Sarah came into the shop at dawn, as she always did. Lucy accompanied her, and they discussed the street life of Grandeur while they walked. Kevin woke to her entering the shop. He got dressed in his small room and joined them, preparing the shop for the morning.

  “So many people sleep on the streets on the weekend,” Sarah said. “Most of them look like they spent the night fighting each other.”

  “They probably did, I reckon,” said Kevin.

  “How many fights do you think you’ve been in?” Sarah asked.

  Kevin became serious. “Too many.” Kevin seemed lost in thought for a second. “How about you? You ever been in a scuffle?”

  “Me? Hardly. Not unless you count running from the wivari and a shayde,” she said.

  “What?” he asked, his voice suddenly serious.

  “Nothing,” she said. “I’ve just never been in a fight.”

  Kevin walked to her and stared. “When did you see a shayde?”

  “When I came back from my trip with Thaddeus, we were attacked. I know I mentioned him before. Thaddeus was a pompous nobleman in the upper echelon,” she said.

  “When did you see a shayde?” Kevin repeated.

  Sarah started from the beginning, when they left Haynis. Kevin listened carefully as she told the story of her trip home. He occasionally asked questions to clarify but otherwise remained silent, as she told everything that had happened.

  “Wivari don’t normally act like that. I don’t know why a shayde would focus down one person like that either. I’ve never heard of them working together. And they don’t hypnotize people. Something’s off, but I’m not sure what,” he said.

  “Forethought,” said someone with a rumbling voice behind Sarah.

  Mullet had appeared near her sometime during her story.

  “Don’t do that! You’re like a giant cat. How you can move so quietly is beyond me,” said Sarah.

  “Do not call him a cat! If anything he is a ferocious tiger to be feared,” said a small pixie from his shoulder.

  “Tali,” Mullet said. The small pixie had become a nearly permanent attachment to Mullet’s shoulder. Her wings had fully healed over the last month, but she still followed Mullet everywhere. It made for a unique relationship, since Mullet rarely spoke, and Tali never stopped.

  “Wivari don’t think ahead. You said they came at you from all sides in a split second. That takes planning. Also one of them tried to spell you in some way to prevent you from getting away,” said Kevin.

  “Well, like I said, John and Lucy mentioned it being a shayde,” Sarah said.

  “I reckon your encounter may not have been completely random.”

  “John and Lucy thought the shayde controlled the wivari,” Sarah said.

  “Agent,” grated Mullet.

  “I hope not,” Kevin said. “Shayde’s are intelligent creatures, and the Dark King has been known to use them. Someone wanted to make that whole scene look like a freak mistake. Even if it was a shayde, someone instructed the shayde to attack you. Someone tried hard to make it seem like a bunch of folks in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Kevin said.

  “Target?” Mullet asked.

  “Well, that’s the question. Who was the target? You think Sarah? It could’ve been one of the pixies.”

  John, the pixie who Sarah had almost crushed, joined in the conversation. “Why would someone want Sarah to kill me?”

  “Maybe an agent thought you were a potential Chosen. It could be you were the target. But catching a pixie is like trying to catch the wind. But that doesn’t make sense. Using wivari to kill a pixie is like using a bow and arrow to kill a mosquito. It’s just the wrong tool for the job,” Kevin said.

  Mullet looked at Sarah and then looked at Kevin.

  Tali piped in. “You think someone contemplated all these activities in order to get to Sarah?”

  Kevin shrugged. “I don’t know, but I think we should look at it through your eyes.”

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

  “Mullet looks like a meaty anvil, but he’s an accomplished diviner. He just wants to see the events as they happened,” Kevin said.

  “It doesn’t hurt, does it?” Sarah asked.

  “No,” Mullet replied.

  Sarah sat in a chair, and Mullet placed his fingertips to her temples.

  “Now just try to relax. Don’t fight it. Just relax,” Kevin said.

  Sarah took a slow, deep breath. She felt the light pressure of Mullet’s fingers on her temples. She slowly became light-headed and felt herself falling. After a minute of resting in quiet darkness, she began seeing vivid images. Her trip through Haynis passed in a blink. The trip away from Haynis sped by. The images then slowed.

  She again saw her experience becoming a pixie. She gasped as she took flight. She felt the rush of the wind, as her legs lifted off the ground. Then she looked around. She heard the distinctive laugh of the hounds. She saw that same wivari on the edge of the forest, eyes glinting in the darkness. The images stopped. She felt something pushing in her mind, while the image remained frozen.

  Slowly the images flowed again. She could see herself moving through the experience once more. She saw herself strike John and watched him fall to the ground. Again the scene paused, and she felt that same pushing sensation in her mind, as the picture was stilled.

