The Clocks

In a city as large as Metz, their "accomplishment" of destroying that particular group of bandits made barely a ripple. In spite of their fairly widespread activities, the bandits has directly impacted less than 1% of those who lived there. Even in the countryside they were known mostly by those who lived on isolated farms and small villages and had survived their attacks.

It was Mario and Genie's activities in the book market that eventually planted their names in the minds of a fairly large number of city dwellers. There were already several small bookstores. At their first stop, the sign in the window said only, "Books. Robin Pascal proprietor." According to the twins, its owner had wanted to expand for some time but had chafed at the paucity of decent books that would justify a larger space. When Mario and Genie arrived, at least 60% of those in Metz who were buying books had agents shipping them from Paris or Reims.

When they initially approached the owner, she was mildly receptive. Travellers with books to sell were fairly common, though they rarely had anything of interest. Even then it was uncommon that they had taken proper care of the volumes, and they were usually damaged.

Her enthusiasm increased when Genie lifted their sample package to the counter. It was carefully wrapped in a fine material that...well, Robin wasn't sure what it was. Obviously not oilcloth as that could of itself have damaged a book. What was of import was that it seemed like it would be waterproof.

After Genie had finished unwrapping the books, Robin did her best to put on her poker face, but it was far too late. Both Mario and Genie had seen the glint of "OH MY GOD!" in her eyes when she saw both the condition of the books and the titles.

As she was saying that, yes, she would probably be interested in the books, if the price was reasonable, Mario casually asked if Madame Pascal would perhaps be interested in viewing the other 700 odd books they had with them.

Robin disappeared from sight, followed by a "thud" as she collapsed to the floor. Genie rushed around the end of the counter to see if she had been injured. What she saw was a woman carefully cradling the book she'd been holding when she'd fallen. She had a beatific smile on her face and was murmuring over and over, "Books. Wonderful, glorious books. Hundreds and hundreds of lovely books."

Genie knelt beside Robin and carefully shook her shoulder until her eyes began to focus again. "Oh. Dear me. Oh my. Please forgive me. I don't know what to say!"

Smiling back at her Genie said, "You needn't say anything. We wouldn't be here with so many books if we didn't love them too."

So saying, Genie stood and offered Mme. Pascal a hand up after which Genie brushed her off, as she still had the book clasped tightly to her chest.

Mario's smile was amused, but also compassionate as he slowly looked around the shop. "Perhaps here would not be the best place to see what we have to offer. You really don't have enough space to perform a thorough examination. Might I suggest the meeting room at The Bank of The Griffon?"

Robin nodded dumbly, still somewhat in shock. Like most people of a bookish turn, she didn't cope with sudden, unexpected changes very well.

Mario smiled and continued, "Very well then. I'll arrange it. The question is what day. Would tomorrow afternoon be too soon?"

Robin shook her head "no" vigorously as her excitement was beginning to overcome her numbness.

Genie finished by saying, "Then let's do that. It will take us several hours to get everything inside and properly unpacked. I expect that we can begin around 2 p.m. If need be, we can arrange dinner there, and continue however long you'll need."

Robin smiled, wholeheartedly. She had no idea what was going on, but at the moment she didn't care. Even if she ended up not buying anything at all...well, she'd probably purchase at least a few books no matter what...she still was looking forward to seeing what they had.

With that they parted company, and Robin, reluctantly, surrendered the samples.

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As they were on their way back to The Peddlar, Genie took Mario's hand. "Guide me. I need to talk to the others, and I can't do both that and watch where I'm going."

Mario nodded. They'd worked this out early in their travels, so it was almost second-nature now.

"Yoko, Jason, Biki. I need to talk to you right now. Can two of you get free from whatever you're doing?"

There was a barely understandable, heavily distorted, "Yessss, sssoon." Apparently Jason was by himself.

A few minutes later Yoko's voice began with, "OK. Biki 'slipped' and banged her knee, so we're at the nurse's office getting it checked. We can't write anything down, so keep it short enough that we can memorize whatever it is."

"That's fine Yoko." Genie explained the situation, ending with, "We're going to need a letter from your father, my father, or better yet both, directing the manager here to cooperate fully with Mario, and authorizing Mario to approve a loan of up to 10,000 ducats (however much that is in francs) in order to fund the 'expansion of suitable, already successful businesses' now that there have been no further signs of plague in the past two years."

"Yeah, can do. And I think I'll have him add something about not just sending Mario ta deliver the latest policies, but also to 'assist' the manager there in ferreting out said new opportunities due ta her heavy work load. I 'spect that Mario can easily bamboozle the manager with the appropriate profit figures resulting from such a loan. Right?"

Genie giggled. "Of course he can, though I think I'll phrase it a bit more diplomatically when I'm briefing him. Anyway, that's it for now. Tell my sibs that we're at the Balancing Peddlar Inn. We'll be there from about 3 p.m. on, so they can just pop in after they get home from school."

"Will do. See ya later. Bye."

"All right wench, give! What were you two up to. That laugh at the end there sounded rather wicked."

"What? Me? You must be imagining things. Besides, it was 'girl talk'. The details are not for lowly males to know."

Mario didn't even wince when he saw Genie's vacant-eyed, 'mindless female' face. He'd already learned that if she decided to give him that look, conversation was a lost cause.

They spent the rest of the day seeming to sight-see. To any watchers, they'd appear to be no different from any other pilgrims.

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At around 10 minutes before 3 p.m., Genie was surprised by Jason. "Genie, whatever you do, do NOT sell the horses that you got from the bandits. You're going to need them. ALL of them."

She stumbled slightly, grabbing at Mario's sleeve to catch her balance. Seeing him turn to her with surprise, she murmured "Jason," then took his hand.

