The Gifts of Fate

Chapter 1

In the past month, Shilpy Chopra must have visited nearly a dozen Fortune tellers. Mme Jessica's inner sanctum was the first to make her nervous.

On the surface, the small shop appeared safe enough. With the shades drawn, the only light came from several candles placed around the room. Air, a few degrees too warm, blasted from a small heater in the corner, wrapping itself around her like an unwelcome blanket. Lengths of velvet and cotton decorated the space in blues and blacks. Each lay strategically against the walls, windows, and over a chest of drawers. It reminded Shilpy of some fairytale underwater lair.

The old woman greeting her wore a long-sleeved purple tunic, and over her ample chest rested several beads and necklaces with avant-garde symbols from the orient. She brushed a stray lock of brown hair from her powdered and wrinkled face. The movement drew Shilpy's eyes to a ring around her crooked, long finger, which was attached to an Indian wrist chain. Possibly a cheap knockoff uncovered from a Sydney market.

It looked as though each item of clothing and jewelry had probably been selected to effect an exotic and mysterious air. Being Indian-Australian, the references to Shilpy's native country didn't impress her. Shilpy wore a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and a pair of jeans. She'd never even worn a sari.

The room and clothing were consistent with every other mystic shop she'd visited in recent weeks, although this one was slightly more on the tacky side. Why then did she feel so on edge? Could it be the curse?

Mme Jessica raised her eyebrows and gazed arrogantly at the younger woman.

"I am Mme Jessica," she said by way of lofty introduction.

"Pleased to meet you. My name is Lakshmi Arturi," Shilpy lied.

Mme Jessica led her customer to a round table in the center of the room. It was shrouded with a royal-blue cloth, the same colour as the silks against the wall, but this material was embroidered with golden thread in the images of moons and stars. Decorating the table were an assortment of charms, a small well used candle burnt down to the nub and a deck of tarot cards.

Upon seeing the tarot cards, Shilpy lost interest in everything else in the room. The image of an impossibly beautiful, porcelain-skinned woman adorned the back of each card. She wore a black and blue dress, decorated with stars and the moon. The dress merged seamlessly with the image of the night sky behind her. Her arms and legs were spread wide like she was floating on top of a black pond or through space.

Shilpy tried not to gape at the image. Her stomach became rock hard, and it took all her willpower to settle into the offered chair instead of fleeing the room.

Every line on the face and dress of the woman from the image was intimately familiar. Shilpy had stared up at her ghostly features each night during her teenage years and prostrated herself in prayer the following morning. She was Nyx, goddess of night.

Mme Jessica's attention remained on the cards. Each danced back and forth through the deck beneath deft hands. Shilpy looked again at older woman. Her face wasn't familiar, so there was a chance that the image on the back of the cards was a coincidence. Because if it wasn't then Mme Jessica was a sister of Keres Ter Nyx, the cult that Shilpy had been hiding from for the last five years.

Shilpy pressed her lips together and tried to ignore the feeling that her heart was about to explode from her chest. She had to get out of here.

Mme Jessica eyed her customer up and down. "What is it you seek Ms. Arturi?"

Shilpy pushed the panic down into her stomach. "My boyfriend," she said, trying to keep her voice light while rushing to think on her feet. "I wish to know if he is the one." Lame, but the best she could come up with at such short notice.