The man in his wagon saw a bird fly over. The man looked to be in his twenties with slick black hair. He had on dark glasses that hid his eyes. The black horse that pulled the wagon and the cloth covered wagon were also black as night. Stars were painted all over the wagon.
The Travelers Stared Wagon was a welcome site in most settlements. The last month had been full of bad news for many. Regular traders who traveled from Yourz and the surrounding settlements had disappeared. A week ago, most of these norther settlements were visited by army recruiters. Local lords were also calling up levies. The fortune teller and wise man was questioned by every village elder and headman. Even nobles were consulting him.
For now, he was watching the sky. He hoped to see a raven fly over head in the next five second.
A black bird flew north over his wagon. To him that meant that south of here a rabbit had been chased by a wolf. The wolf was chasing the rabbit because a dear that it would have otherwise hunted had already been hunted by a group of seven men in yellow coats pulling a wagon full of gold and supplies. The only way that these men would be alive is if Maxum Blunt had bought their safety.
It was a sign that Albie was on the most correct path. If the old Sergeant was taking a hand in the operation than the fallen mage would have an audience with the queen in two weeks. What he would do to her was still unclear to the star mage. The futures were too many to accurately predict especially if another star mage was present. He could see no future in which the queen escaped unharmed.
The lightest she would get is a burned of face and the loss of her right arm. Death was not an uncommon outcome. The most numerous and most branching out comes were hundreds of mutations and undeaths. They were a pain to look at and the seer did not want to dwell on such bleak futures. He would check again in two weeks.
For now, he tossed a gold coin to the rode side. John of Meadow town would stop to pick it up. John would rush it home. In doing so he would chat with hid longtime friend Angus of Meadow town. Angus would be missed by the local lord Sir Willum Becket. Becket would have to spend an extra day mustering his required levies leaving him his men and his Paige Arthur out of the first battle and the retaking of the capital. If Arthur made it into battle with Albie it was not impossible for the mage to be killed.
He would discourage the people in the north to volunteer for service and recommend they focus on defending their homesteads. Except in the town of Bur. The lord there Arnold Gent would see the queens death as a sign that he should be the next king and set half the north on fire in his bid for power. He was likely to be killed in the fighting if he went south. Then his mistress would take control of Bur and her son Eric would replace Felix as the next governor. He would grow the town into a very lucrative trade hub before he died. That would help stabilize the country after the destruction of the capital. Unfortunately, the enormous boar he had originally planned to kill Arnold with would serve no purpose in five years.
That was a problem he needed to solve before it eats a four year old girl who would marry a very volatile sun mage and help him learn proper impulse control. Perhaps he could ask 28 to deal with it. The Soon to be dragon was going to survive the coming battles no matter what and would spend most of his time mopping around Albies Grave. Some exercise would do the moody lay about some good. Not that it would change anything long term.
The mage pulled his wagon to a stop in a nearby field. He jumped down from his wagon and walked into the nearby wood. Around a ring of mushrooms, he found a large tree. A handful of out of season butterflies opened and closed their wings on the tree. He smashed three and captured two in a jar. The rest remained on the tree. He walked back to his carriage and pet his horse so it wouldn't be upset with him in two weeks for the incident with the squirl climbed back onto the wagons drivers' seat and returned to his travels knowing that what he had just done would save the lives of ten thousand men from parts of the country he would not be able to visit in person.
He steered his wagon smiling. It had taken him hundreds of years to grow from a void mage into a proper star mage. His talents were not anywhere near as flashy as those touched by the sun or the moon. But he knew he knew if no one else did how much he controlled in his country. Even if nobody else was knew. For someone as long lived as him, that was enough.