After careful research and a few weeks of inquiring, Kevin secured a meeting with a seer. Sarah, John, Lucy, Kevin, Mullet, and Tali made their way toward the Thieves’ District. They weren’t concerned with all of them leaving the Picky Pixie at once as Mullet and Kevin had installed so many barricades that thieves would need siege equipment to break into the store.

  With the booming success of the Picky Pixie, Mullet and Kevin had also convinced Jenny, the head pixie, to hire extra help. Kevin and Mullet researched the potential guards for the shop themselves, ultimately hiring the two nekarions from the tournament. The lizard creatures were actually brothers. Unlike most of the other competitors, the duo of nekarions had entered the tournament mainly for the job opportunity. They had considerable difficulty landing jobs in Grandeur. Even though the city had all types of creatures, a pair of nekarions still stuck out from the norm. Kevin and Mullet convinced Jenny that the brothers were the best match for the job. The two nekarions guarded the store while the others left to visit the seer.

  The streets progressively became dirtier and the buildings less inviting as they walked. The three pixies, John, Lucy, and Tali, seemed completely unaware of the change in surroundings, as they continuously chattered in a mix of English and Pixish. They flew around while the humans walked. They peered in windows and shops, exploring new surroundings.

  After an hour of walking, they were in the heart of the Thieves’ District. Steel bars covered broken windows. Most of the shops had fortifications strong enough to repel a catapult. Kevin made a few absent comments about how they could improve their own security, but mostly they walked in silence. The pixies continued their idle chatter. Kevin yelled at Lucy after she flew through one of the broken windows only to come out a different window. He explained the potential danger, but the pixie just laughed.

  Kevin pointed to a looming stone building and whispered something to Mullet. Mullet crouched down and concentrated. He put two fingers to each of his temples, and then looked back up at Kevin and nodded.

  “I thought so,” said Kevin.

  “What is it?” asked Sarah.

  “A bullet grog, about two hundred paces away. It’s chained to the front of that building, but they’re still meaner than frozen snot. I don’t know why anyone would have a grog chained to a building. It’s just plain stupid, even for the Thieves’ District,” Kevin said.

  “A bullet grog? I don’t see anything,” Sarah said.

  “They blend into their surroundings. It’s a poisonous critter about the size of a small dog but looks like a mix between a frog and a cow. It may look funny, but they’re dangerous. A full-size one could knock you unconscious for a few hours. Their saliva can paralyze a small child for days. They can shoot their tongues out as fast as you blink. We’ll be fine on the other side of the street, but it’s not me that I’m worried about,” he said.

  Mullet nodded. “Tali,” he bellowed. The tiny pixie shot over instantly. “Stay here,” he said, pointing to his shoulder.

  “Okay, Mullet,” she said and settled on his shoulder.

  Pixies, for the most part, regarded advice with indifference. Tali, on the other hand, not only listened to Mullet but actually obeyed what he said. John and Lucy had flown over after seeing Tali fly away. Kevin explained again about the bullet grog. It took quite a bit of convincing to make John and Lucy stay with the humans. Tali, for her part, actually remained quiet, sitting on Mullet’s shoulder.

  The pixies reluctantly agreed to remain on a human shoulder. John sat on Sarah’s shoulder, while Lucy rode on Kevin’s. They made it past the grog without incident. The seer’s small house stood just past the ominous stone building with the grog.

  The seer’s door opened immediately when they approached. They walked in. A table was set for three. One plate had a leafy green salad with big pieces of grilled chicken and a light oil dressing. The next had an impressive shank of pot roast coated with gravy and a heap of mashed potatoes. The third had a giant piece of blackened grouper and spicy rice with a slice of lemon. All three dishes looked delectable. The drinks in front of each also were different. The salad had an ice-cold glass of milk in front of it. The pot roast had a giant mug of ale. The grouper had a tall glass of water and an amber wine.

  They looked at the food for a second before sitting down—Sarah in front of the salad, Mullet in front of the pot roast, and Kevin in front of the grouper.

  “This is incredible,” Sarah said. “This is actually my very—”

  “—favorite food in the world? Yes, yes, Sarah, I know,” said a woman from behind the door. “I’ll be out in a minute. I’m just finishing a plate of xiosha-nooters.”

  A few seconds later everybody’s perfect grandmother came through the door. Her gray hair was rolled up in a tight bun, and she beamed with an honest joy seen in those who truly love what they do.

