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Kai didn’t expect to find a place like the Slumbering Fields tucked away in Galawain’s Tusks — much less in the sweltering shadow of an active volcano. With the water purified of Woedica’s influence, the air somehow tastes almost as fresh as Thirdborn’s. Even before they restored the spring, stubborn moss, hardy trees, and fungi from the minuscule to the massive grew from the volcanic ground and the ancient ruins. But now, at the delemgan guardian’s gentle coaxing, lush greenery has begun to unfurl from hibernation deep within the cracks of the earth. There's even the soft chittering of something that might be smaller, more harmless creatures hidden among the rocky environs.
Now that the freed Pargrunen wardens have left for Solace Keep, the delemgan seems far more relaxed. It still comes as a surprise when she invites them to make camp here in her sanctuary.
“This is the nicest place we’ve been for days,” Stell points out, as if the weary travelers need convincing.
“I’m not sure how our host will feel about a cooking fire,” Giatta eyes the guardian warily. “But at least we have fresh water. Perhaps we can rehydrate some of our meat?”
“Maybe ask nicely?” Marius grimaces down at his pack of jerky. “Fuitu meu. I could use a real meal.”
“And a swim,” Kai adds, eyeing the nearby pools.
“Lovely as that sounds, don’t the aqueducts go to Solace Keep?” Giatta asks dubiously. “I’m not sure they’ll appreciate adventurer-infused water.”
“It could be our little secret, dearie,” Yatzli wheedles. Her eyes are wide as she takes in all the Ekidan ruins that surround them — full of potential and begging to be sketched and documented.
“Ac, up until they fish out your pink hair…”
Marius waves them both away.
“Don’t think too much about it. The wardens’ got this mechanism to purify the water. Besides,” he points at a nearby pool. “Not all of it is going to the aqueduct.”
That’s good enough for Kai.
“Well then,” he shucks his pack to the mossy ground. “Don’t mind if I do.”
“As long as you don’t mind if I watch,” Yatzli purrs.
The water that was once opaque and caustic is crystal clear now. A few stray leaves spin lazily upon the otherwise calm surface, disturbed only by the tiny ripples of the occasional insect alighting upon it. There’s a gentle sigh in the wind as the spring cascades serenely down the rocky terraces of the oasis.
“This garden seems good enough for me,” Kai jokes. “Do we still have to find the other one?”
“I’m assuming that’s rhetorical.”
Stell gingerly descends the moss-covered rocks, returning from a conversation with the delemgan.
Kai raises a brow, “All good?”
“We have Weeping Willow’s permission to dunk our filthy bodies in the purified spring, yes,” Stell replies dryly. “She mentioned that we could partake in some of the plants around here, so…”
She awkwardly holds out a basket full of fruits, fungi, and roots that Marius promptly wrests from her without much resistance.
“Pe dracu. Anything is edible once,” he grunts. “So how about you let me do the foraging?”
Kai watches them fondly. It’s a relief to see them friendly again — even more than before, against all odds. Kai had even caught the two hugging the other day. He would have wondered if he was dreaming if it weren’t for the fact he had seen the surly dwarf trembling like a leaf just hours earlier. Once Marius had let them through his shell to help him uncover his past, he seemed in no hurry to shut himself back in.
While the others set up camp, Kai happily sheds the rest of his clothes down to his skivvies, sliding in without a splash into the pool.
Oh, Ondra’s oath... that’s incredible.
He submerges himself into a shock of icy cold followed by utter bliss — his body weightless beneath the surface. One would have no idea how foul the water had been less than an hour ago, given how clear it is. The one odd thing is that aside from the smattering of plants the floor of the pool is completely void of life. There are no fish or the typical ribbons of plants, though there are the beginnings of some that the delemgan has no doubt summoned from the depths of the silt.
Having grown up on the unforgiving shores of Rauatai, Kai can never get enough of calm water like this. And after the toils of the past few days, few things have felt better.
Speaking of which…
Kai surfaces to find Stell seated by the pool’s edge. She hasn’t yet shed her gambeson, but at least she has ditched her boots and rolled up her trousers to dangle her no doubt aching, blistered feet into the cool water.
