The pillars of creation

Margery touched a finger to her lower lip as she peered up at Althea. "Who is it then? Who is this mystery man I'm to meet?"

Althea shrugged. "Too soon to tell. But the stones say you will meet a man"-she made a show of putting her first and second fingers tight together-"and you two will be fast with each other. Congratulations, Margery. It looks as if you are close to finding the happiness you seek."

"When? How soon?"

Again, Althea shrugged. "Too soon to tell. The stones only say 'will, not 'when. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. But the important thing is that you are near to meeting a man who will be good with you, Margery. You must now keep your eyes open. Don't hide yourself away in your house, or you will miss him."

"But if the stones say-"

"The stones say he is strong and he is open to you, but they don't fix it sure. That's up to you and the man. Keep yourself open to him when he comes into your life, or he may pass without seeing you."

"I will, Mistress Althea." The conviction in her voice strengthened. "I will. I'll stay prepared so when he happens into my life, I'll see him, and he'll see me, just as the stones foretell."

"Good."

The woman fished around in the leather purse hanging from her belt until she found a coin. She handed it over eagerly, pleased with the outcome of her telling.

Friedrich had watched Althea give tellings for nearly four decades. In all that time, he had never before seen her lie to someone.

The woman stood, holding out her hand. "May I help you, Mistress Althea?"

"Thank you, my dear, but Friedrich will help me, later. I want to stay with my board for now."

The woman smiled, perhaps daydreaming of the new life waiting for her. "Well, then, I'd best be on my way before it gets any later in the day… before nightfall. And then it's a long ride back." She leaned to the side and waved through the doorway. "Good day, Master Friedrich."

The rain rattled against the window in earnest. The sky, he noticed, had darkened, casting a gray gloom over their place in the swamp. Rising from his bench, Friedrich waved. "Let me see you to the door, Margery. You do have someone waiting to take you back, don't you?"

"My son-in-law is up at the rim of the canyon, where the path starts down in, waiting with our horses." She paused in the doorway and gestured to his work on the bench. "That's a fine piece you've made."

Friedrich smiled. "I hope to find a customer at the palace who thinks so, too."

"You will, you will. You do fine work. Everyone says so. Those who own a piece of your work count themselves as lucky."

Margery curtsied happily to Althea, thanking her again, before retrieving her lamb's-skin cloak from the hook by the door. She smiled out at the angry sky and donned the cloak, drawing its hood over her head, eager to be on her way to find her new man. It would be a long journey back. Before closing the door, Friedrich warned Margery to be absolutely certain to stay on the path and to watch her step up out of the canyon. She said she remembered the instructions and promised to follow them with care.

He watched her hurry off, disappearing into the shadows and mist, before closing the door tight against the foul weather. Silence settled once more inside the house. Outside, thunder rumbled in a deep voice, as if in discontent.

Friedrich shuffled up behind his wife. "Here, let me help you to your chair."

Althea had gathered up her stones. Once again, they rattled in her hand like the bones of spirits. As considerate as she always was, it was unlike her not to acknowledge him when he spoke. It was even more unlike her to cast her stones again after a customer left. Casting her stones for a telling called upon her gift in ways he could not fully understand, but he did understand how it fatigued her. Casting her stones for a telling drew down her strength so that it left her detached from the world and wanting anything but to cast them again for a while.

Now, though, she was in the spell of some tacit need.

She turned her wrist and opened her hand, casting the stones at her board as easily, as gracefully, as he handled his ethereal leaves of gold. Smooth, dark, irregular-shaped stones rolled forth, bouncing on the board, tumbling across the gilded Grace.

In their life together, Friedrich had seen her cast her stones tens of thousands of times. There were times when, much like her customers, he had tried to discern a pattern in the fall of the stones. He never could.

Althea always did.

She saw meaning no mere mortal could see. She saw in the random fall of the stones some obscure omen only a sorceress could decipher. Patterns of magic.