Han didn't know why he came down to Gold Street the morning after his grandmother's funeral. He should have been at the their old house riding out the customary two day mourning ritual, where the bereaved were supposed to remain isolated from society focusing upon the recently departed. No respectable Corellian should have been wandering through the Blue Sector, littered with tattoo parlors, gambling dens, and other places of inequity. But Han came from a long bloodline of disreputable people, so it wasn't unusual for him to wander through the district in search of answers to questions that whirled through his mind.
The biggest question: Why did people die with nothing to show for those years they struggled just to keep going from one day to the next? Tira Gama Solo had worked too damned long and hard during her life, and the only thing she had to show for her effort was 1,000 credits in savings and 200,000 credits in debts accumulated during her long illness. Spending her entire life at the bottom of society trying to create a better life for him wore out her heart, and she couldn't afford a prosthetic replacement. What little money she saved in earlier years went to getting Han into the Academy when the scholarship didn't cover the basic necessities. He got to attend, and was in his second year, doing far better than he would've expected. After graduation he would go into the Navy and become a pilot.
He stopped in front of a black transparisteel window emblazoned with a gold-painted open hand with five outstretched fingers and one human eye embedded in the palm. "Lady Sibylla, Fortune Reader" was written in Old Corellian along the top of the fingers.
Somehow he managed to pass every cantina and sabacc parlor without a glance, yet he suddenly decided to pause in front of a spook joint. His grandmother used to come down to Treasure Ship Row and consult the "professionals" who always told her she would be successful and would live a long and happy life. None of that ever came true. Tira kept working after he gained a scholarship to the academy that covered the basics but didn't pay for much else. She would send along extra money to keep him amused, but that made him feel guilty. So Han started running along with a petty bunch of credit-making schemes like selling test answers to upper level classmates terrified of failing the complicated exams necessary to graduate. He would transmit some credits back home every couple months, and his grandmother never asked where he managed to get the extra money.
"Can I help you?"
Han jumped away from the storefront window. A woman stood in the doorway, probably the owner, the one named "Lady Sibylla", the lady who could supposedly read the future.
"You need my assistance."
He stared at the woman. "I don't need your help."
"You were brought here for a purpose. Clearly you would not have sought the counsel of a being like myself if you don't believe in fortune telling."
"I don't believe in crazy, lady."
The fortune reader shook her head. "There is much more to the universe than dust."
"Are you some kind of Jedi? They're illegal."
"Report me to whatever authority might still be rounding up those ancient devils just in time for Empire Day. I doubt there are too many legal types here who care about old wizards that have been chased away into obscurity." Her eyes were steady, but challenged Han to actually follow through with what was an obvious idle threat.
Han reached into his flight jacket pocket and pulled out a bronze five credit coin. "So you read peoples' futures? Tell me what comes next now that I'm alone."
The fortune reader stared at the coin. "I usually charge far more than five credits, because I offer truth. But for you, I will not charge any fee."
"I don't take anything for free."
"Pride is a wonderful attribute until you let it get in the way of the important matters." The woman shrugged. "Of course you are free to leave if you wish. I can show you things, but I cannot force you into doing them. Your will determines your fate."
Han wanted to protest, but some weird calm feeling overcame his resistance. "I'll do it for now." He placed the coin back into his pocket.
The fortune reader smiled. "Thank you." She reached out her right hand. "Sibylla Orien. And you are—"
"Why don't you tell me who I am, if you're supposed to know everything?"
"It makes you more comfortable to introduce yourself."
Of course she was right about that. Han didn't like someone knowing everything about him without him knowing how they knew those things. "Han Solo."
Sibylla nodded. "Yes, as I suspected. Your grandmother often talked of you during her sessions."
So that explained how she already knew his name…somehow, which didn't exactly make sense. But it was the only explanation she offered, and he wasn't able to come up with anything better. "Yeah, I guess she did talk about me."
"Come inside." Sibylla opened the door to her shop and let Han enter ahead of her. The bright sun momentarily obscured his vision, but when he could see the interior Han noticed it was quite different from the other establishments his grandmother usually visited. Everything was decorated in silver and black instead of bright colors and wind chimes made from gold coins. Her appearance was unlike those other spook merchants, who preferred flashy jewelry and tattoos; she wore a simple bottle green dress with small hints of white at the collar and cuffs and her black hair pulled up in a bun.
Sibylla led him to a small circular table covered in black silk. "Please sit down".
Han seated himself in the chair on the left hand side, while she placed herself into the empty seat opposite him.
"I am sorry for the loss of your grandmother. She was a great benefactor to many among our community of seers."
"Yeah, she laid down a lot of credits on fakers."
"Call them whatever feels necessary. But you are with someone who can actually uncover hidden truths."
"Sure, whatever."
