20. Tea Leaves

Faith Manages
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A/N: Starting with Chapter Nineteen (which hopefully you just read) I'm fast-forwarding through the later part of S2 and early S3 of the B5 series. Do not expect to see any episode tieins until somewhere around "Point of No Return"/"Severed Dreams". And it'll be a few chapters before we get there. Just keep in mind that this is all running parallel.

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Chapter Twenty: Tea Leaves
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"Hey, Jeff." Faith smiled, setting her tray down next to his half-forgotten meal. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Just reading up on Valen." Jeffrey Sinclair set down his data reader for a moment. "Plenty of that going around, I suppose. Ranger One suddenly thinks we should all be well versed in the Prophecies of Valen. Most of them, anyhow."

"They kept a few classified?" Faith frowned. "What about the one about me?"

"You?" Jeff looked up. "Oh. Valen's last words. Faith manages. No, they kept that one secret."

Faith shrugged as she slipped into the chair. "Too bad. I've heard it, it's a good one, you know, if you like cryptic riddles that make no sense."

Jeff grinned. "Reminds me of a few of the others. Sometimes you wonder what Valen was thinking. The word choice in a few cases is a bit odd... almost as if Minbari wasn't his native language."

Faith shrugged. "I'm not that far along in Minbari. I've been reading a few of the public ones in English, and they seem to make sense." She paused, thinking about the 'Last Prophecy', as it had been relayed to her. 'In the last days of the circle, the One shall doubt his path, and the circle shall be threatened. The circle is all. The circle must be preserved. Faith manages.'

"Maybe I should try that." Jeff poked at the data reader. After a few minutes of silence, with Faith poking at her food and Jeff at his data reader, he said, "You know, I think you're right. Most of them do make more sense in English."

Faith nodded. "Just makes ya wonder." She swirled her baked potato with sour cream and cheddar cheese a bit with her fork, and then said, "You think there's any truth to that 'Minbari not born of Minbari' business?"

Jeff shrugged. "Never really thought about it."

Faith poked at her tray for a bit, and then said, "I remember when I first heard of Valen." She frowned. "Just rumors, really, and stories about the Shadows. But what gets me is that he said they'd be back in a thousand years, and he formed the Rangers specifically to deal with that."

"A lot of the prophecies have to do with what he calls the Return, and other times the Next War." Jeff nodded.

"Right. But what I've always been wondering is, how'd he know?" Faith scooped up a forkful of mashed potatoes, and held it out. "I know there's baked potato on this fork. I know there's lots of potatoes out there. But could I tell you there will be baked potato on this fork in exactly thirty days? Sixty? No. The fork could be destroyed by then. Maybe the freighter's late. Or whoever's using the fork decides on mashed potatoes that day."

Jeff winced. "Not a very good analogy."

"True, but if I can't predict a month ahead, how'd he pull off a thousand years? Tea leaves? Crystal ball? Divine intervention? Time travel?"

Jeff shrugged. "Maybe the Minbari are right, he was a prophet."

"Prophecies are made to be broken, in my experience. Nostradamus wasn't all he was cracked up to be. And don't even get me started on Brigham Young or Mohammed. Hell, the only prophecy I ever heard that worked out was the freakin' Duke of Choiseul, and he only wrote one. Beginner's luck."

Jeff looked up at her, perplexed. "The Duke of Choiseul? New one on me."

"French diplomat, after the Seven Years' War. Said the best chance for revenge against the British would be the next war, when France would ally itself with Britain's own colonies. The war started twelve years later."

Jeff set the data reader down again. "So what's your theory?"

"He had help. Or maybe there's something the Minbari aren't telling us. Like about the Battle of the Line." Faith prodded. "You were there, I heard."

"I was. Rather not talk about it."

Faith held up a hand. "No, that's not where I was going. What I meant is... I've heard the Minbari surrendered because they found out Valen had been reincarnated. And that someone, probably a Ranger, talked the Grey Council into saving their strength to fight the Shadows."

Jeff shrugged. "I've heard the same rumors. And that there's prophecies regarding the fact that we'd be their allies against the Shadows. That's why they opened up the Anla'Shoq to humans after the war. Valen said, 'those whom you fight when I return from beyond the veil of death, those shall fight with you against the darkness, and no matter the haste, no matter the cost, no matter the honor, they are the stick and must not be destroyed'."

Faith cocked her head. "One of the secret prophecies?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds a hell of a lot like Valen knew about the Line too. And Teddy Roosevelt. Walk softly?"

Jeff stared at the data reader, and then tabbed to the next file. "More than just that. There's clues here."

"What kind of clues?" Faith edged forward on her seat.

"The kind that only make sense after the fact. Here Valen says, 'The One who must complete the circle shall be guided by the chosen of the city of leaf-throwers.' Don't know quite what that one means, but obviously someone from the 'city of leaf-throwers' would know it was partly about them, right?"

"Yeah." Faith allowed. "Next?"

Jeff poked at the reader a bit more, then said, "'On the last day of the Circle, the One must first heed the lady of the two lanterns, then evade the guardian of five.'"

"The lady of the two lanterns." Faith deadpanned.

Jeff looked up. "The Minbari words are 'fel'ani ra kas ard'ka'. The translation is fairly straightforward. Why, you think he's dropping hints? Drop enough hints and some of them might be right?"

"No." Faith scraped her fork across her plate angrily, scooping up the last remnants of her baked potato. "There's something really weird going on. He knows. Or knew. But maybe the Minbari aren't telling the whole truth."

"When have they ever?" Jeff shrugged.

"It's almost like... these prophecies weren't written a thousand years ago. No way he could know that much about Earth history, and us, unless something is seriously up. They're written after the circle is complete... or maybe it's not and they're trying to fix it... and then the writings got sent back in time to Valen, and he translated them."

Jeff stared at it, then up at her. "Except the Minbari didn't have access to English then. They'd have to have been translated on this side." He paused, poking at the file a bit more. "You know, you might have something there. And you said about us... care to explain?"

"Not now. The damn poem can only be recited in the springtime. It's a rule."

"What poem?" Callie asked, sliding into a seat just as Faith rose to leave.

"Jeff can explain." Faith smiled. "I've gotta get going." *Before it all comes out*, Faith thought.