Character

Where is your home? 

The last witch of the South Facing Cabin. There must always be a witch in the cabin, as is tradition. Even when the end of the world seemed to come and all the people have fled north into the Whistling Valley to escape the Winds, there must be someone here until the very end. 

Who was the person who lived here before? What did they leave?

Cherice, the immortal one. But she too has fled North. She was here as an interim when Veronika died before I accepted. She covered all the paintings with cloth, binding them with silver and dried woodruff. She told me it would seal them, and protect them from the Winds. Neither of us believed her lies. 

Once an ailing farmer came, how did you help them? What farm animals did they bring in return?

He came seeking a way to keep the ghosts of his past from haunting him in dreams. I gave him a carved soapstone, soaked in lime juice and carved with the sign of the Crown of Memory, though I suspect they have long since died. 

He brought me two kittens, just weaned. It's been a long time since this cabin has had cats, but… it’s not quite tradition but common nonetheless. 

What is your name? 

Clear Infor Delicate, failed audiomancer and dropout of The University in the Whistling Valley, embarrassment to my family legacy in my younger years, and the only person I know to ever go South at the end of everything. 

What is something that marks you as a Notia? 

The copper pin, shaped like a ring that should hold a sprig of anise. Worn on the outside in safer times, worn on the inside when not. 

What are your skills? 

Futura, knowing the future. There is a xylophone, arranged in a circle like the rays of the sun, that I ask clients to play. The order of notes, the rhythms, the certainty or hesitation, I can tell their future from the pattern they play. 

Day 1 - Aid

4 of Cups, An Illness

Page of Wands, A Common Laborer 

When he came, I knew before he showed me the first signs of the infection. He pulled up his sleeve and shone the light of his phone onto the mist that was gathering around what used to be his skin. 

He was looking for a cure I nor anyone could give. I sat him down on the couch, after brewing him a strong tea and asked where it was when it happened. 

He was a driver, one carrying cargo and supplies up to the few people who lived here. He had come in contact with the Winds when he was down further towards the ocean. 

He was disappointed that I had no more answers than any doctor, but he wanted to know how much time he had, and so I handed him the mallets and waited for him to play.

It was gentle, uncertain and I knew from the first note it would be mere months. I heard him break down in tears the moment he exited the house. 

I cannot know if he will seclude himself as he ought, but I cannot know how good that will even be in the end. 

Day 2 - Explore

7 of Pentacles, Natural Area

Page of Swords, Dangerous

The river has grown wider than it has in previous springs. More and more of the ice melts from the mountains. 

I cannot say why as the summers have grown colder, and the winters have been more mild, but no environmentalist has been to these parts so long as I have lived here. 

It sounds wrong as well. It’s too calm on the surface, hiding a lurking horror underneath--like a stalking predator in the scrub.

 It feels… hungry. 

Day 3 - Aid

8 of Wands - Hexes/Curses

9 of Wands - Skittish Animal 

One of the mouse-folk of Tarrin appeared on my door today. She was frazzled and scared of the kittens. She swung at them with a stick, but they only seemed to think this was part of play until I shooed them off. 

She spoke to me about a curse that had been laid upon her. She felt the evil eye as she passed through Tarrin. She felt its presence as she worked, as she socialized, as she rested, and could never be at peace. 

It was a mounting dread upon her, and she feared when it would manifest, for she knew it could take weeks or even years for it to finally appear. 

She saw it in her sleep, watching her, waiting, biding it’s time to strike when she was more vulnerable. It was a simple hexing, one borne from a stray evil thought that had wormed its way through the heart and mind of the caster without them even knowing. 

I gave her the hearts of six sunflower seeds to place around her bed, and to rotate them clockwise each day for a week. They should absorb the evil intent, and after she was to bury them individually no more or less than 6 feet away from one another. 

Day 4 - Explore 

3 of Cups - Natural Area

4 of Pentacles - Populated Area

I went to a park today. It’s so easy to forget what is happening when you see people, out, living as they have always lived. 

Things feel at ease, but I cannot stop myself from hearing the sounds of destruction. It’s in the bird’s chirps, in the intervals between the children screaming, in the rustling of the leaves. 

Everything is ending. 

