The train waited at the platform, its engine releasing thick clouds of steam into the warm morning air.
Adrian stood beside one of the carriages with his luggage in hand, watching passengers hurry toward their seats. Porters shouted instructions while vendors moved between the crowds, selling food and newspapers.
His journey was continuing.
Bombay had only been the first stage.
From here, he would travel toward his next port before eventually making his way to Hong Kong and, from there, Japan.
Kanazawa.
That was where his divination had pointed.
But the more Adrian thought about it, the more ridiculous the whole situation seemed.
He knew his destination.
He didn't know what he was looking for.
He didn't know who would be waiting for him.
And he certainly didn't know whether whatever awaited him would actually help against Selene.
Adrian sighed.
"Halfway across the world because a pendulum pointed at a city."
He shook his head.
"Perfect."
Yet beneath the sarcasm, his thoughts were becoming increasingly serious.
He had spent the last three years trying to live an ordinary life. Now that life was gone.
Helen was somewhere on her journey to safety.
Bishop was somewhere behind him.
Nova Roma had already demonstrated that Adrian's enemies were willing to cross continents to reach him.
And Selene remained a problem he wasn't remotely prepared to face.
He needed power.
More importantly, he needed an advantage.
His current abilities weren't enough.
He had only recently become a Clown. His physical abilities had improved, his balance and reflexes were considerably sharper, and he had gained the strange ability to transform ordinary paper into Paper Daggers through his spiritual energy.
Useful.
But against Selene?
It was nowhere near enough.
Adrian stepped aboard the train.
As he found his seat, another thought entered his mind.
Maybe I'm approaching this wrong.
For years, he had treated his Seer abilities as tools for discovering information.
Divination.
Observation.
Prediction.
But becoming a Clown had begun changing his understanding.
The Fool didn't simply see the game.
The Fool cheated the game.
That was what he needed to learn.
How to deceive fate.
How to make impossible things possible.
How to take the rules of the supernatural world and find the loopholes hidden inside them.
The train whistle sounded.
Adrian leaned back against his seat.
"Let's see what Japan has waiting for me."
The train began moving.
A few hours into the journey, Adrian checked his remaining money.
His eyebrows rose.
"...That's less than I expected."
The journey had already begun eating into his savings.
Food.
Transportation.
Accommodation.
Tickets.
And he still had weeks ahead of him.
Adrian looked out the window.
He could continue carefully, but eventually he would run out.
He needed money.
And then another thought occurred to him.
A dangerous thought.
His recent experiments.
Adrian reached into his coat.
He had been wondering whether his self-prayer theory could actually work.
He had already discovered that his relationship with Sefirah Castle allowed him to interact with supernatural forces in ways ordinary practitioners couldn't.
Perhaps he could use that connection for something simple.
He didn't need a miracle.
Just luck.
Adrian waited until the carriage was relatively quiet before preparing a simple ritual.
Nothing elaborate.
No complicated materials.
No expensive ingredients.
He simply focused his spirituality and quietly began his prayer.
"I pray thee..."
He paused.
Then continued.
"The Fool. Dominator of Fate. Master of Sefirah Castle. Keeper of Mysteries."
His voice was barely audible.
"Grant me good fortune."
Nothing happened.
Adrian waited.
Still nothing.
He frowned.
"Well, that was disappointing."
Then the passenger sitting across from him suddenly dropped a small leather wallet.
The man didn't notice.
Adrian stared at it.
Then looked toward the man.
"Excuse me."
The passenger looked down.
His face immediately changed.
"My wallet!"
He picked it up and checked inside.
"Thank you."
Adrian nodded.
"No problem."
The man returned to reading.
Adrian stared at him.
Then at his own hands.
A few minutes later, a conductor approached.
"Sir?"
Adrian looked up.
The conductor handed him a small envelope.
"This was left for you at the station."
Adrian frowned.
"For me?"
"Apparently."
The conductor walked away.
Adrian opened the envelope.
Inside was money.
A payment he had completely forgotten about.
He stared at it.
Then slowly smiled.
"You have got to be kidding me."
It wasn't a miracle.
The money hadn't appeared from nowhere.
His prayer had simply caused circumstances to align in his favor.
A forgotten payment.
A dropped wallet.
Small coincidences.
But the result was the same.
His luck had changed.
Adrian leaned back.
"So it works."
His smile widened.
"I can pray to myself."
He immediately became serious.
That realization was far more important than the money.
He had just demonstrated that his self-prayer theory wasn't completely impossible.
The question was how far he could take it.
And what it would cost.
Adrian didn't notice the faint spiritual residue lingering around him.
Nor did he notice that someone else had already noticed it.
Several days earlier, in Bombay, a mystic had observed Adrian.
At first, the man had assumed Adrian was simply another traveler with some minor supernatural ability.
Then he had felt something.
Something faint.
Something almost impossible to detect.
Corruption.
It wasn't strong.
It wasn't aggressive.
But it existed.
And it seemed to be radiating from Adrian himself.
The mystic had watched from a distance.
The strange man appeared completely ordinary.
Yet there was something fundamentally wrong about his spiritual presence.
