The Tale of Amaretto

Ninth Grain

In which all is revealed...

Amaretto grasped her aunt's hand and stepped onto the small glass enclosure. La sorcière smiled at them and motioned for them to follow her to the direct center of the dome. Katherine followed the girl quickly almost as if the girl had issued a command. Amaretto followed a little more warily. As she did so, she looked back at eh runes to get their familiar feel of comfort and as she did so, she noticed that the area they were not on began to dissolve into water.

Amaretto screeched as she realized that her only way of escape was being cut off from her. Katherine looked back and then walked over to her go-daughter and took a hold of her.

"Calm down darling. There is nothing to worry about. That's just the water. There has to be water somewhere if this is to be called the water mirror."

Amaretto pointed at the water. "You did not warn me about that! How could you not warn me about that?"

Katherine shook her head. "I didn't know. Now calm yourself."

Amaretto fumed at this. Katherine wanted her to calm herself? She had almost been drowned in an invisible lake! Well perhaps not really drowned, but Amaretto had to admit that she had been startled and really she was more angry at being startled than at her aunt. She took a deep breath and then nodded and regained her composure.

La sorcière smiled slightly and then motioned to the lake that was slowly starting to appear beneath them. "This large lake that we are standing on is known as the Water Mirror," began La sorcière. "It is one of two mirrors that are known to produce visions that are truthful."

Amaretto cut in at this moment. "Truthful? You mean that there are other mirrors that can lie?" She raised an eyebrow and made a smile at her joke. Katherine tried to look stern, but wound up having to raise a hand to her mouth to cover a grin that was beginning to appear.

La sorcière shook her head, sadly missing the sarcasm. "Not in the way that you are thinking no. What I mean to say is that these two mirrors are the only way that someone can see a possible future that is truthful. Not only that, but this is only one of two mirrors that one can see the Possibilities in, the other being the Sand Mirror."

Amaretto put up her hand and shook her head. "Wait a moment, possibilities? Isn't that the same thing as seeing the future? Isn't that what seeing the future is all about?" She knit her brow in frustration, thinking that the girl was almost as crazy as her aunt. Katherine shook her head this time. She turned to Amaretto and made a small sigh and then bit her lip as she contemplated what to say. She then spoke in a slow voice, placing emphasis on several points at once.

"Perhaps we should start at a different place Ama darling," her aunt said. "Your hourglass runs on something called 'Possibility'. It is that small thing that allows anything in the known universe to actually work. It is how your Hourglass actually allows you to transfer from place to another without any consequences. It is the possibility of the fact that the action could happen and therefore, the hourglass permits it. Does that make more sense in the first place?"

Amaretto listened to her aunt's explanation, her eyes slowly widening more as her aunt went on. When she was finally finished, she said, "Are you trying to say that this glass doesn't actually travel? It's only the possibility of travel that makes it happen?"

La sorcière nodded her head rather slowly as if rewarding a child for their innocence in understanding. "That is correct. It is in that thinking that you are able to do it. It is also these possibilities that the Mirrors are able to watch. Since there are so many, you can watch almost anything and appear to know the future, as long as you know one of the decisions that have been made."