I Spread Like Strawberries (Rusti)

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

With Chinese New Year on the horizon, Xiulan knew that the holiday wouldn't be quite the same cause for celebration that it had once been for her, but it wasn't her first year spending it alone. It was still awful, though she had gotten over the worst of the pain to the point where it was manageable. Even as a widow living so far from where she had called home and knowing that there were celebrations that she could attend if not for her agoraphobia, she could bear it somehow. Staying busy kept her from overthinking about everything that she had missed out on because of the way that her life had become. She kept her flat neat regardless but was able to use the coming holiday as an excuse to clean it even more, her outward projection of a life that was somewhat normal apart from her Inner Eye.

Maybe it was foolish to go to so much effort for the sake of maintaining a little appearance of normalcy, but it gave Xiulan something to do, and she savored the idea of getting rid of the bad luck of the previous year with the arrival of the new one. Besides, she hoped that her clients took a little bit of pleasure in seeing how she had decorated with red lanterns enchanted to hover just below her ceiling, a set of spring couplets outside her front door and made invisible to the Muggles with whom she shared her building. It was nothing like the extent to which she and Aloysius had decorated when he was still alive, but there was only so much that she could have delivered by owl.

Xiulan had just finished writing the Chinese character Fú on a square of red paper oriented diagonally and had put away her quill when she heard a knock at the door. To her recollection, at least, she hadn't been scheduled with any of her clients until later on that day. It wasn't that she was indecent or anything, per se, but didn't have her hair and makeup done up yet so felt as though she might as well have been. There wasn't really time for that, though, with someone already waiting for her to answer the door, so Xiulan got up. "Just a moment," she called. Not sure if whoever was there was magical or Muggle, she felt the need to brace herself and left her wand where it was, putting herself in between the crack between the door and the door frame as she opened it to see who was there.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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A month had passed since Rusti had found herself wandering onto the beach of Yrisle alone, and now inhabiting the body of Isla MacKay, her former mentor. The government officials that had met her upon her reappearance (she still didn’t know if they were Ministry or International) had refused to believe her, attributing her babbling about not being Isla as a form of trauma over what had happened on the island. Maybe she was traumatized, but Rusti felt like she knew how to get past that better than most would. She knew who she was, and despite looking completely different, there was no doubt that somehow she had taken over the older woman’s body. Where her own was, she didn’t know. That was something she was still coming to terms with. Aside from being in an older body, she was suddenly expected to know all sorts of people and things that she didn’t actually know. It was probably horrible of her to do, but once she realized they thought she had completely lost it, she continued to play that card, hoping that it would get the government to leave her alone so that she could figure out what she was going to do on her own.

That all came after a series of events that she hoped the Ministry wouldn’t take, and yet they did. During her interim in the hospital following her reappearance, word traveled to her that search parties had decided to call off any more attempts, due in part to the mystery of the island. That effectively meant that they were declaring the rest of the group, her body included, legally missing and most likely dead. She had been unable to find Dusti after this news was broke to her, and she could only imagine what her sister was going through on her own. But she also didn’t want to look any crazier than she already did, and approach her and try to explain what had happened. She knew what that would look like, especially if her sister was grieving. Excuses being made by a crazy lady who was the sole survivor of the expedition. The only solution was to fix her problem, but she knew that was going to take an unknown amount of time and work. Thankfully she had a lot of that now.

Leaving Isla’s apartment (which had been shown to her after she played her amnesia up), she followed the directions written down on a scrap of paper to a woman that was supposedly a seer of sorts. Rusti had never really thought highly of the magical practice, but she was willing to do whatever it took to get herself back to the way she was supposed to be. That and she wanted to go back to her boring life of running the florist shop. Since the accident, she had made a trip or two in there under the cover of darkness, mostly to grab a few things that were of importance to her. But it wasn’t the same as actually running it. And she couldn’t really just pick it up where she left off, now as Isla. That would piss her sister off endlessly. Even worse was that their birthday was in less than a week, and any decisions regarding the store now would look like she was just trying to replace her own body there. The sooner this was done, the better.

