As Tianzun continued day by day trying to pass of the darker divinations as jokes. The people of Uruk started spreading rumors.
The seer who jokes.
It seems that one of the guards had revealed what had happened and the citizens pieced one and one together.
It was said that the seer was extremely accurate and his power did not come from the gods.
People started questioning how it was possible.
At first some of them were confused, but then some revealed that Tianzun had divined darker futures for them. Such as their loved ones dying, crops failing, relationships broken. All of this at first, they didn't take seriously.
They remembered how later on, he'd have a casual and joking tone about the future.
"You should get home now. Wouldn't want to keep the old man waiting."
"Perhaps you should go visit your friend. He may have died out of sorrow waiting for you."
"You shouldn't go out of the city now. All that gold is just waiting to be taken."
Tianzun himself shifted his method of divination to be in more line with a clown. People had seen him juggle coins and make jokes all the time it soon spread.
"The Clown brings bad omens."
Yet when Tianzun heard this he could only laugh in the irony. Every divination he had told them about it. He told the truth and yet they dismissed it. However, that didn't stop those who wanted to test their luck. Some came out with good fortunes some didn't.
One day an interesting customer had arrived.
Tianzun opened the door already knowing who to expect as he politely greeted, "What can I do for you Miss Siduri?"
Siduri sat down on the soft straw padded chair as Tianzun sat opposite.
She looked down before speaking, "People have been speaking about you..."
Tainzun nodded before replying, "Yes I'm aware. But there is no helping it. Some people will have good fortune and a wonderful fate. Some people are not so lucky. There's no helping it, I only say what I see."
Siduri nodded, before asking again, "A question that has been on my mind, if you know that some people are destined to be doomed, why don't you stop it?"
Tianzun sighed as he rolled a coin across his fingers rhythmically, "Even If I know, I can not act, even if I act and tell them, nothing changes."
"Siduri, divination is not all powerful, just because you can see, does not mean anything. I have told the king about his fate and yet I have done nothing."
"Even if one knows a little about fate, I remain helpless to change anything."
Siduri sat silent before she looked up with awkward determination, "Please, tell me what my king's future holds. I'll prove that the king's future won't happen!" Siduri thought that the accuracy of the "clown" that Gilgamesh had labeled was a bit too accurate.
If what he said about the king was true...
Tianzun rolled the coin again only for it to slip and roll on the floor with a clang.
He glanced at her before whispering, "Knowing is not enough Siduri. Knowing is not enough."
He lampooned before telling Siduri the details of dream he had.
Siduri nodded with resolution, "Will you be alright?" She asked. Tianzun smiled once again, "Siduri, all I can do is smile. Knowing fate will not change it so you might as well take it with a light hearted smile."
He soon left his house after Siduri as he placed a painted smiling white mask with teardrops on his face.
He stepped out as a child looked at him on the road, "Mister, why do you wear a mask? Is there a celebration going on?"
Tianzun squatted down to meet the child's eyes. He soon produced a gold coin, "To keep the smile on my face."
"I have a gold coin here, I will choose a single hand behind my back to place the coin in. All you have to do is guess which hand. If you guess right, the coin is yours... How about it?"
The child nodded before Tianzun finished placing the coin. "Before you speak I must tell you, the coin is in my left hand. I swear to the gods."
In truth, Tianzun had long seen that this child would not last long. His life was soon to end. This was his last determination...
The child contemplated for a bit as he thought for a bit before still picking the right hand over the left.
"Left!" Tianzun let out a broken laughter as he opened his hand to show that the coin had been in his left the entire time. The child soon frowned as he stared at the smiling mask with tears.
Tianzun smiled, "I guess you have lost~" He grasped the coin and snapped causing the coin to vanish into thin air.
"You lose." The child soon ran off crying, If he had won that gold coin, it could have fed his family for days. The stranger had even told the truth and yet he still chose the right hand.
Tianzun could only flip the coin in his hand over and over as he asked himself,
"What will happen to that boy?"
"What will happen to that boy?"
"What will happen to that boy?"
A grey fog flashed by as the dream manifested. He could see the boy running and running back home.
Only to suddenly turn direction and look at the lake.
Tianzun could see the overwhelming feeling of guilt. A splash and plunge of water as Tianzun quickly snapped out of the dream state.
"Shit" He cursed as he ran in the same direction that he had seen. The same river he had seen before in both visions.
There in the lake the people found a drowned boy. Tianzun himself could only stare as he felt nothing.
He did not feel sad that the boy had died. No he felt sad because this act proved that he could not fight against fate.
He stared at the sky as the castle in the grey fog appeared in his mind. He needed enough power to hold fate by the neck and bend it to his will.
He looked at the heavens with a detached look on his face before the smile he usually wore soon returned. He had lost something the moment he felt detached but it was enough of a conclusion for him. He needed more power because he knew,
Knowing was not enough.
//Next Chapter: I Laughed When I Met You//