Closed Mak'Viri's Fortune

[Lucas Arias]

Continued from here.

Winter 17, 512 AV

Lucas was just working on a painting of a very strange creature with red skin, three eyes and horns (and no mouth!) as Mak’Viri entered the tent. He was concentrating so hard that he didn’t notice her until she stood before him. At first he didn’t really think much of her, but as her hood dropped that changed. His eyes widened, and he looked very excited. He had never talked to somebody like her before. Telling her fortune would be fun!

„Hello“, he greeted her and immediately put the half finished painting away. „Please sit down. Did you know that my teacher was a male Konti? He always wore a hood and pretended to be an old man to hide his freakiness.“ At least that was the conclusion that Lucas with his overactive imagination had drawn. In truth Anselm was just a boring old Nuit who didn’t want people to know that he was a Nuit (probably because they had prejudices against his race).

„It will cost you five silver mizas“, he replied while he arranged all his tools – bones, cards and such – on the table in front of him. „Although I could be persuaded to give you a free fortune telling if you answer a few questions I have about your race, like if you are all lesbians. What do you say?“

It was then that something occured to him, and he furrowed his brow. „Wait! Can’t Konti see the future? Why do you want me to tell you your fortune? Is something wrong with you?“

[Mak'Viri]

The Konti smiles politely, uncertain of the comment about his teacher being a male Konti. There were simply no male Konti in existence, and such a thing would have been wide-spread, even celebrated on Mura if it had ever occurred. Knowing this, she simply tilts her head as Lucas speaks, listening to his tone and watching his movements curiously. Mak'Viri shrugged off her bewilderment after a moment.

Five silver Mizas. That was an extremely reasonable price, considering he seemed to read from multiple mediums. Or perhaps he was still in training? This seemed more likely, and Mak'Viri's intuition asserted that not all of this young man's predictions would be accurate. She smiled. She would be more than happy to teach such a young man had she more time to be the harbor town. But she felt her destiny was beyond this place, and that she needed to move on until she found it. She just wish she knew what she was looking for!

”Let's say this: I'll pay you the silver, and answer whatever questions you want. And no, the Konti are not a race of lesbians.” Not that she'd ever had contact with many of them. But when most felt a need to mate, they left in search of a suitable male for offspring. Some fell in love, others merely stayed long enough to become pregnant. But that was all she knew. She blinked at his next question.

”Nothing is wrong with me. I know that I need to travel to find what I'm looking for, I just don't know what I'm looking for. That's where my intuition becomes frustratingly vague. That's what I want you to answer.” She says calmly. ”Now, do you have other questions for me before you tell me what I would like to know?” She asks, withdrawing the silver and placing it on the table.

[Lucas Arias]

„Really?“ Lucas smiled all over his face as the Konti informed him that she would pay and answer his questions, but the smile disappeared again as she told him that they were not a race of lesbians. He made a face. „Why not?“ he wanted to know. „I think it would be convenient. You don’t have any men, apart from Anselm, and he’s too old for sex. You must be terribly lonely if you can’t do it with each other and have to wait for a human or an Akalak to come along. Why don’t you have any men anyway? Did the gods punish you? Or is it because of the Valterrian? Did you mutate?“

„You are looking for something, but you don’t know what you are looking for“, he repeated. „Hmm. That sounds strange. Have you forgotten what you are looking for or did you never know in the first place?“

He paused for a moment to pocket the money, and then he took the bowl of bones. Hee had decided not to let her choose a fortune telling method. He just didn’t feel like reading cards or staring into a crystal ball today. Once he held the bowl in his hands, he murmurred a few words in Arumenic. Saying something in a language that nobody understood always helped.

And then he emptied the bowl onto the table and stared at the bones. „Hmm“, he murmurred and touched a bone and then another one. „Hmm. I can tell you what you are looking for, although it may not be what you expected. You may not even like it. Do you want to know what the bones have told me?“

[Mak'Viri]

Mak'Viri smiled, though she was confused by his persistence that Konti were lesbians. ”We breed for the sake of children, most of us. Sexuality is never really a question that comes up in families, or, at least, it never did in mine. During our times of mating, we leave Mura to seek mates. Our society values mothers and grandmothers more, so it would not make sense to be a lesbian if you want to have any real status in Mura.” She said with a shrug. ”It may not be 'convenient', but it is how we are. I've never really known any other way. There may be a few lesbians among us for all I know, but that does not mean we are all like that.” She finished diplomatically.

She tilted her head for a moment, thinking over his question. ”I've never truly known what I was looking for, but I know what I am not looking for, if that helps any. I know I'm not seeking a mate of any kind. I don't think I am truly destined for any particular motherhood, or I would not have been so compelled to leave Mura since I was very small. The way I understand it, the urge to mate is a strong, yet distinct feeling that one cannot mistake for anything else. And I know that this is not the same.” She explained, frustrated by the vague, indistinct shapes the future seemed to take before her very eyes. She felt she could not quite get what she was trying to say across to Lucas in a way that could be understood, but she could not really elaborate further, either.

