32 Tarot Divination

Aucuses ignored her remark and spoke solemnly. "Are you here for tarot divination or not?"

Amanines finally pressed down the feeling she had when she entered this place and went along with him surprisingly.

"Yes." She said this as she entered the room and sat in the chair facing him. "Let's see, if you can divine for me?" Her ethereal voice echoed throughout the room.

It's not easy to divine for a god, and it may even cause huge ripples in the river of destiny while doing so.

This is especially true for her, who was once known as the goddess of misfortune.

"Oh?" Aucuces' brows were raised, his golden eyes glowed with a light purple light. "Amanines, are you underestimating me? After everything that has happened?"

"No, far from it." Amanines responded as the image of the Aucuces stabbing and betraying the creator without hesitation flashed through her mind. "I was simply stating the facts, Aucuces." But she continued to speak in an ethereal tone, without any change.

"Facts? Huh?" Aucuces spoke while his lips turned upwards to form a smile and his golden eyes turned completely purple and shone lightly. "Let's find out, shall we?"

He took the remaining decks and gathered them all together, then stacked them all together into a deck and asked her in between.

"What would you like to learn from the tarot reading?"

Amanines remained silent for a brief moment as she gazed at the tarot cards in his hand, various past memories flooding back to her, evoking various emotions in her heart, most importantly loneliness, sadness and nostalgia.

Despite this, she didn't seem to show much change on the surface, quietly gazing at the cards.

"Present, past, and future." Finally, she stated, the most common and popular type of tarot reading from her past life.

It took her a moment to respond, and Aucuces was patient, as if he expected this.

Aucuces said quietly as he pushed the deck of cards towards Amanines.

"Shuffle the deck and cut it."

Amanines took the deck of cards in her hand and inquired, a smile visible behind the gauze.

"Why? Aucuces, can't you do it on your own? I didn't expect you to ask for my assistance."

She was referring to her authority over "misfortune."

"No, just normal shuffle." Aucuces retorted, shaking his head, and continued to say in a deep tone. "Everyone's fate can only be unravelled by themselves, and I can only read it."

What he said was a deep connection to hermit, as hermit can only peer into fate, nothing more.

As he finished, the already dim lights on the wall went completely dark, plunging the entire room around them into seemingly endless darkness, with only the candle on the table giving illumination, which also began to flicker, as if it might also extinguish.

As a faint and illusory whooshing sound echoed from the darkness, the air became thick and slightly mysterious.

A colourless river appeared and flowed around them, with them in the middle of it all.

The river of destiny!

Aucuces and Amanines were unphased by the changes in their surroundings.

Amanines, on the other hand, was taken aback when she heard his sentence. She felt as if she had already been here and done this divination for someone else in place of Aucuces.

The feeling of deja vu returned, but she was well aware that she hadn't done divination for anyone in a long time.

'Something is wrong,' She thought, but her hands didn't stop shuffling and cutting the deck before placing it in front of Aucuces. She pressed down this feeling while also deciding to check later.

"Let's get started." Aucuces stated this while reaching for a card from the top of the deck and placing it to the left of the Amanines. "This card represents your past."

While placing the second card in front of Amanines, his voice became quieter. "This card represents your present."

"This card represents your future." He finally placed the third card to Amanises' right.

"So, which one would like to know first?" Aucuces asked solemnly, his purple eyes deep as he looked at the woman in front of him.

Amanines remained silent for a brief moment before speaking. "Future."

Aucuces nodded and flipped the card to Amanises' right, causing the calm river of destiny to surge, which even alarmed two snakes of mercury who were going about their business elsewhere in the world.

A skeleton dressed in black armour, riding a white horse was depicted on the card. The skeleton carries a black flag decorated with a white, five-petal rose. A royal figure appears to be dead on the ground, while a young woman, child and bishop can be seen pleading to the skeleton in armour. It was numbered "13".

"Death."

"Death represents the end and the beginning," Aucuces said, his voice eerie. "It can be regarded as a never-ending cycle, that no one can avoid."

"It appears that your future is anything but calm, Amanines. You might even find yourself in situations where....."

"Present." Amanines interrupted him rudely, her tone unchanging, but her deep gaze fixed on the death card.

Aucuces did not express anger at being interrupted. "Keep in mind that the tarot cards only provide guidance on your path." As he flipped over the card in front of Amanines, he said in light tone.

The card featured a revolving wheel. Four winged creatures sit atop clouds in each corner of the card. It was branded "10."

"Wheel of fortune." Aucuces explained calmly. "It symbolises change, luck, and, most importantly, a turning point in one's life."

"Don't you think it's quite accurate, Amanines?"

"After everything that has happened, you are on the verge of a new era."

"Indeed." Amanines spoke ethereally, her voice devoid of surprise, as if she had anticipated this.

"The past." She inquired, her voice finally changing to a low tone.

Aucuces purple's eyes lit up with anticipation as he turned over the card to the left of Amanines.

A colourfully dressed character was depicted on this card, wearing ragged headgear with a stick over his shoulder. There was a bindle hanging on the end of the stick and a puppy was following behind him. It was numbered "0."

"The fool." Aucuces' voice echoed in the deep darkness, and the very river of destiny that was flowing froze with the appearance of the card.

The fool? As she looked at the card that appeared, Amanines felt complex. She looked up at the endless darkness, as if she wanted to peer through it, to see the endless grey fog and that blur door.

"It's interesting to see the fool in someone else's past." Aucuces said this while smiling and looking at Amanines with deep purple eyes. "It represents a new beginning, one that is full of infinite possibilities. It is not the same as the death, before."

"It appears that your past has been anything but ordinary, Amanines." He implied.

For a brief moment, Amanines and Aucuces stared at each other in silence, without saying anything.

Then she abruptly raised her hand and took the three tarot cards from the tables.

"I'm bringing these cards with me." She said this without responding to his previous divination.

Aucuces didn't stop her and let her take it, but a winning smile flashed across his lips for a brief moment, which Amanines completely missed, as she was placing the cards in her gown.

"Enough already, Charlton." Despite the divination, Amanines still addressed him as such while speaking. "What exactly are you here for?"