Reflecting on the Future

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The trip back to the Capital was shockingly uneventful, in light of Ahsch’s prior two trips between Sarvas and R’sath. He spent most of the time talking with Stisea, Ivrine, Xitia, and Felori, planning out the herd’s future: the location for their settlement; their relationship with the Capital, Temple, and refugee village; what jobs and responsibilities they would have beyond being bodyguards for Ahsch; how independent they would be; etc.

They were still several days out when Kirasiel joined the conversation, informing Ahsch that he would have to petition the royal court to allow his sponsorship of the herd’s settling within the territory of the Capital - an unwelcome surprise, though not one that Ahsch was particularly concerned about navigating, not with both House Odestag and House Celes backing him.

Sione had also gotten busy, and had given all of the herd a checkup and taught them the self-diagnostic spell; the newest of Ahsch’s angels had been anxious to begin serving her creator, and had settled for pushing his healthcare initiative further. Ahsch already planned to have her meet Talhort, and likely be the main go-between for the bull-man and the Temple.

Ahsch also did quite a bit of time thinking about the many different plans and responsibilities and projects that he had going on. Finishing the refugee village and prepping it for the inhabitants, developing his domains, his routine growth, progressing in his responsibilities as a royal, gaining a new (or multiple new) body, the locations he had to investigate for Phashak, overcoming Phashim’s next challenge, dating Naemui, the conversation Avery wanted to have, the conversation he should have with Dorin, figuring out all of the everything to do with Kirasiel, what to do with Sti’el, getting the satyrs settled, developing Enochiel’s religion… he knew there were more beyond those, but just that was already overwhelming.

Ways to multitask are paramount, he decided. Even if it’s delegating some tasks to others, I need to lighten the load on myself or I’ll go insane. All it would take is one critical interruption to set me back who-knows how long…

Sione came alongside her creator, the brilliant wings that allowed her flight not even twitching to bear her aloft. “Creator, have you considered meditation?”

Ahsch gave the angel a confused look. “No…”

“Meditation is known to provide a way to organize one’s thoughts, puzzle through problems, and come upon revelations that you otherwise would not. Perhaps you should try it tonight, within the demi-plane.”

Ahsch thought about it. “That’s… true, I suppose. I’ll give it a shot,” he agreed.

Sione did a weird, 45-degree half-bow as she flew. “I’m glad to have been of help, Creator,” she said before joining Aena a dozen or so feet above the group.

Ahsch sighed and racked his brain for what he could remember about meditation. Anything about specific techniques eluded him, but he recalled the general idea - empty the mind, focus on being ‘present in the here-and-now,’ that sort of thing. It’d probably be better if I had a coach, but I’ll just have to make do, he grumbled to himself.

In between conversations and not wanting to drown under his aspirations for the future, Ahsch realized he had a question that hadn’t been answered, and had Mahat sidle over to ride beside Sti’el. His rabbit sister looked up and smiled at him. “Hi, big brother. Did you need something?”

“I was wondering how divination worked,” he admitted. “The only example I saw was you just… suddenly having a prophecy while we were all talking, but to her people talk about it, there are actual spells you can do?”

Sti’el’s smile widened. “Yes, there are! Divination is less… rigid of a magic than a lot of other schools. Usually, the biggest differences between diviners is the power of their divinations and their divination style - so basically, how good of a diviner they are, and what they use to divine with.”

“Okay, could you be more specific?”

“Oh, right! Uh, let’s see… so, weaker diviners often get the details wrong, and can’t tell who or what their divinations are about. Figuring out all of the standard questions about their divinations is really hard, though that’s usually just for beginners. With some practice, most diviners can confidently answer at least a few of the questions: who it pertains to and where, but not when, for example. The most powerful diviners can usually always answer all of the who/what/when/where/why/how, unless it’s _really _far in the future or something.”

“So… does that mean that the future is already told?”

Sti’el shook her head. “Nope! Divinations are usually only good for big things, or for the not too distant future - or the past or present. The further into the future you go, the less clear the divination will be, because all of the choices and variables and stuff get infinitely harder to sort to find what’s the most likely to happen. Of course, vague questions can lead to the most ‘accurate’ answers, which is where style comes into play: some diviners use simple cards to perform their magic, with each card and its position in a spread giving an idea as to what will occur, but never with any specificity. One spread might inform you that, say, a being of power will cause great destruction that involves you, but it won’t tell you who that being is, nor when nor where.”

Ahsch nodded. “Okay, but that doesn’t explain your random prophecy the other day.”

“Well… prophecies like that can happen to anyone who practices divination much. Usually, ‘random prophecies’ aren’t too random, but they also aren’t very clear; like the one I got. They’re normally about big things, like a war or famine or the sort of things they make legends out of.”

Ahsch grimaced. “Given the content of your prophecy, I don’t much like the sound of that.”

Sti’el’s face fell as well. “Yes… but I have faith in you, big brother!” she grinned at him.

Chuckling awkwardly, Ahsch worried a feather in his hair for a moment. “Wait, what style of divination do you do?”

“I haven’t actually decided yet - most diviners either choose a style and only ever use that, or they explore all the options and pick the one that resonates with them the most. I’ve tried card spreads, crystal-seeing, flame-reading, bonecasting, incense-burning… there’s one or two more that I want to try, though I am not doing anything with blood or guts or whatnot.” She shivered for effect. “Sacrifice is just too morbid for me!”

Ahsch smiled at his younger sister’s declaration. “What did you use that told you we were coming to Sarvas?”