slipping away with Ragnar

[thewidewideworld]

{From here}

Sinric leads Ragnar into the bathrooms, glancing around to see if anyone is around before slipping into one of the stalls and closing the door behind them.

"Do you want me to paint your prick with my lips or lift my skirts and take me standing?" He asks with a list-filled purr.

Comments

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Yes," Ragnar agrees. "As the cards were right about the past, they are likely right about that, too."

[manofbusiness]

"They are always right", Childermass says with confidence. "Whether or not we understand them. Now, your state of mind."

Card 7 is laid diagonally downwards and to the right, the Eight of Swords.

"Feeling trapped or held at a standstill. And the environment you find yourself in..." Ten of Wands is set down above the last. "Success, but bringing burdens with it."

[thewidewideworld]

"Truth there, and hope." A burden is worth carrying if it brings Athelstan home.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Oh yes, complete truth," Ragnar says. "I know what the next bit of burden will have to be."

[manofbusiness]

"It is success and burdens you have now. Though they may carry into the future. The next card is for your hopes and fears." He lays it above the last, the Ace of Coins. "This can mean either security - in money or otherwise - or health. Or both."

[thewidewideworld]

"Let us hope that it is security in the greatest treasure you took from England." Sinric whispers softly.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I hope so," Ragnar says. "It tells me good things, in any case. Thank you for that, John Childermass."

He smiles at Childermass and then, encouragingly, at Sinric, whose turn it will be next.

[manofbusiness]

"There is one more card to draw for you. The outcome, or the future several months away."

When he draws, he finds it to actually be two cards stuck together, frowns at them, then unsticks them and lays both down in their place. The Six of Cups and the Ace of Wands.

"This means... someone or something from the past, and simple joys. The other can mean a new start or a new endeavour, or an upwelling of energy."

[thewidewideworld]

The little catch of the cards makes Sinric smile. "It would seem the cards have their own voice and would have it heard."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Someone from the past," Ragnar says. "Who knows, Sinric, we might yet find you after all."

[manofbusiness]

"Oh, they do", Childermass says with a quick crooked smile, gathering the cards back up and reshuffling the pack. "And now it is your turn. Ready?"

[thewidewideworld]

"I await your magic, sir." Sinric nods with the smallest note of trepidation.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I am curious what the cars will say, too," Ragnar adds.

[manofbusiness]

He decides to give Sinric the same spread as Ragnar.

"Your present situation." The Two of Swords. "Waiting. Maybe trying to find balance."

[thewidewideworld]

"Just so." Sinric sighs. "Waiting for a day I wish would never come."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"But will, inevitably," Ragnar says, tightening his arm around Sinric.

[manofbusiness]

"Obstacles and opposition." The card laid across the first is the Devil. "This can mean bondage, and I know of your status. But it can also mean human failings - greed, lust, anger - and those may or may not be yours."

[thewidewideworld]

The image frightened Sinric, as does the prediction and he shrinks a little into Ragnar's embrace.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar holds him, and briefly leans his cheek against Sinric's hair. "We know you will come through," he murmurs.

[manofbusiness]

He leaves the business of comforting to Ragnar. The cards will say what they say.

"The very near future." The Eight of Coins. "Studying or preparation for a new path."

[thewidewideworld]

"That I have much to do and have begun already." That at least eases him a little.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Yes, thanks to this place," Ragnar agrees.

[manofbusiness]

"The basis of the situation." The Tower. "Dramatic change is coming, but that you know."

[thewidewideworld]

"The death of my beloved lord will bring dramatic change to the entire Eastern Empire. And much of the west." Sinric intones softly. "The fate of a single bed slave seems insignificant compared to that."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"You know how important you are, in the long run," Ragnar says, softly.