ROSIER

20

Visions
...

The old lady made them all sit around the table as she pulled cookies and a teapot out of her purse. She lit the fireplace, humming until the tea was ready before finally taking a seat.

"How did you know we would be here?" Gwen was the first to break the thickening silence. She made it a point to avoid Dorcas' gaze as the brunette sat right across from her.

"Because I have seen it many years ago."

"Seen it? Like a vision?" Emmeline remarked sceptically, putting the tea down without taking a sip. She looked at the other faces at the table, even at the Gargoyle on Gwen's lap and the snoring Justus on the couch behind her. "Lady, I hope you realize that Divination is-"

"-a hoax to fool the dimwitted." The woman finished the sentence. A sly grin crossed her lips. "My dear, you have all reason to be sceptical of what you can't understand. That is an important quality. For both your life as well as your group's shared destiny."

"We're not a group," Gwen remarked. She glanced at the brunette who circled her emptied cup in her hands.

"Not yet, but you will be if things go the way they're meant to be," The lady nodded. "After all, you have intertwined goals only reachable if you work together. Otherwise, I fear none of you will become who they're supposed to be. But the visions are a little hazy on that, and I get headaches so easily that it is a pain to force them to clear."

"What do you mean by that?" Remus asked, gladly eating the cookies. He dunked them into his tea as he latched onto the woman's telling's. "How are our goals intertwined?"

The old lady sipped on her tea before leaning forward to refill Dorcas' cup. She smiled kindly at the girl before speaking on. "All four of you-"

"Hey," Garg interrupted her.

"I'm very sorry, my friend. It seems I have almost forgotten about your important role in this. Please forgive me," She gave him a cookie to gain his forgiveness, correcting her choice of words. "The five of you are connected, and so are your fates. Without one another, you will not find your path or even lose it on the way. Isn't it exciting?"

"This is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard," Emmeline shook her head, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Why would my fate be attached to theirs? I can live perfectly fine on my own."

"My friend." The woman first waved her to lean in before flicking a finger painfully against her forehead. "Everyone is connected in some ways. This is how the universe works, so stop questioning it. We do not look at details. We look at our strings and how they attach." The old lady let out a sigh, sipping on her cup once more. "Now that we have that cleared, I'm a little surprised none of you are using this opportunity to ask important questions."

"What do our fates look like?" Remus asked.

"I can't answer that. You do not ask such a question, or else the way to get there will be changed, which leads to catastrophe."

"What kind of catastrophe are we talking about? I'd be willing to risk it to a certain extent." Emmeline shrugged, running her hand over the spot on her forehead.

"I knew my gift would come with great obstacles, but this is truly aggravating. You do not want to find out the chaos that would unfold. It is terrible enough that fate tied each of you together, so take a guess,"

"How do we start?" Gwen finally asked, looking at the woman with a rare kind of trust.

"You already did," The old lady smiled, finishing her tea. "There will be a letter falling into the hands of each one of you. It will grant you an opportunity of a choice, two paths you will have to choose between. I can't tell you which one is the right one, but you will know once the paths open up for you."