"Take a seat," the woman said the moment I stepped inside.
She was seated cross-legged on the floor, a cushion beneath her, a faintly glowing orb resting in front of her. She looked to be in her late thirties, her eyes hidden behind a black blindfold, her hands still in her lap. I glanced back at Liliana, who gave me a small nod and let go of my hand. I walked forward and lowered myself onto the cushion across from her.
"It will cost a silver sepha," she said.
I frowned. 'A silver sepha? That's steep.' Still, I reached into my pocket and handed it over. She accepted it without hesitation, then extended her left hand palm-up while her right came to rest on the orb.
"Place your hand on mine."
I did. Her skin was surprisingly cold. The room went quiet except for a faint hum coming from the orb. I turned my head slightly and caught Liliana watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read, intense in a way that made me uneasy. Before I could think on it, the woman spoke again.
"It might hurt a little. Don't be alarmed, it's part of the process."
I started to respond, but pain cut through me before I could get a word out.
"Argh!" I clutched my chest as something moved through me, a strange energy I couldn't identify. The orb flared bright, flooding the tent with pale light.
"I see," the woman murmured, almost to herself. Her blindfolded face tilted upward and her lips began to move.
"You have been cursed, cursed by all things in existence. Your karmic weight is so dense that death waits for you at every turn. Your fate," her voice wavered, "is set in stone. On the day the one you love most is revealed to be the one you hate in equal measure, you will meet your end."
"What?" I breathed.
Her words hit hard. 'The one I love most? The one I hate most?'
[Amael, you need to get out of here!]
'Why?' I pushed back. 'I can't leave now. I need to know more.'
Was this fate unavoidable? Even after everything I'd done to steer clear of the main plot, was I still going to die? And who was the one I hated most? I couldn't even begin to answer that.
"Betrayal," the woman said suddenly.
The word landed like a blow. I opened my mouth but couldn't find anything to say. Then my body seized up, something stirring inside me, something I couldn't control.
[It's the side effects. GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!]
I couldn't move.
"I SEE IT!" the woman cried out, her voice no longer sounding like her own. Her whole body shook. "BETRAYAL! IT IS SYNONYMOUS WITH ALL YOUR DEATHS! FOREVER YOU ARE TRAPPED IN A LOOP! FOREVER A PAWN IN THIS CURSED GAME!"
She wasn't stopping. Her voice kept rising, filling the small tent until it felt like it was coming from everywhere at once.
"ON THE DAY YOU FALL IN LOVE, THE CYCLE SHALL BEGIN ANEW! AND ON THAT VERY DAY, YOU SHALL DIE BY THE HANDS OF THOSE YOU LOVE MOST!"
Pain tore through me, worse than anything before. I grabbed at myself and white strands of hair fell across my vision.
"ARGHHHHHHH!"
She kept going, her voice like something breaking apart.
"This curse will haunt you until the End! On the day you fulfill what she desires, when all that once was shall return, the records will be rewritten, and on that day, you will cease to exist!"
I couldn't hear her anymore. Her voice faded beneath the sound of my own screaming, and something inside me snapped. A darkness rushed in and swallowed everything I had left.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
Then nothing.