CHAPTER 2: EPISODE 1 BALANCE
Kael woke as golden sunlight spilled through the small window above his bed, slicing the dim room into bars of gold. He dressed carefully black silk trousers, a coat as dark as midnight, polished boots gleaming under the light. The clothes were stolen, but they made him feel like someone else. Someone respectable.
Today, he told himself, he would not be a thief. Today, he would find honest work.
He caught his reflection in a warped shard of glass and smirked. His posture straightened, his head lifted.
With how good I look today, who could possibly turn me down?
The marketplace buzzed with life. Merchants shouted, customers argued, coins clinked from hand to hand. Kael wandered through the crowd until he spotted a tent, manned by an old man hunched like dry bones waiting to crumble.
"Jackpot," Kael muttered. Surely an old man like that would welcome help.
He approached with a polite smile. "Good sir, may I work here?"
The old man smiled kindly but shook his head.
"Young man, worry less about me and more about yourself. You're not suited for this place."
Kael's heart pounded. Anger sparked, threatening to spill over. I wasn't doing this for you, old geezer. I need this.
But he swallowed it down, forcing a calm reply.
"Oh… alright then."
Shop after shop, stall after stall rejection after rejection. Each refusal chipped away at him until his confidence cracked.
"Guess I'll be stuck stealing forever," he muttered, dragging his feet.
Then he saw it: a lonely stall, nearly abandoned. A sign fluttered above it:
Come one, come all! Have your fortune revealed by the beloved daughter of the Witches' Cult!
Kael nearly laughed until he noticed the second line.
Free of charge.
Curiosity tugged at him, pulling him inside.
The tent was cloaked in shadows, lit only by a single candle. The air was thick, heavy, strange. A woman sat at the center, her face painted with vibrant colors, her presence draped in a dark aura that clung to the fabric walls.
The instant Kael stepped inside, her body jolted as though struck by unseen lightning.
"Sit," she said calmly, motioning to the cushion across from her.
Kael hesitated, then obeyed.
"You came to hear your fortune?" she asked.
He nodded.
She stretched out her hand. "Give me yours."
Kael reluctantly extended his arm. When she reached to remove his glove, he snatched it back, hiding the mark branded into his skin.
"I can't read your fortune without touching your bare hand," she said, tilting her head.
He wrestled with himself. Finally, he whispered, "Promise me… whatever you see stays between us. No one else."
"My readings are bound in secrecy. Not even the Bureau could force me to speak. Do we begin again?"
Kael exhaled slowly, then extended his arm once more.
The woman pulled off his glove. She did not flinch at the mark her expression as steady as stone, as if she had seen worse.
Her fingers closed around his hand. She chanted softly, her voice a low murmur, and electric currents coiled in the air. Her eyes rolled back, her body shuddering, sweat trailing down her painted skin. The tent trembled with the weight of something unseen.
Then silence. She gasped and released him, breath ragged.
"I can't see your future," she said at last. "But I can see your luck."
Kael leaned forward. "Why?"
"A superior force shields you. But… you are the first in my long life to carry equal properties of luck both blessed and cursed. You are the yin and yang of fortune."
Kael frowned. "Is that good… or bad?"
She stared at him, her eyes sharp, her tone uncertain.
"Even I cannot say."
Kael rose without another word. He had learned one thing from the trials never ask too many questions.
As he left, the woman lowered her hood, a strange grin tugging at her lips.
"Who is she," she murmured, "that even I cannot see past?"
Kael stalked back into the streets, suspicion gnawing at him. Scam or not, it left a sour taste in his mouth.
"Great. Scammed, no job, no second chances. Just me and nothing to show for it."
Then his eyes caught a poster pinned to a wall.
Wanted: Young, intelligent, magically gifted applicants to join the Bureau.
Kael's lips curled into a smirk. He patted his chest proudly.
"Finally something written for me."