The hope was that the clairvoyant would maybe be able to see through what was going on. She was unsure of what sort of magic this was, since in her mind she simply called it a permanent Polyjuice potion, so the idea was that her inner feelings and thoughts could maybe be sussed out by the woman. If that was even how divination worked in the first place.

Knocking on the door that was emblazoned with the address on her piece of paper, Rusti nervously rocked on her heels as she waited for the door to open. A voice from the other side sounded like it asked her to wait, so she took a deep breath and straightened up, waiting for the door to open. As it did, she was met with a woman who she assumed to be the fortune teller. “I’m uhh…looking for some help. I heard you do divination readings?” she asked, still not used to the sound of her new voice. Every time before this ordeal, she could always see Isla, and now it was the other way around. She was already getting tired of it.

xiulan zhou ● 761 ● Waves (Outro) by OVERWERK

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

Standing on the other side of her door was a relatively young blonde woman whom Xiulan didn't recognize. Though the woman was unfamiliar to her, the blonde seemed to know who she was. She sounded a little bit unsure of herself as she explained why it was that she was there. "I heard you do divination readings?" she questioned, to which Xiulan nodded.

Though she didn't really take walk-ins and wasn't used to having people show up at her door unannounced to ask for a reading of any sort, Xiulan didn't see much point in correcting her and asking her to come back at another time. However this woman had found out about her, she was already at her door, and losing business by offending someone was an absolutely foolish idea. It was likely that one of her clients had recommended this woman to her, as was usually the case, so Xiulan knew how quickly reacting in frustration might burn bridges for her. "Please come in," Xiulan told her simply, trying to get a read on the situation. Even though the woman hadn't been beating her door down, there was something that felt pressing about the whole thing.

Subtly, she motioned the blonde into her flat, moving out of the way of the door and farther inside so that she could enter. Though it was probably no surprise given the location alone, Xiulan's flat was undoubtedly the home of a woman with a great deal of wealth. A rectangular coffee table sat in the center of the main room of her flat, carved wooden chairs on either of the table's longer sides. For the sake of her own privacy, Xiulan quickly checked that the doors to elsewhere in the flat were shut.

Somewhat ironically, perhaps, given her abilities as a Seer, Xiulan uttered a quick word of apology to her sudden guest. "Sorry," she told her. "I wasn't expecting anyone until later." It explained how rough she must have looked to the stranger, though Xiulan knew that it could have been much worse. If this woman had come to her door following one of her "fits" instead, it would have been far more uncomfortable for them both.

"Julia Zhou," Xiulan introduced herself, extending her hand for a handshake, though she supposed that the woman must have known something about her already to have shown up at her flat.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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Stepping over the threshold of the doorway when the woman welcomed her inside was more difficult than she had thought it would be. It had taken days of hyping herself up to get to this point, and now that she was there, she was hesitating. While there were some that took divination and clairvoyance serious within the magical world, Rusti had never really seen it done outside of her class at Hogwarts, and didn’t really trust it much. The last thing she wanted was to look like an idiot in front of this woman as well, similar to how the Ministry had been treating her (or Isla, rather). Her story sounded preposterous despite being real, and she knew that it had to be taken with an extremely healthy dose of belief over something most would be skeptical of. She didn’t want to cause offence by trying to be over zealous in her problem and have the woman, who was apparently really good at this, turn her way for sounding like a loony. Everyone else already thought that Isla was, and Rusti was growing exhausted from the whole thing.

“Thank you,” she said as she cautiously stepped inside and followed the woman deeper into the dwelling, quickly becoming aware that this was also where she lived. It looked like the Flint Mansion if it had been compacted down to a smaller size, though her old bedroom at the family home was certainly larger than the entire place. But that was also bigger than her shop, so maybe it was a bit of a moot point.

