Master Ayumu's voice was calm. He spoke in a quiet tone, but that didn't matter. Little Maru was afraid.
"You have returned to me. You do not have the crystal?" He could see by the tear in her eye it was true. "You do not have my steel soldiers. You bear only a single gold coin in your tiny hand. Tell me how you failed my one simple task."
The little girl sputtered out the tale between sobs. She told him of the meanness and lies. She told him of the refusal to sell the crystal. She told him of their power and the defeat of the steel soldiers that had carried his generous golden offering. She told him how the people of the city had stolen his treasure from the cobblestone street. She told him every detail as tears streaked her face.
"My divinations will show them to me. We will prepare for a journey." His expression became one of anger as he struck the girl on her injured arm. "Go to your room."
Maru did as she was bade, crying loudly as she ran.
In the morning Ayumu summoned Little Maru to the Chamber of Seeing. There she found him staring into blue-gray smoke at a hazy image from which came sounds of a conversation. "Did you hear little one? They make way east to Ptolus, and soon so shall we."
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