Third Prayer: The Future is Written in Flames [Voice/Action] Forward Dated to June 13th

[faithfulflame]

Voice

Good afternoon everyone. For those of you who have not met me, my name is Rei Hino. I would like to extend my warmest greetings to all of the New Feathers. I'm sure that you will find something that you enjoy here, and that you will be able to make many friends. If you need any help, please feel free to contact me at any time.

On to other matters, though. Its taken me some time, but I have managed to prepare and purify a small area on the edge of the forest where I can perform flame readings and other types of fortune telling. I do not have much in the way of a shrine, merely a tent and a small consecrated area with which to work, so I hope that doesn't reflect poorly on the experience. In my world, I am a priestess, and I'm fortunate enough to have a gift when it comes to doing such things. If anyone is interested, I will happily use my blessings to offer a reading of your future. It would be my greatest honor to provide my services.

While I cannot guarantee perfect results thanks to our hosts weakening my powers, I feel that its not out of my reach to offer answers to simple questions that you may have about your near future. All that you need to provide is a question and a single hair for a flame reading, or just your question for other types of fortune telling. I have a set of tarot cards if anyone prefers that, but I'm more confident in my abilities at flame visions.

I hope that you find my fortune telling to be enjoyable!

[An elegantly drawn map pointing to an area on the edge of the forest is included with the broadcast pointing it out]

Action

[Rei can be found at the site depicted on the map for most of the day. Its simple enough, a tent that she and the other senshi had found in the item shop, erected as a sort of open air shrine with a carefully prepared brazier on the outside. Near the center is a small round table she'd hauled out of her house, and at the entrance is a bucket of purified water meant to cleanse oneself before a reading. A pair of crows, Phobos and Deimos, dart playfully around the area, hopefully adding to the impression of the site.

Rei greets anyone who comes by with a happy smile and a great deal of enjoyment. She loves using her gifts, and if it brings a measure of peace or enjoyment to someone she's more than glad]

(OOC: If you have Rei do a reading, I'll offer up a generic enough fortune, since they tend to be very vague most of the time. However, if you wish for something more specific or want to use the reading to set something up for future plans, foreshadowing, whatever, please speak with me and we can work out some details! Hit me up in a PM and we can work from there.)

Comments

[faithfulflame]

[Mars glares daggers for a long moment before responding. She drops all pretense of politeness, no honorifics. Just cold, creeping, quiet. The flames in the brazier positively roar to life though, amplified by her presence..]

Harry. I know you didn't know what you were doing. I sure as hell didn't know what you were doing. I also understand why you did it, and were I you I'd have done the same thing. Don't think that makes it alright.

[She took a long moment, a deep breath. What she was about to say she would not have told any other man, woman, or child. But knowing Harry as deeply as she did, understanding the fundamental elements that made up the wizard wasn't lost on her. He'd figure it out, or he'd make another mistake and do to Ami and Usagi what he did to her. It would be traumatic, and an ordeal that she HAD to spare them. She knew he would, out of paranoia, but if he knew who they were, he wouldn't. And he wouldn't tell a soul. Because Harry Dresden was, deep down, a good man.]

You're the only man in Luceti to know my secret. What is done is done. But I'm not alone here, surely you saw that. The Moon, and the other planets? My friends are here, and you understand why I have to ask you to never ever do what you did to me to them. Usagi Tsukino and Ami Mizuno are their names. They are...like me. Guardians. Senshi. Tell NO ONE what I have told you.

Swear to me, on everything you hold dear that you will do as I ask, or in the name of Mars, Mercury, and the Moon, I will punish you.

[quicktoanger]

Well. That sounded reasonable.

"I had no intention of telling anybody what I'd seen. I don't just go around telling people the contents of each other's souls. And I definitely didn't want to hurt your friends."

But maybe she'd need more than that. Luckily, I could give her more.

"I will never betray the identities or gaze on the souls of Usagi Tsukino or Ami Mizuno, I swear to you. Upon my own magic."

Magic, like a lot of supernatural things, respects old-fashioned rules. There's really a set of rules- somewhere between supernatural etiquette and a magical Magna Carta- known as the Unseelie Accords based on just that principle.

But on a more personal level, one's word was one's bond. And if one violated an oath sworn on their magic, as the oath was weakened, so would be the magic. Swearing on your magic never comes lightly. Luckily, I hadn't the least intention of hurting her two friends anyway, so it wouldn't really be an issue.

"... Though I didn't even know who they were or that they were here, until you told me."

[faithfulflame]

It doesn't matter if you knew who they were or not. If you met them, you'd feel the same sort of power that you felt from me. And I know you now. You've every right to be paranoid given your world, and you'd want to use your power.

I would rather offer their identities and spare them the ordeal. Ami-chan, is both as powerful as I am, if not more so. Usagi-chan is even stronger, because of who she is to us. They both have also been through a great deal more than I have as our timelines are out of sync, and invading them like you did me would be much, much more harmful for them. I know you don't want to hurt them, you wouldn't do so knowingly, but you would all the same.

Trust me when I say this. We Senshi are bound by fate and destiny, for all time. If you hurt one of us, even by accident, you hurt all of us. Here we rely on secrecy. Be very careful of what you talk about in public, especially at these mage's meetings.

[There is an unspoken threat there. That hurting one incurs the wrath of all hree. But also a glimmer of understanding, that she'll not be avoiding him. Truly good people are difficult to find]

[quicktoanger]

Hell's Bells, she had a point. If Usagi was more powerful even than her... Well. I'd had a very small few run-ins with people who had power on that scale. Faerie queens. Fallen angels. The Erlking. He Who Walks Behind. The Archangel Uriel. The Naagloshi.

The one thing all of these people had in common? I didn't trust one of them. Not as far as I could throw them. And so, of course I'd want to determine exactly how much of a threat they were. I might hesitate to use the Soulgaze, after what happened today, but I might just as easily attempt something else. She wasn't wrong about my world, of course, and her offering up subtle threats and hints like that was honestly starting to make me feel almost at home.

I sort of felt as if I should protest, that most didn't feel it was an invasion, that some even welcomed the kind of openness that a soulgaze brought, but it was, of course, totally irrelevant. It didn't really excuse what I'd unwittingly done, and if I could make up for it by helping them out, so be it.

"Don't worry. I don't think this particular information is of any significance to the magic group."

[faithfulflame]

[And with that, the powerful magical girl turns back into something a bit more human, shifting back into the younger, softer Rei Hino. Her shoulders slump slightly, like she's genuinely exhausted and she wobbles over to one of her chairs. For a long, long moment she just stares into the brazier, firelight dancing in her eyes. When she speaks again, her voice is strained, upset but trying to put a brave face on it. Mars had given her the strength she needed to be able to converse again.]

Thank you, Harry. My friends and I...we...really don't want to expose ourselves too much. I know that you're a man of your word, and that when you make a promise you'll keep it. I sincerely feel you are a good man, and that's something I've found to be very, very rare. Whatever it was that you did, I wish you hadn't, but maybe something good came of it after all. Fate weaves as it will, who am I to question it?

Can you explain to me what you did? If you understand me as completely as I feel I understand you, then I would appreciate some answers.