Chapter 15 - Fortunes

Trademeet, one day before Mazzy Fentan's adventuring troop is scheduled to depart for Imnesvale


“Come in, come in!” said the corpulent fortune teller, leading the equally weighty merchant by the arm into his parlor. “The Mystic One has foreseen your coming and will guide you true!”

Before the merchant could reconsider, Neracer aka “The Mystic One” had plopped him down into an overstuffed chair at his seer’s table. The merchant fidgeted nervously, looking about at the purple tapestries on the wall, each inlaid with large symbols the merchant took to be sorcerous wards.

Neracer sat in his own chair, swishing his cheap golden robes for effect. He gazed into the crystal ball on the table, partly to “scry” but mostly to see his reflection.

Is my turban on straight? I hate it when it slips. Ruins the whole act.


“Er,” began the merchant. “I’ve never done this before. Are you sure it’s safe?”

“The mystic world has *many* dangers, my friend” Neracer said gravely. “But The Mystic One knows where the boundaries are, where light and shadow meet, the gray areas a wizened fellow like myself can explore but YOU DARE NOT!”

The merchant swallowed hard and nodded. “I’m satisfied” he said, taking out his coin purse. “What is your fee, o wise one?”

Neracer continued to stare into the scrying ball, though he was sizing up the merchant’s purse out of the corner of his eye. Frowning, he said “the astral mists swirl about you, good merchant. Clearly you are a man of import in the larger scheme of things.”

Puffing his chest up, the merchant smiled broadly. “Well, once I met a druid outside my village. The folks were a’talkin about that for weeks.”

“Ah, yes, that must be what I see” Neracer said. “Yes, yes! There clearly is an element of Nature involved here.”

The merchant stuck his chest out even more.

“Tell me, friend” Neracer asked. “What mysterious secrets of the unknown do you wish me to divine?”

“Oh, that” the merchant said. “Mystic One, I want to know something of my future.”

“Ahhh, a most popular request. Very well. I shall pierce the curtain between our world and the ethereal plane and divine the path Fate has laid out for you. For the reasonable price of say…15 gold?”

“Done!” said the merchant, laying out the coins. Neracer scooped them up and began a long, involved focusing chant. The lamp in the room dimmed and the crystal ball began to glow with a bluish light.


“I see…I see children in your future” Neracer said. “Fine children, borne by your wife.”

“Um, but I’m not married” the merchant interrupted.

Crap. “Silence! Do not interfere with my scrying!”

The merchant dutifully buttoned his lip.

“I also see a wife in your future, a lovely woman indeed. She will make you happy, and bear you fine children.”

“Wonderful!” cried the merchant. “Where and when do I meet her?”

“Ah, let me see….it will be near your village, in a time…in a time not too soon, yet not too far away.”

“Wonderful!” cried the merchant yet again. “Can you tell me what she looks like?”

I already said she was beautiful, weren’t you listening? “It is difficult, my friend. The heavens block me even now. But she may look like…like…like…a dryad!

“A dryad?!?” squealed the exuberant merchant.

“Yes, a dryad!” Neracer said with confidence. “That might be where Nature comes in to my scrying. A lovely spirit of the forest could well be yours one day.”

“Oh, I must simply know how soon, Mystic One! I must know more!”

This guy’s worse than Noober, Neracer thought acidly. Sigh.

“My connection with the other world is fading, fading…” he said, allowing the globe to go dark and the lamp to brighten. Making a big show of his exhaustion, he shook his head. “I am sorry my friend, I can do no more at this time.”

“Worry not, my good friend” the merchant said, taking Neracer’s hand into his sweaty palms. “You have told me more than enough, I thank thee!”

*

The merchant departed a few moments later, leaving Neracer to count his money and figure out how much he would have left over after paying his debts this month. A conspicuous cough outside his parlor entrance brought him out of his reverie.

Mazzy Fentan pushed aside the strands of beads in the doorway and walked in with a disapproving look on her face.


“That was a terrible thing to tell that poor man” she said, scowling.


“Good to see you too, Mazz” grinned Neracer. “How’s Mama?”


“Don’t try to change the subject” Mazzy insisted, waving a finger in his face. “And take off that ridiculous looking hat when I’m speaking with you.”


“Aw, now don’t be that way, Mazzy” Neracer said, taking off the gaudy turban. “I only told him he *might* meet a dryad. And you know, he just might.”


Mazzy stared at him crossly. “I think that highly unlikely.”

“Well, who knows what Fate has in store for any of us?” Neracer countered.

Mazzy pursed her lips, knowing that she had no answer for that one. Other than that she was sure that Neracer couldn’t tell the future.

“Oh, you are impossible!” she said, throwing her hands up in the air.

“Yes, and you’re beautiful when you’re angry” Neracer said, ducking when Mazzy threw his turban at him.


*

A few minutes later, the two were sitting in the garden plaza, enjoying the fine weather and a bit of lunch. Neracer played with the children as he always did, delighting them with slight of hand tricks and a few cantrips. One scrawny boy, whose father had died last winter, squealed with delight as Neracer “magically” exchanged his copper piece for one of the gold coins he’d collected from the merchant. The boy ran home to tell his mother they could buy bread that week.


“I simply don’t understand you, my friend” Mazzy said as the children dispersed.

“What do you mean, Mazz?”

“You take that merchant’s hard earned money and then you start giving it away in the next minute.”

Neracer shrugged but said nothing.

“Or perhaps I do understand you” she said. “Perhaps you are not so mysterious as you want others to think.”

“Lies, all of it” Neracer deadpanned.

Mazzy chuckled and shook her head. “You are a stubborn man, Neracer. But I think that you are a good man, deep down. Oh, you needn’t shift about so when I say such things! What harm is there in acknowledging you have virtue?”

Neracer’s expression grew unreadable. “You might not know me as well as you think you do, Mazzy.”

An awkward silence grew between them and lingered there for several moments. Finally Mazzy broke it.

“My group departs tomorrow” she said. “Will you be in it?”

Neracer looked at her for a long moment. “You really want me to go adventuring with you?”

“I do, my friend. We have no mage among our numbers and I know that you are capable of more than mere parlor tricks. Besides, you are a swordsman as well, by your own admission.”

“I did say that once, didn’t I?” Neracer scratched his chin. “I gotta learn to stop being so open.”

“Please, my friend. Do this for me. I need your help.”


Sighing heavily, Neracer dipped his head. “Okay, Mazz. I’ll close shop early and get my things together. How far is this Imnesvale place?”

“We will be traveling on the main roads, so perhaps a day and a half.”

“I better pack extra food then” Neracer joked, patting his potbelly. “But I’m willing to help you out.”

With that, he stood and headed out of the plaza, making for his shop. Mazzy was deep in thought as she watched him walk away.

And I hope I am able to help you out, my friend. You can do better, are better inside, than you allow yourself to be. Hawking phony fortunes is not your calling. I believe you knew that, once. Arvoreen willing, I will help you to know that again.