At the Tarot Club meeting.
After the Hermit and the World concluded their deal, the World finally said, "I have no more trades."
The gathering fell silent for a few seconds before Emlyn the Moon said to Fors the Magician, "I'll pay you for the leads you provided today."
He now had three leads in all: one that could pinpoint the target, and two that indicated the general area where the target operated.
Fors nodded. "All right."
Xio would have another source of income, though Fors would take an "intermediary fee" of around ten percent.
Emlyn turned to the Sun. "I have the Elder Tree roots and all the supplementary materials you wanted.
"Give me a list of the monsters around the City of Silver, and I'll choose a few items of equivalent value.
"They cost me 2,000 pounds in total. Add my fee of 200 pounds, and that comes to 2,200 pounds."
"All right. Thank you, Mr. Moon." Derrick the Sun was delighted. Suddenly, Mr. Moon didn't seem quite so irritating.
He quickly conjured the list and handed it to Emlyn the Moon.
Emlyn looked it over, then cleared his throat. "This one, this one, and this one."
Derrick carefully noted his choices and said he could gather everything within two days at most.
With that deal concluded, silence settled over the gathering again.
Just as everyone wondered why Little Sun hadn't asked the Hermit about Beyonder Weapons this time, Derrick the Sun looked at him. "Mr. Hermit, on our way back, I think we saw the unusual thing you mentioned."
The others immediately recalled the strange request the Hermit had made at their last meeting: he had asked the Sun to watch for anything unusual in the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
They had all found it odd