by Rae Avery
The ForeSeer
Part 1 of the Messenger Series
Copyright 2015 Rae Avery
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Note from the Author
Studying the runes has become one of my passions. I have been using them for a couple of years for divination work and to learn the language element, but I know there is still so much I have to learn. They are so detailed, and their depth of meaning is both complicated and magical, I feel I will never fully understand them. They are beautifully crafted pieces of artwork filled with deep, rich substance and flavor. One rune can tell you everything you need to know in such a practical way that it’s comical.
The runes have ancient and intense roots in our history as a human race, which is a big reason I have been drawn to them. This is the first of a series that I have been working on for quite some time. I am looking to creatively spread the understanding of this eloquently pragmatic ancient wisdom.
This particular story was written when I first started studying the runes, so it’s not as robust in symbolism as I’d like it to be. In a year or so, I will come back and create another piece of the story with other pieces of my interpretation for this particular rune. Please understand that I’m a novice vitki, so the meaning behind this rune is just one 2-dimensional interpretation. I welcome all input from everyone who has studied the runes.
Please note, too, that this short story was written and edited by me, so if there are any typos, I sincerely apologize.
Anei has always been suspicious of the old woman, whose cloudy cataract eyes followed her eerily as she walked past her house every day after school. Normally, she would say a quick hello as she passed the house, but not today. There is far too much on her mind today.
That dream.
She kicked a rock with the toe of her boot.
That dream ruined her whole day. School was hard enough without the added stress of those crazy dreams she gets every so often. In this one, she’d stood on the side of the road and watched her mother’s beat-up old Buick ram into a pole and ejecting her through the windshield. It was a gory and gruesome nightmare, and Anei would’ve been quite happy to live the rest of her days without ever thinking about it again.
The dream would come true, though. There was the telltale sign of it feeling so real. Her mother looked right at her in the dream, surprised at her sudden appearance. Anei knew she would have to talk to her mother about this, and she was sure that would turn into a fight.
She moodily kicked another rock with her shoe.
Two years ago, Anei had her first dream. She was only 14, so young and ignorant of death. In that dream, she’d stood at the base of a tall building while her father threw himself off the roof. When she awoke, she chalked it up to just being a bad dream. Anei was horrified when the police came to tell them that her father pitched himself off that very same roof with the belief that he would fly through a vortex and meet with his ancestors for a sacred ceremonial council. The doctor had told them that he’d had a mental break from reality and suffered from schizophrenia.
Mom will have to listen to me now, though, Anei thought to herself as she made her way through the apartment complex. Her mother has always thought of these dreams as “adolescent hormonal imbalances,” so eventually, Anei stopped telling her each time she would have one.
Anei walked through the front door of her apartment and heard the normal clanking and banging of her mom rushing around getting ready for job number two. She threw her backpack on the dining room table and headed back to her mom’s room, prepared to stop her if she needed to.
“Anei, is that you?” came her mother’s singsong voice from the bathroom.
“Yeah, mom, it’s me.” Anei stopped at the bathroom door and stared at her mom for a minute, a stark contrast to her own appearance and her exact opposite in almost every way. The only thing Anei got from her mom was her eyes, large and bright blue. Her mother is fair skinned and light haired, beautifully plump. Anei is a spitting image of her dad – skinny and darker-skinned with black stringy hair,
“I need to tell you something mom, and you’re not gonna like it.”
Her mom stopped dead with the curling iron hovering over a strand of strawberry blonde hair. “You didn’t get into trouble at school again, did you? I told you if you dress like that, all black and gothic, teachers would see you as a trouble maker, no matter what you do.”
“No, mom, I’m not in trouble, but thanks for automatically assuming that,” Anei said sourly. After her father plunged to his own death, the kids at school became ruthless, and dressing this way, hiding behind blackness, was the only way Anei could escape the torment. The kids started to think she was as crazy as her dad was, so they stopped bothering to her so much.
“I don’t want to fight, Anei” her mother said quickly. “What is it? I don’t have much time.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said moodily, staring down at her shoes. Anei’s mom had to get a second job after her dad died because the insurance company wouldn’t pay out his life insurance since he was a suicide.
Anei looked up to see her mom staring at her with sad eyes in the mirror.
“Sorry mom. It’s just been a bad day.”
“I’m sorry, honey. What’s on your mind?” she asked.
Anei sighed. “Well, you won’t like this, but I had a dream, the kind you don’t believe in, and this time it was about you. I just need you to take a different route to work today, okay?”
Her mom silently continued curling her hair for a long time. Anei was just about to repeat herself when her mom sighed heavily, “the route I take is the quickest way to get to the diner, Anei. A detour would make me late.”
“So? I’d rather you be late than dead!” Anei screamed, taking both herself and her mother by surprise. The truth was, though, losing her mother scared her more than anything did, and that is what had her on edge all day. Her mom stared at her in the mirror, and then finally nodded just once.
“Okay, I’ll call the diner and tell them I’ll be a little late.”
To make sure she would do just that, Anei marched off to get the phone. She dialed the number to the diner as she headed back to the bathroom. Her mom was putting on the finishing touches of her lipstick when Anei handed her the phone. Her mom, looking extremely annoyed, snatched it out of her hand.
“Hi, Melanie. Listen, I’m gonna be about 15 minutes late. Something’s come up. Okay, thanks. Bye.” She banged the phone down on the counter and went back to getting ready. Anei grinned in triumph and marched off to her room. At least she won’t become a 16-year-old orphan.