Auspicious Ancestor, Creature
Illus. Zina Saunders

Acidic Dagger, Artifact
Illus. Stuart Beel

Using the ritual the elders call Stalking Prey, I soon caught a magical glimpse of a small waterhole, with a thatched hut standing under a monkeytree, chickens scuttling through the yard. I saw no one, but I have learned patience in my studies, and if the ritual showed me this place, it was because the goats and the goatherd would be there eventually. The ritual gave me a direction to follow, and I did, walking through the dusty afternoon, as the sun fell and clouds came and went. After a time, a small stream began to parallel my path, so I followed its dry little bed.

The stream became a spring. Looking up, I realized that I had arrived: all was as I had seen it in my vision, even the chickens. An old woman sat on a tree outside her door. No goats were in sight yet; surely this woman wasn't the goatherd?

I introduced myself as Jojo, a goatherd, and the old woman asked me to take a seat. I thanked her and nodded as I sat, sinking into the comfortable cushions that were scattered about on the hut's floor. She might be old, but she wasn't poor.

I was adjusting my legs in the pillows for a sudden leap when I saw, on the far side of the hut, shelves peppered with conqueror root, mandrake, a monkey skull, serpents' teeth. The old woman was a sorceress or oracle of some kind. I resolved to move with caution.

The old woman spoke, saying, "My child, I knew you were coming. But where are your goats?" She set down a bowl of oranges before me, a small fruit knife laid against their bright skins.

"If you knew I was coming, surely you know I have lost my goats. Tell me, mother, are the omens good for me?"

"Eat, child, and I will see into your future."

I picked up an orange from the bowl, and used the fruit knife to remove the rind. I had a plan to rid myself of the old woman without fear of her magic; I would use magic of my own.

My spells are too weak to be reliable, but in a sheath strapped to my calf was a magic potent enough to kill a colossus. The Acidic Dagger is a great and mysterious magic given to me by my elders; anyone I wound, with any weapon, I can then kill with the dagger. All it requires is the sacrifice of sufficient mana. I closed my eyes, to better find and eat the power I would need. The old woman rattled on about her chickens, her sons and daughters, and the heat of the season.

"Honored elder, would you like some of this fine fruit?" I asked, using my right hand to hold both a slice of the orange and the knife.

"Why, you do have manners, boy." As she reached out to take the orange, I gave her a tiny pinprick with the fruit knife. I pretended not even to notice it. She winced, but was too polite to mention it. I released the mana I had gathered, and charged the dagger to its task. The result was messy, but very quick. I spent considerable time cleaning the blood from the old woman's clothes before I could put them on.

I dumped the old crone's body in the tall grasses and returned to the cool interior of the hut. Sitting on her comfortable cushions, I peeled another orange.