The shaman offers you her bowl, and you take a slip of paper, opening it to find a tiny brass goblet. "Ah, it's a heady process, creating things, though this cup is just symbolic. You need a larger one to get drunk. But a metal blessing is always a good omen. Perhaps this one symbolizes the fountain of your creativity. Here," She reaches for a soft leather cord and ties it securely around the tiny stem of the goblet, and then ties the cord into a circle, placing it over your head. "Don't lose that. You need to respect the font of your creativity. But now, as to finishing things..."
She pulls out three iron disks, laying them out in a row. The first shows a huge crack in the earth, and things falling all around it. The second shows a strange mist, with dead plants and animals at its edge. And finally, a bird rising from the ashes of a fire.
"Oh, my--I can see where you're stuck, when you get stuck. It's the part of the story where everything goes wrong! Look, here's the Earthquake and the End of the World--you know about the Ends of the World, right? Most of them are gone now, but there was a time when you couldn't walk to Affabreidalam, the world ended in between, or at least, your world and your life ended if you tried to walk into the mist. These Ends, they kept each little bit of the empire isolated for centuries. But I doubt you want a history lesson right now."
She tapped the image. "I'm not a storyteller, but I enjoy listening to them. In every story, or at least the most exciting ones, the characters face disaster after disaster, and come to ta point where it seems there is no way they will ever triumph, until the storyteller reveals how they face all their problems and, like the phoenix, rise from the ashes transformed."
She shakes her head. "If you were asking about a physical voyage, I'd say don't go. But here--the end of the world is your tool, see? Don't be afraid to use it. Don't be afraid to use any of these things in your work."
Earthquake, World's Edge, and Phoenix
She pulls out three iron disks, laying them out in a row. The first shows a huge crack in the earth, and things falling all around it. The second shows a strange mist, with dead plants and animals at its edge. And finally, a bird rising from the ashes of a fire.
"Oh, my--I can see where you're stuck, when you get stuck. It's the part of the story where everything goes wrong! Look, here's the Earthquake and the End of the World--you know about the Ends of the World, right? Most of them are gone now, but there was a time when you couldn't walk to Affabreidalam, the world ended in between, or at least, your world and your life ended if you tried to walk into the mist. These Ends, they kept each little bit of the empire isolated for centuries. But I doubt you want a history lesson right now."
She tapped the image. "I'm not a storyteller, but I enjoy listening to them. In every story, or at least the most exciting ones, the characters face disaster after disaster, and come to ta point where it seems there is no way they will ever triumph, until the storyteller reveals how they face all their problems and, like the phoenix, rise from the ashes transformed."
She shakes her head. "If you were asking about a physical voyage, I'd say don't go. But here--the end of the world is your tool, see? Don't be afraid to use it. Don't be afraid to use any of these things in your work."