The Illusionist

Chapter One - The Beginning

The Queen's eldest son was never one for politics nor was he someone able to reign on after his mother had died.

Cassius was calm but very odd. He never interacted with people and most of the day he spent locked in his luxurious rooms his mother had provided him with.

They consisted mainly of a large king sized bed and a wardrobe full of delicate silk tunics and leather pants. There was also a large library with history books and books of the olden days. Below the wooden shelves stood a small drawing table, littered with scraps of paper, either drawn on or smudged with thick ink in letters illegible to the normal eye.

Reading and sketching had always been his strongest passions. He liked to take time to think about what was, what is and what will come to be.

Today after a large fight with his mother, he drew out his deck of fortune telling cards he had drawn for his specific purposes. They were all carefully painted with watercolour shades and outlined with charcoal lines. There were many strange shapes and some only painted with a faint smudge of paint.

He set them out one by one, left to right, until he had a full grid. He read the first three cards, the Figure of Shadows, the King of the Moon and the Quill and Ink tarrot. From them he read his past.

One day, just about a week ago, he remembered he was wondering around the streets and alleys of Andor. It had been some time since he last thought about this occasion but what happened next was definitely something out of the ordinary.

When he turned around a corner, he found himself gazing right at the face of someone or more something. Its gaze looked as if it were made of steel and its face was twisted and intertwined with its hair - if hair it may be called.

He never thought much of the occasion but now the cards had reminded him of it, he was sure it was important and that the cards did not wish he forgot it completely.

The next card showed clearly what it meant to him but he did not know what it was signalling towards. He did not know what he should think about in a different way than he had before.

And the last card. His favourite one of them all. The Quill and Ink. He figured that the cards wanted to remind him of his unfinished masterpiece. One that hopes would shock his mother completely.

The next row of cards showed him his present. They all were understandable to him. The Silver lute, the King of the Sky and the Veil of Waters.
Music, rulership and a celebration which he was much looking forward to. Nothing unusual.

After the last row had revealed nothing interesting, Cassius moved his light fingers to the last row. His future.

These cards always meant a lot to him and they were his protection and something he could always count on. They were his shield in hard times.

He had to reread them two more times before he could let it sink into him. All of them signalled to loss or death.

The card he had most feared his entire life showed up clearly, unveiled like a star that had blown away all its layers and shown its core.