enjoyed some te-night snacks, she stayed over, and we slept through until the morning. When she left, she remembered to tell me that she would be taking me to the depths in one or two weeks. We had to time it precisely—for when the right people were working, apparently.

  I was fine with that.

  Rave went on her way, and I went on mine… straight to Otn’s home.

  ***

  “Cards, oh cards, a simple question comes to you,” Mava said, shuffling her frayed-edged deck with a grin too wide for her small face.

  On the couch nearby, cranky old Otn grunted and flipped his newspaper. “I never thought I could live in a nightmare, yet here I am.”

  “Hush, you,” Mava barked without sparing him a gnce. Then she turned to me with a bright smile, eyes gleaming like polished gss. “Are you ready, deary?”

  I nodded. “Go for it.”

  She spread the cards in a fan across the small table. Her fingers moved quickly, selecting three with a rhythm that almost felt rehearsed. She flipped them, one by one.

  “Oho… look at that,” she said. “The Morning Sign, the Gold-Eyed Pup, and the Unclouded Sky. That’s a good day if I’ve ever seen one. Tomorrow’s gonna treat you kindly, Timaeus.”

  I blinked. “Really?”

  She nodded, as if the cards had whispered the truth into her ears.

  I couldn’t help it. She got a grin out of me.

  Otn groaned louder from the couch. “It’s a load of crap. Made-up gibberish from a deck of dirty cards.”

  Mava stuck her tongue out at him. “You’re just mad the cards keep calling you the Hollow Bastard.”

  “That happened once.”

  “I shuffled twice and drew it again.”

  I raised a brow. “There’s actually a card called the Hollow Bastard?”

  She chuckled and turned back to me. “Ignore him, dearie. I’m feeling warmed up now. The cards are excited. I can feel it.”

  Curious, I shifted my focus and activated Mana Vision.

  Her fingers lit up like candle wicks—thin strands of white-gold mana pulsing and weaving in tight spirals under her skin. Her entire hand looked alive, as if her circutory system had kicked into high gear. Some sort of magic was activated, entirely without Mava’s knowledge.

  That magic activating—there was no greater proof of what she was saying.

  “I remember what you told me before: the more precise the time, the clearer the prediction. I’m remembering that right?”

  “Yes, dear. The cards love precision; the more you can narrow down, the less confused they’ll be.”

  I took a breath. “Can you tell me the city’s fate during the st week of the year?”

  That got her attention.

  Mava’s smile faltered, just a little. “What a strange question.”

  But she nodded, and shuffled again with more focus. Her fingertips twitched as she murmured something under her breath, barely audible. A kind of prayer. Or maybe a spell.

  She drew a single card and flipped it over.

  Her brow furrowed immediately. “Oh…”

  “What?” I leaned in. “Oh, that’s really on the nose.”

  She tapped the card: a shattered tower with bck birds circling it. “This is… not good. The Crumbling Spire. Ruin. Sudden or inevitable. Either way, not gentle.”

  My throat tightened. “I see…”

  “Destruction is usually paired with revival. In such situations, Destruction is a normal part of life.”

  “That makes sense,” I said. “Sometimes, you have to destroy something to make something new.”

  She nodded and drew another card. This one made her grimace.

  “The Withering Crown,” she said quietly. “Decline. Not rebirth. If there’s a second act, it doesn’t begin here. Destruction followed by this cursed crown… Whatever survives the destruction will be met with continuous decline… In the context of our city, it means the survivors will live only to die slowly.”

  I sat back slowly. My gut churned. That checked out with one vague piece of lore from the ter games.

  Mava looked at me with an almost apologetic sadness.

  “There’s a third card, right?” I asked.

  She nodded and began shuffling again. “Let’s give them a good mix again,” she said, unnerved.

  Otn hollered from his spot. “Stop upsetting my wife, brat.”

  “Otty! Stop! I’m doing important work here!” she barked back.

  She smiled at me, licked her lips, and drew the card.

  We both stared at it.

  “Mava, it’s bck.”

  “Yes. It is.”

  “Is that good?”

  “No. It’s not good at all. It’s Finality. Drawn third, it says there is nothing else that can be seen beyond the absoluteness of the other two cards.”

  “Well… Shit.”

  “This is… the most powerful fortune I have ever drawn...”

