Thirteen: Hints of a New Yesterday

The two women sat inside the room both hushed and quiet.

Evangeline wanted to speak, badly. She wanted to question that name, that damned name. What was it to her? She had heard it in that dream long ago, with the mysterious boy in the bow and arrow contest, but what did it have to do with her now? Perhaps, maybe just perhaps, it was her old alias. Maybe she was "Tarnua", yet now she was simply Evangeline.

"You had long been on my mind since our encounter a few weeks ago. Well, closer to a few months ago if my memory serves me right. You'll have to forgive me. I have a rather active mind but poor memory." Fantasia said while sitting in her seat, the same one she sat in before for the reading with Evangeline.

Fantasia had made Evangeline and herself tea as the two sat in the candle-lit room. The purple mist surrounded the room, and it did give Evangeline a blistering headache for a few minutes, but the pain subsided once she became accustomed to the smell.

"That name, Tarnua was it? I asked you back at our encounter before, and you said you didn't recognize that name. If you're telling the truth with your poor memory, how did you have a sudden recollection of this name?"

"Fair question. Very fair question, infact. Truth be told it isn't because I suddenly remembered the name, but I had a stranger do so for me." Fantasia took a sip of tea while looking at Evangeline with intrigued eyes.

Before Evangeline had a moment to say a word, Fantasia put her tea on the table and stood up slowly. She moved around the room and came to a stop when she looked at a wall. Evangeline thought it was a plain wall, nothing on it, but she was quickly proven wrong when Fantasia stuck her hand straight through its material.

Slightly taken aback, Evangeline looked at Fantasia, intrigued. It seemed that the fortune teller was looking to grab something, and she proved Evangeline right when her facial expression changed.

A second later, Fantasia took her hand out of the wall and walked back over to Evangeline with two things in her hand, both of them small. One was an envelope addressed to "Tarnua" and the other was a small item. It appeared to be a pin of some sort, with a white feather as well as a blue crystal at the bottom. It lead to something stirring within Evangeline that appeared to be recollection.

Was this possibly the pendant in the dream?

"I was told these were for you. The young man wore a mask, so I wasn't able to decipher a face. But, he said that he looked forward to meeting you again." Fantasia finished the sentence, but Evangeline wasn't quite satisfied with the answer. There was something else to it.

"What are you hiding from me? I sense truthfulness in your voice, but I also feel that there is information withdrawn. The same as last time, in fact."

"Would you care to expand on that? I don't follow."

"Fine. I'll put it the simple way. You're hiding something from me, tell me."

Fantasia remained quiet for a moment. She, in the process of thinking, pushed the two items over to Evangeline's side of the table. Evangeline cautiously looked at the items, but she didn't dare touch either of them.

"You have a sharp mind, Evangeline. It's as expected."

"Cut the shit, Fantasia. What do you know about me?" Evangeline slammed a fist onto the table and narrowed her eyes. The green that shined brightly soon turned darker, closing in on hidden emeralds rather than a blissful green.

"I don't know much. But, I know your name was Tarnua. I also can confirm you were apart of the slave trade in Ustuzdi, the west coast specifically. The last thing I can confirm from my research as well as the stranger is that you managed to escape the trade as an adolescent and were accepted to a small clan southeast of the coast. However, that is all I truly know. Perhaps you will know from the letter. I am unfamiliar with the name Tarnua though. I tried to search further, but there seemed to be little to no records of the name."

Evangeline leant back in her chair and let out a low breath. Answers, she was finally getting small bits and pieces of answers. It was something she had never expected, a name in the least. She finally knew her name, and while it was euphoric, in a sense, it was terrifying. She had a name but not a person.

"Fantasia, I have a question for you."

"And I might have an answer." Fantasia let out a chuckle at the response and had a hint of a smile. Evangeline was unsure if the laugh was of nervousness or actual humor.

"Were the man's eyes gold or purple?"

"A peculiar question, I must say. But, it leads me to believe that you may have seen this person before. That, in itself, becomes interesting."

Evangeline rose an eyebrow in confusion and moved forward to place her hands on the table, placing her palms on the wood and narrowing her eyes, yet again.

"If this person has been here before, they are a danger to Anastasia. Please, tell me, were their irises gold or purple?"

"Purple. They were the color of amethyst."

A lump in Evangeline's throat grew as her mind flickered back to the royal ball. She remembered seeing that man on the second floor, looking at Evangeline with a face full of nothing. There was no emotion to him, not that she could see. Yet, he was still here. And he was looking for Evangeline, or in the least, trying to reach her from afar.

Evangeline let out a breath and shook her head, slowly rising from the chair. She pocketed the note in her pant pocket and put the pin in her hand, examining it for a second more. Yet, it was too dark to necessarily make out any details, so she decided to put it in a pocket on the inside of her shirt. It would be safe there.

"Did they say where they were going to go?"

"Actually yes," Fantasia said as she slowly lifted herself upwards from the chair across the table. She let out a small huff, apparent age settling within her joints. "He was headed northwest to the boarder of Ambrose and Oleshno. About a weeks horse ride up. A peculiar place to be as Ambrose's capital is a few day's farther west than the boarder and Oleshno's capital is close to a week's farther east."

"That is intriguing. I assume he is already gone, in that case. And, before I leave, I do have one more question. What is this purple stuff in the air?"

Fantasia's eyes flickered with intrigue as her pupils dilated. She let out a smile and replied, with disbelief in her voice,

"That, Evangeline, is the residue of magic."