On foretelling.
tectum_viridis posed today the question of how Lady Leknaat is able to tell the future. Her Rune is no more related to prediction than any other; and while time means nothing to a True Rune, they are not likely to overly concern themselves with predicting next year's crop of a food that humans find nourishing on a given stretch of land. Yet she is not a charlatan. Her predictions are too specific to be meant to appeal to anyone, and from what I know of her, I do not think she would demean her true magic by pretending to do things it does not.
I suppose it may be that her Rune tells fortunes as a favour to her, because it cares for her and wants to enable her to please the Imperial court that keeps her. No True Rune could do less than love its bearer even if they did not get along, and she would get along with hers, I know.
But if her knowledge is from such a deep and certain source, why then can she not be sure her predictions are correct? The True Runes are not deliberately obscure; they do not hide things; they want to pour knowledge and understanding into humans, want them to know-- I believe it must be trying as well as it knows how to be clear-- and yet Lady Leknaat is accomplished enough to know how to interpret hers well, so I do not think the uncertainty comes from her end. If her predictions are wrong on occasion, I am inclined to suppose it may be a difficulty of communication between Runes themselves; the Gate Rune may not be able to understand what it hears from the others well enough to tell Lady Leknaat what will be. Additionally she is better at communicating with Runes, I believe, than with human beings. She is a good person and a wonderful mage, and I truly intend no disrespect when I say that the poor woman is sometimes nearly incoherent to other people; it is through no fault of hers, but I suspect some of the difficulty of interpreting her predictions is understanding her translations of what she saw. It is hardly a wonder that the Emperor saw fit to keep a court magician by his side to explain such things; what a perfect opportunity that woman must have seen.
But uncertain as the Astral Conclusions always were, she saw some things more clearly, to be sure. The moment she saw the young master McDohl, she knew he was to bear a True Rune. --They seem to have the power of knowing who will do. Despite all of the missteps and bonds to the wrong people, they also seem to know when they find a true bearer, even if not their own. Lady Leknaat was unable to tell whether things would end well or badly for the young McDohl boy and his Rune, but she knew it was to be. This was not an isolated incident. I wonder, then, why a dangerous Rune like Punishment or Life and Death would let itself be borne by anyone other than the true bearer it is waiting for, but I will be the first to admit that there is much I do not understand.
I suppose it may be that her Rune tells fortunes as a favour to her, because it cares for her and wants to enable her to please the Imperial court that keeps her. No True Rune could do less than love its bearer even if they did not get along, and she would get along with hers, I know.
But if her knowledge is from such a deep and certain source, why then can she not be sure her predictions are correct? The True Runes are not deliberately obscure; they do not hide things; they want to pour knowledge and understanding into humans, want them to know-- I believe it must be trying as well as it knows how to be clear-- and yet Lady Leknaat is accomplished enough to know how to interpret hers well, so I do not think the uncertainty comes from her end. If her predictions are wrong on occasion, I am inclined to suppose it may be a difficulty of communication between Runes themselves; the Gate Rune may not be able to understand what it hears from the others well enough to tell Lady Leknaat what will be. Additionally she is better at communicating with Runes, I believe, than with human beings. She is a good person and a wonderful mage, and I truly intend no disrespect when I say that the poor woman is sometimes nearly incoherent to other people; it is through no fault of hers, but I suspect some of the difficulty of interpreting her predictions is understanding her translations of what she saw. It is hardly a wonder that the Emperor saw fit to keep a court magician by his side to explain such things; what a perfect opportunity that woman must have seen.
But uncertain as the Astral Conclusions always were, she saw some things more clearly, to be sure. The moment she saw the young master McDohl, she knew he was to bear a True Rune. --They seem to have the power of knowing who will do. Despite all of the missteps and bonds to the wrong people, they also seem to know when they find a true bearer, even if not their own. Lady Leknaat was unable to tell whether things would end well or badly for the young McDohl boy and his Rune, but she knew it was to be. This was not an isolated incident. I wonder, then, why a dangerous Rune like Punishment or Life and Death would let itself be borne by anyone other than the true bearer it is waiting for, but I will be the first to admit that there is much I do not understand.