Usually, readings are not filled with an overabundance of emotion for me or the other party, but this was one of the most emotional, no, it was the most emotional reading I have ever given.
We had stopped in Argentum, where August could consult with a doctor, and where I was looking forward to sleeping in a soft bed.
I told him I should read for him. I was curious to know what lay ahead and I thought the cards might offer some direction. I should have known better though, for where they are concerned, things never go quite as planned. He indulged me.
We arrived at the room at the inn. The first thing on my mind was a hot bath, but instead we proceeded with the reading first. I pulled a low table over and sat on its opposite side, facing him. The first card was not in good favor, the second, benign as well. But the third card, the card of his future, was something altogether different. And I didn’t want to tell him what it was. He had tried to stop me earlier, but I had continued. Now, I was more than willing to .. quit.
I shuffled the cards back into a stack and started to rise, hoping he would forget the whole thing. He had no intention of doing that. Forgetting.
August has not been an emotional person since I’ve met him. Everything is always calculated out to the very last detail. And now, he wanted to know.
He nudged the table towards me, in an effort to get me to talk. The cards were screaming in my head because the last one had not been detailed to he who turned it. I told him what it had said. There would be disconnection, a delay in a journey, interruption and detainment in the perfection of work. Something was not reliable. Had I only known then what I know now. There would be failure to meet a deadline, an unrealized purpose. I didn’t, however see death. I should have told him that, but it didn’t even occur to me to do so. I tell what I see, not what I don’t see.
He didn’t seem to believe any of the reading, and yet, he became angered at it anyway. He tried to rationalize it, explain and all the while I felt like he was trying to convince himself, instead of me, a woman who does not work with facts. His anger seemed to grow with every word, and soon the guards had come in, wanting to know what was going on. His hands hit the wood on the table and I heard .. bones crack.
I wasn’t sure if he was angry at me, or his situation, or both. I came to the conclusion quickly that it was probably both and that I would do well to not mention the cards again. I had hit a nerve.
Silas and Jonah were quick when August went down to the floor in a heap. I had brought this on, with my reading. I had compounded the vein to throb at his temple, impelled his anger and now, I had caused him to bleed because he’d hit the corner of the table when he fell.
I wasn’t being quite the help that I had anticipated on this journey.
I was trying to sneak out of the room, into the bathroom, figuring I had caused enough trouble, when I was bid to get a cloth.. and a knife. In my past, those two things are seldom a good combination.
Silas pulled out a boot knife and handed it to August, where he proceeded to pull his hair back into a pony tail.. and saw with the blade. It was done so that the guards could tell where the blood was coming from. Turned out, it was coming from his ear. I traded the cloth that I had gotten him for the length of hair, hair that I had no intention of tossing it out, so instead I tied it off with a ribbon and put it in my pack.
First, he had lost his sight. Now, I was afraid he was going to lose his hearing. Time was ticking by far more quickly than I wanted it to. He made us promise, Jonah, Silas and me, that if we thought him dead, that we were to wait four days before we buried him. If he was truly dead by then, his body would start to decay. If not.. we would be burying him alive. A sobering thought.
I had turned, back towards the bath, then paused, turned, and invited him to come as well. I was trying to make up for the reading, of upsetting him so badly. He refused me.
The guards left and I went back to him. My comfort of bath was forsaken for him. I felt the need to show him that I really was there for him. I sat beside him for a long while in quiet, before my hand lifted to lay on his arm. Instinct was driving me closer to him. There would be no more consulting the cards where he was concerned.
He left me and moved into the bathroom, having decided I could wait, that I could bathe after he was done. I supposed I could.
Earlier, when we had been walking through the streets towards the inn, I had seen a ring in one of the storefront windows when we passed, and promised myself, that if time allowed, I would go back and get it for August. I wanted him to have.. something from me, to remind him, that even if we were apart, a piece of me would always be with him.
I had told Silas that I was leaving, and was immediately waved off by Jonah. He told me I was always.. leaving. I’d only done it once before, and that was to see Olivia. So, I decided to pass on the ring and sat on the couch, awaiting my turn in the bathroom. It wouldn’t come.
There was a crash and I jumped up, afraid that August had fallen again. Jonah and Silas were right behind me. This time.. it wasn’t a fall, it was much worse.
August was now comatose.
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