After wandering around for a while, Petra found herself standing before a large, circular black tent!
She paused, tilting her head slightly in suspicion.
This place was easy to miss…
The tent had been tucked between two brightly lit stalls, half-hidden behind a hanging banner, and remained unlit like an unopened attraction. It was abnormal! Very, very abnormal!
And thus—!
Petra approached!
Unlike everything else around here… the strange black fabric didn't reflect light, no, not at all, it almost seemed to swallow it whole! Faint silver threads were stitched across its surface, twisting into unfamiliar patterns that subtly bent and merged together, creating something unsettling to the eye.
There were no lanterns, no signs, and no customers! The place didn't feel closed or abandoned. It simply 'felt off', off in a way that almost felt welcoming!
So naturally—!
To Petra, that made it interesting!
-
Petra pushed aside the hanging curtain and stepped inside, leaving the others to wait. As the curtain swung back behind her, the noise of the festival vanished instantly, likely through some spell, and the atmosphere immediately changed!
After Petra passed through several more layers of dark fabric, she eventually reached the innermost 'chamber'. This was the classic 'Diviner's Tent!'
The air was stagnant, heavy with the dense smell of a sharp incense and, although it seemed to be absent… wet parchment. A thick sea of pale fog clung to the floor, rolling around Petra's feet, while tiny specks of white light drifted around lazily, like sleepy fireflies. A dim purple glow seeped from the glass orb on the round table in the centre of the room, scattering distorted light through the haze and along the ground, casting shadows that didn't quite match.
Behind the small table sat an 'old woman', hunched forward, and wrapped in many layers of black cloth. A violet hood hung down, covering her face, and concealing her jaw.
She was very mysterious!
At least, from a child's perspective…
Petra's eyes sparkled.
Only the silent woman's eyes were visible beneath her veil, with deep, dark circles hanging beneath them. She didn't look up right away, no, she seemed to almost be trying to 'build the atmosphere'…
"…You shouldn't be here," the woman muttered, her voice low and drawn out, echoing with a hoarse and stretched resonance. It was rough to the ears, giving one the impression that she rarely used it…
Petra tilted her head, thinking, 'Was that her real voice?'
It didn't seem like it…
What a silly grandma…
Before she could speak, the woman looked up, and—
immediately froze!
Ah—?
Gon: "...?"
Petra: "…?"
Gon's body froze as her breathing hitched in her throat!
Her eyes trembled.
Petra tilted her head, confused by the strange reaction.
There was a long silence…
Petra twiddled her fingers, waiting patiently like a cute child should for a confused granny!
Across the table, the 'diviner' was shaking.
As for why…
Well! This wasn't just any fortune teller, no, she wasn't even really a fortune teller…! This was 'Gon', the 'Six-Star Pillar of the Sky Tower', currently on a 'low-risk reconnaissance mission' to locate a certain 'missing green-haired calamity'.
Basically, she had come to the south to slack off….
After all, why would that menace come to the most populated area on the continent?
The Sky Tower was a very 'arrogant power', so even if they weren't one hundred percent sure that Petra was the reason for the collapse of the Sky Tower, they would still pursue it to the end…! No, that was wrong. In truth, they would treat it like a life-or-death grudge and hunt Petra down to the ends of the earth, even if it meant exterminating the entire continent and all life on it!!!
Cough-cough-cough!
Mm…
So—! For the reasons above, the Sky Tower sent out half their 'Tower Pillars' (Elders), scattering them across the continent, the western region included, to look for the little troublemaker!
Gon got lucky and drew the Southern Region…
In truth, they probably knew she wouldn't do much if she were sent to the other regions, so they just gave her the southern region.
She was a bit unreliable like that…
In the end, Gon, this gloomy shut-in, chose to set up a mediocre divination tent, concealed it in a corner, and drew in some 'fated ones' to make some easy money during the southern region's festival!
- insert party shakers—!
- insert party shakers!
- insert party shakers…
Mm…
Anyways, It had been going very well, but then—
A mother fucking monster had swaggered in! Damn It!
This little girl!
Who was she trying to fool!?
The naive expression!
That innocent smile!
That child-like demeanor!
Bullshit!
Gon was both a low-level 'Diviner' and a high-level 'Necromancer', and this made her very 'insightful!'
She swallowed hard.
Her hands shook as she hesitantly reached for her 'tools'.
"…S-so," she said, forcing out a smile.
"W-would you like… your fortune told?"
Petra: "..."
Was she ok…?
* * *
It had to be said that 'knowing' fate behaved differently around Petra, and 'witnessing' how it was different, were two completely different things…
For people like Arthur, Elena, Kilemin, or even the higher-level 'observers' that were scattered across the continent, peering into future events, regardless of their techniques, usually followed similar rules!
Their abilities differed in method, yes, but at its core, they all resembled the same system of divination. Cards, Patterns, Finger Pinching, Magic, Mathematics, Tea Leaves, Astrology, Geomancy, Formations, or even using one's own instincts, all of them could be distilled down to touching an 'Unknown Place', then pulling 'Information' from that place.
You could use any of the methods above to 'know' something about the past, present, or future, thus predicting fate. 'Resistance' was just the ability to scatter or dilute this information so that no one could understand it.
This was 'knowing' the future!
All 'futures' were pulled towards one's 'fate'. Without getting too much into it, the closer you were to your fate, the harder it was to avoid, even if you knew the future! To circumvent one's fate is to surpass this exponential increase in 'Resistance', with the resistance increasing depending on many factors.