  She felt herself moving forward. She saw John on the ground. She heard him pleading and looking up at her. Sarah wanted to scream, to cry out, and to do anything other than relive the experience. She felt Mullet pushing in her mind, while the image of her hurting her friend remained. She could feel John pushing against her foot, as the voice in her head told her to just stomp on the struggling bug.

  Somewhere she heard the echo of a command. “Do it.” She sensed the push in her mind again. Suddenly she felt a snap. The images then flashed by quickly through the rest of the events, until she made her way back to Grandeur.

  She woke up in the shop, gasping for breath.

  “Well?” Kevin asked Mullet.

  Mullet put his hands to Kevin’s temples. He left them there for about fifteen seconds before removing them.

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  “Who hires a shayde?”

  “An agent,” Mullet said.

  “What? What are you talking about?” Sarah yelled.

  “Something wanted you hurt. I’m not sure why. That creature put a nasty spell on you, but you broke its spell. The creature left some connection in your mind even after you broke the link. Mullet removed the remnants of that connection,” Kevin said.

  “So now what?” Sarah asked Kevin.

  “You hurt that shayde by breaking the bond. Most of the shayde’s consciousness was in you when you shattered the spell. The real question is why’d it come after you in the first place? Any ideas, Mully?”

  The giant paused in thought. “Seer?” asked Mullet.

  “Hmm. Yeah. We should get her checked out. I hope the seer will let us walk in for a reading.”

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

  “An agent of the Dark King might be hunting you. Agents are killers. If you do have an agent after you, we need to know.”

  “Agent?” asked Sarah.

  “A chaos agent.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Sarah.

  “Chaos agents work for the Dark King Zolf Heller. He’s the king of Zantia. Somewhere along the line he started thinking of himself as a god. This notion gave him the erroneous thought that anything he wants to do is not only fair but also right,” said Kevin.

  “Insane,” grated Mullet.

  “But it goes beyond that. Zantia has a whole different culture. In Zantia, if you want to do anything, and I mean anything, you must go through the king or his representatives. They make it all sound real nice, but what ends up happening is that the king controls everything. People are puppets to him.”

  “So where do the chaos agents come into play?” asked Sarah.

  “The king lacks ethics but not brains. The king’s agents are everywhere. In Zantia, agents hide in the poor population looking for uprisings. Agents are scattered everywhere over the land, searching for all sorts of things. But what it comes down to is that the king had his future read by a seer. This is the real reason for his agents.

  “A long time ago, a seer predicted that the king’s reign might come to an end. Bah, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning, Sarah,” said Kevin.

  Sarah nodded.

  “The story is a bit fuzzy, since it’s so old, but I reckon my version’s about as accurate as any. A thousand years ago the world was in chaos. All the countries warred with each other continually. Life was war, no matter where you came from. Finally the leaders of the four great countries realized the constant fighting had to stop. Thus, they got their smartest wizards, witches, and Talented people at the time to come to a solution.

  “They decided to create a group that could help settle disputes. Each country would have one member. This team would keep the peace. They would be the ultimate peacekeepers. The group had five members in it, one from each country, and a fifth to search out the next member, if and when one of them died. The group was called ‘the Chosen.’”

  “The Chosen existed above kings and queens, above governors and emperors. They were the ultimate authority. They were equally respected and feared, for good reasons. The Chosen settled disputes. Their words were law. They were above the law.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Sarah. “What happened if one of the Chosen was corrupt?”

  “The leaders at the time thought the same way. A powerful spell was cast over the Chosen. The spell prevented anyone lacking morals from getting into the group. How it ended up working is that no person ever got elected to be a Chosen. In order to become a Chosen, a member had to be called into the group. You literally had to be chosen into the group.”

  “Okay. So will you pontificate on the intricacies of how the Chosen are chosen?” asked Tali.

  “That’s the tricky part. No one really knows. The extra member somehow knew the next one, but how that works has been lost with time. We do know that each member had great skill in magic. Together they moved mountains. But it wasn’t their magic that made them the Chosen, it was their ability to solve the big problems. All creatures in the group were gifted.”

  “Creatures?” asked Sarah.

  “Sure. The group of five, the Chosen, changed from time to time. The members in the group could be male or female, human, elf, troll, or whatever,” said Kevin.

  “Even pixie?” asked Tali.

  “The Chosen could be anything living. With one member from each country, it’d be rare for the members to be the same species.

  “For a long time the Chosen kept balance in the world. The Chosen worked in the background, preventing wars and rebellions. Having members from all over the world, the Chosen had no alliances to one specific country or species. Their decisions were not always popular, but, over time, their decisions proved them wise. The Chosen were respected.

  “They dethroned kings and appointed new leaders. They settled disputes for any who asked for their aid. The Chosen organized quarantines in cities to prevent the spread of disease. In some circumstances many people died, but, in the long run, the decision saved thousands of lives. They would help anyone—rich, poor, king, or peasant. They would go anywhere, to any country, to where their help was needed most. Eventually they became quite popular, and often entire cities would celebrate having the Chosen visit their town,” said Kevin.