Although her mouth twists into a pained grimace, the way the light dances off of the surface onto her face is bewitching.
“I forgot aumaua can hold their breath so long,” Stell huffs a laugh. “You almost had me worried.”
“I got a little carried away,” Kai admits. “Water’s great though.”
He pushes away, noting smugly how Stell’s eyes linger appreciatively whenever he surfaces.
“Found something interesting?” she calls over at some point.
With a grunt Kai hauls a small chest beside her, splashing her in the process as she yelps, sputters, and laughs. Kai grins as she then eagerly leans down to inspect its lock.
“I wonder who could have misplaced this,” she muses aloud.
“It’s not too old,” Kai observes. “Think you can handle it?”
“No,” Stell says cheerfully. “But I’ll try.”
Kai indulges in swimming a while longer before returning, propping his elbows up onto the rocks to get a better look of what Stell is now doing on some flat, mossy surface. The chest is gone, which likely means one of the others has taken it to try picking the lock.
“Sure you don’t wanna join?” he asks her.
“Perhaps later,” she pitches her voice conspiratorially low. “I’ve got different ways to relax.”
He raises his eyebrows at that, but rather than suggest anything lewd she holds up a battered deck of cards. He watches as she continues to place and flip over the cards one at a time, arranging them with a furrow to her gilled brows.
It doesn’t look relaxing.
“What’s that you got there?” Kai asks.
Stell sits back twisting back and forth in her seat to crack her back with a soft groan.
“Tarocca mea Cirono. Vailian fortune cards,” she explains. “I’ve been itching to do a reading, but my own deck was lost in the shipwreck.”
A lifetime ago, Tama once told Kai about all the different names that nations had for the same gods. ‘Cirono’ was how Vailians referred to Berath. It’s a bit foreboding, but Kai simply nods.
Stell places a card down, her fingers lingering upon it.
“The innkeeper — Suki, I mean — offered me one of her decks. She said she picked it up trading with the Huana in the Deadfire,” she hums appreciatively. “Sixty years and not one card missing — I even checked. Or… counted, at least. The symbols and names don’t quite align with what I’m used to.”
“Old Suki would be into that kind of thing,” Kai remarks. For his part, he’s only ever used such cards in games to pass time during slow watches. “Can you actually tell the future with them?”
“I doubt it,” Stell snorts. “Cartomancy is gullshit — as in, how well the reader can gullshit themselves or others. But true divination is not my intention to begin with.
“Was never any good at it anyway,” she adds under her breath.
Kai chuckles awkwardly. Stell had told them before how she was a fraud as a court augur — a relatively young elf inexplicably thrust into the position due to the apparent visions she had as a child, her education in a prestigious academy, but mostly the fact that she was a mysterious godlike who the fercönyng, mecwyn, and the Church of Woedica wanted to monitor.
The fact that she was sent to the Living Lands as envoy was clearly motivated by that latter fact, though from what Kai has seen she more than demonstrates the diplomatic savviness the role demands. On top of that, after what Inquisitor Lödwyn said at Naku Kubel, he suspects there’s more to her skills as an augur that she lets on.
As he watches her flip over the card with a thoughtful hum, he begins to doubt how much of this is actually ‘gullshit.’ After all, there’s got to be a reason why the priests of Berath and their equivalents use similar cards.
When Stell looks back up at Kai, he’s still giving her an inquisitive look.
“So why do it?” he asks.
“Well…” she waffles. “I’ve always liked card readings. They’re fun.”
“Huh,” Kai cracks a smile. “Can’t say I’ve ever thought of the god of death as ‘fun,’ but maybe it’s different for you Aedyrans.”
Stell huffs a laugh.
“In my mind, it’s not magic. It’s not meant for the gods to tell us what to do in a literal sense. They’re never known to make themselves clear anyway. But these?” she taps on the deck. “They’re tools to help kith tell themselves stories. Explore possibilities. Prepare for what’s to come.
