Petra of the Shazastar is a thief on the run from an unforgettable past. But, like all thieves, her luck cannot last forever. When she is caught, she's given a choice: either face execution or become the fortune teller to the Mad Queen.
Not surpri...
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AWKWARD DINNER SOUNDS FILL THE hall, everyone too eager to busy themselves with food rather than confront the tension that envelopes us all.
"I must know your response to my mistress's invitation," the Ethbanian messenger urges, impatience etched upon his face.
"And you will get it!" Meridian slams her fork down in ire, the clang rings out through out the dining hall.
I sip my wine, whilst my plate remains untouched. I focus on my breathing, calm and calculated, otherwise I am sure I will lose consciousness, for I cannot stand the stuffiness any longer; it is suffocating me. It is as if I am inside of a coffin.
I try not to blink. I cannot close my eyes for guilt assaults me. Innocent eyes accuse me of betrayal and I cannot - I cannot look upon them. But dryness forces me to shut my eyes lest they crust over into nothing. In the darkness I am in a treasured memory - upon a meadow, the meadow where the goats graze ... the meadow in which he would meet with me, where we would talk for hours and laugh and dance beneath the sky, innocent and free and loved. The meadow in which his lips would find mine, in which they would be upon my skin...
The angry slam of the door jolts me back to reality. I take a breath of air as if I had been drowning in the water alley way once again. Through my blurry vision, I notice Giovanni de Luca, disheveled and sweaty, a very uncommon sight for one so precise.
"Good, you are all here." He walks to the head of the table and towers over the Ethbanian menacingly. "Tell your mistress that we gladly accept her invitation. But my guard will accompany the queen. Comprendre?"
The messenger nods his head and an audible sigh escapes the dining hall, loudest of all the Mad Queen. The change within the hall is almost magical; it fills with conversation and laughter once again, however Giovanni stands with his men, away from the tables, glower set upon the messenger. He does not acknowledge me - it is as if I do not even exist. And it pains me in a somber way, but I push it aside. For two can play the ignoring game. Perhaps, it is the right way to go about things... perhaps disregard will help me forget him.
"Whatever did you say to my nephew to make him change his mind? Especially about ... well... Ethban does not hold the fondest of memories for him."
I shrug my answer to the queen, just as confused as she, for although Giovanni consented to the invitation, he will make us rue the day in his own childish way.
"You are more of a mystic than I had ever believed, my fortune teller. Truly the Shazastar breeds the most magical of all beings." Meridian shakes her head in disbelief as if I had conjured the miracle of all miracles.