Day 5 - Aid

Ace of Pentacles - Mundane Troubles 

King of Swords - An Eccentric Gentleman

A rich man came to me today, clothed in designer wear, expensive watches, and an heirloom cane. 

He wore one of the copper-rings on the lapel, not one to mark a witch, but one given for protection. Someone loved him once. 

We spoke at great length about the mundane eccentricities of the modern world, talking only about the End by avoiding speaking of it all together. 

He wanted to know if there was more after this, but he could not bring himself to ask it, and so his question: what herbs should be grown in the windowsill this autumn. 

I told him this year to only plant rue. Rip everything else and dry it, burn it, cook it, do whatever else he wished with it, but only the rue would suffice. 

Day 6 - Explore

Two of Pentacles - Populated Area

Ace of Swords - A criminal 

I took one of the long hyper-ferries down to the peninsula today to visit the city. I don’t know why. I needed to know it was still alive. 

I wandered down into the deep alleyways, using only the sounds to guide me. I suppose it could have been dangerous, I did not look for signs of safety, but perhaps luck or intuition kept me safe.

I watched from the shadows as a youth, hooded and masked, sprayed graffiti on the side of a dumpster before vanishing down the twisting halls. 

I didn’t have the context to understand it. There were snakes and clouds, and the names and nick-names of people I would never meet. 

The pettiness and smallness of life still continues. 

Day 7 - Aid

Eight of Cups - An overbearing soldier 

The Hanged Man - A Scholar needs your help 

Two women came to see me today. One was a soldier, who carried a small gun, who checked every crevice and every cupboard for danger. She frightened the cats, but still seemed charmed by them. 

The other was an older woman with three sets of glasses, all on chains, one on her face, one on her forehead, and one hanging around her neck. 

She told me she was a scholar from the peninsula and the soldier assigned to her after an incident, of which she did not tell me. 

She would remove her glasses periodically, and replace them with another pair with no rhyme nor reason nor mention of her doing so. 

We spoke of oracles, of the future, and her dedication to the science and understanding of semiotics and how vastly different each witch could tell the future from different signs. 

She was not inclined to mention the fae, with their detachment from reality, and scoffed at the notion whenever I mentioned them. She wanted a through line, a set in stone list of meanings from the randomness of life. 

She would not accept that seven birds meant different things to different witches, but all were true. She wanted the signs to be wrong. 

I was not of much help to her in the end. 

Day 8 - Explore

Nine of Pentacles - Populated Area 

10 of Wands - Common 

I do not think I will go to the city again in this lifetime. I see the clouds rolling in each night and hear the deaths of the gods chime through the Forecast. 

I pray I am dead before I hear it chime just once. 

I sat in the only cafe in the village for a long time. Nursing a coffee and just hearing the sounds of people chatting and bickering, children screaming and laughing, the sounds of cars and the chimes of the door. 

People know not to bother me when I am alone. Sometimes I wish they didn’t. 

Day 9 - Aid

6 of Wands - Hexes and Curses

7 of Wands - A know-it-all Teacher 

Teodora came to see me today, and she is still hell-bent on trying to correct me even when she has come to me for advice. 

Her copper ring has started to turn green, and no matter what she has done she cannot stop it. She and I both know what this means, and I can see the fear in her eyes when she cannot meet mine. 

I told her we need a third to try and break an inherited curse. There is no third up here any more, and we are too far to the west for those seeking sanctuary up north. 

She left before telling me if she would flee or try to endure. 

Day 10 - Explore 

Ace of Pentacles - Populated Area 

The World - A River Port Connecting to a city, with life 

The hyper-ferry shut down today. We are… severed from all quick access. The roads are still open, but driving would take at least a day and I doubt any large suppliers would be willing to come to such a remote place. 

I cannot leave. I will not leave. I have stocked the pantry with as many cans as I can carry. With as many jars as they will let me. 

I have re-bound the paintings, re-sealed the jars, and repainted all the sigils on the front and back of the cabin.

Even the cats know. Six people came by today to offer me their supplies. They are taking their families north, and have no need for the preservatives they have in their pantries. 

It frightens me to think of how reliant I will become on the fae when all the other people are gone. How much of myself am I willing to give them when things become too hard… and I become too tired.