Day 10: The Last Soothsayer

Muzzle / Chains

Straw-hat. Check.
Bright cyan shirt. Check.
Shorts and sandals. Check. Check.
Suitcase. Check.

Everything was ready for Benedict’s trip to the Senmuta Archipelago just off the northern coast of Urklan. And not a minute too soon.
Normally his idea of a vacation was to be far away from his job and imagine all the different kinds of catastrophes that transpired in his absence. However, his hand had been ****. And after delaying until the very last moment, all he had to do was stand casually on the pier of Pyrke, and wait for the ferry to arrive.

“Ben! Ben! Wait up!”
…And that was too much to ask, apparently.

The voice belonged to Claus Ritter. Officially a glassblower’s apprentice at Seidenburg, but his apprenticeship had lasted for nine years without him so much as making a shot glass. He earned his keep as a martial-arts instructor and sword-for-hire, while spending his evenings with the Riders of Marester patrolling the woods outside the city walls.
He was a tall man in his late twenties, with an exceptionally broad jaw and a pair of large ears. He ran across the pier, waving his arm at Benedict.

Benedict pretended he didn’t know him, trailing off into the dense crowd in an effort to blend in. For a broad-framed man in a brightly coloured shirt, however, that turned out to be a tall order.
“Ben!” Claus said between bated breaths, “Am I glad to see you?”
Benedict had completely forgotten how fast the big boy ran.
“Oh… Claus!” He **** a smile, “What a surprise… To think I’d run into you of all people all the way here at the very end of Pyrke!”
“You don’t know the half of it, Ben! I’ve been trying to get hold of a fortune teller, but it’s like they’ve all gone up in smoke! I’ve been looking everywhere! From Biellfort to Castle Rang! You must be the last soothsayer in Meruvia!”

“Oh, really now? My my. And you just so happened to find me?” Ben hissed though clenched teeth, “How very very lucky. But… I’m afraid I can’t stay to chat. My ferry will be here at any moment, so…”
“But Ben, this is important!”
“So is this trip.” Ben said with increasingly strained patience, “So very very important.”
“You don’t understand! " Claus kneeled down to Benedict’s level and grabbed the soothsayer by his lapel, "I met someone last week. She’s the funniest and sweetest woman I’ve ever met. We get along like a house on fire, and she both supports me and challenge me to do better. I think she might be the one, Ben. I need to know if we’re destined to be together!”

Ben sighed, pushing his hands away, “Look, I’m gonna give you my advice. As a soothsayer. And also as a friend. Don’t worry about who's the one. Play around with her. In fact, play around with as many women as you can. Make most of your life now. Seize the day.”
Claus cocked his brow and rose to his feet, “Ben… No. That’s not going to last. I want to find someone I can be happy with. Who I can grow old with.”
Benedict shot his friend a strained smile, “Right. I hear you over there. But see… Let’s say, hypothetically, that the long term wasn’t an option. Like, it didn’t exist. At all. In that case, wouldn’t it make sense to live for the day then? I mean, what else can you do?”
“Uhhhh…” Claus grew increasingly confused and concerned, his eyes shifting rapidly, “Ben? Is anything the matter?”
“No. Nothing is the matter. I mean, yes. I’ve got this trip…”
“Yeah… You’re going away at the same time that all fortune tellers also disappeared. Do you maybe know what happened to them? Did they also leave like you?”
Sometimes it was all too easy to forget that behind all that muscle, Claus had actually got a brain.

“Look, we soothsayers… We’ve got our own business between ourselves. It’s best for everyone if we get to keep our secrets. So go ahead and keep yourself to your glassblowing… Or whatever it is you do.”
“If that’s what you really believe, Ben… Then I’ll do as you say. But Ben,” Claus knelt down again and gripped Benedict firmly by his shoulders, “I first need you to look me in the eye, and tell me this has nothing to do with me. Or my Elvira.”
Benedict shifted his gaze between Claus’s eyes and the far stretches of the sea. There was the ferry in the horizon. Set to dock at any minute.

