Here's another short chapter. Nothing really happens, if you ask me.

Disclaimer: Dragon Knights not owned by me

Chapter Ten: Fortunes Crossed

Nick sat in the dark room lit only by candles and stared at the cards laid out on the table. She couldn't see anything beyond the pictures of beautiful woman, wondrous creatures, and frightening scenes but the shorthaired fortuneteller could.

"You have many questions," she spoke at last, after laying the cards down. Some lay face up while others remained hidden. She read the cards without moving anything first. "And you seek something." She closed her eyes, moving her hand from card to card. "You are very friendly but you are a solitary creature. Do you push people away?"

After realizing she had to answer this question, Nick couldn't find her voice. "Uh, well, I don't think so. I haven't really…um…" She looked over her shoulder at Tetheus who leaned against the wall just behind her. Did he know what she was supposed to say? Was he even awake? She couldn't tell if his eyes were even open in the dim light.

Delte nodded as if she expected the answer. Well, it wasn't quite an answer but she kept reading the cards. " You have been starved, in more ways than one," she spoke as she touched the middle cards one by one, "I see compassion and love for someone." This sparked something in the fortuneteller's eyes. She moved to the last of the cards. "And also fear. This emotion rules over you. Tell me, what do you fear?"

Again, a question Nick now had to answer. She never liked answering questions she wasn't given the answer to. She wasn't entirely sure why. It just made her nervous.

"I don't like to…Bugs! I don't like bugs!" She giggled at the cleverness she thought she had until she heard the officer behind her clear his throat. So he was awake, after all.

"It would benefit everyone if you answered the questions truthfully," Tetheus said.

Nick sank a little lower in her chair. She hated being bossed around. She wasn't sure why the sudden change of mood struck her but the place she had woken up in was getting duller and duller by the minute.

Delte began shuffling the rest of the deck she held in her hands. It was almost time to flip the rest of the cards and discover what was really important about this girl. She switched her attention to the outside cards. Flipping them, more magical images appeared. The magic surrounding the cards was released, allowing her to read them easier.

"Darkness. I suppose that's the Demon Lord. It surrounds you like a barrier. I sense demon power on you now, though it's fading little by little."

Tetheus stepped forward. "What does that mean, exactly? Security wise?"

"Means I can still bite," Nick said, "but you won't bleed. Ew, that's gross, why'd I just say that!"

Delte locked eyes with Tetheus. "It means, over time she won't threaten us. Though I don't have any idea if it's just a trick or if she truly is adapting to our life here, in the light and rule of the Dragon Lord."

"She's influential, that's good to know."

"What does, um, in-fle-etchal mean?" Nick asked. No one seemed to pay her any mind.

Tetheus' gaze sat on the table; the supernatural figures and beings almost completely covering the wine-colored cloth until it was but an ignorable detail like so much in the Dragon Castle. "I need to address an issue elsewhere. Lady Delte, you will inform us of everything you uncover here."

"Of course," the fortune-teller said, though it hadn't been a question. The door somewhere behind Nick was opened and closed and Delte let out a sigh. "Now that the atmosphere is a bit less…Stuffy, let's continue, shall we?" She gave the blond an encouraging smile.

"Alright," Nick answered, bored and completely confused by everything. She was getting used to it, though.

Delte continued flipping cards. The action was soft and slow at first, like she was getting a feel for the cards, making sure there were no mistakes. Minutes passed with only an occasional flip of a card. Nick had been thinking through everything she could recall, which wasn't much. Her upbringing was dark and took up little space in her mind, then her one and only journey into the outside world and then waking up among dragon-people where she had her fortune read and…oh, that was still happening.

Nick looked up to ask something but the question was wiped from her mind when she saw the Fortune-teller's face. She had stopped her reading and stared at one card that seemed a bit scarier than the others. Pure fear flashed across Delte's eyes, and then she began her reading again, flipping cards, rearranging them with such fortitude that it was madding.

"I've never seen this card before," Delte said, her voice a low whisper. "It has been in my deck since I received it from the Elder yet it has never before come up." She looked up and saw Nick trembling, like a child being scolded. "So you know what it means, too."

"No," Nick said slowly, "But it's freaking me out. This…Feeling. What is it?"

Delte looked down at the card once more and saw that it held the girl's entire future. The blond was doomed, plain and simple. "Despair," she said.

To Be Continued...