“The explanation for what each card means is subjective to the interpretation of the reader — or the augur, in my case,” she adds reluctantly. “Our futures and fate are not defined. They are ever in motion — like the Wheel itself. All we can control is what we say and do next with the knowledge we have.”
She places another card.
“Through the symbols, we can gather our thoughts as we interpret their meaning. We give the symbols meaning because we know ourselves best, yet we need to expand our approach. As an augur, I merely facilitated what people already knew and didn’t want to admit to themselves.”
“Looks complicated. So… what answers are you looking for? If I’m allowed to ask that,” Kai adds hastily.
Clearly preoccupied, Stell frowns as she turns over a card.
“Of course you can,” she says distractedly. “What am I looking for? It’s the same question I’ve had even before I boarded that ship from Aedyr.”
She slides that card beside another.
“What is causing the Dreamscourge?” she murmurs. “And how do I stop it?”
“Are you not getting the answers you need?”
“I… I don’t know,” Stell admits. “At least… I don’t know what to make of how I’m interpreting them. Which would reveal my underlying suspicion…”
“Talk me through it?”
Stell’s mouth tightens. Then, she looks up at him with a forced smile.
“I have another idea,” she says brightly. “How about I do a reading for one of your questions?”
It’s an intriguing idea. Despite his skepticism and uncertainty, Kai can’t help but be curious as Stell collects the cards.
After all, he has been living day to day for the past few years, dreading discussions about the future with anyone else. But maybe it’ll be different when it’s her.
It’s always different with her.
“Alright,” he says, climbing up out of the water. He’s careful not to splash her this time.
His first instinct is to ask about the future of Thirdborn. But that subject feels too soon. Too raw. Instead, he starts with something more open-ended.
“Let’s say I survive this,” Kai begins. “Where should I go next?”
With a frown, Stell stops shuffling the cards.
He eyes her, “Did I do that right?”
“There’s no right… I mean…” she says slowly. “Listen… perhaps I’m not actually the best person to interpret something as… personal… as that for you.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because… I know you,” Stell hesitates. “And I… I care for you. So I’m biased and I worry…”
She flounders as Kai continues to watch her.
“I’m not the person who’s going to determine your future,” she decides at last.
Good luck with that, Kai thinks to himself wryly.
“I thought that’s the cards’ job,” he quips instead.
“No, not the cards either,” Stell shuffles the deck absently. “It’s only you, Kai. You command your own fate.”
“I get the picture,” Kai reassures her. “It’s just for fun, right? And if you draw anything nasty for me…”
He shrugs.
“…I won’t take it personally.”
Stell huffs a laugh. Her small hands are still somehow so dexterous and swift as she shuffles with troubled intensity.
“Whatever I say next could be gullshit, inspired by vague and arbitrary meanings some Vailian wrote centuries ago,” she continues. “So take everything with as much salt as in the sea.”
Kai grins at her, “You’re starting to use more nautical idioms.”
“I blame it on you,” Stell holds the deck out to him. “Now it’s your turn.”
Kai accepts the deck with a hum. As his thumb strokes over the back of the topmost card, he can feel the grain of the worn paper and the lines where the card had been creased over the years.
He doesn’t have any fancy tricks when he shuffles. Still, the familiar motion brings him back to many nights with his squad and Tama, passing time by the fire with a battered deck of their own playing cards.
“Do you feel it’s ready?” Stell asks him.
“Do I feel…?” Kai shrugs. “As ready as it can be.”
“Good enough for me,” Stell retrieves the deck from him, their hands only briefly brushing. She places it down on the ground between them. “Now, split the deck.”
Kai obliges silently.
“Take the topmost card, if you would?” Stell motions towards it. “Don’t turn it over yet — simply place it aside here.”
Kai does so. He’s not sure if it’s just his imagination, but he swears the atmosphere shifts ever so slightly — as if someone unseen is watching.
Stell combines the rest of the deck and shuffles yet again.
“This ritual is often associated with Berathian priests and augurs,” she explains. “And like Berath — or Rikuhu the twin eels, in this case — duality exists in all things, including each card. There is life in death; death in life… and so the meaning behind each card depends on its position in relation to the reader. Think of it like two sides of a coin, or two ends of a journey.”
