Changes

It was strange for George to think that Kei, the girl he now considered his sister, had only been his life for three months. Almost three he realized with a smile. It was also a shock to learn that he had been Rouge that long.

George was resting in his rooms above the Dancing Dove. The sun had set and the rest of his court had gone to their beds for the evening. He had even sent 'Fingers off to help Scholar home. Scholar was far too drunk to remember the way. Now he was considering sleep, but he heard a noise, just the barest creak of floorboard. George drew off his tunic as if he had heard nothing, ears pricked for another slight noise, to let him know just where the intruder was. His knife was in his hand, but he concealed it against his arm.

Whoever it was had some sort of magic, he couldn't use his Sight to see anymore than that simple fact. He was blocked. He didn't like being blocked. He flexed his muscles catiously and turned.

He pounced at the slight movement of air around him and nearly speared Kei's throat with his dagger. George frowned at her. "What in Mithros' name are you doing up here?" He cursed himself for teaching her how to climb into his rooms without making a sound.

Kei smiled and stepped away from his blade with care, "Good evening to you, too," she said, her black eyes dancing with humor.

"I nearly slit your throat, lass."

"You won't do any such thing," she argued tapping her head with one long pointer finger.

It was no use arguing with her, he thought with a sigh. "Ma will be plenty mad at you for sneaking out."

"You've done worse when you was my age," she told him. "Asa told me all about you and your little trips into the lower city late at night."

"Crazy Asa doesn't know a thing about what I do," George informed her while he pulled his tunic back on and secured his knife once more. "Come on, I'm taking you home."

"She's not crazy," Kei said, arms crossed over her chest, "And she knows more than you think she does, George."

"Sure she does," George said, shoving the girl through the door and down the steps into the alley behind the Dancing Dove. As he watched her pale skin shimmer in the meager lamplight he wondered what his adopted sister saw in Crazy Asa. She had been going to the old woman's house religiously ever since they met. Kei said that Asa taught her how to read fortunes. George thought that was odd indeed, if Kei already could see the future than why did she need to learn to do it any other way beyond her own?

Kei had grown more than an inch, though she remained small, her hair was at waist length and shimmered with iridescent light. George remembered when Rispah told him that her hair looked like it had been smeared with oil. It didn't take long for them to realize that her hair just naturally had that shine. Not as if her hair had once been grayed into whiteness, but that her hair had been white and grew paler still. He wondered what that meant, was it some clue about her past? Would she continue to pale out of existence? Or was it nothing but hair and skin?

"Why did you sneak out, younglin'?" George asked.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Well, go on then, spit it out."

"Something's coming."

George nodded. Every once in a while Kei would give him a message, a warning about the future. He learned to head her warnings and follow her advice. Once she had helped him find Marek, who had gotten himself into trouble with some of the Provost's gaurds. Another time she had stopped him from making a poor purchase from a stingy Tyran selling jewels. "What kind of something?" he questioned.

"I don't know. Someone. I'll know it when I find it."

"And what do I have to do with it?"

"You're with me when I find it. Them."

"It's a them now?"

Kei sighed, "I can't see it. Part of the vision is clear. So clear it hurts, the other part is blurry. Something big is being set in motion. Asa thinks I shouldn't mess with it though. Its the work of Gods, she thinks. But I've got to George. It gives me a headache to think of it. That means its important. Too important to ignore."

"Asa," George muttered. "What does she even teach you, Kei?"

"I've told you, George- "

"Aye, fortune telling."

"She teaches me the ways of the Doi."

"You already know the future."

"I do not. It's blurry and it changes. And I can't see everything." They had reached the house and Kei sat on the front step and motioned for George to follow suit. He did. She firmly took his palm firmly in her hand and said, "You'll have three children. A girl and two boys. The girl and one of the boys will be twins. They'll be younger than the other boy."

George smiled. "And if no girl strikes my fancy?"

Kei grinned at that and tapped a line on his palm. "Oh, one will. See this, that's deep love that is."

George watched the girl for a long moment before nodding, "Alright, lass. I don't know why you bother asking, I'd do anything for ye. But, you just say the word and I'll help you do what needs doing."

***

Four days later was market day. Kei and George had attended the market together before, but today something in Kei's skin tingled. It was coming. The change of everything. Kei hoped it would be a good change, because she was going to make it happen.

Instead of fussing over the arrival of this big change, the one she could almost see, she shopped. Things would happen how they would happen and she wasn't interested in changing the future yet. Her chief concern was on possibly purchasing a set of throwing knives for George's birthday without him noticing. She wasn't even confident that she would be able to pick out good ones, but she looked at them discreetly, while George tagged along behind her, bored and itching to be anywhere else.

"Don't be so fidgety, George," Kei complained, touching his arm lightly. "I know you're bored."

He sighed, "Why couldn't you bring, Rispah to the market? She'd be better company than I am."

"You're supposed to be here, George."

"Aye, and what am I supposed to be doing? It sure ain't this."

Kei cocked her head to the side, ignoring his question and suddenly jerked him along with her. The marketplace was a mess of people; merchants, slaves, priests and nobles. All of them warring over space and prices. The two of them were used to the city and the bright colors, orange and yellow fruits, hangings of blue and green, ropes of gold and silver chains. But Kei was looking for someone who was not used to such things, someone who gaped at the bustle. And she did, she found the person she had been looking for. The tiny page sat astride a tired pony. The page had fire-y red hair and pale violet eyes. Kei shoved George in front of her, grinning broadly and fighting back giggles. She peered out from behind her brother and watched.

"Keep and eye to yer saddle bags," said a gruff voice, "there are some here as would sell their own mother's teeth."

The older man in front of them stared directly at George as he spoke to the page, his dark eye appraising George's hazel ones. Kei's brother merely grinned and asked, "Who me?" innocent as a kitten, then winked at the page-ling. Then Kei and George melted into the crowd.

"Was that boy the one you was looking for?" George asked.

Kei nodded as she chuckled to herself. "We'll have to keep an eye on that page won't we?" A wonderful feeling soared within her. The Goddess was certainly taking a bold path indeed. But it would work. And Kei knew from top to bottom, that the change would be good.