The woman's fingers hovered over the cards, barely touching them. Her palm moved just a few centimeters above the spread, while her lips whispered words that belonged to no known language — neither Kael nor Althar could understand them. Yet there was something in the tone... as if the words weren't reaching their ears but emerging directly from deep within their subconscious.
Her murmurs weren't like a prayer, nor were they a threat. It was more of a... calling.Time felt as if it had slowed. Whether it was night outside or morning breaking, no one seemed to care.
Kael had squinted without realizing it. As he watched the woman's extravagant but strange gestures, the only thought that passed through his mind was:"Tarot reading existed in our world too… But this? This is too theatrical. Flashy. Like a play laced with magic."
Finally, the woman stopped. Her fingers traced one last line through the air. Then, silence.She slowly raised her head and looked at Althar."Choose a card," she said. The tone of her voice made even that simple sentence feel like an ancient oath.
Althar lowered his head and looked at the cards on the table.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
At first, he reached toward a card on the left. His finger was almost touching it when something pulled him back. He didn't change his posture, but slowly shifted his hand to the right. Kael silently watched from beside him.
"What's there to think about? Just pick one," he thought.Kael's eyebrows raised slightly, and his lips curved into a faint, mocking smirk.He wanted to tease Althar, but no words came out. Perhaps a part of him sensed the gravity of the moment.
Althar remained silent. His eyes wandered among the cards. But finally, they fixed on one. The card wasn't different from the others. Same size, same wear, same gilded back. But to Althar, that one card stood out more than the rest.
"Definitely this one," he thought.And as if trying to slow everything down, he carefully reached for the card with deliberate slowness.
When his fingertips touched the edge of the card, time seemed to pause for a moment.
"I choose this one," he said in a low voice.
The woman bowed her head. Her eyes fixed on the card. Then, gently, she picked it up and turned it over.
She said nothing as she revealed it. But her eyes narrowed slightly the moment she saw the card. Her breathing noticeably slowed.
Kael saw her lips part slightly.
The woman stared at the card for a long time.Then she looked up at Althar with an expression so unfamiliar, it was almost unrecognizable.
When she began to speak, her voice sounded different. As if it weren't her own — as if someone else had borrowed her lips to speak...
She took the card with trembling care. Her fingertips touched its worn edges gently, as if it were not just a piece of paper but something cursed, or ancient and sacred.Then, with a quiet motion born from silence, she placed the card face-up on the table.
The card now faced Althar.
He leaned in. His eyes fixed, his expression frozen. For several long seconds, he just stared.On the gold-edged card was a broken torch. Split in two down the middle, yet still burning. Its flames were chaotic — flickering like rage or pain.Around it reached out charred hands — burnt, yet still trying to hold on.At the bottom was a faint but clear inscription: Broken Flame.
Althar's eyes tried to understand. But his face remained unreadable. No fear, no awe… only a deep, empty focus.
The tarot reader slightly inclined her head. She slowly lowered her gaze to meet Althar's, and began to speak:
"The shape of the fire is distorted… but it has not gone out.Though the oath inside you is fractured, it still burns.This path will devour you. But you… you will carry that burn mark like a sacred seal."
Her voice did not tremble. It wasn't dramatic or theatrical. But it felt as though the words were chosen by something else before she ever spoke them.
Upon hearing her, Kael let out a quiet snort through his nose. He couldn't suppress a rising sense of mockery within."Though the oath inside you is fractured but still burns..."Lovely. That would make a great book title.He had always approached cards and mystical speech with suspicion. Tarot, in his eyes, was nothing more than peddling false hope.A few drawings, some cryptic words… and the result:"Oh, your life will change."
"To know someone's future… through cards. Really? Is reality really that easy to unravel?"
The woman's gaze turned to Kael.As if she had heard his thoughts, she began to speak with a quiet smile. She had taken the cards into her hands again and was silently shuffling them. But now her words reached directly toward Kael.
"People find this funny… There are many who think tarot is nonsense.And yet, everyone wakes up in the middle of the night with something gnawing at their soul.They seek meaning. They seek reason. They want answers."
The cards slid through her fingers, but her eyes remained on Kael.
"Because living beings… must believe in something.Not out of fear. But because it is the most primal vibration of existence.Faith… is a compass.Like a stone that glows in the dark.Whether it's real or not… doesn't matter. What matters is believing the stone exists.Believing in your fate brings comfort.It makes pain meaningful. Turns coincidence into destiny.And most importantly… gives you direction when you are lost."
Her voice hadn't risen. But the words spread through the room as if echoing from within the walls.
"Faith… sometimes becomes a god. Sometimes a promise. Sometimes… just a card.But every soul, as it carries the weight of existence… inevitably seeks the shadow of something greater."
Kael's smile faded a little.Were the tarot reader's words nonsense? Maybe.But something inside him — small, stubborn — felt uneasy.Knowing so much about faith didn't quite match someone who believed.Or perhaps… only someone who had already lost their faith could speak this deeply about it.
Kael leaned toward the cards, furrowing his brow as he studied them with curiosity.The card on his left bore a faded crown. Rusted, cracked, bearing the weight of time and neglect.Delicate roots extended from it — not toward the earth, but reaching upward into the sky.For a moment, the idea formed in Kael's mind: perhaps this card symbolized a force that defied all known laws, one that created its own rules.
The other card was its complete opposite: pitch black, with a hollowed-out moon figure.Around it floated fragments of time, like symbols of something fragile and fleeting.The moon stood like a god of night and the unknown, but the emptiness within stirred something unsettling in Kael's soul.As if the card spoke of a disappearance — a loss that transcended even time.
As Kael compared the two cards in front of him, his mind filled with questions."What does this mean? What kinds of secrets are hidden in this city, that even the cards are so complex and obscure?"
Althar, unfazed by the storm of Kael's thoughts, smiled faintly and turned toward him."Let's go," he said.He handed the tarot reader a small bill. Without looking at the money, as if she were somewhere else entirely, the reader quietly took only the cards and began examining them slowly once again.Althar turned to Kael:"No need to be so harsh. She's just doing her job," he said gently.
Kael, deep down, agreed.Even though he didn't believe in such things, he now understood that the events here were anything but ordinary.He was upset, yes — but what was done was done. He needed to keep himself grounded.
Kael parted his lips and began to speak:"I see nothing in this city. Everything seems as it should be… at least for now. No problems."But his voice didn't echo conviction — rather, it reflected a hope he kept repeating without truly believing.
Althar nodded slightly at Kael's words."I expected you to think that, from the start.Not what you want to see — but the truth you need to see…"Then, stretching his hands behind him, he pointed to a small, narrow alleyway."Come on. Let's go this way. Staying here won't help either of us."
Kael looked toward the alley Althar had indicated.Narrow, cobblestoned, cloaked in deepening shadows.The streetlights cast pale glows, and the moss and damp on the walls gave off the scent of something ancient — like a secret that had long since seeped into the bones of the city.