“I’m following,” Kai says somewhat truthfully.
“Good.”
With a final flourish she draws ten more cards — one at a time. She arranges each one face-down in a deliberate spread.
“They call this method ‘the Tree of Life,’” Stell’s eyes flick towards the Garden on the horizon. “Fitting, isn’t it? We’ll start with this card, which shall describe your present situation.” She gestures wryly around them. “In case you aren’t aware of it.”
“Could always use more clarity,” Kai muses. “You’ve always been good at giving me that.”
Stell clears her throat dubiously, the gills of her brows flushing slightly.
“Remember — it’s simply a tool. I’m not really a fortune-teller. Not today, anyway.”
“I hear you,” Kai assures her. “Now don’t leave me in suspense.”
With a small smile, Stell nods before turning over the first card.
“The Ten of Stars,” she announces.
Kai recognizes the illustration at once.
“Huh,” he peers closer. “We call that constellation the Voyager.”
“Oh? That’s fitting.”
“So what does it mean?”
Stell hums.
“I’d say you’ve been on a long journey,” she says slowly. “And what you have now, you’ve earned. It’s built upon those you’ve loved and lost, their light shining over you in the night sky.”
Kai chuckles.
“Is this just an excuse to sweet-talk me?” he teases her. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“Who’s to say?” Stell replies loftily. “It's up to the cards, I’m afraid.”
“So that’s the past. What does it mean for my future?”
“We’ll get to that. We won’t have the bigger picture until we make it through the whole tree.”
She flips over the next one.
“This one represents the responsibilities you’ll have along your journey,” her finger brushes over the illustration of an old Huana measuring tool — the kind Kai saw native merchants use in the Deadfire. “Here we have the Scales. This one is fairly self-explanatory. It urges moderation. Balance. Patience.”
“Patience?” Kai scoffs. “We’re in a bit of a time crunch here, aren’t we?”
“It means whatever you interpret it to be,” Stell shrugs. “So… what do you make of it?”
Patience is certainly no stranger to Kai. It’s hard to be in a hurry when one has nothing to look forward to, after all…
“Let’s wait until that ‘bigger picture,’” he decides.
“Very well.”
Stell reaches for the third card. “This one will recount your difficulties or limitations — something that’s holding you back from your goal.”
When she flips over this card, her hand hesitates above it. Kai catches the small frown before she smooths it over.
“The Moon,” she says. “When it’s reversed like this, it refers to Cawldha specifically. Also known as the Black Runner, for she’s the smaller and faster of our moons. When she aligns with her sister Belafa, the tides and storms are devastating.”
She doesn’t have to tell him twice. Coming from the rough country, Kai is quite familiar with those storms.
“...cheery,” he manages.
Stell shrugs apologetically, “Nature is a force outside of your control, and Cawldha spurs uncertainty and turmoil wherever she goes. Understandably, it’s difficult for you to see what’s holding you back amid the darkness.
“But no matter how unpredictable her orbit seems, astronomers know to expect that from her,” she says. “And so we’ve learned when to brace for her destructive nature. And like those storms — and like the moons themselves — know that you can move past these obstacles. Always.”
Of course she can spin even a grim card’s meaning in an optimistic light. Kai supposes that’s the skills of a fast-talking court augur at play.
Stell flips over the fourth card, and her expression falters once more.
“This card describes what help and support you shall have along your journey,” she explains wearily.
He can understand her trepidation. This card depicts a mighty leviathan studded with ten spears and contorted in splashy, bloody agony.
“I’m guessing this one isn’t cheery either?”
“Well, let's see,” Stell chews on her lip. “It doesn’t… necessarily… describe your future. In this position it represents failure and defeat. In the past, you may have been at your lowest point. Alone, without that support.”
May have been? She knows that he has been.
Stell’s small, warm hand settles upon his.
“But perhaps that’s why you can only go up from here?” she suggests. “You built so much armor around your heart that it weighed you down. Without its weight, you can swim up to the surface where we — your friends — can pull you up for air.”
Kai’s breath hitches in his throat.