Rusti didn’t respond to the comment about not expecting anyone else until later, instead starting to fill with dread about how she was supposed to introduce herself back. Going out and saying her real name would probably draw more questions, especially considering her face now didn’t match the one that had been plastered in the Prophet over the last month with the rest of the team that had gone missing. The one caveat was that the paper had used Rusti, and while she hated using her actual first name, in all of its pretentiousness, it was relatively unscathed through the whole ordeal. She was pretty sure the obituary that Dusti had put up already was the only one that actually had it, as grim as that was. “Aurelia Flint,” she stated flatly as she shook the hand of the fortune teller. “But that’s also sort of my problem right now…” she added as she took a deep inhale and let it out quickly. Was this too much immediately off the bat? “I know it will sound crazy, and I’ve been called that a lot over the last month, but this isn’t my body. And I don’t know how to get it back…”

xiulan zhou ● 466 ● The Sin and the Sentence by Trivium

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

The woman thanked her as she stepped inside the flat, though Xiulan couldn't help noticing that her guest remained relatively quiet at first. "Aurelia Flint," she introduced herself then, returning Xiulan's handshake. "But that’s also sort of my problem right now…" Xiulan watched as she took in a breath before continuing her point. "I know it will sound crazy, and I’ve been called that a lot over the last month, but this isn’t my body. And I don’t know how to get it back…"

Xiulan didn't know Aurelia Flint or the woman whose body stood before her, though she had heard the Flint name mentioned in passing every now and then. Because of her lack of familiarity with who Aurelia Flint should have been, there was no moment of incredulity on Xiulan's part. For other reasons, though, she was reluctant—not because she didn't believe that this woman wasn't in her proper body but because she wasn't sure why Aurelia had called upon her to be of assistance.

She was a Seer, thought Xiulan, not a Curse-Breaker or enchanter. If it was some sort of a transfiguration or a potion gone wrong, she could try her best, but she doubted that she would be any more effective than someone off the street. "I'm very sorry, Aurelia. I'm afraid there must be some mistake," Xiulan informed her as calmly as she could. Here was a woman who was telling her that she was in the wrong body, and she expected her to be the one to assist her. "I'm a Seer," she reminded Aurelia. "I'm an expert in divination, not…" She trailed off quickly, not even knowing what it was she was dealing with. There were numerous possibilities, Polyjuice Potion among them on the more mundane end… and then there was extraordinarily Dark magic on the other.

Knowing that she couldn't just turn Aurelia away like that, though, Xiulan considered her options. Maybe she could at least put her into contact with someone who could help her… a Healer, perhaps? Xiulan knew that her own skills in that department only extended so far as the ability to heal most of the injuries she received from her fits. Having been pulled from trying to play hostess without any notice by the shock that someone had come to her with the expectation that she knew how to swap bodies around like snapping her fingers, thought, she motioned to the chairs at the table in the center of the room. "Please," she encouraged Aurelia, "if you'd like to sit…" She could go through her contacts and see if she could come up with any leads.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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Hearing her own name for the first time in a month without it being tied directly to how she wasn’t who she said she was felt almost dreamlike. It didn’t matter that Aurelia was always tied to authority or used by her parents growing up whenever she did something wrong. Just hearing it on its own, without anything attached to it, was indescribable. For a brief moment, she wasn’t the physical embodiment of Isla anymore, because it really didn’t matter to the woman.

That feeling was quickly dashed with the follow up, as she started to say that she was a Seer, probably not what Rusti needed. There was nothing new there: a few of the unknowing potioneers she had inquired with about ‘permanent transformations’ (she refused to believe this would last forever, only because of her own stubbornness to not let it be that way), had scoffed at her line of questioning. According to them, while one could technically keep drinking Polyjuice for as long as they wanted. Anything more than that was either incredibly difficult to pull off or only theoretical. Nothing about magic fog on an island that appeared out of nowhere and spit her out days later without knowing what had happened.

