Atius_

You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”

I slowly approach the cushion and sit. Then I raise my head. I am met with a smile of only a few teeth left in the old hags mouth. "You said, you were expecting me. Well, expected from a fortune teller. But...do you know why I came?" She stared me in the eyes, still smiling. Then she leaned slightly forward. "For answers. All people do." I didn´t really want to waste time so I decided to get to the point. "My mother..." "Died." She interupted me immediatelly—"But it´s not her that you want to ask about. It´s your father." I took a breath of the stagnant air of the tent. "Yes, but I don´t really care who he was, my mother never talked about him, and I guess she had a good reason for it. But I want to know ´what´ he was." The hag sat still and didn´t said anything so I continued. "I know I am not pure Mali’am. My mother was. But I...my skin...you won´t find manny of my kind of such tone. My brethren never really set me aside or push me away because of my mixed heritage, but they did sometimes look at me or my mother sideways." I paused for a moment—"Most just said that my father was of the Mali’aheral. In which case I would care for him even less, since I never really liked them and how they look upon other races as something lesser. But if that would be the case I wouldnt have any questions. But...some also said that my mother lived among the Adunians for some time, and that my father walkes among them...and if that is true...then..." "Then you are cursed from both your parents." The women finally spoke. I raised my head, looking into her eyes, begging for answers.