Oh yeah… he loves her.
“The next card prepares you for the obstacles you’ll face,” Stell closes her eyes momentarily before revealing the card. “The Six of Cups. Reversed. It’s…”
Kai looks closer at the illustration. It depicts a lone aumaua setting off in a small voyager towards the sunset, her hair billowing in the wind. True to the card’s name, she has six baskets of supplies secured to her boat.
“Upright the Six of Cups symbolizes a return. Reversed… it’s a departure,” Stell murmurs. “You will leave what you know behind. You’ll outgrow places. People. As I said, you’ll be defining your own future free of their influence.”
“Been there, done that,” Kai watches her morose expression. “I’m a deserter, remember?”
“But this one pertains to the future,” Stell says quietly. “And you do intend to leave, don’t you?”
“To travel Eora, yeah,” Kai nudges her. “And you’ll come with me… I hope?”
Stell’s smile is distant.
“I hope, too,” she murmurs. “Halfway through. Now, this next one pertains to the achievements you’ve made thus far… ah.”
For some reason, she flushes slightly, her smile soft and genuine this time. On the card is a faded illustration of a striking aumaua woman, a fanlike crown of feathers upon her golden helmeted head and a ceremonial goblet cradled in her hands.
“The Queen of Cups,” Stell taps on the card. “This is a card of comfort. Of kindness and… love.”
She looks up at him. “I told you before that I’m biased. But from what I’ve seen, it’s with this care and kindness in the people all around you that you’ve had time to be compassionate to yourself.”
“Let’s be real,” Kai chuckles. “Those ‘people’ have just been you. Marius hasn’t exactly been the one stroking my ego this whole time.”
“Thank goodness,” Stell says dryly. “He’d be some fierce competition, I’m sure.”
Kai shakes his head with a smile. There’s no question that of everything he has achieved, finding his queen — his Stell — has been what mattered most.
After all, she has her own crown of horn-like fungus growing from her head.
Stell clears her throat as she flips the next one.
“This card describes your relationships with other kith, whether platonic, familial, or… romantic,” she clears her throat. “The Nine of Stars is a card of riches. The work you have done has given you many rewards and pleasures that are well-deserved. And it’s thanks to your discipline that you have found every success.”
“‘Discipline?’ I guess the Royal Deadfire Company was good for one thing,” Kai mutters.
Stell humors him with a small, awkward laugh.
“I’ve seen a few RDC ships come to port, but I can’t imagine you as one of those rowdy recruits,” she remarks. “You’re so… mellow.”
Kai has to guffaw at that, “Age and wisdom does that, I suppose.”
“One is assured while the other isn’t,” Stell drawls.
“For one of us, anyway,” Kai quips. “At least you’ve got at least couple centuries to find out.”
It’s the wrong thing to say. Stell’s smile freezes and fades into a grimace, her yellow eyes lowering back to the cards.
It’s a topic that comes up inevitably in kith relationships when there’s a disparity in lifespans. Humans and elves. Orlans and everyone else. But godlikes?
That’s a whole other level of difference — at least it used to be, before whatever made them start dying out. Back in that Eothasian temple Sargamis had lived nearly six hundred years, after all.
In the grand scheme of things, Kai might be nothing more than a blip to Stell — a fling during her youthful thirties. Here he is post-midlife crisis and there she is —
Timid. And troubled.
Kai reaches for her.
“Stell…”
She shakes herself.
“The next one represents the state of your mind,” she continues, as if nothing happened. “Let’s see…”
She turns over the card, and he doesn’t push the topic further. They’ll have time to discuss, surely.
“The First of Swords — or ‘spears,’ it seems in this deck’s case. It represents clarity and a mind as sharp as a blade. If you haven’t already, you’ll find this clarity at last… but only by opening your eyes to what you never considered before.”
Kai chuckles.
“I think I’ve done that part at least,” he gestures at the ethereal tree on the horizon and the volcanic landscape all around them. “Never considered I’d be here of all places.”
Let alone at the side of a godlike of an unknown god.
Let alone at the side of someone who loves him.
“I guess you can thank me for dragging you out here,” Stell mutters.
