Lucas' Fortune

by **Anselm** on June 13th, 2012, 1:40 am

Lucas' Fortune
The 60th Day of Summer 512
The Marketplace in Zeltiva

OOC :

Anselm stared at the red-headed boy from beneath the cowl that covered his head, obscuring most of his face in shadow. His gray empty eyes cataloged the boy's features. The most striking thing about him was the contrast between his red hair and blue eyes. The next most striking thing about him was his height: he was short. The third most striking thing was the longsword hanging from his belt. Then there was his extraordinarily expressive face. Better avoid poker, my boy, thought Anselm.

“My dear boy,” he said slowly in a low gravelly voice. “Apparently you cannot count. You have asked five questions, not three, and you have as yet paid for none.” He waved his hand as though to dismiss the boy from his presence.

“But let us examine your questions one at a time and see what we can learn, shall we? First, Can I tell you what the future holds for you?” He paused as though considering the question and then continued slowly, “No, I cannot.

“Second, Why am I wearing a cloak when it is summer? Because I want to.

“Third, Do I wear a cloak because I want to look all mysterious or because I am a freaky male Konti that shouldn't even exist?” He paused again as though he was thinking about it. Then he said, “No.

“Fourth, How does this fortune telling business work? You will have to show me five silver mizas to learn the answer to that.

“And finally, fifth, Is it something you can learn? Yes. But you probably won't.

“Now that we have that out of the way, do you wish to have your fortune told?”

by **Lucas Arias** on June 14th, 2012, 7:08 am

As Anselm accused him of not being able to count, the so called dear boy frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Some of those questions are connected, so they should be seen as one", he insisted. "But if it makes you more inclined to answer, I'll pay for all of them." He felt rather generous at the moment since he had made hundreds of mizas in Nyka, besides he really wanted to find out this man's secrets!

As Anselm told him that he couldn't tell him what the future held for him, he frowned even harder. "I thought that's what fortune tellers do!" he complained. "So you can't tell me whether I'll get incredibly rich and marry an Eypharian princess? What can you do?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to wear a cloak in summer", he retorted. "You must be sweating underneath! You are weird. And it sucks that you aren't a male Konti in disguise. If you were, and I discovered you, I would become famous all over Mizahar, and they'd invite me to teach at the university!"

Still, despite the fact that the man promised to be a huge disappointment, Lucas removed five silver mizas from his purse and put them on the table in front of Anselm.

"Why won't I?" he asked. "I could learn fortune telling by just watching you. And of course I wish to have my fortune told. That's why I'm here. It'd better be interesting though!"

by **Anselm** on June 15th, 2012, 3:22 am

All manner of people found their way to Anselm's tent sooner or later. Some were fascinating character studies: the Konti thief, the overwrought glassmaker, the mentally deranged gadgeteer, the pea-brained peahen Kelvic. Others were astonishingly mundane: the unfaithful husband, the dissatisfied wife, the girl planning to run away from home. So what was he to make of the young man who sat before him now? The boy's running critique of his answers demonstrated a lack of both mental discipline and good manners. But other than that it was too early to tell.

“As to whether the telling of your fortune will prove to be interesting to you, I cannot say,” the old man replied slowly. “What I can say is that if you have ears to hear, the telling of your fortune may reveal something to you about yourself. It is possible that you will find that interesting. But let us see what we shall see, shall we?”

Anselm reached inside his cloak and brought forth a small tan cloth bag tied with a leather cord. He carefully untied the cord and poured the contents of the bag into his right hand, which he held out so that the young man could see what he had. What he had were eighteen tiny carved bones with intricate designs etched into them. He turned his right hand and let the bones tumble on to the table with a clatter. He stared at the bones for a while. Then he reached quickly across the table with his left hand and placed two gloved fingers on the back of the boy's right hand as he intoned the words of the oracle:

Fire above, luminous. Thunder below, active.
Acting with unfailing clarity, acting only after clear understanding,
It has the meaning of action that is not in vain;
Therefore it is called biting through.

