The Secret of Ashona by Kaza Kingsley

head.
    “No,” the Hermit continued. “The Diamond Minds wanted to prove how smart they were. So they would tell the travelers their futures, and that was too bad. There was death in all stories—family members, people themselves. Disease. Heartbreak. Despair. And the Diamond Minds did not leave out one detail.”
    The Hermit paused to do a cartwheel, which seemed to Erec a little risky with the deep holes all around. He giggled a moment. “But the people kept coming. You know how silly people are—you’re one of those crazy creatures! They kept wanting to hear what awful things lay waiting for them. And the Diamond Minds got full of themselves, and started asking people to pay a price. Whatever was most precious to them as a token for telling their futures. The Diamond Minds competed to see who would get the best prizes, as if they deserved them, as if they showed who was ‘best.’
    “And of course, what would happen next? The Minds started to hate one another. Before long there was a terrible war, but not one with only two sides. There were exactly twelve hundred and seventy-two factions in this war.” The Hermit waved a finger in the air. “Each Diamond Mind was fighting against all of the others. Hate grew along with despair, death, and destruction. Outsiders would still visit, and the Diamond Minds became ruthless at extracting their most precious gifts, and often that was their lives.”
    The Hermit shrugged. “Finally, the Fates locked each of the Diamond Minds into its own little pit, to stop the whole crazy mess. Their small bodies wore away, leaving those glowing minds to live on for eternity. A funny joke, I think.” He giggled.
    Erec wasn’t sure why the Hermit thought that was funny. “What are the columns here for?”
    “Oh, they are posts that the little Diamond Minds once used to talk to the Fates. They threw away all the good cheese for one smelly bit.”
    Farther on, they reached a small hut in the midst of the holes and columns. It looked oddly new among the ruins. “What is this place?” Erec looked around, but the Hermit was no longer within sight.
    He peeked through a window and saw a Port-O-Door appear in a wall of the hut’s one room. A man wearing a suit stumbled out, and the Port-O-Door disappeared. The man stared into space, wandering aimlessly. Then he stopped, frozen, in the center of the room.
    Next to him stood a woman in a dress, her dark hair up in a bun. She turned toward the man but stared past him in another direction, a blank look on her face. A small painting rested in her arms.
    Two more Port-O-Doors appeared in rapid succession. First a young man with dark skin tripped into the room, barely righting himself before he fell. He carried a large white box. A gray-haired man then followed, hands in front of his face as if he was feeling his way in the dark. He bumped into the first man, and they both jumped in surprise.
    Something was wrong. The people clearly could not see anything. Were they blind? Erec had no doubt that these were four of the five people that were supposed to be killed by Baskania. Then he heard a familiar voice. He darted away from the window before anybody could see him. Barely peeking again from the other side, he was surprised to find someone inside that he knew from the contests in Alypium: Balor Stain’s friend Ward Gamin.
    Why was Ward here? Shouldn’t he be hanging out in Alypium learning magic with the other kids? He looked pale and shaky. A patch covered one of his eyes, and he was wearing a dark suit jacket that hung off of him, several sizes too large. “I’m glad that you could come here today,” he announced to the room, no emotion in his voice. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. Erec realized he was reading off a piece of paper. “You have come to see . . . I mean, experience one of the last remaining great miracles of the modern . . . um, age. The modernage. You are going to each meet one of the famous Diamond Minds of the past.