Divination

Divination - synopsis - As off June 2023
Heidi Ng

Set in the UK in an unspecified future, the book is told from the first person perspective of Marianne Rose Smith, Mrs to her friends. A psychic catering to the rich and famous. Mrs hasn't been able to read or predict anything unexpectedly since losing her connection to her mother. Assistant Zenia has been using her research skills to allow Mrs to continue working with cold-reading clients.

Mrs Smith tries but cannot read for the unexpected client Wilfred. However, She is able to sense a profound uncertainty and realises everything is related to her inability to move forward since her mother's missing, presumed dead. Her mother, the direct descendant of the Oracle of Delphi, has been supporting Mrs by giving her psychic ability. 

Fed up with everything, Mrs Smith decides to leave the city and take a trip to Hong Kong to visit her mother's last known address. To escape from Wilfred's insistent and stalking behaviour and try to find out what happened to her mother, and seek a resolution for their relationship.

In Hong Kong, she met an investigator called Sam, who was sent by the organisation Tribes of Pythia to look for her mother. The organisation turned out to be of Mrs's distant family, and they has been pursued her mother, Novalie, to rejoin the organisation. Auntie Blind, Novalie's old friend, reveals to Mrs that her mother has left the city and decided to retire from the world. 

Since arriving in Hong Kong, Mrs found herself followed and tapped on all virtual spaces, and she's been monitored everywhere she goes. Her last client, Wilfred, has been keeping tap on her. Finding herself cornered by Sam and the local Triad, who are interested in the psychic's ability, the oddball Wilfred offers her a respite friendship. Revealing himself as an AI, Wilfred helps Mrs with his ability to find out information and prediction. 

Zenia arrives from the UK to support Mrs and finds herself an instant attraction to Sam. Together they help Mrs evade the Triad and keep a distance from Tribes of Pythia, while Wilfred, using the information given by Auntie Blind, discovers where Novalie may have gone to. Mrs visits old friends and addresses to try to remember her mother.

Auntie Blind explains to Mrs that if her mother is dead, she will be the new direct descendant of the Oracle of Delphi. Mrs needs to decide for herself if she wants to acquire the psychic ability to herself and take up the role of the new Oracle. 

Unable to sense her mother in the ether and still digesting the new information. Mrs decide to continue practising divination with the help of the AI Wilfred. 

(452 words)