Shantania/Supports/OrfamaySolo

Level 1

"Excuse me, young lady," says the voice of an old man nearby. "You've a curious aura about you. Would you permit me to come closer?"

"I don't see why you should need my permission. Nobody else has cared, so far." The young lady, Orfamay, sits on the grass and hugs her legs, having raised her head only to speak. Next to her, a few small wildcats attempt to climb into her lap. They don't see the man as a threat as he approaches. He jabs the tip of his walking stick into the ground and uses it to lower himself to a sitting position.

"The cats seem unusually friendly. I've seen a man mauled by one before."

"So have I," says Orfamay without even blinking. "You weren't there, were you?"

"Oh, no, I probably wasn't nearby when it happened."

"That's strange." She looks at the sky, doing her best not to make eye contact. "I would have thought you'd want to ask where 'there' was, first."

"You may very well have just figured out my secret." The old man pulls the stick from the ground and lays it in front of both of them. "The Wagonmaster and his company call me Fortune-Giver."

"I suppose you don't mean that in the sense that you'll give me money."

"Oh, gracious, no. I haven't a single coin, token, or bead to my name. No, my business - if you could call it that - is auguries. Frighteningly accurate ones, at that."

"So I suppose, then, that your stars foretold what I've done."

"I confess I haven't paid much attention to your stars, but if nothing else, I do know who you are."

"Orfamay, the scourge of her village. She, who summoned terrible creatures and murdered hundreds. Orfamay, the beast-girl."

"That was not your fault."

"I don't care! I called the wolves and lions and bears, and they slaughtered everyone! I admit it!" The cats in her lap have started licking her face.

"And for that matter, you're the only one who refers to yourself as such."

"And why do you think that is? Because nobody else is alive!" She has broken down into tears again. "And it's all my fault! Whatever it was that I did..."

"...can be controlled," says Fortune-Giver, finishing her sentence in a way she hadn't expected. "Like any skill, it can be practiced and controlled at your very whim. One needs only to concentrate."

Orfamay, meanwhile, has not comprehended Fortune-Giver's words. She is desperately trying to shoo away the small wildcats while crying hysterically.

"...I suppose I've tried," the elder augur laments, as he hoists himself back to his creaking feet and leaves the poor girl to her devices.