He groaned. Claus was a good man. Maybe telling him about it would be the right move.
“Look… All right. I’m gonna tell you. But I need you to keep your cool, and leave this between you and me. All right?”
Claus nodded, “Fine by me."

“...You’re telling me there’s going to be a calamity!?” Elvira shrieked, her voice echoing through the cavernous nave of the local church “Right here!?”
Really, Benedict shouldn’t even have needed to be a fortune teller to have seen that coming.
Elvira waltzed along the aisles, leaning towards the pews where Benedict were seated, staring at him angrily.
“You’ve some guts coming in here and go on about how miserable our future is gonna be.”
“I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to.” Benedict answered, “Believe you me.”

“And you!” Elvira paced towards the organ, where Claus was seated, “Did you really have to go and seek permission from a palm reader on whether we’re good as a couple? You don’t think such a thing should be between you and me?”
“Elvira, my dear… I’m so sorry.” Claus started, playing around with the keys even though there is no air, “But I need you to know, I would never have sought out a soothsayer if I didn’t truly feel there was something there.”
“If you truly felt there was something there, you wouldn’t need to! That’s all there is to it!”
"Elivra..."
She did not reply. Instead, she continued to stride along the aisles, stopping just short of the altar to turn towards the boys.

“What kind of calamity are we looking at?” She asked, “Who exactly is supposed to be in danger? And just how? When can we expect to see it, and where should we look? How will we know it happened when we see it?”
With a sigh, Benedict rose to his feet. He picked something from his pocket, a kind of dry leaves, then crunched them in his fist. The ensuing powder rained into a heap at his sandal-clad feet, “You know what? Why not just go over the prophecy? Then you guys will know just as much as I do.”
Next, he produced an irregular orange sheet from his pocket. Tearing off one of the corners, the strip ignited in a golden flame. He knelt down to the heap, and torched it with the burning scrap.
A burst of golden smoke instantly rose from the dust, seemingly alive in how it snaked through the air.
The glowing cloud shaped itself into a terrifying serpent towering over the frightful spectators. Erratic flashes of white from within the plume shot out from its eyes and mouth.
And Benedict reached his palm towards the serpent, not as if to shield himself but to receive. And he spoke:

When Poseidon dives to the ocean east;
From chaos primordial, the serpent awakens;
And as its shadow spreads from the rabbit’s nose;
The house of man is shook;
And is devoured by the fury of the earth;

Benedict swept his hand through the smoke, and it immediately lost its luster before dissipating. Soon it had vanished without a trace.
Claus and Elvira looked at Benedict, and the empty space where the revelation transpired. They exchanged glances with one another other, and looked back at Benedict.

“I think… I think I’m even more confused now." Claus said in a shaky voice, "Is it like… A great flood? Or an earthquake? Or…”
“...It’s not the god Poseidon,” Elvira said calmly, “Isn’t it? It's supposed to be the star named for the god. When it’s diving… Hm. I think that's supposed to mean that it sets behind the horizon. And of course, it’s going to set in the east. And in Meruvia, East means the ocean.”
“Yes.” Benedict uttered, “That’s what the prevailing theory is.”
“So when Poseidon, the star, is setting, that’s when the calamity occurs…” Claus summarized.
“Tomorrow night.” Benedict folded his arms, “Should've left ages ago, really.”

The line earned him Elvira's sneer, “Were… Were you just going to leave? When there’s peoples’ lives at stake?
“Yeah. That sounds about right. Whatever the rest of the prophecy means, it doesn't sound good. Don’t wanna stick around to get caught up in whatever is heading this way.”
Elvira rested her hands on her hips, “How about getting the word out to everyone that they’re in danger?”
“Oh, what a great idea!” Benedict shouted, flinging his hands up, “Why didn’t I think of that? I’m sure the Meruvean Knights are gonna love it! They like nothing better than when when people spread rumours of life-threatening crises that they’re unable to predict or contain! Just ask my uncle Finnegan! Oh, wait. He vanished from the face of the earth!”

