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price-of-knowledge
The Foretelling requires a significant price, material or symbolic, highlighting the cost and burden of seeking forbidden or unsettling knowledge.
1 chapter across 1 book
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)Ursula K. Le Guin
4. The Nineteenth Day
In this chapter, Lord Berosty rem ir Ipe seeks a Foretelling to learn the day of his death, receiving only the cryptic answer that he will die on the nineteenth day of a month, with no further details. His kemmering, Herbor of Geganner, later obtains a Foretelling on Berosty's behalf, learning only that Berosty will live longer than Herbor, which leads to tragic misunderstanding and Herbor's death. Berosty's ensuing madness culminates in his suicide on the foretold nineteenth day, illustrating the destructive power of uncertain fate and obsession with death.