Memory Bonds

The next day, they woke up early in the morning, and went under the window of the medical room, like Wesles had told them to.

With it being early, and close to winter, it was still dark out. But between the dragons’ sense of smell, Harmoni’s hearing, and Cooper’s night lens, they were managing.

While they stood under the window, looking up, Harmoni glanced at Rasha's back. She had her purple staff strapped to it. She'd mentioned she wanted to practice later, on the way out of the tower. But Harmoni hadn't been sure how she'd attached it. Here in the dim light of morning, with all of them standing still, she saw that it was Velcro.

Harmoni also wondered if Cooper was cold, after living on Xentron. He was wearing a thicker cloak, and he hadn’t said anything, but he wouldn’t, would he?

He would not. Just like Harmoni.

She noticed Cooper moved around a bit more than on Xentron, especially bouncing his legs if they stood still for too long. He couldn't wear long pants properly. The metal exoskeleton on his one leg stuck out too far. The cloak dropped low enough to help with that, but still.

But then she was distracted from her thoughts by Wesles’, er, grand escape. He opened the window, they could see him poke his head out and look down. Then he stood backwards on the window ledge. His ghost arm appeared, gripping the edge of the windowsill, and he repelled down like it was a rope for rock-climbing.

Harmoni stared. Her eyes went wide, and by the time Wesles was on the ground, her mouth was open. A quick glance at Rasha said she felt the same way.

Wesles let go of the ledge, and his ghost hand disappeared.

Cooper just crossed his arms. “I’m impressed.” When Harmoni and Rasha looked at him, he shrugged. “It was a little crazy. But I can be impressed with a little crazy.”

Wesles rolled his eyes. “Comeon. Let’s goto Ovant. Don’tyou have classes to worryabout?”

They did today. It was why they were going early in the morning.

Harmoni had to admit, she was a little excited. Even if it turned out to be inaccurate, a scam, she wanted to know what the fortune teller would say about her future.

'Isn't that ironic for someone who doesn't know their past?'

'Isn't the future usually considered the more important one?'

Fleck thought it was a little more complicated than that, but he didn't have a retort ready.

The fortune teller actually waved them over as they came close. She had a small building behind her, with a purple curtain over the doorway, rather than any door. But she was in the open space outside the building, the grasses growing tall in the area, and hiding her feet and the bottom of the furniture out here. She sat on a rocking chair. There was a wooden chair across from her, with a cushioned seat to make it a bit more comfortable. And she had a small table beside her, with a teacup on it.

Whatever Fleck smelled from it was decidedly not tea.

The fortune teller squinted through her glasses. (Despite the old lady glasses, she looked like she was in her thirties, at the latest.) “Now, I believe I’ve seen one of you before.”

Rasha nodded. “That’s me.”

“Now, I hope you know I can’t read your future again. Well, I suppose I could. See if anything changed. The future is fluid, after all. But for most people, any changes I could find are so minor, they don’t find that worth it.” Her eyes roved over the others, stopping briefly on each of them. “So, I’ll assume you’re here for your friends instead.”

Harmoni thought that was rather obvious. Based on his strained expression, Cooper agreed. But neither of them said anything. Then again, they didn't get the chance.

Wesles slid to the front, bouncing around and waving his hand to be more visible.

“That’sright!”

Then he climbed onto the chair. He stood on it, but given his height, that still didn’t make him very tall. His ghost hand appeared, and he put it in front of the fortune teller, a cheeky smile on his face.

“Are you going to tellusourfortune?”

Harmoni thought that was a little rude, but the fortune teller responded before she could.

“I prefer future,” she corrected. “But let’s see.”

She actually leaned forward, looking down at the palm he’d made with magic. “It would be easier if I could touch that hand. My eyes aren’t as good as they once were. But from what I can see . . . you’ve lost one sibling before. I’d say you’re going to again, I’m afraid.”

Wesles stared, and started to speak in what Harmoni assumed was Gnomish, before he corrected himself. “How are you doing that?” he asked, speaking better Standard than usual. “That hand’s not real.”

The future seer looked over her glasses like a strict librarian. “It’s ‘real’ in the way all objects are real. But more than that, you make it with your magic. I’d say your magic is very telling. It might even be easier than a regular hand.”

Oh the irony. Wesles struggled to keep his face composed, and Harmoni felt her lips tugging up.

The future seer continued to look at Wesles’ magic hand, but there wasn’t much else that she reported. He was supposed to live a long life, no dying in potion accidents. He’d get married, but that was a long way off. (Considering gnomes could live 500 years, it could be a very long way off.) Harmoni thought that sibling thing sounded significant, but Wesles barely acknowledged it, so she didn’t either.

Fleck just wondered if she could read his and Moon’s future. They didn’t exactly have palms, but she was using Wesles’ magical hand to tell the future.

He hadn’t been that interested in seeing the future seer before, but he hadn’t thought it was remotely possible to get his own future read before. The odds looked better now.

Quite possibly. Though even if she couldn’t, Fleck and Moon would probably come up when she looked at Cooper and Harmoni’s future, right? They were soul bonded and all.

Cooper held out his palm next.

“Giving me a challenge, are you?”

“Why’s that?” Cooper asked. He smiled, but he shuffled in place.

“Connecting to your magic is how I see your future, or part of it, and make sense of what I’m seeing. Magic flows through everyone, even you. So, I can do it. It will just be a little harder than your friends.”

Fleck could see Cooper’s discomfort. It might not have been a good idea to share so much with him. And he knew elves and Iva were big on magic, but it was really rude that people kept bringing this up to Cooper. It reminded Fleck of how the other dragons all acted differently around him for not having breath magic, even if they didn't acknowledge that was the reason. He'd have to find some way to show his empathy and make Cooper feel better later.

But Harmoni wasn’t really paying attention to that. She was caught up in her own, understandable, worries.

She had just realized the implications of the future seer’s statement. Wasn’t Harmoni’s own magic an unusually dark, volatile thing, that no one should be sensing? But if she refused to get her future read, wouldn’t that be weird? She could claim she wasn’t interested, had just come to hear everyone else’s future, but she’d specifically been looking forward to this before now. And getting huffy or indignant would be. . .out of character.

The future seer, meanwhile, hummed at Cooper’s palm. “You should beware an injury in the following weeks. Like his, it will be serious.”

She nodded towards Wesles, and his missing arm.

“Shit. Really?”

“If you make it to the end of the month, you’ll be fine.”

That did not seem like enough information to avoid.

“It gets less clear after that. Something good will happen about a year from now.”

“That’s vague.”

The future seer gave him a look. “The future after the first month or so is always cloudy, as it is in flux. You'll notice the predictions I had for him were not very specific about the time." She nodded to Wesles. "I’d say you have an eventful month coming up. But, if I had to be more specific, in about a year I’d say an old fear will be relieved.”

Cooper frowned. It wasn’t in a skeptical way. Quite the opposite. It was more like he knew exactly what she was talking about.

The future seer’s grip loosened, and Cooper dropped his hand, turning. “Harmoni, are you ready?”

Well, the future seer hadn’t said anything about Moon. Fleck could ask for the dragons’ future to be read. Stall.

That sounded like it was just delaying the inevitable. But Harmoni didn’t have any better ideas. She was about to accept when an explosion sounded in the distance, behind them, vaguely to the North. There was a boom, and light flashed across the sky, changing it from blue to white.

Fleck could feel the rumble and smell smoke. Whatever had been hit, it had a lasting effect.

What the hell had just happened?