She looked down at the bowl of bones. There were a few bone-readers in Mura, but she'd never understood the practice really. Every Konti's reading methods were different. She supposed that it must be the same for this young man as well. She watched with interest. And then he said that she would not like what she heard. She knew that destiny could be cruel, could be kind, could be fickle. She was not about to turn down whatever hint for concrete information she could find, though. So she nodded. ”Please tell me. I won't be mad if it's not good news. You'll still be paid and I'll still answer whatever questions you have.” She said with an understanding smile.

And it was the truth. She would still hold to her end of the bargain, no matter what he said. She didn't mind if she walked the path of ruin. Not all life could have happy endings. And she hardly expected to be an exception to that rule. So she leaned forward and looked over the bones with intrigue, pale violet-blue eyes examining their positions carefully, though she did not know what they meant. She just wanted something to look for, instead of a vague feeling. She wanted something tangible in her mind, when most of her own divinations were feelings, ghost-like and ephemeral.

[Lucas Arias]

Lucas furrowed his brow as Mak’Viri told him that her people bred for the sake of children. „So you don’t do it because you enjoy it?“ he wanted to know. He couldn’t imagine a whole race of women that only had sex in order to get pregnant. Maybe that was why the Konti were all so strange. They were a race of sexually frustrated women that were desperate for children, but were stuck on an island without men. He wouldn’t want to live like that …

On the other hand, if they were so desperate for men, what if he visited Mura? Maybe they would treat him like a king, and he would be able to choose among the most beautiful Konti! He already saw himself sitting on a throne, with a golden crown on his head and half naked Konti kneeling in front of him, serving him, but then he remembered that Mak’Viri had said that they bred for the sake of children, and he wasn’t ready to be a father!

If he visited Mura, he’d probably have a dozen children within the year! Help!

„Ah, that explains it“, he murmurred and pushed the image of a horde of Konti that were running after him, trying to get him to impregnate them, away. „You are different from the rest of your race. Now the things I have seen suddenly make sense. Your destiny …“ he said, pointed at her and looked at her intently. „Awaits you in a faraway land. Even further away than Zeltiva. Everybody in this land has at least four arms. Some have six or eight arms. Your father came from there. Do you know?“

„Everything they’ve told you so far have been lies. No …“ He looked at the bones again as if it had just occured to him that he had misinterpreted them. „Not the land of the Eypharians. He was born there, but he isn’t there anymore. He is in Sahova. Something happened to him. Something bad. They … they got him …“

„You wanted to know what you are looking for. You are looking for him. For your past. Or what’s left.“

„Anyway“, he continued, as if to distract her from that most unpleasant topic. „You shouldn’t worry too much about your lack of a desire to mate and have children. The world would be a boring place if all Konti were the same. You should embrace your differences and try to make the most of your life. Maybe you will find somebody somewhere. Sometimes things take time.“

He smiled at her.

[Mak'Viri]

Mak'Viri blinked, uncertain as to why Lucas' expressions shifted through so many different emotions in response to her imparting the information on Konti women. She had thought that would clarify, and she saw his confusion for a brief moment. She wondered if she had been unclear. It was a few more rippling expressions later that he said that something had been explained. Oblivious to whatever he was thinking, Mak'Viri smiled, pleased to have helped. And then his entire demeanor changed. He became serious, his gaze piercing. And then he mentioned her father. Mak'Viri furrowed her brow in honest confusion. Her father was as much an intangible idea as whatever her fate seemed to be to her. Was Lucas suggesting that he was an Eypharian? She considered this for a moment. Eypharians would not typically tolerate mating with a race that was unlike their own, though a Konti mate would not be very unheard of, if one were to travel safely all the way there. While not at all a typical pairing of peoples, it would still have worked, so long as her father, had he really been of this proud and exclusive race, would not have minded having a Konti for an offspring. A generous man, indeed, if such a thing were true. Mak'Viri had no way of telling one way or the other, since none had known or asked her mother with whom she had mated. It was considered inconsequential for the most part. She wasn't sure if her mother could have managed the journey all the way from Mura to Ahnatep and back again in only a few months, though. If her father were Eypharian, perhaps the danger he had face and her mother had died to save him from lay not in the city itself, but somewhere in between? Such a theory had merit. But she was still unsure. She was silent as she listened to the rest of what Lucas had read from the bones in front of him, nodding in contemplation when he mentioned Sahova. She knew that the Sylirian island was actually fairly close to Mura, easily within a few months' journey of her homeland. She became concerned when he mentioned 'they' had gotten him. Who were 'they', and what did 'they' want with him? Why bring him to Sahova? Did they perform experiments on him to gather research? Should she find this man as Lucas said? She bit her lip, but shook her head as Lucas spoke once more, setting these thoughts aside for the moment. She smiled back at him. ”I suppose you're right about that.” She said. ”Thank you for telling me, though. It's good to know what I'm looking for.” She still felt that she had far more to do and see than merely more of Sylira, but she would one day go to Sahova, and look. Just to be certain. Perhaps he would have found a way back to Ahnatep before then. Either way, it would be nice to meet at least one of her parents. If only briefly. He could be very old by the time she made it to him. ”Do you have any other questions about Konti?” She asked, not willing to leave if he did.