AN: This was a spur-of-the moment one. I think I spent about 5 minutes on it. Enjoy, eh?
05. Destination
The bones are cracking in the fire, and she sees.
The future is uncertain, and she knows this. The girl looks at her with her eyes full of hope, and she sighs. The girl thinks that knowing the future will help her.
She knows that nothing good comes of knowing the future. Often, you end up taking the most painful way possible to the same place. She knows this, and though she tells the fortunes of many, she never does so for herself. Wu never sees her own future, nor does she wish to.
The girl's eyes light up as she tells her the destiny foretold by the bones, and Wu wonders why. She has told the girl no names, given her no description, told her nothing of the man she will marry but that he is a powerful bender.
Time is a tricky thing. It likes to mess with your mind. The future is only predictable to a certain—vague, unplottable, indistinct —point, and past that, no one knows. Especially not her.
The girl bounces out of the room, ecstatic at her fortune. Wu sighs. What she hasn't told the girl far outweighs that which she did. She hasn't told her of the pain and fear in the future, of the violence and uncertainty and death that reside there. She hasn't told her of the flame that will engulf her heart and force her to choose between what she loves and what she knows is right.
Wu knows there are many paths to take, but they all lead to the same destination.