  “Can I ask about someone else’s future?” I said after a pause. “Specifically, Lady Elsbeth’s. Same timeframe.”

  “Hmm…” Mava scratched her cheek. “I remember her well enough. Kind girl. But I’d feel more confident if she were in front of me. Drawing like this, without her… It doesn’t fully connect me to the cards… The city was different, because, well, we all live here. Our lives are intrinsically tied to our home.”

  I nodded.

  Maybe I could bring her around sometime. I’d have to get lucky with seeing her again…

  “Do you think the future can be changed?” I asked. “You mentioned absoluteness earlier. Is this an absolute future?”

  Mava leaned back, thoughtful. “My mentor once told me this: there are frivolous futures and stubborn ones. A frivolous future might say, ‘You’ll find a gold coin by your shoe,’ and all it takes is a step left instead of right to change it. Or maybe something like staying home. But a stubborn future? That’s like a falling star—too much motion behind it to stop with just a wish.”

  I looked again at the Crumbling Spire.

  “That destruction card,” she added, “feels stubborn. The other two cards further speak to that fact.”

  In my head, I began making connections back to the games.

  In the original game, you could reload a save and change things—your schedule, your conversations, your choices. Who you married… Day-to-day events you would trigger. Those were probably frivolous futures if they were ever delivered by a fortune teller.

  But the ending of the game? That was always the same. No matter how you pyed, Bastion Reach fell in the prologue, and the final boss would always be the same at the end.

  A stubborn future as dictated by the game.

  Still… there was the second spinoff title.

  That game had four endings. Two of them ended with the world worse than ever. Two others gave faint hope. The idea that endings could diverge was what made that game special. Fans were thinking it meant that the spinoff would be the final game in the series. I always thought they meant to make the next one the final game…

  If this world were truly tied to those games, and those games were an accurate reflection… then maybe it was possible to change things. The second spinoff title suggested an ending could be changed within reason.

  Maybe I wasn’t trapped. If the second spinoff reflected this universe, then multiple branching timelines were possible…

  “I wish I could talk to god,” I muttered aloud. “I could ask them directly if the future can be changed.”

  Mava chuckled, but there was a twinkle in her eye. “If you try to change the future… are you asking if the future will fight back?”

  I gnced at her, surprised. “Something like that. Do you think it would?”

  Mava tapped a nail against her deck. “Well, if you’re meddling with destiny… maybe the God of Destiny might notice.”

  I straightened up. “Wait. There’s a God of Destiny?”

  “Of course. Who do you think we diviners petition?” she said, almost pyfully. “The god’s in the cards, dear. Always watching through the cards. Always listening through the cards. Some say they live in the silence between shuffles.”

  I swallowed. That part about where they lived seemed a bit too fluffy, but if they were real, they would be the one to ask.

  “So… Would a stubborn future fight back?” I asked.

  Mava smiled and shuffled the cards. “Why not ask?” she said, incredibly brightly. “There are… six cards I hope I will draw right now… But there is a specific version of the answer that I wish for.” She winked. “Want to pull?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Mava cradled the cards with a bit more ceremony than usual.

  “This is… what I’ve come to believe with all my heart after all these years.”

  Mava began shuffling the cards.

  “Now, in the face of such a grim future, I’ll ask the question. I’ve never had a more specific query. I’ve never had a future I was so invested in seeing defeated. My question will be clear.”

  The mp crackled nearby. Otn had been listening in silence from his seat, half in shadow. Now, slowly, he stood and walked over, his slippers barely making a sound on the stone.

  “We will know the nature of this future that awaits us. Can it be changed? Can you, Timaeus, do anything to change it?”

  Mava didn't look at Otn. Her focus was on the cards.

  “There are six cards that would be good to draw… But I believe,” she said softly, “that love is the strongest force in this world. Stronger than hatred. Stronger than prophecy. Stronger than death. I believe it can tear open the seams of what’s ‘meant to be,’ and stitch something new in its pce. For that to be true, there are only three cards that can be drawn.”

  She touched the top of the deck and nodded once.

  “If I am right, then these are the three cards I will draw: The Heartbound Pair, The Lightless Oath, and The Woven Thread.”

  Otn crossed his arms. “Bit ambitious,” he muttered, not quite joking.

  “If she pulls it off, though,” I replied, enthralled.

