Anastasia, the Seer

Anastasia, The Seer
On the opposite side of the lake from the Romany camp is a small clearing with a classic vardo wagon parked amidst blooming flowers and a vegetable garden. It's a strange sight - while everything around it is in autumn, the old caravan is surrounded by summer and soft music. The glade looks warm and pleasant, bright and cozy, in complete contrast to the dark forest around.

This is the home of Anastasia the Seer.

The wagon is old - older than the forest itself. It doesn't belong to Anastasia or to any human before her. It's the property of the Vantoase, capricious female spirits of Romanian mythology. They are spirits of the air and can travel wherever they want, also in time and space.

The Vantoase bind the seer to a complex and, to outsiders, unforgiving relationship. It is they who see the details of the future but because they can't communicate with the non-spiritual world, they choose a medium among the humans - always a psychic female - who will interpret their revelations.

They give the magical wagon to this blessed woman, who is shown the visions of the future inside it, and also use it to travel where the spirits require her to go.

Anastasia is the current medium. She was an unusually gifted clairvoyant even in childhood, and was taught ancient magical knowledge by her grandmother. At fourteen, she ran away from home in Tarnaveni, Romania to avoid getting married, and started a nomadic existence that would last a few decades.

She wasn't always comfortable with her gift. Sometimes she would tell people's fortune, but often when she saw glimpses of grim futures she couldn't lie to the client, much to their dissatisfaction. Eventually, she avoided using her abilities as a source of income.

About ten years ago, Anastasia was in an ashram in northern India when she met an old woman she immediately connected with. They became close friends and it was the elder woman who reassured Anastasia that her gift - her premonitions - was a sign that she had been chosen for something important and that she should trust herself and her abilities.

When the other woman felt that the young seer was ready, she explained that she had been given a vision about Anastasia's future. She told her about the wagon and its owners, that these spirits had seen her potential and chosen her to be the next caretaker.

On the day Owl and Eagle and Dragon soar together, and the Eye brings the Champions forward, the Dark Sovereign shall fall.

Not long after she got the wagon, Anastasia started receiving very intense visions - always identical. As she travelled aimlessly, she felt compelled to return to her homeland. During the long road there the visions formed a prophecy:

As soon as she uttered it, she knew her intuition was right. Her place was in Romania, to do her part in fulfilling the prophecy.

Not long ago, she met up with a Romany group and travelled with them to the valley hidden away in the Custurii mountains. Anastasia instantly knew this was the place - where the foretelling would come true. She hasn't looked back since and is determined to stay, despite the dangers.