( @grvndduchess ) « a reading with thomas
THOMAS WAS SEATED in a room which even felt palatial. He couldn’t see around him, of course –– though he had caught glimpses of the ornate walls in visions leading up to his meeting with the young Grand Duchess. Princess. –– Whatever he was meant to call her. The translation was still a bit stick for the native-English speaker; though he and his brother had been studying the Russian language for decades, some of the idiosyncrasies were not as fluent as he had hoped. –– At any rate, his accent was passable, and that’s all he cared about.
Thomas had insisted that he be allowed to set up before the Grand Duchess come in. He had used his blindness as an excuse –– and a wonderfully effective one –– and he had immediately been accommodated. He heard that there was another fortune teller around, but he asked that he be left alone, and so far, his requests had been respected.
His cards were laid out in front of him; the small, tangible markings in the center of the cards allowed him to know which card had been drawn without feeling the cards ahead of time. The new system –– Braille –– had been different than the system he and Henry had come up with over the previous centuries, but Thomas had gotten the hang of it well enough, and now, as he leaned over and lit a candle, he heard the door open. The swish of skirts helped him recognize that it was someone higher up, and he assumed that it was the Grand Duchess.
He stood and bowed. Despite long bits of practice in all other things, the boys had always been told that their bows were out of place –– looking like they belonged in a time long gone. Thomas hoped that she didn’t notice too much the bow, and instead tracked his eyes toward the source of the noise.
“Your Grace. You’re precisely on time.”