  Mava grinned. “I am often ambitious, and I am occasionally right.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment and whispered something I couldn’t catch. Then she lifted her hand.

  “The cards are here. Our answer is here.”

  She pced the deck in front of her with deliberate care.

  I didn’t realize how hard my fingers were curling into the chair until I tried to flex them. I wasn’t used to card readings getting to me—maybe because I half-assumed they were showy guesswork or comforting lies. I mean, that’s probably what they were on Earth.

  But here? Where were already on the threshold of what I had every reason to believe was the future we were already heading to? Everything I knew about the game made this moment heavier.

  And then, Mava’s voice, the magic circuting in her fingers, Otn standing to watch—it all added to the weight.

  Mava and I locked eyes, and then she drew the first card.

  “The Heartbound Pair,” she said, and actually ughed from sheer relief.

  I pumped my fist. “The first one she bet on.”

  “A card of chosen connection, not just romance but devotion across impossible distance. Soul-bonds, not blood-bonds. Truly transcendent. This is where the power to transcend fate can spring from.”

  Otn whistled low. Man looked like he was about to pass out from the tension.

  “The first step,” she murmured, pcing it leftmost. “You are not alone.”

  “I’m not alone,” I muttered, fully in now.

  She smiled at me. “None of us are. This card speaks of a ‘pair’ but we can make pairs anyone or anything. This is the power of a connection. Not necessarily the power of ‘two.’”

  I chuckled. “Got it. Thank you.”

  The second card followed with a gentle slide.

  Her voice was reverent. “The Lightless Oath.”

  “The second one,” Otn whispered.

  “A vow made without knowing the cost. Someone makes a promise blindly, but keeps it even when the world darkens around them. It’s a card of foolish courage… an unshakable, maybe even dark will. In the dark, can anyone see what the oathmaker would do?”

  I couldn’t breathe.

  “Do they need to see it?” Mava asked. “This is the card that speaks to determination at all costs. Certainly the card needed for someone who wishes to go against the natural order.”

  Mava stared at the card for a moment too long. Then she slowly reached for the third.

  “I asked for The Woven Thread,” she said, quieter now. “A card of hope. It would mean fate is already being rewritten. That something is always being woven, a card suggesting that every day, new potentials are strung together.”

  She flipped the card.

  Silence.

  Mava didn’t speak right away. Otn leaned forward, squinting. I leaned back, stomach twisting. The card was edged in gold and crimson. A spiraling pattern like a serpent eating its tail, but made of fme and lightning. I didn’t know what it was called, but I didn’t need to. I could already feel it in the room.

  Mava exhaled through her nose.

  “The Maw of Continuance.”

  Otn swore under his breath.

  Mava's face stayed calm, but her voice softened, and the lilt of her earlier confidence was gone. “This card… is not kind. Drawn third, it represents a future that continues regardless of what we throw at it. Love, sacrifice, blood, even miracles. It speaks of events that find a way. That spiral—it speaks of inevitability. All events will be drawn toward it.”

  “The ending doesn’t change,” I muttered.

  She tapped the card once. “This future has weight. And it is clever. It doesn’t always fight openly, but it finds a way back to the same pce, again and again.”

  I didn’t realize how much I was hoping until I felt it slipping through my fingers.

  “So love isn’t enough,” I said.

  “No,” Mava said. “Love is enough. That’s what the first two cards say. Love is the best fuel and weapon to confront this future with… But this third card…” She looked me in the eye. “It says love will be tested beyond what it was ever meant to bear. This is the face of love’s opponent.”

  Otn frowned. “Just a load of rubbish. Don’t trouble yourself over this, Mava.”

  “Really, old man?” I asked. “She just pulled two out of three, and you’re not buying into this?”

  “My wife’s had those cards for years,” he replied. “She knows each card by touch, even if she doesn’t know she knows it.”

  “Enough!” Mava said, standing up.

  Otn shut up quick—his eyes wide.

  I looked at him with eyes that screamed, “Ooo, you got in trouble.”

  She went to a cabinet and returned with cards wrapped in paper and a ribbon. “This is a brand new set,” she said.

  “Why’d you have that?” Otn asked, almost offended.

  “Because, you, mister, are a stubborn old coot.” She opened the cards, shuffled them for a little, and pced them on the table. “I’m going to draw the exact three cards. How do I know these cards when I’ve never used them, huh, Otty?”

