The Innkeeper

Lex smiled. That's why he liked Vera so much, she was extremely direct. It saved him a lot of time. The only concern he had now was if Leslie would be able to accurately predict the future.

"That depends on what kind of payment you want," Lex stated as he observed the young girl. Besides her four eyes, she looked completely normal, though Lex could not decide if that was a good thing or not. After all, the more special she was, the better her chances of predicting his future, right?

"How much do you know about predicting the future? Not much, I suppose. I don't want you complaining that the price is too high later, so let me tell you a little something. Since the future possibilities are endless, every oracle, diviner, prophet, or basically any profession that deals with looking into the future sets themselves up with extreme restrictions. These restrictions limit the streams of the future they see, thereby increasing their accuracy tremendously.

"Some like to keep their restrictions private, but others advertise their restrictions as it gets them more clients. I specialize in a very specific kind of foretelling that peers into an alternate reality linked to your shadow. The details are irrelevant, but what matters is that I am extremely sensitive to incoming opportunities or dangers."

It sounded like exactly what Lex needed. But the more potent the ability, the higher the cost would be as well, not that he cared about the cost particularly.

"I'm convinced, but you still need to tell me the price first," said Lex. Even if he didn't care, he couldn't let others know that he had the wealth of a dragon.

Leslie looked hesitant, and even turned to look back at Vera, who only nodded encouragingly. Among them all, Vera's ability had the greatest restriction, which is why her predictions were also usually the best. But even then, that did not guarantee 100% the same outcome as the prediction.

She looked at Lex with a hint of guilt in her eyes, but it lasted only a moment before her expression became firm.

"I have 116 sparks leftover from a lightning tribulation within my soul. Until and unless they are removed, I cannot do any forecasts. If you want me to help you, you have to remove those sparks first."

Lex… raised an eyebrow as he looked at Leslie. Why did that not sound so hard? Wait, lightning tribulation? Was Leslie an immortal? She didn't look or feel like one.

"How did you get… sparks of lightning tribulation stuck in your soul?"

"When divining the future, if you look upon something that was meant to remain hidden, then you are punished by the heavens. Do not ask more about this, as this is not a topic that can be easily shared. You may think this price is steep, but I cannot divine anything until those sparks are removed, even if I wanted to."

Leslie felt a little bad offering such a high price to whoever this was. She knew how difficult it was to deal with matters of the soul, and then matters related to lightning tribulations. When both of those matters were combined, the difficulty could be imagined. One of the reasons she was attending this meeting to begin with was to find someone who could help her with this issue, as it was a common one among their professions.

"Sure, I'll do it. Do you want to do it here, or do you want to go somewhere first?" asked Lex, to the surprise of Leslie.

"Don't you need to prepare?" she could not help but ask. Even the others were surprised by how casual Lex sounded. Suddenly, they realized that they may have stumbled upon a great opportunity!

"No, I can do it now. Besides, I'm in a bit of a rush," said Lex. Although he said he did not need to prepare, he did summon the Lightning vessel. The Lightning vessel was a small container in the shape of a thunderbolt that could be used to store a single strand of unique lightning. Although it said a single strand, he assumed he could fit multiple sparks inside to form that strand, right? There was only one way to find out. Though, he still had to be careful, for he did not know how dangerous those sparks really were.

"Alight, we can begin right here. Do you need me to do anything?"

"Stand still," said Lex as he enveloped her with his soul sense and began to locate the sparks.

Unlike Lex, whose soul was merged with his body, others usually did not have a soul in a fixed shape until they entered the Nascent realm. Leslie was clearly not there yet, for her soul was in the form of an unusual blob that filled her body.

Just as she said, there were many sparks inside her soul, with most stuck right at the surface, but a few that reached deeper within.

Lex took off his glove and revealed his very raw hand, startling the crowd, but he didn't care about that. He used Impervious Hands and merged it with his soul sense, allowing it to gain the ability to touch souls.

Slowly, and ever so carefully, he reached out and grabbed the spark that was trapped within her soul. Even with the protection of Impervious Hands, Lex felt his fingers burning as the spark went from zapping her soul to zapping his hand.

Even though he was in pain, he could not react abruptly lest he accidentally hurt Leslie's soul instead. Slowly, he pulled out his hand and stored the single spark inside the Lightning vessel, which gained a soft glow.

He looked at his right hand and saw that a small bit of meat on his index finger and thumb had actually turned to ash! Moreover, around the ash, the remaining meat actually crystalized.

"How the hell did you survive an entire lightning bolt of that?" Lex could not help but ask.

"How the hell can you grab lightning?" Leslie asked back, just as bewildered.

"How the hell are you alive with so many sparks inside your soul?" Lex asked back, as to prove that she was the bigger freak in this situation.

Leslie did not answer, nor did Lex focus on the actual answer, either. Instead, he began the process again. This time, knowing what to expect, Lex was slow to approach the spark but quick to retreat, depositing the spark within the vessel.

The process was painful, extremely painful at that, but simple otherwise. Around them, all the others stood up and stared in shock as Lex casually achieved what normally took massive and expensive formations that relied on rare treasures. Well, casually was pushing it since it did hurt his fingers somewhat. By the time Lex was pulling out the fiftieth spark, he had to shift to his left hand because the bone in his right thumb had become visible.

But, before he started with his left hand, Lex tried something additional. He used Domination as well. He was not familiar with the extent of his abilities' utility, and this was a good opportunity to find out.

When he actually tried again, unbelievably, the spark was unable to hurt Lex as much as before. Lex was intrigued, the others were awed, and Vera could not help but feel incredibly proud. Since she could only see her own future, naturally helping Leslie would benefit herself sometime in the future.

To be more specific, she already knew the identity of this man who had covered his face with a mask. In the future, he would come to her again, and by then their history of having worked well together a few times would already be established. By then, she'd be able to help him find her future husband!

Vera almost burst into maniacal laughter as she thought of her plan, but quickly controlled herself. She had to maintain her dignity.

Eventually, without any unexpected incidents, Lex took out all the sparks. The Lightning vessel, too, was now giving off a bluish-silverish glow, as if it was almost filled to capacity.

He planned on using this lightning to help him improve the tribulation room later on. For now, he turned to look at Leslie, who looked completely bewildered.

"I believe now it's your turn," said Lex, ignoring the smoke coming out of his hands. So in the end, he still ended up burning both hands despite Impervious Hands and Domination.

Waking up from her reverie, Leslie looked at Lex with great admiration.

"Let's go somewhere private. I never do divinations in public," she said.

"I know just the place," Lex said and led her to the Chamber of Secrets. There was literally no place more private within the Inn.

As soon as they entered and got seated, Leslie began using her powers. Her regular eyes lost color, as if she was blind, and her eyes atop her forehead became black, as if they were reflecting endless darkness.

"I see a lot of regret," she said ominously, getting right into the thick of things.