Krysta spirit of fortune chapter one
Chapter 1: My beginning
Hello, my name's Krysta and this is how I became the spirit of fortune.
I was born in the year 1718. That makes me about 296 years old but I look more along the lines of 16, after all that's when I died.
My mother was, to put it nicely, a woman who loved more than one man. I couldn't tell you what she looked like because she left me in front of an orphanage before I could remember anything. I however have black hair and green eyes with pale skin.
While I was waiting in the basket my mom had left me in, (it was a cold rainy night too, go figure) a troop of gypsies passed by. The leader of the gypsies, a kind old woman by the name of Ezmera, took pity on me and adopted me into the troop.
The whole troop was like a big family with smaller families all living in it. Each section had a different colored wagon where they kept supplies. The acting sections' was red, acrobats' were blue, healers' were green and the fortune teller's was purple with yellow swirls and stars. The actors put on plays and performances along with a few magic tricks here and there and a couple of them played instruments like the flute, drums, harp and lute. The acrobats walked on high ropes, did backflips onto each other's shoulders, and a few even swallowed swords. Some of the acrobats had trained animals that they would use in their act, like a dog they dressed as a lion or the old white horse that they would make look like a unicorn. The healers made potions and ointments meant to soothe and heal wounds and illnesses or cure poisons. The fortune teller ran everything and told people's fortunes of course. There was only one fortune teller in this troop and that was Ezmera and she was the kindest soul there. She was like a grandmother to me and a mother to everyone else in the troop.
As soon as I could walk they began to teach me everything they knew from foraging to playing the cup game. By the age of six I could find a bird nest faster than the older kids, find the best berries on a bush and had a knack for finding "treasures" in our guest's pockets. Ezmera didn't really like pick-pocketing but when business grew slow and food scarce she would allow it. By eight I was one of the best pick-pocketing con-artist you would ever have the misfortune of meeting. Of course Ezmera taught me other stuff too. She was our troops only fortune teller after all and she was hoping that I would follow in her footsteps. She taught me everything, from palm reading to crystal ball gazing to tarot cards. I learned them all and even came up with a few of my own tricks some of which I would test on the other members of the troop.
I even made charms; luck charms, love charms, protection charms, you name it I made it. Mostly they where entwined threads occasionally wrapped around a bit of flowers. (Apparently now days they can be referred to as friendship bracelets.)
Even though I was trained to be a fortune teller that didn't stop me from learning everything else too. My favorite was the intricate dances the acrobats did. By my twelfth
birthday I was one of the best dancers we had, second only to the fabulous duo Monte and Aria, the head acrobats and husband and wife.
Whenever we would stop at a town a few of us would take a few members and preform in the town square to show what sort of things our troop had in store for the shows while the others set up the camp. I would often go along and sell a few of my charms, sing with the actors and dance with the acrobats. After we were done performing we would hurry back to the troop and finish helping set up for the show.
I would always be very excited when the show would start and the people would come. My favorite was the children, they were so fun and loved it when I would teach them a few of the easier dances and how to make flower chains.
Ezmera would always laugh at me when she would come out of her tent and see me juggling apples for the kids, then she would call them over for her favorite part, story telling around the camp's bonfire. They were wonderful stories, full of magic and wonder. My favorite were the tales of the Easter bunny, Tooth fairy, Sandman, and Santa Claus.
After the stories we would send everyone home. Exhausted we would all go to our wagons to sleep. Ezmera shared her wagon with me. Every night she would brush out my long black hair and tuck me into bed.
"Good night my luck charm." She would say.
"Good night star seer." I would say back. It was our tradition every night and I never thought it would change.
