A Winter Wonderland

Finally, I have made it to the fair. The first order of business was to have my name written down, a tense moment as the initiates looked at me, I returning their stare boldly. No, they did not wish me, a woman hand plucked to serve, regardless of my virgin status. Perhaps they, like me, see what is forbidden. I am not a woman coveted by many, merely a tool in their concept of reality.

Afterwards I explored, finding myself in the merchants tent ogling a wondrous jeweled dagger. Pity the woman didn’t know the price of it, not that I could probably afford it anyway and it was much to big, one to be carried at a man’s side, not a woman’s warm thigh. But still, I have promised to return to see what her and her man can to for me. I have learned to never assume, such things that are needed usually readily delivered.

Readings followed, a young man almost reeled in, but not quite, then a man that didn’t blink a lash at paying the price of three copper. Perhaps I am too cheap.. Food for thought.

A Copper Here, A Copper There

I hadn’t been back to the Club since that first day, when the Lady money lender and I had been given the grand tour.

My hands were filled with swatches of fabric, decisions to be made at the decorating of my new room.

I was helped in by a man and the two slaves I recognized from that first day, spilling my bounty of brilliant squares on the floor. He had offered out his hand to show me the way, yet again, though I did not take it. I do not touch many, but especially men, for they hold something within them that brings me to my knees, this not caused by a submissive nature, but because I can see into their very essence and such frightens me.

I was left alone in my abode, even offering the man a reading. Slaves I do not read for, not since Red, when her fortune was cast to the by the Three of Swords.. the card of betrayal and one that ultimately lead to her and two other’s deaths.

I do not think this man Carmine wishes me here. I see in his eyes what I see in so many, distrust and no small amount of.. perhaps not fear, but uncertainty.

Time will tell whether or not this is a place I belong.

The Price of Swords

My day had started as any other, I out to seek a copper for a reading. Pure profit on my part really, for it costs me nothing, not even fatigue with the lesser tells.

I had found that which I sought at the springs, the woman Salome, a woman that was not alone and one that was more than eager to see what destiny held for her today.

Though I was there to read for the woman, it was the man at her side that drew my attention, the chaotic plague of whispers cooing over and over the same word in my head, one I tried diligently to ignore.

The deck was shuffled and cut, the woman again my main focus. Reading with some are easily wrought with little effort or effect, but there are those few that somehow tap into the layering folds of the mysterious, drawing an energy that leaves me drained, an empty husk protected by only by a the thin veil of faith.

"OH DON'T EVEN START WITH ME!!" Abrupt silence of concentration was broken as the man boisterously exploded in an excited tone, apparently talking to himself. When I turned to look at him, he was waving his hand in the air before him, brightly hued expletives that left my mouth half open in alarm.

It was then I was nudged by the woman Salome, she not pleased that I had been distracted. The Four of Swords was over turned, the reading had begun.

With each consecutive turn of the cards she was gaining introspect, at last three cards were turned over. They being all of the suit of swords.

It isn’t often that happens, thus, I felt obligated to spill another truth. “It is the associated with the element Air, a symbol of mental clarity. But it is also associated with states that lead to disharmony and unhappiness. Intellect is a valuable asset, but as an agent of ego, it can lead us astray if it is not infused with the wisdom."

Only then did I continue on with the rest of the reading.

The woman usually rewards me well, never paying me with the customary copper, but when her readings are more for the good, it means more for me.

I gathered my cards and moved off in the direction of the gate and home, that being when I saw him again. The whispers had grown more fierce, those begging to be heard, to be released, to be repeated. A connection was sought, a rictus of despair, but why I am not sure. “Ruin.”

My head had turned back to the woman I had read for. There would be more readings, more coin and more confusion then either of them could assemble in lifetime.

You gotta have Fate

Once I read the fortune of a woman who had paid me two silvers. I found her again today, at the springs. The cards didn’t bode well for her, in fact they were a worrisome trio that told of trials past and trials to come. I was paid four copper for my services.

Of all the people that I should see while out, it was Tony who found us, he wanting to speak with me about a proposition. He was opening a club and he thought that maybe I could make coin with my talent. Too, there was a place for Salome, who would lend coin to those desperate souls that were down and out on their luck.

He took us on a tour, a building that had once been used as a slaver’s complex. How fitting.

I am to receive a cut of what I bring in. I am to be entertainment of a different kind.