She wanted to protest that she was in the right place, but was offered a seat before she could figure out the correct way to rest her case. Uncomfortably placing herself in one of the chairs, her thoughts were buzzing as she tried to put form to words. “But the manner in which this happened…no one believes me,” she desperately burst out. “They keep sending people there and they’re ignoring what I’ve been telling them about the thing in the fog. I don’t think any creature can make someone change bodies…” she trailed off, her voice cracking at the peak. Julia Zhou felt like her last lifeline in all of it. Dusti already thought she was dead, and it was only a matter of time before her shop was taken away too. “I can’t just start over my life as someone else...I can’t keep going on with my sister thinking I’m dead. What’s the point of doing readings for people if you aren’t willing to help me?”

xiulan zhou ● 374 ● Alabaster by Post Animal

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

Ensuring that the door was locked, Xiulan went over to where Aurelia had seated herself and sat down opposite her.

"But the manner in which this happened… no one believes me," Aurelia explained to her, sounding even more uncomfortable than before. "They keep sending people there," she said, "and they’re ignoring what I’ve been telling them about the thing in the fog. I don’t think any creature can make someone change bodies…"

By that point, Aurelia sounded truly upset, and Xiulan nodded her head, even though she had been taken aback by something that Aurelia had mentioned: "the thing in the fog". There was a fog, and the way in which Aurelia spoke about it brought Xiulan back to her most recent prophecy. The thing in the fog, sending people somewhere… There was that island that had been discovered all of a sudden, and the fog… Xiulan felt uneasy, too, although it wasn't quite the same feeling as the one that she got before falling into a trance. It was similar, though; she couldn't deny that. She knew that she had had a bad feeling about that island when she had seen it mentioned in the newspaper for the first time.

"I can't just start over my life as someone else... I can't keep going on with my sister thinking I'm dead. What's the point of doing readings for people if you aren't willing to help me?"

Trying to gain a better understanding of what was happening to people on that island (or at least what had happened to Aurelia), Xiulan wanted to interject that it wasn't that she didn't care; it was that she hadn't had confirmation that that fog that had appeared in her Inner Eye and the island were truly connected. She hadn't realized that the fog was more than just fog—whatever it was—and that the young Druid woman who had approached her about it at the Ministry had been right about the dangers it seemed to pose. Having all of that put together for her with only a few comments was a lot to process all at once. Even more surprising to her was how Aurelia knew that she was the one who had made that prophecy.

"Aurelia…" Xiulan spoke up, trying to reassure her that she wasn't just going to send her back out into the world in someone else's body without a plan of some sort. She didn't know how to help her, and she wasn't about to tell a perfect stranger that she rarely left her flat. Anything that she could do for her, she would, but there were limits. While Aurelia was trapped in a different body, Xiulan felt trapped by her own mind. She took in a sharp breath, still perturbed, and tried to think through what she could do. "Aurelia, I want to help you," Xiulan told her. She wanted to help, but she could make no promises that she would be successful.

Only able to imagine how traumatic it had been for Aurelia already, Xiulan didn't want to force her to relive whatever had happened to her in the fog, but she knew that she needed to know as much as she could to help her get her own body back… if that was actually a possibility. There had to be some way, in the meantime, for Aurelia to be able to substantiate her claims that she was Aurelia Flint and hadn't simply lost her mind in claiming to be a (presumably) deceased person.

"I don't know what kind of magic could have done this," Xiulan admitted, apart from knowing that it must have been extraordinarily Dark. "But it's important that you have a life to return to." The longer that she was thought to be dead, the harder it would be for her. Proving her identity would be difficult, but there were at least a few options that came to mind. Veritaserum was one of them, though convincing the Ministry that it was a worthwhile endeavor could prove to be a challenge. "You mentioned your sister… Are there memories that only she would know you have?" Aurelia knew who she was, so hopefully that meant that she hadn't lost her memories along with her body. (Was her body still in existence as a physical "corpse" and capable of being retrieved if necessary? That was another question…) If Aurelia's sister could be convinced that it was really her and that she was alive, then that was one less concern. "If you can prove—to her, to the Ministry, to anyone else—that you are actually Aurelia and that you're in the wrong body, then…" It sounded so absurd to Xiulan to hear herself having such a conversation, and she could tell that her own voice had begun to shake, but she did believe that Aurelia was telling her the truth. "Then maybe there is… still some hope."