  I activated Mana Vision—poor Otn. Those fingers were more vibrant than before. The woman was drawing with a purpose.

  Mava went and drew the same three cards. Then, she went and shuffled them again and drew the same three cards again.

  “Is that enough, Otn? Do you want me to bring out the other new deck I bought?”

  “What? No. Here, let me do it—”

  “It won’t work! You’re too focused on disproving the cards. It’s going to confuse the question!”

  He sighed. “Convenient, isn’t it? Timaeus, you cannot seriously believe her, can you?”

  I crossed my arms and looked at the cards on the table. “I think Mava can use some form of magic that lets her divine things, and those cards are the medium by which the magic works.”

  Otn sighed. “Magic’s in the minerals, not in the body.”

  “See, here’s the thing. I know you’re wrong.”

  “Wha—”

  “Frankly, you have no leg to stand on. There’s nothing you can say to me that will ever make me believe you over Mava on this one.”

  “Wow. You’ve turned into a real bold brat, haven’t you?” Otn said with a defeated chuckle.

  Mava, however, looked at me with shades of concern.

  “Are you alright, dear?”

  “I’m just taking this seriously…”

  “I didn’t say it was hopeless, so don’t look so lost,” she said with a smile.

  “Thanks,” I replied, nodding.

  “But I did say it wouldn’t be easy. The path ahead… wants to be walked a certain way. If you walk another, it will resent you. And it seems it will try to find a way back to its destination.”

  I stared at The Maw of Continuance until the spiral seemed to move.

  “But,” Mava said, reaching out and gently pcing her hand on The Heartbound Pair, “you’re not walking alone. None of us are. And whether it be the love of two, or the love of many—maybe even this whole city—coming together, there is still a way to save this city.”

  My eyes narrowed. Save the city? That wasn’t my goal. I didn’t have such a lofty fancy. No, I just needed to save three.

  Mava chuckled. “Is Lady Elsbeth reted to the destruction of this city?”

  I smirked. “How would I know that?”

  “I did not ask about her future here,” Mava kindly replied. “So, if you would like some peace of mind, and you can get her here, I can draw more cards… I can draw them for anyone you bring… Including whoever left that love mark on your neck, little lover.”

  I groaned and rubbed my neck. “Is that noticeable?”

  Otn came closer, adjusting his monocle. “A love mark? This one? With who? Who would be so unlucky?”

  Mava ughed out loud. “Oh, Timaeus, if you had given me more of a hard time, I would have exposed your lover.” She raised a brow. “Or lovers? I see that you’re caring about your appearance more.”

  “Wait, the cards can do that? Like town square gossips?” Otn asked. “I want to know—”

  “Oh hush, you nosey fool.”

  I got up from the seat, much to Otn’s dismay. “Thank you for today, Mava.”

  “It was my pleasure… If you do anything to combat this future, please feel free to come back and consult the cards.”

  “Otn, I came here to consult you about something too,” I said.

  The old man stood up a little straighter.

  “I conducted surveys yesterday, to learn a little more about what supplements and concoctions the guards are taking.”

  Otn showed a crooked grin. “Finally! Some logic! And so, what are you looking to find?”

  “I’m trying to identify what best promotes muscle growth—”

  “Bear’s Paw, and most spores when coupled with an activator—though an activator with Bear’s Paw as the base would be preferred.”

  I just stared at him.

  “I did those surveys two decades ago. Would you like my notes? I’m sure there might be some new mixture one of our colleagues stumbled upon, but my notes are the best foundation.”

  I nodded. “Yes, please.”

  Mava let out another ugh, like she was shaking off the tension the future was provoking. “Oh good, we both got to help Timaeus today. What a lovely day.”

  ***

  Fortunes collected, I headed out, taking the route through the market.

  “The city might be doomed… but maybe the three women’s fates are frivolous. If we abandon the city, we might be able to find a pce to live if we can get to one of the other vilges… All the protagonists got there by falling into the river that curves around the city’s hill…”

  My eyes suddenly itched, knocking me out of my mumbling. I activated Mana Vision on instinct—

  “Holy shit! It’s like a supernova!” I excimed, my vision overwhelmed by the sight.

  There, walking along on the other side of the marketpce, constantly emitting these waves of golden light, was an extremely familiar person. I had to turn off Mana Vision to see him—

  “The First Protagonist.”