  “How is it that I’ve never heard of the Chosen?” asked Sarah.

  “Here’s where the story gets interesting. Few today know of the Chosen because, well, they’ve disappeared,” said Kevin.

  “A little over two hundred years ago, a serious problem arose. Zolf Heller had just become king of Zantia. He has the Talent to sap life out of the country’s population so he could live forever. Zolf steals life from the peasants and commoners who can’t protect themselves. No one really knows how old he actually is. Over time he gradually changed from ruler to eternal king.

  “He declared war against Tenland and has been slowly pushing the boundaries for the last two centuries. Shortly after the war began, the Chosen were asked to help.”

  “This King Zolf sounds lacking in mental fortitude,” commented John.

  “It gets worse,” said Kevin. “The Chosen met with Zolf Heller. They barely escaped that meeting with their lives. The Chosen realized that Zantia’s king had to be stopped. They met with the leaders of the other countries. Only war could end the king’s madness. King Zolf had to be brought down by force.

  “Now you have to remember things were different then. The countries had lived in peace with one another for centuries. The leaders thought the Chosen were too harsh. Thus, the separate countries ignored the Chosen’s advice and decided to ignore the problem. This was the first time in centuries that people didn’t follow the Chosen’s decision.”

  “But Tenland has been at war with King Zolf for years,” said Sarah.

  “True, but only because Zolf kept expanding. Tenland had war pushed upon them. But let me finish about the Chosen. This is where the seer comes in. King Zolf knew the Chosen to be dangerous enemies. The king received counsel from a seer. The seer didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. She simply said that the end of his reign would come at the hands of the Chosen.

  “You can guess the king’s response to the seer. He created chaos agents to hunt down and kill the Chosen. Now don’t get me wrong. The Chosen had skills and great abilities, but they had become accustomed to love and respect everywhere they went. They could handle an occasional rogue assassin, but they weren’t ready for the assault of an entire army of agents trained solely to kill them. All five were killed.”

  “Whoa! That’s terrible,” said Tali.

  “Now as I said before, once one of a member of the Chosen dies, he or she or it is replaced by another member. In the past when one member died, the Chosen would find the next member. No one alive today knows how the Chosen were picked. We hear stories of a new Chosen appearing, but only one at a time. The king’s chaos agents have continued their hunts. They’ve destroyed all Chosen or even potential Chosen.

  “We’ve seen them hang a ninety-seven-year-old woman who couldn’t get out of bed. We’ve seen them throw a newborn baby down a well. They have no limits. They are focused on killing anyone destined, or potentially destined, to be a Chosen. The king especially despises magical creatures. He began a campaign to exile nonhuman species, which worked quite well. Currently the country of Zantia has pretty much only humans in it. His royal decree to destroy nonhuman species obviously offended other species in the world.”

  “Wait. So you think I might be one of these Chosen?” Sarah asked.

  “We don’t know, but there are a few ways to tell,” said Kevin.

  “How do you two know all this?” asked John, hovering nearby.

  “Well,” said Kevin, looking over at Mullet. Mullet nodded, and Kevin continued. “You see, Mully and I have a complicated past. We are trained fighters, but we’re a bit more than that. You see, we’re paladins. Our main purpose is to stop King Zolf’s agents. Paladins have been trying to give potential Chosen the chance to take down the Dark King for years. We’re outnumbered, poorly supplied, and have close to zero funding. We just don’t have the resources that the Dark King has,” said Kevin.

  “So where does Sarah fit into this?” asked John.

  “That’s why we need a seer. All seers, well, all real seers will be able to give the same fortune to the same person. They can tell if someone has the potential. Somehow chaos agents can see potential Chosen like seers can. We’re always a step behind,” said Kevin. He stopped to get a quick drink and realized Sarah looked terrified.

  “I’m sorry, Sarah. I’m not trying to scare you. Most likely this will all come to nothing. Mullet and I really wanted to come to Grandeur to get away from the endless chasing for a while. We’ve been at it so long we imagine agents everywhere. Being a paladin makes us a bit paranoid at times. In all our travels, we’ve never once found a potential Chosen before the chaos agents did. Usually we track an agent and try to bring them to justice. It’s just following the trail of dead bodies and then …”

  “Kevin,” Mullet said.

  “Yeah?” said Kevin.

  “Shut up.”

  Sarah had become ashen. She tried to keep straight the swirling thoughts in her head. The two hired guards apparently hunted and killed men for a living. Granted they hunted killers … but still.

  “Listen, we’ll get an appointment with a seer. It’ll be all right,” said Kevin.

  Sarah went to the bathroom and vomited.