He withdrew his hand from the boy's hand. Anselm always wore a pair of thin cotton gloves when working with customers. He did this because most customers found the touch of a cold dead hand disconcerting when he reached out and touched them as he had done with the young man sitting before him now. The reason he reached out and touched the young man's hand was to feel his aura. He had come to believe that the unconscious mind knows things that the conscious mind either doesn't know or isn't willing to admit it knows. He had also realized that the emotional layer of the customer's aura would sometimes give off a slight “pulse” in response to one or more of the phrases of the oracle. He experienced this as a gentle bump or push against his own aura. Sometimes he would detect several pulses. Other times he would detect none. Anselm believed this occurred when something in the oracle resonated with something in the unconscious mind. In this case he detected a single pulse.

He let his mind journey to a different place in a different time. To Master Ahn's dojo. To a dark and stormy afternoon high in the Zastoska Mountains. To Master Ahn's private study where they were examining the configuration of the bones Anselm had thrown on to the floor.

“Which oracle is this?” Master Ahn asked.

“It is called biting through,” replied Anselm. “It speaks of action and understanding, of the necessity of the two to act always in concert if justice is to prevail.”

“That is correct.” The wizened old man pulled himself to his feet with some effort and sat on the couch. Anselm joined him. Master Ahn continued with the lesson. “If you want to act on something, you should first understand it; first understanding, then acting. Action with clarity is always based on understanding; its development and fruition may be symbolized by the administration of justice. Nothing in the world is harder to administer than justice; if the true conditions of justice are not clear, right is considered wrong and wrong is considered right – arbitrarily applying penalties, the calamity extends to the innocent, mistakenly injuring essence and life.” He looked Anselm in the eye and asked, "Do you understand this?"

Anselm pulled himself back into the present time and place and, as he did, noticed the edge of a tattoo on the young man's left arm. It moved. By itself. It had been a very long time since Anselm had seem something like that.

He slowly repeated the portion of the oracle that had caused a pulse in the young man's aura: “Acting only after clear understanding.” Then he said it again, with a particular emphasis, as though trying different permutations to see which one fit: “Acting only after clear understanding.” He said it a third time, with yet a different emphasis: “Acting only after clear understanding.” And a fourth time: “Acting only after clear understanding.” Then he formulated the question that would bring either epiphany or confusion. He had no way of knowing which it would be.

“I see that you are a man of action. Are you also a man of clear understanding?”

THE ORACLE :

OOC :

by **Lucas Arias** on June 18th, 2012, 5:44 am

"I have ears, as you can see", Lucas replied and rolled his eyes. This so called fortune teller probably wasn't very good if he had to make a comment about him having ears to hear (what else were ears good for?). Or maybe he was just going blind and couldn't see if Lucas actually had ears. "And I can hear extremely well. Some say I can hear too well. So you can start right now."

As Anselm removed a small bag from his robe, the failed squire leaned a bit closer. As he realized that the bag contained bones, he furrowed his brow, and then he immediately wondered, "Are they animal or human bones? And does it make a difference where the bones come from?" There were things carved into the bones. Hadrian had once told him about something called 'glyphing'. Maybe Anselm was a practitioner of that particular kind of magic? He wished he could just take one of those bones and inspect it more closely!

As Anselm touched him, he frowned. He didn't like this invasion of his personal space, and he also found the things the fortune teller was saying now slightly weird. Biting through? Was Anselm going to bite him? It sounded like the kind of nonsense that Lucas himself would sometimes make up after a drunken night at the tavern.

"I'm definitely a man of action", he confirmed, still frowning, wondering when the interesting revelation he was waiting for would come. So far he wasn't particularly impressed. "And Hadrian hired me to become his assistant and thinks I can study at the university, so I probably have clear understanding as well. I'm extremely intelligent", he claimed. "I want to know everything and understand everything. If that's what you meant."

