Book Five, Chapter 53: The Forty-Dollar Fortune

The trip out of the outlet mall was just as treacherous as the trip in, but we pulled it off, and I could tell that our mood was better because of this seemingly normal mini-vacation. The wheelbarrow was outside, just where we left it. I quickly walked over and placed my purchases, including my television, inside of it—as did pretty much everyone else.

Michael insisted on being the one to push it. He was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, and he wanted to show off his guns—not just the one tucked in his waistband.

As he picked up the wheelbarrow, he glanced at the television, and I thought maybe it occurred to him that it looked an awful lot like televisions back home, but if he realized that, he didn’t say anything.

Michael mostly talked when he was sarcastic, using dark humor, or angry. Other than that, he was fairly quiet, though I wasn’t sure if that was his real personality or if it was just because we weren’t close yet.

“Where to next?” Kimberly asked with a smile on her face. For Kimberly, today was about as good as any day in Carousel could get, and I was happy about that.

Everyone gathered around, and we explained our next move.

Well, I explained it.

“First things first,” I said. “We need to get off of this lawn because there’s something trying to break up through the grass over there. I don’t know if you can see that…”

“Oh, damn!” Isaac said, jumping away from where he was standing about five feet from whatever it was that was pushing up through the grass.

We moved over to the parking lot.

“All right, as you all know, the number one priority right now—given our levels and all the things we have to accomplish in the next few months—is that we need to figure out what storyline Logan Maize and Avery Lawson are trapped behind. To be honest, there’s not a lot of guidance in the Atlas, and frankly, it feels like finding a needle in a haystack. All we know is that it features werewolves, and we know its general location, so we’re going to go out and look around. We’re going to go to Omen shops in hopes that we can find a mobile omen for the story.”

Everyone nodded in a generally good mood.

“What are the odds that we find it?” Michael asked. It would seem he was yet another person who wasn’t comfortable with optimism.

“We’re going to look until we do find them,” Antoine said, “even if we have to turn over every single shop in Carousel. You have my word.”

Antoine must have been getting bad because he was really laying the gung-ho attitude on thick.

“I would say our odds are very small of finding the omen outright,” I said, “but I think that if we ask around, there are several ways we can find that storyline. We know that Paragons are able to give you tickets to specific storylines, so that’s another thing that we’ll be trying today. There are no promises being made here.”

I hated to undercut Antoine’s message, but I had no idea what our odds of finding the right omen were.

Oddly, if I wasn’t mistaken, I thought Michael liked my answer more. I knew that I would have if I were in his position.

Andrew started to clap and encourage the others in much the same way that Antoine did, although I thought that Andrew was just doing it to humor Antoine.

“Show us the way,” he said.

And I did.

Our first stop was a semi-familiar haunt we had been to twice before. It was a little psychic shop in the middle of a strip mall (we were hitting all the different kinds of malls that day except for the real one) parking lot that had largely been abandoned. The entire area was overcome with the sounds coming from the fur store. Roars and screams.

From the outside, it looked like the establishment of any palm reader in any town in the U.S., but I knew that inside, there were powerful things.

“Andrew, Michael, and Lila,” I said, “you definitely need to go in and talk to her. Your connection to Logan and Avery should help her nonsense work better. The rest of you can either stay out here or go inside and shop, but I’ll warn you, there are a lot of purchasable omens in here, and some of them can get you if you’re not paying attention. Cassie, if you want to come in and look around for psychic stuff, whatever. Isaac, you’re the lookout.”

I could trust Isaac to be on the lookout, especially in this spot, because I knew that no omens were coming by anytime soon.

We had scoped it out before, and the new Atlas had some information on it, but it was still good to give him responsibility every once in a while so that he didn’t revert to being a slacker.

He nodded and seemed to take the job seriously.

The psychic shop was exactly as I remembered it, except there was more stuff now, including keepsakes and trope items.

Silas, the mechanical showman, was still broken down in the corner.

As per usual, after a few moments of browsing through the archaic goods and occult items, Madam Celia made a shocking surprise entrance.

“I know why you have come,” she said. “Come with me. I will do a reading for you, but be warned—the price will be great, and not just in coin.”

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The price was great in coin too because it cost 40 dollars, which was twice as much as I paid for my magic television.

Still, this was important, and the cost likely reflected the reward.

Likely.

“I’m going with them,” I said to Cassie. “Use your magic sensing trope not to touch anything that will kill you.”

“What if it will kill others?” she asked.

“Better leave those alone, too, just to be safe,” I said.

Andrew, Michael, Lila, and I squeezed into a booth in the back of the shop.

I didn’t really need to be there, but they didn’t say anything, and frankly, if she was going to give us some clue, I wanted to hear it myself. I was sure that Andrew would take things seriously and give me a good account, but still.

Madam Celia was in a flamboyant mood that day. While she always wore the purple dress and crazy jewelry, she often had a serious look on her face, like she was impatient with ignorant players for not understanding her fortunes.

She examined Andrew, Michael, and Lila one at a time. She gingerly reached out, grabbed their hands, and moved her fingers over their palms, around their wrists, and up their arms.

“A very skilled doctor,” she said, examining Andrew.

“You knew violence long before you came to Carousel, I see,” she said to Michael.

That wasn’t too impressive; she was just basically describing their archetypes.

She was still examining Michael when she said, “Your anger at Carousel—it’s potent. Anger because it trapped you, anger because it tricked you, and anger from a broken heart.”

“That’s not what we’re here for,” Michael said. He pulled his hand back, and for the rest of the time we were there, he leaned back on the bench as if hoping she wouldn’t read him again.

For Lila, she said, “You seek redemption, and you will find it, but perhaps it won’t be what you hoped for.”