Illyana watched as Ivory made her way over to the target to retrieve the object she sought. Seeing it like this made her chuckle inwardly, she should have expected this from Ivory, after all. 

Though the transfer of the item to the table in front of her took only a few seconds, her anxiety about what she was about to do made it seem like much longer. Even now, she could feel the energy pulsing from the laminated paper. She rubbed her hands together, feeling the slight sheen of sweat on them as she did.

When the card was in front of her, she smiled nervously up at the dhampir as she set the card down and mouthed the words "thank you", though her throat was too dry for any sound to issue forth. Noticing this, the would-be gypsy cleared her throat. [color=598527]"Thanks," [/color]she said, finally, and glanced back down at the card. It looked to her like a crucible as it laid before her, but the unknown was too tempting for her to resist. She had to see whatever it wanted to show her.

[color=598527]"Just..."[/color] she said, never taking her eyes from the card. [color=598527]"Stand nearby, in case."[/color] Her eyes darted to Ivory briefly, but landed back on the card. 

[color=darkgray]"I'll take it from you if things get too crazy..."[/color] Ivory responded, stepping closer to her.

The corner of Illyana's mouth pulled back into a grim smile, but otherwise she did not react. Eventually, she reached out with shaking fingers and took a breath in to steel herself.

As soon as her skin made contact with the material, a flood of images rocketed through Illyana's brain, faster than the layman could blink. She saw Ivory, standing alone in a sea of darkness. It was oppressively black all around them, but Illy could see the dhampir. She looked confused, almost scared, as her blue eyes darted around the space as if searching for a way out.

Movement drew Illyana's eyes, and her head whipped over and she saw a tall, lean figure striding toward them from the darkness. Illyana squinted, but she could tell before the light from nowhere touched him that it was Geralt, just in the way he moved. She looked back to Ivory and saw that the woman had seen him as well, but the confusion had not left her features.

Slowly, as Geralt walked toward them, the blackness around them transformed into a sea of tiny pinpricks of light, like stars. Ivory and Illyana both looked up, their mouths opening in aw at the sight around them, and the sound of Geralt's footfalls grew ever closer. 

Illyana watched Ivory, as she was the subject of the vision, and tried her best not to look at the Magician. Her eyebrows knitted together when she saw a smile break out on Ivory's pale face, not forced, not sarcastic, but a genuine and true grin, her eyes alight with happiness. Out of curiosity, she looked back at Geralt and he was smiling in turn, not his usual wicked expression, but one that Illyana had seen earlier this evening, or something like it. It was soft, welcoming, warm...unlike the man she knew.

As he reached the dhampir, he held out a hand, as if for her to take it. Ivory's confusion returned then, and her face fell as she looked from the outstretched hand to the man's face. She reached out to grasp his fingers, her hand shaking, but she took too long...

Before they could make contact, Geralt's smile split his face into a malicious specter of a man. It looked like it might tear his head in two...then he turned on his heel faster than the naked eye could catch, turning his back to the dhampir who reached for him.

Fear and surprise danced across Ivory's features. She looked down at her hand, beginning to shake her head, her mouth forming some words of protest, and then she was simply...gone.

Illyana could hear distant laughter as the scene went completely dark before her, the stars all around blinking out one by one until she was plunged once again into darkness. At first she thought it was Geralt's laughter...but it wasn't, there was a growl to it, a grittiness that the Magician's clear and strong tenor did not possess.

Then her vision clarified and she was back in Ivory's trailer. Her heart was pounding, her brow drenched in sweat. She had pulled her hand from the card so quickly that it had fallen off of the table. She was shaking and short of breath, her eyes were wild, as if she had just run a marathon. To Ivory, not but a second had passed, but to Illyana it had felt like hours.