Page 74 of Lady Knight and the Thief

“What does that mean?”

“These lines here–” Havanj started, and turned the cup so that Cypress could see into it. “–mean your future is undecided, rippling with decisions you have yet to make,” she explained, pointing to a set of spiraling lines.

Cypress wanted to roll her eyes. She didn’t, though. Just kept listening to the woman out of respect for Torren.

“This shape here looks to me like you shall have love in your future, though the leaves are never too specific,” Havanj said, peering over the rim of the cup.

“We’re here to find out where I come from,” Cypress reminded the woman, and stole a glance at Torren. He still wore a faint smirk around his mouth, eyes entirely too focused on her.

“Sometimes, Lass, to find out where you came from, you have to know where you’re going,” Havanj said without looking up from the leaves inside Cypress’s tea cup.

“I think that’s normally the other way around,” Cypress countered and leaned back in her seat.

“Some of us come from nothing, so are you saying you have to know nothing in order to know where you’re going?”

“I came from nothing. I know it, and it does not change my journey,” Cypress said, trying to understand.

Havanj nodded. “But you see, Lass, the cups tell me a different story.”

Cypress narrowed her eyes. “What do they say?”

“You did not come from nothing. In fact, you come from noble houses.”

Cypress laughed. “Yeah, the noble house of the orphans. I spent my days scrubbing floors and holding a sword long before I ever learned the kindness of a friend, of influence and power.”

“Would you say you have power now?”

“What kind of question is that?” Cypress asked, officially ready to leave this place.

Havanj shrugged. “A simple one. Do you have power now? Now that you are a Knight, Captain even.”

Cypress couldn’t answer. Of course, she had power now.

She was a knight. Captain of the Prince Guard. She’d unseated four of the realm’s most eligible men in a joust not two months ago.

But why couldn’t she answer Havanj’s question?

“I think, Lass, you’ve been looking for power, for influence, and perhaps even honor in all the wrong places,” Havanj finally said and set the cup down with finality.

Then, she pulled out a deck of intricately painted cards the length of her hand and began to shuffle them.

“Do you know who my father was?” Cypress asked, watching the cards dance in her hands.

Havanj scoffed. “Father? No, Lass. I know who yourMotherwas.”

“But Torren said–” Cypress started, glancing at the male in question.

“Bah. There’s your problem. Don’t be listening to men who think with their cock before their head.” A card flipped out of her hand, landing on the table face down.

“Aye! I think with my head, thank you very much,” Torren said, the picture of indignant surprise.

"Just not the right one."

Cypress couldn’t help but chuckle, delighted that he was catching stray comments from the woman.

Havanj waved Torren off with a grin. “I imagine he told you that most human women don’t survive the birth, and that’s why you assumed your Fair Folk blood must come from your father?”

Cypress nodded. Another card flipped onto the table, nearly on top of the other.