"So did the bones tell you anything about me?"

by **Anselm** on June 19th, 2012, 2:37 am

Anselm stared at the boy for a few moments and then said, “No.” He carefully gathered up the bones and put them back in their bag, which he tied shut with the leather cord and returned to a pocket sewn to the inside of his cloak. Then he folded his hands together on the table in front of himself and stared out the tent entrance.

“The bones did not tell me anything about you. They are just bones.” He scratched at a scab that had recently appeared on the left side of his neck. He folded this hands together again. “They merely point me to the correct oracle. It is the oracle that reveals the soul.” Three children chased each other around a tree, screaming in delight. Perhaps eight or nine years old. Two boys and a girl. He turned his attention back to his customer. Epiphany or confusion, he thought. It is always one or the other. There does not seem to be anything in between. Nonetheless, he had noticed a certain naïve curiosity in the boy, and intelligence.

“Whether the oracle has told me anything about you is not important,” he said slowly. “What is important is whether it has told you anything about you. I wonder if I might gain your opinion on a small ethical question. While we were talking I observed a somewhat shabbily attired man – perhaps in his forties – stealing a loaf of bread from one of the vendors in the marketplace. He is now walking away, apparently having gotten away with the crime. What does justice demand be done with this man?”

by **Lucas Arias** on June 23rd, 2012, 7:07 pm

Lucas frowned as the seer more or less refused to tell him whether he was using human bones or not. „I wouldn’t tell anybody“, he assured him. „I’m pretty sure using human bones is alright as long as you didn’t kill the people yourself. I don’t just want to have my fortune told, I want to know how this here works!“

To his great disappointment Anselm didn’t leave the bones on the table and give him another chance to inspect them, but put them back into his bag. The failed squire sighed loudly.

„Oh“, he made as Anselm informed him that the bones were just bones. „I knew that of course. What’s an oracle?“

Unlike Anselm Lucas didn’t pay any attention to the children playing outside. He was much too fascinated by the strange man and his trade.

„I’m not sure“, he murmurred. „I feel as if the oracle should have told me something, but I don’t know what. As for that man ...“ He furrowed his brow. Why had he not seen him? „In Syliras where I come from ‚justice‘ is the same as ‚knights‘, and the knights would stick him into some kind of prison because they don’t like crimes. It probably isn’t particularly different here. But if I were in charge, I’d grab and ask him why he’s stolen the bread. Maybe he’s just hungry. If he is, I’d probably let him keep the bread.“

„I’d hate to punish a guy just because he doesn’t want to starve. Besides, there are worse crimes than stealing bread. What about you though? Why didn’t you call the guards? Do you agree with me?“

by **Anselm** on June 23rd, 2012, 8:46 pm

“Interesting,” said the Nuit slowly. “You believe that the theft of another person's livelihood is a crime that ought to be punished unless the thief in question has a good reason for stealing, in which case the crime may be overlooked. But this question of what exactly constitutes a sufficiently good reason to justify a crime is a bit tricky, don't you think? I have no doubt that the thief has a reason for stealing and that he thinks it is a good reason. You and I might or might not agree with him. I think it unlikely that the baker would be pleased to see the thief go free, particularly if he takes the stolen bread with him. And the authorities might have an entirely different view of the crime. Your thinking on his subject is muddy at best. Nonetheless, I give you credit for your willingness to try to understand the situation before taking action. Perhaps that is the meaning of the oracle, and perhaps you are already on the path to embracing it. Things are seldom as they appear. It pays to seek clarity before taking action.

“Incidentally, the reason I did not involve the local authorities is that the thief exists only in my mind. I invented him.” He waved his hand dismissively.