  “There we go. We wouldn’t want our pixie friends to be left out, now would we?” she said. She set a plate in the middle of the table where a much smaller table stood with three even smaller chairs. On that table she placed a tiny platter with what looked like tiny steaming loaves of bread.

  “Reeeeally!” squealed Tali, who flew from Mullet’s shoulder to the smaller table and attacked the bread. The other two pixies did the same, wolfing down loaf after loaf of the small bread.

  “Eat! Eat! We’ll get to the reason you’re here soon enough. By the way, I am Madame Fiona,” said the old woman. They ate and chatted. Madame Fiona asked about the pixie shop and how each was doing, as if she had known them their whole lives. She made an absent comment to Mullet about how his garden in the mountain was coming along, which caused the large man to laugh, the first time any of them had ever heard the bulky man chuckle.

  After they had all finished eating, the old woman cleared the dishes and replaced them with smaller plates of warm chocolate cake. Sarah enjoyed the meal but was starting to wonder about the old woman.

  “I bet you’re all getting a little curious about me. Well, probably more you than the others, Sarah, seeing as Mullet and Kevin have visited seers before,” she said. Fiona took a sip of her tea and continued. “There used to be hundreds of us in the past, but with King Zolf the Loony killing us off as fast as possible, well, it has become a profession that few desire.”

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  “So you’re a real seer?” asked Sarah.

  The woman looked at her and smiled. “Did you need convincing? I figured giving three people and three pixies their favorite meals would be enough. That’s the funny part about being a seer. People try very hard to find you and seek your advice, but when they finally make it to you, they need proof that you are who you say you are. I suppose it is just a sign of the times. Ah, well, you didn’t come to hear me ramble. Let’s do what you came here to do. But first I must ask why you have come to see me in the first place?”

  “I thought you were a seer? Can’t you just tell?” asked Sarah.

  Madame Fiona laughed. “I can tell much about you. I can tell strong emotions and desires, like your favorite foods for instance. But I am always interested in hearing motives.”

  Sarah told her story. Kevin added the parts about his suspicion of chaos agents pursuing her, plus Mullet’s explorations in Sarah’s mind. Kevin explained his concern that Sarah might be marked, and that was the primary reason for the visit.

  “Oh? So it is an aura reading you want? Not just looking for a fortune to be told?” she asked. She walked to the front, and shut and locked the door. She then closed the blinds. After this she waved her hands over the front wall, and a hum emanated from the wall.

  “We don’t want any passerby overhearing us, do we? Such a long way from Zantia, but the war comes here as well. No matter. Come with me,” she said.

  The seer turned, and the rest followed her into the accompanying room. Sarah sat in the chair across from the smiling aged woman. Madame Fiona rummaged through her closet and came out with a tall clear sphere. The ball had a tiny hole at the top. She placed the sphere on a small stand. She then took out an assortment of minuscule leather pouches and poured different colored sand into the small hole, while the others watched. At first nothing happened, and then a small haze appeared and made its way out of the hole at the top of the sphere, as if the globe gave off heat.

  “Okay, Sarah, I need you to relax. Close your eyes. Relax.”

  “Wait,” Sarah said. She felt for the note from her father in her pocket. She believed Madame Fiona, but she still hesitated before showing her note. The note said Sarah must be certain about who she showed this, but Sarah also had no one else to turn to. “Before we start, I need to give this to you. My dad told me to give this to someone important. I think that is you,” Sarah said. She then handed over the note her father had given her before her house had burned down.

  The seer kept the note closed and put it on the table. She then placed her hands on Sarah’s temples. Madame Fiona took a deep breath near the sphere, sucking in the vapors and then slowly exhaled. When she did, a thin stream of silver smoke came from her mouth and surrounded Sarah’s entire body. The seer continued to take deep breaths of the vapors from the sphere and exhaled smooth streams of silver smoke till Sarah became completely covered in it. The smoke clung to her skin. A cloudlike gray outline of Sarah could be seen. Through the gray smoke, tiny cracks of gold shimmered, as if under the surface trying to get out. Madame Fiona kept her fingers on Sarah’s temples throughout the entire process. Only after Sarah was completely covered did she close her own eyes and appear to concentrate.

  “I see that three others have been tampering with your mind. The first came when you were but a child, apparently hiding your aura. The next was a dark presence, a shayde. The third, a healing one. I must say that you did a fine job, Mullet,” she said.

  Mullet grunted in response.

  “But that’s not why I’m here,” said the seer, taking another deep breath, again exhaling silver smoke. Slowly a faint gray glow came from the seer’s fingertips. It spread through the smoke surrounding Sarah till it all glowed.