It felt as though something higher was looking through him.
Or perhaps something higher was slowly forming around him.
The mystic couldn't determine which.
He didn't approach.
Instead, he returned to Kamar-Taj.
The Ancient One listened carefully to the report.
"You believe he's possessed?"
"No."
"An artifact?"
"Possibly, but I sensed nothing attached to him."
"Then what did you sense?"
The mystic hesitated.
"Corruption."
The Ancient One's expression changed slightly.
"What kind?"
"I don't know."
That answer concerned her more than a specific answer would have.
The Ancient One raised the Eye of Agamotto.
The Time Stone began to glow.
She reached through time.
The past unfolded.
The present.
Possible futures.
She searched for the stranger.
For a moment, she saw London.
Then Bombay.
Then a ship.
Then Japan.
But every time she attempted to focus on Adrian himself, something strange happened.
The image blurred.
Not because someone was hiding him.
Not because the Time Stone was being resisted.
The timeline itself seemed unwilling to settle around him.
She could see events surrounding him.
She could see consequences.
She could see possibilities.
But Adrian himself remained strangely indistinct.
The Ancient One tried again.
The result was the same.
She slowly lowered the Eye.
The mystic watched her.
"Master?"
The Ancient One remained silent.
"Can you see him?"
"I can see what happens around him."
She paused.
"But not him."
"Is he protected?"
"I don't know."
"Could he be hiding himself?"
The Ancient One shook her head.
"I don't believe he is even aware that this is happening."
That was the most disturbing possibility.
She had encountered beings capable of resisting temporal observation.
But this felt different.
It wasn't as though Adrian stood outside time.
It was more like—
time didn't know where to place him.
The Ancient One looked toward the window.
"Continue observing him."
"Should we intervene?"
"No."
"Why?"
The Ancient One's gaze remained distant.
"Because I don't know what I'm looking at."
She eventually contacted Vashanti.
The ancient presence answered.
"There is someone unusual moving through the world," the Ancient One said.
"Tell me."
"He recently came dangerously close to interfering with a fixed point."
There was silence.
"I attempted to observe him through the Time Stone."
"And?"
"I couldn't."
The answer lingered.
The Ancient One continued.
"There is also corruption around him."
"How much?"
"Very little."
"Then why are you concerned?"
"Because it appears to be growing."
Another silence.
"Do you know what he is?"
"No."
"Could he be an Elder God?"
The Ancient One considered the question.
"I don't know."
Vashanti's presence seemed to shift.
"Then do not call him one."
The Ancient One frowned.
"Why?"
"Because you do not understand the thing you are observing."
The Ancient One said nothing.
Vashanti continued.
"There are powers that have attempted to reach him."
"And?"
"They stopped."
"Why?"
"They felt a warning."
The Ancient One's eyes narrowed.
"From him?"
"No."
"From what?"
Vashanti did not answer immediately.
When the response finally came, it was quiet.
"We don't know."
The Ancient One looked down at the Eye of Agamotto.
"Can you identify the source?"
"No."
"Can it be an Elder God?"
"Perhaps."
"An extradimensional entity?"
"Perhaps."
"Then what do we know?"
Vashanti's answer was simple.
"Nothing certain."
The Ancient One remained silent.
After a moment, Vashanti added:
"Whatever he becomes, it is not yet clear."
That statement stayed with her.
Not what he is.
What he becomes.
The Ancient One looked toward the distant horizon.
Perhaps Adrian was simply an unusual mortal.
Perhaps he was something far more dangerous.
Or perhaps he was something that hadn't existed yet.
Something whose future was still being written.
Meanwhile, Adrian sat quietly aboard the train.
He had no idea that some of the oldest supernatural powers on Earth had begun noticing him.
He didn't know the Time Stone had failed to properly place him within the timeline.
He didn't know that higher beings had already sensed something unusual surrounding him.
And he certainly didn't know that his corruption had begun leaving traces.
As far as Adrian was concerned, he had simply found a way to improve his luck.
He looked at the money he had gained.
Then smiled.
"Praying to myself for money."
He shook his head.
"I'm definitely going to regret this."
He looked through the window.
The landscape rushed past.
His destination was still far away.
Japan.
Kanazawa.
Whatever waited there could be an artifact.
A person.
A book.
A weapon.
Or perhaps another nightmare.
But Adrian had finally begun to understand something.
He had spent years thinking the Seer pathway was about seeing fate.
Maybe that was only the beginning.
The Fool wasn't meant to accept every rule placed before him.
The Fool was meant to make the impossible look possible.
To deceive.
To manipulate.
To turn certainty into uncertainty.
And if that was truly the path he had chosen...
Then perhaps even the things that were supposed to be impossible weren't entirely beyond his reach.
Adrian looked down at his hands.
A quiet smile appeared.
"If fate says something cannot happen..."
His eyes narrowed.
"Maybe I just need to fool it."
The train continued toward the coast.
And somewhere beyond the horizon waited the next step in Adrian's journey.
He didn't know it yet, but his little experiment with luck had already begun something far larger.
The world had started noticing him.
And Adrian was still completely unaware of it.