Genie could "feel" Biki's vigorous nod in the background.

"What? Why not?"

"Actually, we're not quite sure. Priss from the Mule's Tale just left. She said that she'd come with a private message. When we got her into the family parlor, she just stood there sort of glassy eyed, staring at the wall. She said, 'Tell them that they'll need all of the horses plus three more as well. They'll discover the reason within the next few hours, probably. Definitely by tomorrow. The situation is too fluid for me to see anything else that they'll need.'

"The next thing we knew she'd excused herself and left. Before we could even think about talking about what had just happened, Ailin walked in. She said something like, 'Be at peace little ones. Miss Priscilla is a Foreseer. It's a talent nearly as rare as Miss Kaho's Lightweaving. They usually only 'see' events affecting themselves and those close to them. If she saw something in France.... I can't even guess how such might affect The City, but it must be important.'

"So there you have it. If we find out more, we'll let you know. We've sent a message to your mother and mine about what she said, just in case. Since tomorrow is Saturday, I think we'll have lunch at the Mule's Tale and have a little talk with Mrs. Ringvold. If we learn anything else, we'll let you know right away."

As always, Jason didn't bother with saying goodbye, he just stopped without thinking about whether or not Genie might have something to say.

Genie facepalmed and sighed. Within a week of leaving they'd learned that trying to immediately reconnect with the others wouldn't work. There was always a span of anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half where it couldn't be done. Thus far they had no idea as to why.

Mario looked around and, finding no others nearby, stopped and turned to Genie. "All right. Let's get it over with now where nobody can hear us. Give me the bad news first."

Genie shrugged. "It's not bad. At least I don't think so. Probably anyway. It seems that someone named Priss from the Mule's Tale marched into the Fukui's home and announced that we're not to sell the horses we got from the bandits. Not only that, we're to buy three more."

She raised her face to the heavens and stared at the sky. "I don't even know who this 'Priss' is, much less why she showed up at their doorstep. All Jason said is that she's apparently a 'Foreseer' and that Ailin vouched for the accuracy of whatever it is she saw."

"That's it? He didn't say anything else?"

"Not one word, though, to be fair, it sounds like Priss didn't tell Jason and the twins any more that that either."

Mario stroked his chin slowly. "A Foreseer huh? I've heard of them, but I never imagined that someone I know of personally would be one."

Seeing Genie rounding on him with a frown on her face he hurried on, "I've run into Priss now and then. She's one of the upstairs maids at the Mule's Tale. At least she was until recently. I think she's doing something else now as well. I don't know the details, but I've seen her coming out of the room where Alicia and Aldus keep their business records. Each time they followed right behind her. Twice they seemed very pleased about something, and once, well, let's just say not so much."

Genie chuckled. "You mean they looked royally pissed off, right?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't want to come right out and say it. I didn't want to offend you."

She stood on her toes and whacked him, gently, on the top of the head. "I seriously doubt that there's anything you could say that would 'offend my sensibilities'. Mother always says that I don't have any.

"So my love, stop trying to sugar-coat things. I'm a big girl. I can take it. Well, anything except ghost stories. For some reason they really creep me out."

They shared a laugh, then headed back to the inn. They needed to let the horse dealer they had an appointment with know that they were now buying and not selling. They didn't know enough about the market in Metz to know if she was going to be happy or pissed, so they discussed strategies for both situations. First thing in the morning they'd need to make arrangements for the use of the bank's meeting room, and for that they needed to wait for the letter that the twins would be bringing.

To their surprise, the twins appeared just after 3:30 p.m. They'd blinked over as soon as Jason came by with the documents they were to deliver. First things first. Both Consuela and Stavros gave Genie big hugs, and somewhat shorter ones to Mario.

Before Genie could say anything, the twins said, "It's cause we haven't seen you any time during the past three months where we could be sure it was safe to let on that we know you. Sure, we've been handing you messages and packages, but it's not the same and, well, I guess we kinda missed you, or something. So, since we're private here in your room...."

Genie gathered them in her arms and hugged them again. "Well, truth be told, though I'm shocked to realize it, I guess I've kinda missed you two scamps too." Then she stood back and put her hands on her hips, "From the looks of you, you're raring to go exploring."

Seeing their excited nods, she added, "And what about your homework?"

"Oh that...."

"Yes that."

'Suela began, "Lucky for us there wasn't any for the afternoon classes today, and since Jason gave us a heads up about needing to bring you that letter just as lunch started...."

Then Stavros smiled up at his sister. "We finished our morning homework while we were eating. We'll double check it Sunday afternoon, just in case.

"We grabbed a snack before we left, and Mother said that we can stay until just before sunset, which means that we have at least another two hours."

'Suela finished with, "So we're going to go exploring. We hardly saw anything when we were here before except for the bookstores. Besides, you need to know more about how things are laid out here anyway, so we'll stop by before we leave if we see anything worth reporting."

As they'd been speaking, the twins had been inching toward the door. Once Consuela finished speaking, they hurried out the door. Immediately after, rapid footsteps could be heard heading downstairs.

Mario sighed. "I wish I had their energy. If we could just figure out how to store it, I'm sure there'd be a good market for it."

Genie punched him lightly in the upper arm. "You're incorrigible. You'd try to sell the wind if you could figure out how to package it."

Mario nodded seriously. "Yes. That's true. What's your point?"

Her response was to stare at the ceiling, make the "Why me?" gesture, and mutter "Men!," after which they both hurried to make themselves more presentable. Since they'd received the new letter so quickly, they'd be able to meet the manager of the bank today rather than in the morning. There'd be a smaller likelihood of ruffled feathers if they gave her more time to get things ready.