My Sister and I were born after the Scorch, what most would call The Fall. We never saw the cities filled with people or the sweet water as far as the eye could see. Only deposits of salt, and the emptiest of places. 

​

Our parents had been born in the first camps, where their families and so many others had waited for some miracle to save them from the world as it was now. They left before they had us and made their way like most do...Keeping on the move, scratching a living from the remains of what was. They risked the pensioned cities for salvage. 

 

They wandered, joining one caravan than another, until they sensed it was no longer safe. They would stay on the move until the next time they needed to barter for provisions. 

​

We were still very young when they were killed. It was our vehicle that attracted the scavengers who ended them. Most would call them raiders, but in this wasteland, it feels like everyone is brutal just to survive. 

​

For a long time we were alone. The two of us, not yet women, would travel by night and hide in the day. It was exhausting and we had become weak with hunger by the time She found us and took us to our new home. 

​

Veil taught us everything she knew, both the Lore, the ways of the time-before and the ways of the land now. She taught us how to tell if the water was drinkable, how to clean it when it was dirty and when to move on because it was poisoned. We learned how to make vessels out of clay, how to make pigment from earth, how to set a snare, how to plant and reap, how to heal and how to find and create shelter. 

 

When Veil made her way out of the city, she had taken only what she could carry - precious and vital things. One of those things was the seeing cards. There are seventy-eight cards in the deck, each one with an image of power, filled with meaning and symbol. Veil could read the cards and tell a person's path or give guidance and insight. It was one of the many ways that she supported herself. She also provided powerful charms and the reading of signs as she looked for the place she now called home. 

​

She had the sight and trained us both - my sister and I, each to our nature in the way between the worlds. When she deemed us ready, she gave us new names and what crafts would sustain both of us. 

 

To Nomad, she gave the making of charms, Earth magic and the stillness to See. To me, Yaga, she gave the eye of past and future, the keeper of sacred water and the sacred cards. When the time came for Veil to pass on through to the places between, she left us her home, the Green Place. It was to remain hidden, honored and looked after. 

​

As time had passed, Nomad and I traveled together and alone, both bartering with our gifts. We had been found and recognized by other women with the Sight. ech0 came next - bringing Cindre, the child Oracle. She was strapped to ech0's back and whispered great secrets of times old and near. ech0 also carried the cleansing power of fire with her. 

​

Then from the night air came Six, heralded by all of our dreams. She ushered in meaning and ritual into our lives through dream walking and weaving. Six was the one who found and reached out to Gemini, the young woman wandering the Sunrings of the desert, stuck in a fever dream. 

​

Gemini's eyes were opened after years of torment as she slowly made her way to cimotA's hovel. She was greeted and healed by her new sisters, giving her the chance to reconnect with her gifts of sigil, astrology and Oracle work. With her, she brought the cleansing power of wind and the embrace of the sun. 

​

We five - make up the core of cimotA, the name in which we call our tribe. Like the five fingers of the hand of cimotA, each sister is a part that makes the whole. Once a year, we travel to the Great Gathering in the far desert Wasteland where we barter, trade and connect. A neutral zone, for all to come together, without fear of hurt. They all know when the hovel is raised at the Great Gathering, they can take refuge, for all are Equal under our shade. And so they come...

​

I use Veil's cards to give readings to those who have need to know...

Nomad makes charms for the hopeful and talismans for safe travel and fruitful hunting...

ech0 shares knowledge from Cindre with others who wish to follow the old ways. She deals in highly sought after glass bottles with glimpses of the past...

Six deals in dream readings and relics - driving hard bargains for those that cling to the before times...

And Gemini gives readings with her Oracle deck, shares sigils with travelers and blesses them with strength and cleansing smoke for whatever may come. 

​

We walk between the worlds, we look to the times that have been and look ahead to the times that will be. 

​

We are cimotA, Seers of the Wastes. 

​