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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Wanting to help was different than actually helping. If she had been any more like her twin, then she probably would have kicked and screamed about that. There were times where she cursed herself for not being more assertive. When it concerned her physical being it was obviously different, but she wouldn’t have been caught dead acting like this around a stranger if it wasn’t serious. She was starting to think that maybe she misunderstood what the function of a Seer was. Her divination professor had made it seem like it was as simple as palm reading or tea leaves, but Julia only ‘wanted to help’. There wasn’t a ‘but’ part of that yet, though Rusti knew there had to be one somewhere in there. At least the woman didn’t think she was as crazy as everyone else did. Poor Isla, if her existence was still out there, would have a lot to come back to if things were ever fixed.

She wished she could turn on the tears to make herself look more distressed, but those had dried up weeks ago. Everything now was only exhibited through frustration in her desperate pleas for someone to help her. Julia agreed with her that it was important that she make it back to her real body, losing Rusti a bit when her twin was brought up. If she thought reaching out to Dusti wouldn’t bring about a cataclysmic breakdown, she would have done that already. The fact that the woman who was with her sister had reappeared and was claiming to not be her actual self, hadn’t reached Dusti, was more than shocking. Then again, her sister probably holed herself up the second the death declarations were made. After that, it was anyone’s guess about what would happen with her.

“Of course there are, but she’s…she’s hard to deal with. The Ministry has probably already told her that I’m crazy and making these claims. I don’t think she’ll listen to reason at this point…” If she had the forethought of not blabbering on about what had happened and kept to herself, pretending to be Isla, then maybe she would have been able to get ahead of the investigators. “I’m sorry if that makes me seem difficult, but I know her well enough that I don’t think that could work now.”

Being hopeful wasn’t really enough here. Sure, there was a little slice of it left, assuming things worked out properly, but that was like walking on a tightrope across a gorge now. “You really aren’t able to do a reading? You don’t think that will work at all?” While her mind and memories were still the same as they were, it was hard to tell if her magic was. Isla’s wand didn’t respond to her the way her own wand had – it obviously knew that the one wielding it wasn’t its true owner.

xiulan zhou ● 482 ● Rich Girl by The Wrecks

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

"Of course there are," said Aurelia of having memories that only she and her sister would know about as a way to confirm her identity, "but she's… she's hard to deal with. The Ministry has probably already told her that I'm crazy and making these claims. I don’t think she'll listen to reason at this point…" It was an unfortunate dead end. "I'm sorry if that makes me seem difficult," she added, "but I know her well enough that I don't think that could work now."

Things were going to be even more difficult without that possibly, though Xiulan hoped that perhaps there were others in Aurelia's life who would be more inclined to believe that she wasn't really dead. That didn't seem to be Aurelia's concern, though, at least not directly. "You really aren’t able to do a reading?" she questioned. "You don’t think that will work at all?"

Xiulan wasn't fully confident in how successful that would be. Perhaps it was possible to try to ascertain if Aurelia would end up back in her own body, but there was no way that Xiulan could promise that her Inner Eye would focus on that aspect. She could try, but she also didn't want her interpretations of anything to be affected by what she had just learned about the fog. "If you think that that might be helpful," Xiulan replied, though she remained non-committal. "I appreciate that you trust my Inner Eye. I do," she acknowledged, given how quickly divination was taken as a sham by plenty of people, "but I think Veritaserum might be more helpful right now. You have my word, for what that's worth, but just because it was my prophecy…" She paused, knowing that she didn't want Aurelia to see her in a trance if it could be avoided. She doubted that Aurelia wanted to see that, either.

"You must understand," Xiulan tacked on, using the sort of tone that was reserved for keeping matters hush-hush among polite company, "that there is a chance that I could slip into a trance without warning." She didn't want to startle Aurelia, but she knew that she needed to make that known. Especially when she knew that she would be returning to something about which she had made one prophecy, she knew it could happen again. "If I have a fit, it's… normal for me. Please, don't send for a Healer unless I don't regain consciousness."

