Orestes

While Orestes certainly has a real talent for divination, he was by no means a professional in his trade when he first started offering his services to the general population. It was a fun way to while the time and meet new folk (not to mention making a quick buck or two) It was a simple gimmick, at first: Draw a rune and know your future. Though, he found it much easier to simply parrot whatever the client wanted to hear the most, or perhaps, simple, non-magical advice to mundane problems. He rarely ever used his talents in earnest.

But the simple rune gimmick grew stale before long and he became bored of it. He knew he could do more than just this, properly apply himself to a more respectable art. So why did he abstain from it? Was he afraid of his own success? Or perhaps he was wary of losing, or (worse) gaining customers? Chuckling, he shook his horns at his own silly objections. He was bored, why not challenge himself?

It began innocently enough. One day, he dug out a crystal ball from his stash and brought it to the marketplace stall where he plied his trade. Orestes was thrilled at how easily crystallomancy came to him. The humble orb was very specific and had clear, direct answers, or revealed the cause, to every problem presented to him.

At first, it seemed a boon! Naturally, his customers loved it, happily paying nearly thrice his original fee. However, as the throngs of patrons grew, it became more and more apparent that something was wrong. While Orestes seemed no worse for the experience, dragons kept coming back to him, sometimes long after they've spent the last of their money, asking seemingly every inane question that came to mind. Who should they say hello to? What should they eat for breakfast? When should they bathe? When should they sleep? Some desperate folks even began to offer the very clothes off their backs to know if the sun would rise the next day.

While the matriarch of the Black Bog dragons was, at first, content to see so many flocking to the Imperial's stall, she grew increasingly irate and suspicious at the young dragon's strange popularity. Customers ran straight past every other shop, many without so much as a coin for her pickpockets to pilfer.

A successful stall was an asset. A stall that attracted wretched, penniless types was a problem.

Orestes himself, while typically unperturbed by most things, was beginning to harbor concerns for the increasingly wild-eyed populace. Especially since, earlier that day, a small Fae, fretful and ragged, offered himself up to indentured servitude for a crystal reading. When his clan leader demanded he cease his practices, he did not even so much as balk. He had concluded that his crystal ball, a piece of forgotten paraphernalia that had only collected dust in his home for years prior, was, in fact, terribly cursed.

He immediately brought it to the matriarch's personal seer and spellbreaker, Scymitar, to have it properly disposed of. If the deeply distressed expression on the Peal Catcher's face was anything to go by, it was a good thing he did. She covered her face as if to ward off a terrible smell before gingerly collecting the crystal in her delicate claws.

As soon as the hammer split the malevolent orb, the mobs of desperate dragons blinked, almost in unison, and each wandered off to their own homes to piece together their lives.

Despite the trouble he caused, the young drake had impressed the seer Scymitar. Seeing as the silvery drake needed a guiding hand in his studies, she offered to apprentice him. Orestes was positively delighted! Now, he could challenge himself in new and novel ways...under supervision, of course, lest he enthrall the populace twice.

Scymitar suggested he use tarot cards instead. It would require him to study and to glean their meaning through thought and skill and assured him that these cards were 100% curse free.