The day of my 16th birthday was the best and worst of my life. Ezmera had a new costume made for me, it was an off-white blouse with a light green vest a brown corset that covered me from my hips to the bottom of my ribs and made it look as slim as could be, a blue and brown skirt and simple but sturdy brown leather dancing shoes. I thanked her over and over again for it. She just smiled and said that she was happy that I liked the gift. Later that morning when we stopped at a new town and I went along with the others to promote the troop I noticed many of the men there would watch me and some of the other younger girls. It gave me chills and I wanted nothing more than to leave and head back to the troop. As we were leaving a man pulled me aside and asked for a kiss. I was so shocked that all I could think to do was run. He grabbed me by the arm so ruffly that one of my few metal bracelets cut into my arm and caused me to bleed. He tried to kiss me but lucky for me one of the troop had noticed I was missing and showed up just in time to pull the man off me. We hurried back to the troop and explained what had happened to Ezmera. She was scared now to say the least, telling everyone to pack up quickly. Everyone was surprised but no one objected. When we where almost done men from the town came and started causing trouble. I was at a stream filling a few canteens when they came so I had no idea what was going on. When I returned I saw my family all sitting on the ground in a group, surrounded by armored men armed with swords. One man was speaking.
"Ezmera the gypsy?" He called. Ezmera stood and curtsied.
"How may I serve the magistrate's men?" She asked in a calm manor.
"You have been accused of murdering the brother of the magistrate through witchcraft." He continued. At this many of the men and women of the troop began to protest. Shouting that Ezmera would never harm anyone. Ezmera gave them a sharp glance and they calmed once more.
"What proof have you that I have done this crime?" She asked. To answer her question he held up my bracelets, the metal one shining slightly and one of my woven charm bracelets both with my blood on them. The metal one had Ezmera's sign on it, a star imprinted into the middle of an eye. The same sign was painted on her wagon. Ezmera gasped when she saw this.
"This was found under the magistrate's brother's pillow. Were he was found dead. His mouth open and his eyes wide and staring. All the signs of a malicious spell." The man said, "by order of his magnificence the magistrate you are under arrest."
"No!" I shouted, coming forward out of the shadows.
"Krysta, stay back." One of the men of the troop said.
"Those belong to me, Ezmera has done nothing. If anything it was the man who took those from me this morning who murdered the magistrate's brother." I said calmly walking up to the man in charge, "see," I said showing him the cut on my arm, "a man attacked me today and in the process he cut my arm and must have pulled those off my wrist."
"Can anyone from the village bare witness to this act?" He asked as he looked at my arm.
"No but Robert can." As I said his name the man who had saved me stood up.
"I personally saw the man do harm to her and pulled the brute off her." Robert nodded.
"A likely story." The guard said skeptically, "but I'm afraid you would need a witness that is not from your troop."
"But it's the truth!" I declared.
"Then you wouldn't mind telling the magistrate this story." He said grabbing my arm, "Krysta the gypsy I place you under arrest for crimes of witchcraft and murder.
A chorus of voices shouted at the guards.
"No!"
"She's innocent!"
"She's just a child!"
"Not my Krysta! Please not Krysta!" Ezmera cried as they placed manacles around my wrists.
"I'll be fine. Don't worry, I'll see you all soon." I smiled sadly as I was lead away. I heard Ezmera crying, "why didn't I listen to the cards! Why didn't I listen!"
By the time we arrived at the magistrate's home the sun was starting to set. The magistrate's home was colossal, in my opinion, full of luxury and fancy things. But it felt cold and empty compared to my wagon back home.
The magistrate was a fat man, with greedy pig eyes and oily hair. His face was red and puffy, from crying or if it was that way naturally I couldn't tell. To the left of him lay a kind looking man, with similar characteristics to the magistrate. He would look peacefully asleep if his eyes and mouth weren't wide open in a look of terror.
"Your honor, we have found the one who caused the death of your brother." The captain of the guard bowed to him.
"This little stick?" He laughed in disbelief.
"Don't be fooled by appearance your honor, it is said even the smallest snakes carry the most lethal venom." A second man came out from a door to the right. It was the man who had attacked me this morning.