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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If the possibility of getting a reading was zero, then developing a plan to get ahold of Dusti, or even Raleigh, was the last chance. Aside from going back to the island. Which she was under strict orders by the Ministry not to do yet. There had been very little information flow since she was taken away and ended up in the hospital, which she thought was ridiculous since they were quick to dismiss any further searches for the rest of the group she had been with. Whatever was going on there wasn’t good, obviously, but they really wanted her to know as little as humanly possible about it. She was sure there were other ways to get there – people she could talk into bringing her there. All for the right price of course. Julia was simply one of the final legal ways of getting an idea of what she could be in for when it came to getting her body back. The other option was sneaking on and heading back into the fog. That alone terrified her, because there was no telling what would happen the next time. A week had passed and her body disappeared last time. Just thinking about it made her feel sick and sent shivers throughout her body.

Julia seemed like she was relenting a bit on the reading, and Rusti sat up straighter in her chair. The option of veritaserum wasn’t really one that she could go with. “They already tried that at Mungo’s. And charms to pull my memories,” she explained. “Nothing worked. Whatever this is, they couldn’t get through it and thought I was just blocking it with Occlumency.” She didn’t even know if Isla was proficient in the magic, but Rusti certainly wasn’t. All she could do was water plants all day, and continuing that life as Isla, while not the worst thing in the world, meant having to either convince her sister to give up the shop to a stranger or starting from scratch again. And she already said she wouldn’t do that.

The Seer went on to explain that there was the chance that she could slip into a trance whilst doing a reading, and if something happened, not to alert anyone. So that meant she was going to do it, right? “Is there a length of time I should give you if that happens?” she asked cautiously. She had seen drunken fits of rage from her mother when she was still alive, which typically ended with her passed out somewhere in the mansion, but had never seen someone go into a trance-like stupor. That would be a first.

xiulan zhou ● 440 ● Garden Song by Phoebe Bridgers

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

Aurelia explained that Veritaserum wouldn't work, either. They had already tried that on her at St. Mungo's, she said, as well as charms to pull her memories. "Nothing worked. Whatever this is, they couldn’t get through it and thought I was just blocking it with Occlumency."

That would have been some strong Occlumency, Xiulan assumed, which also meant that the magic was much stronger than she thought. On that note, while she didn't know how much her Inner Eye would be able to do for Aurelia, it was worth trying. If that, somehow, was able to work for her more than a potion as heavily regulated as Veritaserum, then she'd be damned.

"Is there a length of time I should give you if that happens?" Aurelia asked her about the possibility that she might go into a trance in front of her.

"At most, a few minutes," Xiulan answered. She didn't think that it had ever been much longer than that. She had never blacked out for long enough that she was left wondering where she was for any considerable length of time. She would be a bit disoriented, sure, but that was only ever upon "snapping out of it", so to speak.

"Is there a method of divination that you would prefer?" she checked with Aurelia. Veritaserum, a Pensieve, and who knew what else were already off the table, as though Aurelia's existence was locked away somewhere within a body that wasn't hers. "I refuse to charge you for this," she added, not knowing if Aurelia even had the money to pay for it at the moment. She wanted answers for Aurelia, and she wanted them for her own sake, too. How was it that she had Seen something so awful without knowing what it was capable of doing? She knew that it wasn't her fault, per se, but maybe she could have done something to prevent it if she had known.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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A few minutes. That was easy enough to wait, though if Julia was catatonic and having fits, it probably wouldn’t be. There weren’t many times where she cursed herself for not paying attention in Divination class, but this was one of them. Her interests almost always laying somewhere in the dirt or greenhouses, away from the what-ifs and airiness that accompanied the mystic arts. It was funny how it had come full circle. She should have been a bit nicer to the kids that took an interest in the topic, since her own interests had gotten her in this situation, and now she had a chance of maybe being saved by what she once scoffed. Most of that blame could be placed on her mother though, as she had always drilled in how incredulous the topic was.