-
Petra, however, was different! The 'anchor' that pulled her towards her 'fate' didn't exist!
To 'know' Petra's future was to know her mood, and because Petra was like a cat, changing every few seconds, her future was completely unpredictable!
Therefore 'knowing' Fate behaved differently around Petra was meaningless, like holding a fist of sand.
With that said…
'Witnessing' 'how' it was different was something else entirely!
To witness is to see, and to see is to understand, and to understand is to know how fate was deconstructed, distorted, and changed, and to know how Petra really 'cheated', and to see her innermost secret…!
To witness was to—
Peer into her abyss!
Elena, like many other old monsters, had once tried to divine Petra…
The attempt hadn't failed… so much as it had been 'rejected'.
It was like placing a hand on a hot burner. The moment contact was made, your instincts forced you to recoil. The divination collapsed, interrupting itself before it could develop.
Like all failed divinations, it was painful, yes, but survivable!
That was important!
This instantaneous rejection also happened whenever Petra 'appeared' in a divination locked onto one of her servants. Her mere existence did something to that 'unknown place', corrupting that 'information' and forcing it into a state of absolute rejection!
This was not the normal 'scattering' or 'dilution' of information, no, it was something else!
She 'replaced' that information with something, something that people would immediately reject!
-
Mm, anyways! Where was I…?
Ah, yes—
There was a difference between a natural born 'Diviner' and a person who could perform a 'Divination!' Gon didn't need to perform any special techniques to see the future of someone she met in person. That was because a real Diviner didn't touch fate from afar, they faced it directly!
And unfortunately, in Gon's case, this was very literal!
Usually, this wasn't a problem, but when facing Petra, it became problematic, extremely problematic! What was worse, when a rejection should normally come, there was no reflex to 'pull back!' This was unique to naturally born Diviners! That was because they were already face-to-face, there was no escape, and nothing to cancel, so they never needed to develop this instinct.
This was Gon's current predicament...
She hadn't seen Petra back in Imai, but now that she was sitting across from her, there was no mistake! The instant she activated her super secret 'diviners' mode', she understood—
Petra was an unspeakable monster wearing the skin of a human!
In Gon's vision, the child wasn't a child at all!
She was a black silhouette without features, no! She was like the night formed and forged, unlit, like a lantern-shaped human! She was a hollow that devoured meaning! Her shadow twisted and reformed, stretching across the room from the unseen world, its countless tentacles exuding an eldritch aura! Its face, the shadow, was distinctly different from Petra's! It was tear-stained and broken, bathed in despair and tragedy! It was not alone! The living hole, Petra, was also draped in something like a second skin, again, another face, another person! But this one wasn't as lively as the shadow, no, it was like a cicada shell draped over her head, like a veil, hollow, empty, abandoned, and only an echo of leftover skin! All of this, all three faces, flowed in a formless facade that flickered like a green flame, no, not just that! She was nothingness, and at the same time, the end of all things, a calamity! An unspeakable terror!
Fate!
'Witnessing' 'how' it was different was something else! Indeed, it was something else entirely!
Anything that brushed against her silhouette was dragged screaming into an abyss of fateless fate!
* * *
Gon swallowed hard and looked away. She felt like her mind was about to shatter as her body trembled.
She felt lightheaded!
This was the Northern Region's Heavens Chosen…?
Who the fuck said that!?
Who should I beat up!
Damn it!
If it wasn't for the complete lack of hostility, perhaps she would have gone crazy on the spot! Petra's cute face was literally the only thread keeping her mind together!
That was how she felt right now…
Her fingers trembled as they slid across the table, brushing past scattered cards, a packet of literal glitter, and a shallow bowl of dark water that reflected nothing. All her tools were just mortal props!
Her mind was spiraling uncontrollably into a deep dread!
What should she do?
What could she do?
Divine her?
She said she would, but—! That was a dead end! That was definitely a dead end…! Would she be pulled in? Would she die? What waited on the other side of the end?
Fear bubbled up uncontrollably in her heart!
Across from Petra, the trembling old woman in layers of black cloth looked dreadfully unwell.
Petra tilted her head.
She made a cute noise.
This granny didn't seem too well…
She stepped closer, peering up at the strange setup with an honest curiosity. "You look tired," Petra said kindly. "Are you sick?" Her big black eyes widened in worry.
She genuinely wanted to help…
She was kind of an old lady in her own way, so she could relate to being a little bit cold! (Petra was…)
Unfortunately, she had no idea that her 'small step', in the eyes of Gon, made the massive abyss of 'end' inch closer, terrifyingly closer!
Gon felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff…
She wasn't afraid to jump, no, she was afraid the cliff would suddenly jump towards her.!
And when Petra walked up—
It literally did!
The 'old woman' let out a shrill scream!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
She shot up, mustering all the courage she had and—
"Begone! You are not welcome here! Leave, leave, leave, leave! Get out, child! I c-can't help you!" She found a broom and began waving it at Petra like a savage shrew! It took all the courage she had built up over her long life as a shut-in!
This was her ultimate move!
Unreasonable granny time!
Go! Ha!!
Petra's eyes widened in shock.
What was this sudden outburst!
Before she could react, the strange granny wielded her broom and started swinging wildly in the air!
"What the ha!?" Petra yelped, jumping up!
"What did I do!?"
Swack!!
"Ay yaya!"
Swack!!
"Hay-hay-hay!"
Swack!!
* * *