“When you came to me, you asked five questions. I believe I have answered them all."

by **Lucas Arias** on June 25th, 2012, 1:51 pm

„No, it isn’t tricky at all“, Lucas argued. „A crime can be overlooked if the crime was committed to ensure one’s survival. If the baker complained, I’d just pay the bread. It can’t cost a lot. Of course I’d like the thief to eventually get a job so that he doesn’t have to steal anymore, and I would think completely different if he had stolen a weapon or jewelry rather than bread.“

He made a face as Anselm insisted that his thinking on the subject was muddy. In his opinion it was completely clear.. „The discussion would be more interesting if the thief were real“, he remarked as Anselm confessed that he had just made the thief up.

„Anyway, would you answer another five questions if I give you five more silver mizas? No, wait, would you tell me more about oracles and bones if I give you ten or twenty golden mizas?“

He still wasn’t particularly impressed by what Anselm had said, but the art of fortune telling itself was fascinating beyond measure. Knowing about bones and oracles and telling people their fortune – or pretending to do so – was something that would probably come in handy at one point, especially if you led the life that Lucas did.

„I’d even get you a new cloak, made of silk and velvet and with a huge hood so that nobody will ever be able to see your face!“

by **Anselm** on June 27th, 2012, 1:42 am

Anselm thought he had signaled the end of the conversation, but the boy either didn't get the hint or chose to ignore it. His willingness to pay a substantial sum for instruction was surprising. He hadn't struck Anselm as the sort who would be interested in something so serious and arcane. Now he was unsure what to do. His thoughts wandered.

The morning group meditation had ended. The others filed out of the room, leaving Anselm and Master Ahn. There were three of them. Frundar Ahaziel had travelled from Yahebah to study under the master. He was tall and thin almost to the point of being emaciated. The result of his penchant for long fasts, a practice whose purpose escaped Anselm. Breton Frake was from Novallas, where he had been engaged in some kind of unsavory and probably illicit activities, although the details remained unclear to Anselm. Sssafrasshi was Dhani. He kept to himself most of the time, seemingly aloof, and Anselm knew almost nothing about him. An odd collection of people. Not that Anselm could complain. After all, he was a Nuit. It didn't get much stranger than that. But it did raise a question that had been forming in the back of his mind for a while.

“Master Ahn,” he said. “How do you chose who you will teach and who you will not teach?”

Master Ahn said nothing for what seemed like a long time. Anselm was used to this and waited. The master said, “I have never chosen who I will teach and who I will not teach. To do so would imply that I have the wisdom to determine who is worthy to receive my teachings and who is not; who will use them for selfish gain and who will give them away. But I do not have such wisdom as that. No, I don't choose who to teach. They choose me. Whether they prove worthy is something only they can choose as well. For my part, I make no judgement.”

Anselm brought his attention back to Lucas, who was probably wondering if he had fallen asleep. Well old man, he thought. I suppose you should at least find out how serious he is about it. The worst case is that you make some money.

“I can teach you the mechanics of what I do and how I do it. There is nothing especially profound or mysterious or secret about it, and it is relatively easy to learn. It will cost you 10 gold mizas and will require less than an hour of time.”

by **Lucas Arias** on June 29th, 2012, 5:27 am

Lucas waited patiently – or rather impatiently for Anselm to make a decision. He sat up straighter, put on his most winning smile (that he otherwise used to unsuccessfully charm girls) and shook his purse a little to make it easier for the seer. In his opinion no man in his right man could resist the temptation of golden mizas. The question just was: Was Anselm in his right mind?

He was. As he said that it would only cost him ten golden mizas, the failed squire’s eyes widened (he had fully expected Anselm to rid him of all his savings), and then he immediately reached into his purse and put the requested amount of money onto the table. Anselm would be pleased to discover that the coins were all real coins, not some kind of fake coins that the boy had produced himself.

„I have an hour or less“, he assured him. „The professor doesn’t need me again today. So, how do we start … sir?“ Since Anselm had agreed to teach him, Lucas figured it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more polite. He’d even stop asking him if he was a male Konti … for now.

„And would you like a new cloak as well? I promised you one if you agreed to teach me …“