“Thank you,” Kai means it, nudging her fondly to show it. “Besides, when we’re in a place like this?”
He gestures to the sparkling spring and the closest thing to an oasis all around them.
“It’s not so bad. Not by a long shot.”
Stell’s mouth opens slightly. At first, nothing comes out.
“I’m glad you think so,” she whispers eventually. “Um…”
“We can continue,” Kai saves her.
“Right. Ah, next we’ll consider what you don’t know, or can’t see,” Stell focuses. “Things that may influence your journey.”
She flips the ninth card.
“The King of Cups,” she says softly.
“A match for the queen,” Kai quips.
Stell chuckles, “And just like her, it’s a noble, generous card. Through compassion and a controlled hand, this unknown influence will change your life unexpectedly.”
An unexpected king, huh?
He was happy enough with the queen.
“Our penultimate card,” Stell murmurs. “This one speaks to your body, and your place within the physical world.”
The upside-down card shows a dramatically-lit aumaua at the center of five branches radiating from them like a sun.
“The Five of… Trees?” Stell says. “I assume that this suit corresponds to ‘wands.’ Reversed like this, it urges you to work together with others to end conflict and find solutions.”
“I’d say we’ve already been doing that,” Kai remarks. “If only all the others in the Living Lands could follow suit and push back against Aedyr. Ondra’s teeth, if only the Rauataian council could figure themselves out…”
He grimaces.
“But the empire will just keep expanding. Keep imposing themselves in the Deadfire and beyond until there’s no Huana except in name. And they’ll be just as bad as Aedyr,” he growls to himself.
“It’s why you couldn’t stay,” Stell murmurs.
“I didn’t want to be a part of that,” Kai nods. “Another soldier pushing the Huana down. Assassinating their leaders, forcing them into longhouses, and shaping them with fire, powder, and blade to become more like us. It was cruel. And it was wrong.”
“Do you think others feel the same way?”
“A few of us did,” Kai sighs. “Why do you think there’s so many of us in Thirdborn? But we talked quietly, though. No hazanui will tolerate a naysayer among their men. And no one in power cares to do anything about it. Not for long, anyway.”
“Maybe more of them want change than you think,” Stell suggests. “Maybe they just need someone to not simply speak out but also lead.”
Kai huffs a laugh, “I’ve fantasized about it a few times. Every kid has their dream where they wake up the Ranga Nui. But it couldn’t be me.”
“Why not?”
Stell props up her head upon her elbow.
“What?”
“Why not you?” she clarifies. “You’re charismatic. People trust you — even those who hadn’t seen you since you left Thirdborn. I’ve heard you talk. You miss Rauatai still. You… love Rauatai, in all its imperfection.”
She shrugs. “Why wouldn’t you want to make it better?”
“Because it’s not something I can do,” Kai protests. “I’m just one kith who is the furthest thing from the Ranga Nui. I can’t just change things like that.”
“No, it wouldn’t be that easy,” Stell concedes. “It never is. All that said…”
She’s fidgeting with a card — the King of Cups, Kai notes.
“…you need to give yourself more credit,” she finishes lamely.
Kai reaches out to take her hand, freeing the card to drop to the ground as her fingers curl into his.
“I’m working on it,” he reminds her.
“I know,” she smiles at him. “I’ve seen it. And it’s beautiful.”
Her eyes fall upon the final eleventh card which Kai had picked and placed aside.
“Traditionally this is where the reading would conclude with all ten cards,” she says. “But someone once taught me to keep the first card like this.”
“‘Someone?’”
Stell avoids his gaze.
“Lödwyn, actually,” she mutters.
Kai raises his brows, “I didn’t think she’d be one to put faith in cards.”
“Her faith was only in Woedica. But her approach to fortune cards was similar to what mine is now. They’re merely a tool that allows one to subtly dissect a soul. Its challenges. Its hopes, dreams, and fears.”
Stell sighs.
“She always did like her tools.”
Kai watches as her free hand picks at the final card, not turning it.
“So what is this card supposed to mean?” he prompts her after a long pause.
