Queen of Diamonds

Keywords - Upright: the bargain kept, a price above the quote  ·  Inverted: terms that keep unfolding, owing the unseen

Upright

The Sibyl's prophecies were always accurate and always costly. You got what you came for. The price was higher than quoted, and the Sibyl is already counting it out. Worth it, probably. Probably.

You asked; she answered; the answer was good. And the reckoning, when it comes, is larger than the one discussed - not falsely, but the way true costs always are, with carriage and interest and the parts nobody itemizes aloud. The prophecy was worth it. You will simply be paying for it longer than you planned.

Inverted

The price is not a number; it is a relationship. Each installment reveals another, and the Sibyl's ledger has pages you have not seen. Somewhere in the unfolding terms is the line you would never have agreed to. Find it before you have already paid it.

In Play

Upright. The seeress names the cove where the heir is hidden; her fee takes Vell's purse and, as an afterthought, the naming of Vell's next daughter.

Inverted. Half a year on, the seeress sends word: the balance is due, and it is a season of Vell's service - beginning with an errand she will not describe.