Solo Small details

[Kal'ai]

Winter 7, 512 AV Evening Kal'ai snorted, trying however to keep that little demonstration of discontent as low as possible. It wasn't enough, apparently. "I heard you, and you know exactly what I think about it! You won't make any progress if you keep doing every reading with Tarots!" The young Konti lowered her eyes on the table, where the runes used for spying into the path of possibility were layed down. She was absolutely sure that they were laughing at her. The short, old Konti woman in front of her, however, wasn't laughing at all. K'tale, that was her name, was the owner of that little fortune telling laboratory (but maybe the best term would be "shop") and her tutor, other than, of course, her future employer. Well, at least she hoped so. "But..." K'tale moved a lock of silver hair away from her forehead, eliminating the last obstacle in front of her serious, light-blue gaze. "I'm not accepting answers that include words like "but" or "maybe". Who's the apprentice between the two of us?" Kal'ai was doomed, she knew it. But she could still fight...at least she would have lost with dignity. "But the runes keep falling off the table when I throw them! They hate me, I'm telling you!" "Oh? You are claiming that the runes falls from the table only because they 'hate' you?" the woman added, making the quote sign with the fingers of both hands. "And what about that vase that 'fell off'?" Quotes again. "And the crystall ball?" "Accidents! And the crystall ball was useless, anyway." "Indeed, but it made its scene. It made. Until you hit it with the handle of the broom." "I've already said I'm sorry about that!" K'tale sighed, cowering her forehead with her hand, a quick gesture that meaned something like 'please, shut up, I'm about to explode. And you don't want me to be near when I will'. Kal'ai promptly shutted up. After a few seconds, the old Konti started speaking again. "Every time I want you to do this you start complaining. I don't understand you: you're not even that bad with the runes! Except everytime you make some of them fall, but with a little more practice you would stop doing that." Kal'ai lowered her eyes, looking again at the pebbles. This time, they were definitely laughing. But the battle was lost, without hope. "'msorry..." she murmured, too worried to say everything else. "Yeah, I know. Now sit and try anyway. And I want the answer in Common." Kal'ai lifted her head, more frightened than ever. "Common?" "Indeed. Do you think that clients, when they will start coming here again after those awful Djed storm and the mess that followed, will speak Kontinese? Maybe a few will, I'll grant you that, but the mayority of them will speak Common, and a good share of them will have trouble even doing that. You're not supposed to know every language spoken, right, but Common is essential." She was right, as always, but this didn't make it any better. She hoped that, maybe, someone would have entered requesting some type of reading. Except it wasn't just possible: the shop was closed and only a few chimes were left before the time to go home. Well, she just had to resist only a few more. Only. A. Few. More. The table with the runes on it had two chairs, one for the fortune teller and the other for the one that wanted a reading. She pulled in her direction the one destined to the reader, and she sat on it with a graceful, single movement. "Good. At least you stopped sitting like you were dropping a sack full of sand of it instead of yourself. Remember that the 'atmosphere' is important as the reading in itself." Yeah, yeah. She knew, but that wasn't a problem, at the moment. She took a good, deep breath, putting each pebble in her right hand. She closed her eyes, breathing out and starting to concentrate. "Now, what question want you to be answered?" she said, with her best 'mysterious and fascinating' accent. "It's 'do you want to be answered'. But I've heard worse, I'll grant you that. Well, I was wondering if my apprentice could learn at least the basis of palm reading before the ending of the season." Kal'ai opened her eyes, glaring at her master. "You've got to be kidding me." "Never question the...questions. And no, I'm not kidding. Now, throw." The young Konti sighed, before closing her eyes again and starting to calm her mind. Then, when she felt the right moment, she dropped the pebbles on the table.

[Kal'ai]

Winter 7, 512 AV Evening Klik. Klik klik klik klik. Klik. Kal heard the pebbles hitting the table, each one with a different tone of "klik". She would have liked to count them all, but alas they were too much. But the number of the little tickling sounds they made was high, really high, so maybe...maybe...Maybe she had manage to throw them all on the table. Maybe. She opened her eyes slowly, searching immediately the little runes on the table. One, two...twenty, twentyone...and then the number she was hoping for. Forty. Forty damned pebbles on the table. A little cry of joy escaped from her mouth, followed by a cold glare of her master. "Kal...Please, don't ruin this moment. Stay. Professional." Kal'ai tried to gain a little more composure, with little success. On K'tale's face a little grin appeared, but it was immediately suppressed. The young Seer looked at the runes, trying to decipher them. She wasn't used to have all of them on the table, honestly. Every time she had to search them everywhere on the floor, under the furniture...basically, everywhere. But this time, it was so...easy. All of them in front of her, like a book put on a desk. It wasn't that hard to get the answer...especially since the pebbles were uncannily precise that time. "The mystical runes have spoken. The answer is..." Again with the "mysterious oh so mysterious" tone, with a little grain of "exotic" provided by her heavy Kontinese accent. After all, that was part of the job. "...Yes. The odds are in her favour" she finished, almost choking. Containing the joy was an hard job, after all. K'tale smirked, her eyes shining. "Yes, my dear. That's right! But..." and her face assumed a more serious expression "...you'll have to work hard in order to make that true." Kal'ai smiled, and then nodded. "Yes! I know."