"Perhaps you are right, my trusted advisor. You girl, what is your name and why did you kill my poor brother?" The Magistrate glowered down at me.
"Your honor." I said curtsying as best I could with the heavy chains on my wrists, "I am Krysta the gypsy. I have never met your brother or wished him or your honorableness any harm."
"You may not have wished him any harm but then again gypsies will do anything for money." The advisor said, smiling evilly at me from over the magistrate's shoulder, "she could have been hired to kill him."
"I would do no such thing!" I defended, "I don't even know witchery. I'm just a gypsy, I tell fortunes, dance, make charms, that sort of thing."
"Charms? Charms of evil, charms of death?!" The advisor said, as the magistrate looked at him the man pretended to look fearful, as if I could cast a spell on them and kill them all right this moment.
"No, charms of luck, love, life!" I said.
"If she can make those why not ones to kill?" He pointed out to the magistrate.
"I've heard all I need. Krysta the gypsy I find you guilty of witchcraft and murder and sentence you to death at sunrise. Guards! Take her away." The magistrate said with finality.
"No, wait! Your honor! Your advisor is the real murderer! He attacked me this morning and stole the bracelets that were found under your brother's pillow." Then I remembered the healers tell me of a poison that caused its victims to die so suddenly that they would often look as though they had died of fright. "He framed me! He did it! Check his home! You'll find poison! Your brother was poisoned!" I screamed as the guards dragged me out of the room.
"The lies the guilty will tell to save their necks." The advisor said shaking his head in mock pity. That was all I saw before the door slammed closed. I went limp in the guards arms after that, all hope leaving me. The guards carried me down to the dungeon. Instead of ruffly throwing me into my cell, they carried me in and set me gently on the floor. Perhaps feeling pity for the girl who was to be hanged with the rising sun. I didn't want their pity, I wanted out of this cage. Gypsies don't do well in stone walls after all. I was feeling panicky, it was incredibly dark and it felt like the walls were closing in around me. I curled up on myself, rocking back and forth, trying to picture a happy place. I started to cry into my skirt as visions of my troop getting ready for a midsummer festival came to my mind. Oh how I missed them. As I was getting ready to wail the moonlight broke through the clouds and everything lightened up a bit. I looked up, sniffing as I looked at the bright glowing orb. It looked as though it was smiling at me, a warm kind smile. I smiled back then laid down on the floor looking up at it. A glittering trail of sand suddenly passed through the bars of my cell, but I knew what this was. It was dreamsand, like in Ezmera's stories. It swept over me and I fell asleep to dreams of my family.
I was awoken the next day by a clatter on the stone floor. I got up and turned to see a plate of food and a flagon of water. I ate the food and gulped down the water without a second thought of it being my last meal. Once I was finished one of the guards came and escorted me outside. I hoped that someone would be able to talk the magistrate out of doing this. I was lead up onto the gallows where a man with a black hood covered his face stood next to a noose.
"Krysta the gypsy, you have been charged with murder of his honorableness's brother through the act of witchcraft, how do you plead?" A judge read from a scroll. I opened my mouth to say innocent but no sound came out. The food must have had something in it!
"How do you plead?" The judge asked impatiently. Again I tried to speak, I even tried to scream but no sound came out.
"Since you refuse to reply we find you guilty of all charges and sentence you to death." Obviously the judge had been bribed. I continued to try to make a sound, anything just to be able to speak.
"Do you have any last requests?" The executioner asked as he put the noose around my neck. I nodded my head vigorously. I reached up and removed my necklace from my neck and managed to faintly whisper, "please, give this to my mom."
The executioner looked at the simple necklace before turning away from me. I prayed with all my might right then to be able to speak one last time. I decided to try one more time and screamed, "THIS DAY YOU HANG AN INNOCENT GIRL FOR MURDERING AN INNOCENT MAN. BEWARE FOR NOW YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!"
As I watched the sun come up as I felt the floor disappear from beneath me and then I knew nothing more.