She nodded to show that she understood the time limit, and then thought about the question. Was there one that was more specific than another? “I guess whatever you think could work?” she returned with uncertainty. Again, this was all under assumption that things would work perfectly. After this, the only shot left was going back to the island and trying to find the spot where everything went wrong. She wasn’t sure if she was quite ready for that yet. “Sorry, I don’t really know much about divination, which is why I held off coming here…” Maybe in another timeline she would have relied on it from the get-go. Maybe that would have gotten her body, and the rest of her group, back by now. As much as she liked Isla prior to all of this, she was sort of getting tired of being in her body. It felt beyond intrusive. “I’m ready when you are, I suppose,” she stated.

xiulan zhou ● 297 ● The Blob by The Five Blobs

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

"I guess whatever you think could work?" Aurelia replied to her question, though her response was hardly a statement itself. Xiulan wasn't bothered by that, however, especially as Aurelia apologized. "Sorry," she said. "I don't really know much about divination, which is why I held off coming here…"

Xiulan couldn't openly admit to Aurelia that she didn't have the slightest idea of what might provide her with a breakthrough in her case, but most of her clients weren't there because they had been the victim of something so unusual that it didn't seem to have a name at all. There were a few methods that came to mind, the first being crystal-gazing. That would only work if she would see something other than fog, though. There was tasseomancy, which was perhaps less exact but potentially useful, particularly if all Aurelia got out of it was the Grim. Palmistry, while ordinarily something that she might have tried, was rendered pointless by the fact that Aurelia's hand wasn't really hers.

"I'm ready when you are, I suppose." Aurelia sounded somewhat reluctant, though Xiulan understood that it must have been tiring for her already.

"Here," Xiulan suggested lightly, summoning a standard deck of playing cards into her hand. "Let's try this to start," she told Aurelia, straightening up the deck on the table before her and allowing it to magically shuffle itself as she continued to speak. "Cartomancy. If this doesn't provide enough clarity, I have tarot cards as well."

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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If Julia hadn’t pulled a normal deck of cards out and simply said that she was going to be conducting cartomancy, Rusti would have assumed she meant using an actual map, like a cartographer. She obviously knew what tarot cards were, but also would have thought that those weren’t used by magical folk. They seemed so…muggle. From the sound of it though, it seemed like they were an even better way of narrowing things down though, which would sort of make sense. The real question though: how on earth could something be gleamed from a standard deck of non-magical playing cards? She was sure that if she had stuck through Divination at Hogwarts she would have eventually learned, but it seemed so mundane. Having it actually work was bound to blow her mind.

She watched as the deck shuffled itself in front of her, her hands gripping the arms of the chair she was in with an intensity that she didn’t know was possible for her. Everything about her job had to do with being gentle and precise, and now that she was in Isla’s body, that all went out the window. She probably should have been taking care of her mentor’s body a little better, but it felt so awkward and robotic-like compared to her own. Like she was piloting it and that was it. Just getting used to that alone over the last month had been tough. “Do I flip the cards, or you?” she asked, Isla’s voice crackling out. That was even worse. She was still able to hear her own voice in her head, when that wasn’t what came out of her mouth.

xiulan zhou ● 277 ● Snow (Hey Oh) by RHCP

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[xiulan zhou]

February 15, 2026

"Do I flip the cards," Aurelia began, "or you?"

Xiulan hated how pained Aurelia's voice sounded, not that she felt there was much else that she could do apart from providing her services as a fortune-teller. What else could she do? She could see what the cards foretold, but it felt futile even to her. Although she was uncertain what this reading would bring, she remained calm and tried her best to maintain positive energy in the room.

"If you'd like to start by posing a question to the cards," Xiulan clarified for her, "and then if you could pull three cards from the deck itself… That way, you can be assured that I haven't done anything to influence the outcome." Some people, especially those who weren't as familiar with divination, did believe that she simply had a trick up her sleeve. That wasn't the case, and she slowed the deck's shuffling until it had ceased. A basic three-card spread would be ideal, Xiulan felt, especially if the results could make Aurelia uncomfortable. "One card will represent the past, one card will represent the present, and one card will represent the future." Just to show that she wasn't going to touch the deck or try to tamper with it, Xiulan moved her hands away from the deck but kept them in Aurelia's view on the tabletop. "Whenever you're ready."

aurelia edith flint