The divination room was neither lavish nor particularly mysterious.
It was simply a small room Kez had partitioned off for private readings, furnished with two sofas facing each other across a table.
“Please, have a seat.”
Happy and Pepper sat together on one side while Kez took the seat opposite them.
“What is Mr. Tony Stark’s date of birth?”
“May 29, 1970,” Pepper replied.
Kez nodded, then reached beneath the cuff of his left sleeve and removed an unusual silver bracelet.
Suspended from the end of its chain was a perfectly clear piece of yellow crystal.
Pepper watched the object curiously.
‘Is that what he uses for crystal divination?’
It wasn’t quite what she had imagined.
Happy, meanwhile, was practically shouting inside his own head.
‘Here it comes.
This is the famous crystal divination!’
Kez held the silver chain between the fingers of his left hand, allowing the citrine pendulum to hang perfectly still in midair.
“Tony Stark, born May 29, 1970.”
With his right hand, he picked up the tie Tony had previously worn and slowly brushed it down the length of the silver chain without letting the fabric touch the crystal itself.
Once he had finished, Kez half-closed his eyes.
Happy and Pepper watched in complete silence.
A moment later, the citrine suspended at the end of the chain began to move.
Both of them stared.
They were certain Kez hadn’t caused it by moving his wrist.
His arm remained perfectly steady, without even the slightest visible tremor, yet the crystal was beginning to swing on its own.
For the first time since entering the shop, Pepper found herself genuinely unsettled by how mysterious the man sitting across from her seemed.
‘Tony Stark is dead.’
Kez silently repeated the statement seven times.
Under Happy and Pepper’s attentive gazes, the citrine and its silver chain began rotating counterclockwise.
Neither of them understood what the movement meant, but when they saw that Kez still had his eyes closed, they resisted the urge to interrupt him.
Although Kez wasn’t looking at the pendulum with his ordinary sight, he could see its rotation perfectly clearly through his spiritual perception.
Once the crystal came to a stop, he moved on to the next statement.
‘Tony Stark is alive.’
Again, he repeated it silently seven times.
This time, the citrine began rotating clockwise.
‘Tony Stark’s life is in danger.’
The pendulum moved again, but its rotation was slow and gentle.
Once he had completed the divination, Kez opened his eyes.
This was the first time he had performed a divination using the actual abilities of a Sequence 9 Seer since drinking the potion.
It was fundamentally different from the magical divination he had practiced before, and Kez had partly used the opportunity as a test.
Pepper immediately leaned forward.
“Mr. Merlin, what did you find?”
Kez looked between her and Happy.
“Tony Stark is currently alive. He has been through a serious ordeal and sustained injuries.”
“He will face further danger in the near future, but the danger is manageable and should not threaten his life.”
“That is his present situation.”
Both of them visibly relaxed.
Pepper murmured under her breath, “He’s alive. That’s what matters. As long as he’s alive…”
If the divination was accurate, then their next step was obvious.
They needed to pressure the military into expanding the search effort in Afghanistan.
As long as Tony was alive, there was still hope of bringing him home.
“Thank you very much,” Pepper said.
She was already preparing to leave.
There was no time to waste; she needed to speak with the military and push for a wider, more aggressive search operation as soon as possible.
Happy, however, suddenly asked, “Mr. Merlin, could you bring Tony back yourself?”
Pepper stopped and stared at him.
The look on her face practically asked the question for her.
‘You think a fortune-teller can actually do that?’
Kez, on the other hand, almost found the situation funny.
As the Fool, he had already accepted Tony’s request for rescue.
Now Happy was separately hiring him to accomplish the exact same thing.
He was about to get paid multiple times for one job.
Kez kept his expression perfectly composed.
“That would cost extra.”
Pepper’s expression immediately became serious.
“How much?”
Kez shook his head.
“Tony Stark is the billionaire chairman of Stark Industries, and he’s currently being held by an armed group somewhere in Afghanistan. Rescuing him will not be easy.”
Pepper didn’t hesitate.
“If you can bring Tony back alive, name your price. We won’t bargain.”
“I don’t want money,” Kez replied.
“Instead, I want you to help me locate three unusual items.”
“I’ll give you the details after I’ve brought Tony Stark back.” Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
The fact that he wasn’t asking for money—and wasn’t even demanding payment until after Tony had been safely returned—removed most of Pepper’s remaining hesitation.
“Agreed.”
Happy grinned.
“Even if you ask for the First Lady’s underwear, we’ll find a way.”
Pepper frowned at him, though she notably didn’t contradict the promise.
Kez stared at Happy in disbelief.
“Buddy, what the hell would I do with that?”
He shook his head.
“You’ll receive the information on the items once Tony Stark is back. Trust me, finding them won’t be impossible, though I wouldn’t call it easy either.”
Pepper asked, “How long before we know whether you’ve succeeded?”
Kez thought about the next Tarot Club gathering, scheduled for Monday.
“You’ll have an answer within seven days. No later than next Monday.”
Pepper’s eyes brightened.
She stood and extended her hand across the table.
“Mr. Merlin, we’re trusting you with Tony.”
Kez shook her hand and smiled.
“Pleasure doing business.”
…
After seeing the two of them out, Kez closed the Arcana Cabana for the day.
Anger, who had been lying beneath the counter, got to his feet and padded over.
Kez scratched the golden retriever’s head.
“I’m going away for a while to take care of something. You know where the food is, so feed yourself.”
“I also bought you a few books. Go through them when you have time and hurry up and learn how to talk.”
Anger bounced up and barked twice.
“Woof! Woof!”
Kez caught both of his front paws for a moment, then gave his head another affectionate rub once the dog dropped back to the floor.
Afterward, he turned toward the bedroom to begin preparing everything he would need for Tony Stark’s rescue.
Back in his room, Kez gathered several photographs and slipped them into his bag.
Among them were images of a giant wolf, a massive steel eagle, a camel, and several other creatures.
“Too bad I don’t have a Sealed Artifact from the Door Pathway. That would make this a lot easier.”
“Hopefully some of those Characteristics eventually find their way to me.”
He paused as another problem occurred to him.
“Finding a glass surface suitable for Mirror Magic in the middle of a desert could be difficult. I’ll need a workaround.”
Kez thought for a moment before remembering something.
“Right. There should be an enchanted gourd around here that can hold a ridiculous amount of water. A water mirror might work just as well.”