In Secret (Sequel to Behind the Scenes)

Just A Glance

The children stared in a stunned silence as the entrapped storm died down and the woman nodded solemnly. The man jumped to his feet, his loafers nearly slipping on the floor as he grabbed the woman from behind him and they both bounded out of the tent without a second thought. Juvia wondered what they had been told.

The seers looked up at their group, and instantly Kyle tugged on his sister's hand to go the woman on the left. She was elderly, with a kind face that the two of them just felt instantly that they could trust. They looked at each other, and held a wordless conversation. This woman reminded them of Grandma. Even down to the way she groaned when she put her tea set away under the table.

"Excuse me Miss, but if it hurts to bend down why don't you just use magic?"

Kyle was about to admonish his sister, but the way the woman chuckled as she gestured for them to take a seat halted him.

"Because, my dear, it can be dangerous to be too reliant on magic. If I used nothing but magic then my bones would go stiff and I would be as useless as a fire wizard in the rain."

The twins giggled as they squeezed onto the bench opposite the woman. It had been designed for one person, and they only just fit.

"Now my sweets, what can I do for you?"

Smiling gently at the woman from behind the twins, Juvia turned to stand behind Kasai as he began speaking with the second seer as she asked him the same question. 

"I.. I dunno? What CAN you do?"

Juvia tutted, tapping the back of Kasai's head, a small smile crossing her face.

"Kasai mustn't be rude!"

The fortune teller simply smiled, waving a hand dismissively. He was just a child, after all. Picking up her deck, she started shuffling the cards in her hands, humming softly. Juvia shifted Saki on her back again, having noticed the girl's head sliding towards the edge of her shoulder. Once the child was settled comfortably again, the Rain Woman looked over at the twins. They were fully entranced by whatever the older woman was talking to them about. When she looked back at Kasai's table the woman had spread her cards face down across the table, her hands hovering over them as she continued to hum. The little boy looked up at Juvia, his eyes bright as he whispered.

"Miss Vesper said she's just going to pull the cards and see what they tell her."

Vesper paused her motions and smiled at Kasai, a blush creeping across the boy's face. It must have been pretty bright to be visible on his dark skin even in the shadows of the tent.

"You don't have to whisper, child. The humming is just my personal preference. The only thing I really need for my magic to work is a moment of focus and a willingness to let IT direct my hands instead of me."

Her hands started roaming again, her right drifting down to tap a card twice. She flipped it over, laying it on the open space she'd left in front of Kasai so he could see the face of it. He shrank back slightly from the card in front of him, but Vesper just chuckled.

"The devil may look scary, but this card doesn't always mean something bad. It can be a symbol of freeing yourself from bonds, and becoming more independent in your life. You're a growing young man, and I can tell you have a great magic in you. Perhaps there is something coming from these abilities."

The young fire mage scooted forward at that point, puffing out his chest in pride. Great magic? Miss Levy always said he had p-po-potenshion... or something. She had told him that meant his power was going to be great. He peered across the small table at the seer as she let her hands roam again, this time her left catching a card and flipping it before she even realized it had dropped. She slid it across the table to Kasai, her eyebrows knitting together for a brief moment as she did. Juvia almost missed it herself, and she was pretty sure her young charge hadn't seen anything. He was staring at the card in fascination, the face of it being adorned with a chariot being pulled by two vulcans, one seeming to be all black, the other completely white. This was strange enough for vulcans, but they were running on all fours like any other beast of burden would.