“You’re nervous? would you like to get a drink?” Asks ?ple.
“I’m fine. Let's just get this over with, please.” ?l? responds. She dreads birthday divinations, but she dreads the bad luck of skipping them more.
?ple lets go of ?l?’s right hand and retrieves the submerged dagger and lifts her left hand above the center bowl; she lines the point of the dagger up with ?l?’s fate line and cuts a long, shallow incision from just below ?l?’s middle finger, stopping at the base of her palm.
?l? breathes in sharply through her teeth.
?ple watches the blood drop into the water as she squeezes ?l?'s hand. The blood drops into the center, slowly forming a single dark tendril, which fades to a lighter pink before splitting—diluting into the water.
?ple quickly bandages ?l?’s hand before beginning her reading of the blood. “Hmm... Well, I think...” She pauses, pouting and furrowing her brow. “You are going to take the time to fix a relationship or form a friendship with someone who you are currently not on good terms with; this relationship will improve and heal, only to inevitably break again.”
?l?’s mind races as she retracts her hand, holding it in her other. She struggles to form an idea of who this could be; everyone in her life is currently on excellent terms with her. She settles on the idea that this will be a new person she will meet in the Crown in an attempt to avoid stressing herself.
?ple reaches out towards one of her priestesses, a smaller girl named Maywen; she hands ?ple a lighter, who then passes it to ?l?. She quickly lights thirteen candles, unable to wait.
Scentless white wax slowly melts as the wicks burn; ?ple waits for a small pool of liquid wax to form at the tip of the candles; starting at the candle closest to ?l?, she lifts them one by one above their small bowls of water, dripping the beeswax, pure and truthful, in, working her way around in a clockwise motion. She watches the flames of the candles as the wax quickly cools, solidifying in the rainwater.
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“The next two maidens will be new beginnings for you...” ?ple says as she looks into the first two bowls, watching the cooled wax drift around in the water, and then to the flames of the candles, which burn steadily. “But not in a grand sense. If you don’t mind my making an assumption as to what this is: I think this will be your wedding and a move to a new city.”
?l? nods in response; she was thinking something similar.
?ple continues to work her way around the bowls, ignoring the ones where the candle flame is burning and flickering normally; all aside from the first two and the seventh candle are not worth reading. She peers into the seventh bowl, looking at the wax sticking to the side of the bowl. “In the fourth maiden, you will either grow dependent on someone or someone will grow dependent on you.”
“I got one of those both years before Mina and Ilsenila were born. That means I’m going to be a grandmother next year.” Says Ro.
“Don’t jump to conclusions.” ?ple responds as she does a quick double-check of all the candles and bowls. “When I was a priestess, we had a woman get a similar wax placement, only for it to end up being her husband losing a leg in a mill accident, and her having to start working in order to provide for him. I’m glad you’re positive about this, but don’t make assumptions—you can tempt fate.”
Ro smiles awkwardly as she gets a sidelong glance from her daughters.
“Would you and your coven like to stay for dinner, High Priestess Weise?” Asks Alavel. “We will have more than enough for all of you.”
“We would love to.” ?ple responds as she watches ?l? put out the candles.
Footnotes
[1] Bludewyt is a form of sanguimancy, or blood divination, commonly used in Ianian traditional folk magic on an individual’s birthday. By drawing blood from one’s fate line, it is believed that a general overview of the following year can be interpreted by how the blood interacts with the water.
There are five common interpretations based, though some skilled priestesses can be more liberal with their interpretations in order to try to provide more accurate results.
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Rapid Dispersal: Instability, loss, or a disconnect from the spiritual.
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Slowly Spreading Tendrils: General growth, whether spiritual, familial, influential, or with a deepening bond with a single person. These are usually discerned by the number of tendrils. In some cases, tendrils will break, signifying the loss of a connection.
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Floating Globules: A lack of change or an uneventful year.
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Formed Shapes: These are up to the interpretation of the priestess and very heavily based on what she sees.
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Changing of Colors:
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Darkening can mean danger in extreme cases; blood will turn black, meaning death.
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Fading to a paler hue can mean healing.
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Many people will avoid doing the Bludewyt as they would rather have a year of general bad luck than risk knowing of a tragic fate.