“Ah,” Stell shakes herself. “Yes. She called it the ‘flame.’ You put it aside in case further clarity is needed from the reading. Sometimes, depending on the person and the light it casts, it can change the meaning of their entire reading. That is why I read it last, not first.”
“So… why did Lödwyn like it?” Kai frowns.
Stell looks distant.
“She told me it was because there was always more to what I first saw. There are layers to every kith, and by setting fire to this tree, so to speak, I might see more of them than even they know.”
Kai blinks, “…she sure likes to burn things down, doesn’t she?”
“At least she’s consistent,” Stell mutters. “Uncomfortable as the imagery is, I still like the technique. At the very least it helps with dramatic effect when you’re trying to impress a noble. Rather than a fire, perhaps we can think of it as the sun, illuminating the tree’s shade over all the cards’ previous answers.”
She continues to fiddle with the card.
“We don’t need to see it…” she begins to say.
“After all that suspense?” Kai chuckles. “Come on, hit me! I’m not afraid.”
Stell obliges, flipping the card over without further ceremony.
The illustration upon the card is a somber one. It’s of a single elderly aumaua, his hair in graying dreads and with a cloak of straw over his shoulders. In his gnarled hand he holds a lantern, which casts his shadow in sharp relief.
He looks a lot like Old Keipo, Kai realizes with a lump in his throat.
“The Hermit,” Stell says, taken aback. “Reversed.”
“That supposed to be me?” Kai asks wryly. “Hate to break it to you, but I’m not sure I can grow hair like that anymore.”
Stell sways in her seat. To Kai’s alarm, there are tears in her eyes.
“Stell…?”
“So long you’ve been alone,” she interrupts him in a low hush. “So long you have punished yourself. You’ve been lost, my love.”
Kai’s heart throbs as she reaches towards him, her hand resting upon his cheek. Even in the hazy sunlight, her bright blue freckles seem to sparkle like stars.
“You have been afraid to face the things that you fled,” she murmurs. “But it’s time to emerge from your isolation. Keeping yourself — your beautiful, wonderful self — away limits not only you, but those around you. The world can benefit from your wisdom, and you can change it by seeking out others’ perspectives. Engage them in the ways only you can.”
Her eyes shine.
“Your future is bright because you’re in it.”
It’s hard to breathe.
Kai’s heart throbs as his hand closes around Stell’s upon his cheek. He surprises himself as a hot tear spills into their joined fingers, but Stell merely wipes it away with a swipe of her thumb.
As he takes in her smile, he knows that it’s not an old playing card that has banished the shadows.
“That’s only because you lit the flame,” he murmurs.
There’s a question that remains; one he didn’t dare ask. Maybe it’s foolish to ask it now.
“When the hermit emerges,” he says slowly, pulling Stell’s hands down to rest upon his lap. “Will the queen join him on his journey?”
Stell’s hands tighten in his.
“I hope so,” she whispers.
“Well, here’s hoping her king won’t mind,” Kai jokes. “What do the cards say?”
Stell pulls away only to slide her hands through the spread of cards, sweeping them aside.
“Uh,” Kai says, but she’s already crawling into his lap, her arms draping around his neck.
“Berath take the cards,” she declares. “Our future will be what we want to make of it.”
Her head falls onto his damp shoulder, uncaring of how the droplets are still drying upon his scales.
“Not Woedica,” she whispers. “Not even Sapadal or any of the gods. It’ll only be ours.”
‘Ours.’
Kai settles his hands upon her hips, a smile spreading across his own face.
“So tell me,” he murmurs. “What do you want, after all this is over?”
Stell searches his eyes, as if they might hold the answers instead.
“What I want is for neither of us to ever have to feel lonely again. Not in our joy. Not in our grief. Not in the choices we each make, right or wrong.”
Her fingers curl into the back of his neck, and Kai wishes she’d never let go.
“I want to stay by your side for as long as you’ll have me,” she concludes in a hush. “Fair weather or foul, as you said.”
Kai’s heart hasn’t stopped fluttering ever since she crawled into his lap.
“Yeah?” he breathes. “I’d like that.”