"If there's any deal not worth getting at all, that will be gold. You're really informed about what I am up to, so you must also know that under the Colonial Act of 2366, all essential resources now belong to the Exchange in Galdania. Either you walk there on foot or connect with the Altas. That is only way you can buy or sell gold. It doesn't matter if I hold a piece of it on this side of world, because none of it will belong to me. Why should I believe what you're saying?"
"Because I am not carrying gold." She bent down, drew out 3 large stones and tossed them to side of the road.
"Okay. So, you've taken both me and those bandits we saw along the way for a ride. What's your deal? Show it to me now!"
She reached in again and caught hold something. She drew it out slowly, long enough for me to see the size of it. I saw on it a familiar collection of crystallised metal. At closer inspection, you will see the familiar sign of hexagonal particles clotted onto one another. It was purple and black. As she pulled it out, the clusters rolled and arranged themselves downwards until it became a long bar.
"Mr Lauren. Here is the term of our agreement. Your payment - in Ore."
I pinched off a piece from the bar. Then, when my right hand, I focused with my stylus turned on. I touched my left fist to under my other hand and pulled out medieval rocket fully formed. I stuck it to the ground and ignited the Ore by striking it as if striking a match. I light the fuse behind the rocket and watched closely as it zoomed away from us into the sky.
A spectacular carnival of lights erupted as the rocket explode. Everything from the flights of fancies of my imagniation appeared. Circus tents, confetti, mechanical rides of all shapes and sizes, balloons and fireworks. I stepped away as a merry-go-round horse ride crashed onto the groud before me, turned itself on and began to spinning away.
There was no mistake. This is high grade Ore. A whole chunk of it is enough to last a life-time. With this material in my hands, no dream will be impossible for me. I could see myself right now walking down the streets of a Paris city of my own making. The Eiffel Tower and accordion music. Wow. I am rich - rich!
"What are the rest of your terms?" I said trying hide the sheer excitement of this windfall.
"I want you to return with me to Heraldnesia and rebuild my home."
"Heraldnesia is a dangerous place. I will build you a mobile builder's rig and you can go back to where you came from. I will have to triple my charges if you ask me to go with you."
I pretended to sound like I am bargaining. I needed the Ore, but I know better than to forget history. The fact is Heraldnesia is a dangerous place. It's a dead city. No one lives there, but the machines built to defend it still prowl the streets as if there were something there still worth fighting for. Heraldnesia is best known as a city of secrets.
"The entire island if you do not know is covered in Ore deposits. If you return with me I will quadruple your pay."
I considered deeply and peered into her hazel brown eyes. And I watched her life opened up before me on a white open field of black lines over the sea of time. Her formative years. Princess of the Colony of Glender. Student of the Institute of Royals. And Exile in the Heraldnesia Isle. At least she was being honest with me. This is the part of my profession I still found most uncomfortable, peering into other peoples' lives, but it is the starting point of how we tell the future.
I watched her as an Exile walking over a piece of ground, digging at it, pulling from it a purple stone and stuffing it into her money bag. I receded from the image and plotted my encounter with her in long straight red line towards the future. As a seer, our lives are not on a single straight path interlinked with others.
The line continued till I saw myself at the end standing beneath my Arc de Triomphe. Then I drew open my own life and laid even more paths in the same direction in the space all around me. Philantropist. Returnee to Krosia - not ideal. Prisoner?! Institutionalist. Healer. Each dream glowed specifically according to the physical and emotional reward it will give me. The dream ahead glowed a glorious autumn red signaling fulfilment of personal glory and ambition. I saw the years I will live and the life-span of my city. Five hundred years. It was very very satisfying.
And now came the risks. One path with me in straight jacket inside a Galdanian jail. Another as a traveling philantropist. These two crossed the straight red line. The philantropist glowed gold and the prisoner a distant black. What stunned me was the life-span of the man in gold. Nine hundred and twenty-three years. Why do I need to live that long?
The Philantropist was a path I could have taken, but it is now a loser's game. Seers today watch one another rather than work to fix the world. The Galdanian club is the worst of our lot. I will get even with them for what they did. No one's gonna take my dream. Not this time. Then one day, when this whole mess is over and I live to tell the tale. Perhaps, there might still be time for me to turn back and be who I always wanted to be.
I closed up my vision and returned to my negotiations with the Cordelia.
"I want tenfold. All the Ore you can give me. I will help you rebuild Glender and you will give the Ore I need for my city. You will make me advisor to the League of Colonies and I will free your country from debt."
"Deal!" She replied and slung the bag over her right shoulder. We crossed the river at low tide. She was heading homeward and I was heading for a collision course with a band of thugs.