“Fine!” Elvira snapped, “Let’s not say anything.”
“Thank you.”
“We should be sorting this out ourselves!” She declares, “We got to know in advance that something bad is going to happen. That means we have the chance to figure out what that is and try and prevent it!”
Something inside Benedict broke, “That’s... not how this works.”
"Oh, right. Because you’re the expert on all things that have to do with mystery and the future?”
“Yes! Exactly!” Benedict shouted, the echo lingering in the cavernous halls, “I'm the guy who’s had to put up with this shit since he was a tiny sprig! Listen, what I’m telling you is what will happen in the future. Emphasis on ‘will’. If divination was about telling what will happen, unless something else happens instead, then any old shepherds son would qualify!”
Elvira huffed, “Or maybe it only becomes inevitable because defeatists like you keep telling everyone to just give up and let things transpire.”
“...See, I get the distinct impression you’re not getting this. So… Let's try it one more time. From the top. Imagine that all of time was one big chain. Normally we get to see only one link at a time. As it happens Once we’ve seen enough of them we can easily understand how all the links behind us are connected. But then there are people with a so-called gift. People like me. We get to see one or two links somewhere ahead. Sure, we don’t know how they link up to the rest of the chain… But there’s always and only gonna be one chain.”
Elvira grabbed Benedict by the lapel of his shirt, “...Yeah. I know very well what chains are for. And I know they can be broken.”

She shoved him away and headed for the door.
“I’m not trying to be the bad guy here!” Benedict cried, not-quite running after her, “I didn’t ask to be able to know the things I know! It’s not a walk in the park for me either. I’m just… Trying to learn how to deal with it!”
“Yeah. I’m trying to deal with it too...” She snapped in reply without looking back.

Exasperated, Benedict looked at his friend Claus, “She’s your woman, for crying out loud! Make her see sense!”
Claus looked between either of them, then rushed for Elvira, “Wait! I think maybe you should listen to him. I mean, the stars are so much stronger than anything humans can muster.”
Elvira turned to Claus, and pressed herself against him, resting her hands on his shoulders, “Claus… My sweetheart… It wasn’t the stars that made me flee from a life of servitude at Castle Tist. It wasn’t for the stars that I survived as a mercenary. And it wasn’t for the stars that I was made a courtier for baroness Whittlegard after saving her brother’s life on the battlefield. If they can’t do that much, then why should I worry about what they can do now?”
Claus sighed, “I don’t know… I think, all of this is just so far above my head.”
“Yeah… I don’t know either. But I have faith. Without that, I don't have anything. And, I know what your faith in luck and the stars means to you, but… Just this once, can’t you have faith in me?”
Claus looked away, but only for a second. He stared lingeringly in her eyes, admiring them, brushing a strand of auburn hair from her face, “You know I will choose you every time. It’s just, I’m worried about you.”
She snickered, “Claus, you know better, right? There’s nothing too big or too dangerous for me to handle. Especially with you on my side.”
Their lips joined together in a brief yet tender kiss.

She gently slipped out of his grip and left through the church doors.
“This is going to end really badly. You know that, right?” Benedict assured his friend.
Claus sighed, “Maybe. She's really not great at facing matters of this kind.”
“I could tell,” Benedict answered, “Thanks for involving her in all of this by the way.”

Claus patted him on the shoulder, leaving it to linger there heavily, “So… You’re going to leave Meruvia now, aren’t you?”
What the heck? His ferry had long since left by then , “Claus, my boy… I think I’ll stick around. For a catastrophe of this magnitude, it simply isn’t possible to look away.”
“Glad to hear it,” Claus said with a smile, “We could use someone who’s figured out this whole divination thing.”
“Yeah, yeah. There’s just one more thing before we head off.” Benedict raised his finger, “I’m way way too sober for what’s gonna go down.”