  “Now let’s open the door and see,” she said. The gray smoke slowly changed color. A noise came from deep inside Sarah’s body. It sounded like knuckles cracking, but it happened countless times in rapid succession. As the small cracking noises continued, the color of the smoke changed from gray to a deep golden. The gold color became brighter, and the smoke faded away, leaving a pure golden glow behind. The process took a full minute. When she finished, the seer’s smile lit up her entire face. She had streams of tears pouring down her face, but she muttered quietly.

  “Oh! Oh, I never thought! It can’t really be, can it?” she asked the two men on the couch.

  The two men looked at one another, then back at the old woman.

  “What?” asked Mullet.

  Madame Fiona’s voice became quiet, yet had an even larger impact. “She is a Chosen!”

  The two paladins both paled. Sarah remained in a trance staring ahead.

  “Most people remain silver after I see through them. That of course means they will have no impact. Occasionally I have found some with a red aura. That means they might eventually come in contact with the king in their life. Those that are red have the potential to cause the King harm. It is no guarantee, but they might. Normally those with a red aura are hunted by chaos agents. Even rarer are those with the blue aura. Blues actually fight against the king’s agents. You two are blue to the core. But no one truly possesses the means to actually stop him,” she said. Her hands trembled as she took a sip of her tea, spilling some of it on her lap.

  “The seer for King Zolf told of one with a golden glow who could actually stop the king. Like any reading, it comes with no guarantee, but this woman has the potential to change everything—everything or nothing. An aura is just a sign of potential, not a guarantee of the future. What is interesting is that her aura was silver at first and then changed to gold,” she said. She paused for emphasis. “Someone went to great lengths to hide her.”

  “What should we do? We’ve been hunting agents for a long time but have never actually come across a Chosen. So what do you suggest?” asked Kevin.

  “I … I don’t know,” admitted the seer. “I opened the door. Her true aura is now revealed. Perhaps she may enlighten us when she comes out of her trance. She has a gift, something that has the potential to stop the Dark King’s reign. Other than that, I do not know. Someone hid her aura. Who that is, I also don’t know. More than likely having her aura shielded protected her from discovery until now. She emitted only the faintest hint of aura before I opened the door.”

  “Well, get her outta her trance.”

  “Oh, my, no. If I pull her out of it, the door may shut again and lock away her Talent. She must awaken herself. It usually takes from an hour to a day,” said the seer.

  “A day! She’s comatose!” said Kevin.

  “I know. Believe me. There is no one more curious about the potential of this girl than I am. Heed my advice. Act in haste, and all will waste!” said the seer.

  “Okay, okay,” said Kevin. “Now at least we know what we got, I guess.”

  “No. You don’t. You have no idea what you are up against. You paladins may have hunted chaos agents, but that is not the worst of what is out there. If she’s a Chosen, and I’m risking my life by saying that she is, the Dark King will not just send any chaos agent to kill her. No Chosen has been found in two decades. He has an army of assassins. The fact that a shayde already tried to kill her once is a sign that someone saw through her defenses. Someone must have been very close to her, most likely for a long period of time, to be able to detect that hidden glimmer of truth.”

  “But who? And what’s her Talent?” asked Kevin.

  “Hunter,” said Mullet.

  “What?” asked Kevin.

  “The first will be the Hunter,” said Mullet.

  “Correct! But previous Hunters always knew. I don’t know how she could be the Hunter and not know,” said Madame Fiona. She then looked back to the table and remembered the note Sarah had given her.

  The seer opened the note.

  “Clever. Oh, what clever parents. They knew. Her parents knew! They also understood enough to hide her until she was older. Who they hired to hide her aura, I have no clue. Just look at this note,” she said. The first letter of each of the phrases now glowed a faint gold.

  “So what is the Hunter?” Kevin asked.

  The two paladins looked at the seer, waiting for her to continue.

  “Well, don’t ask me! I don’t know either. Your guess is as good as mine. No one other than King Zolf has found a Hunter in two hundred years,” she said.

  Mullet nodded.

  “Stay true to your duty, paladins. This girl needs all the help she can get. She is a Chosen, and she is the Hunter. Now that her aura is clear, agents may spot her as well. No one knows how the chaos agents track down their prey,” she said.

  “Ma’am, we’ll protect her with our lives,” Kevin said.

  Fiona suddenly looked sad. “Yes, I know you will.”