“Soooooo, like, what do we do about it?” The girl unenthusiastically asked, pinly dejected.

  “Whatever you want, I guess. It might help if you had a specialized trainer, or… Something?” He was visibly not confident in these assertions. “I mean, this is uncommon, but it’s not super rare. L-Like, in a big town with a thousand people, maybe like 30 er 50 of ‘em will be like this. It’s niche, but there is a market for it. Actually, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that misc. stuff is getting more popur tely, I think the Academy up in the capital is offering a few csses these days…”

  “Ooooh, greeeeaaat, the Academy…” She broodily rolled her eyes.

  “Aha, yeah…”

  “… what is the academy?” The boy asked.

  “It’s this, uh…” The guy sighed. “Just look it up. In an encyclopedia, or something…”

  Hey, that’s…

  “okay.”

  “Uh, so, anyway- because of your situation, the other magic tests aren’t gonna work, so. I guess you guys could pick something else, or-“

  “Aaallright, we’re done here, c’mon, Bug.” The girl stood up and quickly stepped out of the room, grabbing the colr of the boy’s shirt and dragging him along.

  “okay. bye.” The boy stood up and allowed himself to be dragged.

  “Uh, yeah, buhbye…”

  At st, the enigmatic pair left his little booth.

  The crystal ball guy let out a heavy, relieved sigh. He didn’t smoke, but he was suddenly considering taking it up.

  He pulled his hood down, and leaned back in his chair, and rexed… It’d be good to finally clear his head, after all that…

  . . .

  “AH SHIT THEY LEFT WITHOUT PAYI- Ahhh, to the abyss with it…”