She pulled out a set of cards from an ornate ebony and gold box. Han realized she wasn't using standard fortune cards when she began to shuffle the deck. He recognized the backs, decorated with glowing white figures on a midnight blue background, as a Centran sabacc deck. "You don't like the usual cards?"
"Sabacc cards are more unconventional than the usual ones."
He leaned back in the chair. "Does that mean you see things easier?"
"It does help sharpen one's focus, given their association with gambling."
"How's that work?"
"'The odds', as they are called by many such as yourself, are just a simple way of acknowledging the role of destiny." Sibylla laid out the cards in a half-moon arc on the table. "I will give you a very simple reading. One that involves picking each card at random and explaining its meaning rather than a traditional layout. Does that work for you?"
Han shrugged. "Go ahead."
She turned over the first card. "Ah, the Wheel. Very auspicious, because this indicates a balance of good and bad elements, and the beginning and ending of things in your life."
"That means my grandmother's death and me finishing up another year as a cadet. Like I didn't already know all this crap."
"It's far more than just your immediate circumstances." She let him see the card, which he had seen before in both the regular and Centran sabacc decks. A giant metallic wheel floated against a starry background. "This also represents the start of a new path. The days of childhood are over. Your adult life is now fully underway, with more opportunities before you than were imaginable in the past."
"Like what? I'm already gonna be in the military after I graduate."
Sibylla turned over the second card. "Maybe not. But you do have strong indications of leadership in your future."
"Like a General or something?"
Sibylla held up the second card. "Definitely a leader of some kind."
Han noticed the card was the Chariot; a winged creature guided a golden chariot up into some imaginary blue sky. "I guess that means victory."
"It means your future will be tied up in certain degrees of military victory."
Han grinned. "So I will be a General."
"You will definitely succeed in some kind of martial ventures. The future you have constructed for yourself does not always lead to the future you shall possess."
"Then maybe I don't want that future."
"It doesn't matter what you decide, the future you earn is the one you will receive."
Han frowned. "I don't want to finish this reading."
"Since I'm not charging you for this session, the door is open both ways."
He stared at the remaining cards that laid face down on the table. There was no reason to believe anything she had told him. He didn't need to hear the rest of her nonsense.
But maybe there was another future in store for him than what he planned. "I'll stay long enough to indulge my curiosity."
"Very well." Sibylla turned over the next card. "This is an interesting contrast to the Chariot. It represents something both literal and figurative." She held up the card for his inspection. "The Lovers." That was a card he had never seen before:
"I'm not involved with anybody right now." He wasn't interested in anything more than random encounters whenever they came along, which for a guy like him was quite often. There was no need for commitment in his life, because he had never seen any good role models of it growing up. His grandmother's first marriage ended in divorce, and his birth parents disappeared and left him behind when he was ten days old. "So that card means I'll get involved with somebody?"
"There is another interpretation besides the literal one illustrated. It also means you will be at the crossroads of two major decisions at several points during your life." Sibylla placed the card back on the table. "But at some point a woman shall become the main factor behind your most important decision."
Han snorted. "The only woman who's gonna influence me from now on is Lady Fortune." He leaned forward in the chair. "And I'm talking about money, not fate."
"That's not a wholly terrible ambition. But you must allow for the influence of destiny, because it will sometimes happen whether you like it or not."
He frowned. "Maybe I want this over with now."
"Very well." Sibylla drew another card. "Ah, this is a very good card to end our brief encounter. I suspect you won't mind this one. It represents the ultimate outcome of your immediate future and your ultimate destiny, should you pay heed to your circumstances at all times."
"What is it, the Idiot card?"
She held out the card to him. "It's the Universe."
"That means—"
"You will get the opportunity to do everything your spirit desires. When you come to the final years of this life, you will be a happy man."
Han stood up and took the card from her. The image was of a man standing on a planet surrounded by the stars and other celestial bodies, with a rising sun illuminating the scene and him.
"So that will be me one day? How does that mean I will be happy?"
"The Universe card represents ultimate achievement when it comes to a person's future. Success in every possible form will be accomplished because you have gone through a journey that tested you in many different ways. You will become…" Sibylla tilted her head "…fulfilled, I suppose."
Han gave her the card. "No major problems along the way, huh? I get to make some difficult choices at certain points, then everything works out in the end. Sounds too good to be true."
"I never said there wouldn't be obstacles along the way. No being's life is ever free of difficulties."
"So I've noticed."
"I could tell you the bad things by picking out some other cards. But I don't think you need to know about those misfortunes right now."
Han looked down at the other cards still lying face down on the table. So many possibilities were hidden underneath those black and white line drawings, and he could very easily have Sibylla draw every last remaining one until the faces and their meanings for his future were revealed. Did he really need all that knowledge? Could he handle knowing the good and bad that awaited him in the future?
"I'll pass. I like being surprised."
Sibylla nodded. "Good choice."