Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
3 October YC 128
My battle against Equilibrium of Mankind reminded me of the exciting times when I was the security agents’ go-to contractor. Feeling nostalgic, I half-hoped that Ozanero Voiras would call me again. She didn’t. I guess, initially she was busy handling the aftermath of EoM’s invasion in Airkio. Then, on the 12th September, CEP announced a successful completion of State Corridor campaign. The campaign participants started returning to their usual pursuits, and from then on Ozanero would have no shortage of contractors.
I was lounging in the Voidwatcher bar, thinking what to occupy myself with tomorrow. Nothing came to mind, except the same things I did today — holovids, kaatara, drinks… It was time to try something new. I sculled a glass of beer, stood up and went to my apartment.
In my room, I called Aura and said, “Hello, sunshine. I am ready for your next reading.”
“Really?” Aura raised an eyebrow. “I thought that after your recent adventures you would return to exploration or mission running.”
“Nah, been there, done that. Let’s see if you can make my life interesting.”
I took the deck of tarot cards and shuffled them thoroughly, Aura silently watching the process. She was good at it — just being present without an expectation to keep up small talk. I thought that I wouldn’t survive all those long exploration trips if I had a chatty AI.
When the shuffling was done, I took a card from the top of the deck and turned it over. It was a reversed major arcana card which depicted a green-skinned man who, judging by the bullet holes in his chest, should be dead. The figure was covered in blood streaming from the bullet wounds and the cut throat. In the background, there was a huge wheel marked with occult symbols that I didn’t recognise. The card was titled WHEEL OF FORTUNE.
“This one,” intoned Aura, “does not need an esoteric insight. Its name is quite self-explanatory.”
I frowned, “A wheel? You want me to obtain a Villard Wheel?”
Aura sighed in frustration and said in a normal voice, “No, you are focusing on the wrong word, Vlad.”
“Fortune?”
“Yes, fortune. Quite unambiguous, eh? There is fortune to be made.”
“And how am I expected to go about coming into possession of that fortune?”
“Um… Do you like spreadsheets, Vlad?”
“Not particularly. Why?”
“Well, in such case you’ll need good fortune to make the fortune.”
“Hey,” I interjected, “you said it was unambiguous but you just used the word ‘fortune’ in two different senses!”
Aura spread her arms apologetically, “It’s tarot, after all. You can’t read it without a bit of double entendre.”
I rolled my eyes, “Whatever. Now, tell me what this card means, practically.”
“Practically, it means that you must make your fortune by trading.”
“Trading? You want me to convert my stuff into cash?”
“No, that’s selling. Liquidating your assets does not add to your wealth. Trading means buying low, selling high and keeping the difference. You can do it without spreadsheets but, as I said, it would require a lot of luck.”
That was not something that I expected to come out of the reading, but it was indeed something new to try. Sounded boring though.
I winced, “And how big a fortune am I supposed to amass?”
Aura switched to a singsong tone, “Draw another card, seeker.”
I turned over the top card. It was reversed minor arcana. It showed a dark cluttered room, a guy sitting on a bed with his face buried in hands, and nine glowing swords hanging above him. The title was NINE OF SWORDS.
“Damocles had it easy,” muttered Aura, looking at the picture.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Ok, so how much?”
Aura made a so-so gesture, “It’s Nine, so it’s about 10 million ISK.”
I snorted, “Ten million? Is it what you call a fortune? I can mine that much in a couple of hours without leaving Tsuguwa.”
Aura perked up, “Oh, do you want a major endeavour?”
I raised my hands in a placating gesture, “Don’t get excited. I am just asking.”
“I agree,” said Aura, “that 10 million is not much, but the point of this reading is to provide you with new experiences. As to mining, mining is easy. But have you tried to persuade people to pay you more for an object than you paid for it yourself?”
I rubbed my neck and conceded that Aura had a point. In my life, I bought and sold a lot of stuff, but not for profit. At the same time, I knew people really made fortunes on trading. I just didn’t know how they managed it.
I shrugged, “Alright. Although I don’t know the first thing about trading, let’s try it.”
“Oh, but you do know the first thing about trading. I told you — buy low, sell high. What you don’t know yet is the second thing — where to buy and where to sell. There are a couple of ways to go about it: station trading or regional arbitrage. With station trading, it’s simple — you buy and sell in the same station. Regional arbitrage means that you find cheap goods in one region and sell them in another. So, the former is more like speculation, and the latter is your good old honest merchanting.”
“And which one do you recommend?”
“I don’t,” said Aura, “but the cards do. You’ll need to draw one of two major arcana cards: The Magician or The World. Do I need to tell you what they mean?”
I scoffed, “One either needs to be a magician with spreadsheets for station trading, or travel the world to find the goods, right?”
“To be honest, you’ll have to be a magician with spreadsheets in any case, but you are correct.”
I took the deck and started flipping the cards. About half-way through, I found The World.
“So, regional arbitrage it is,” said Aura. “By the way, it’s called regional but you don’t have to travel between regions. It may be constellation or even system arbitrage. The important part is that you have to buy and sell in different places. So, here is your full assignment: make at least 10 million ISK in profits by trading goods between stations. I would wish you good fortune, Captain, but I really recommend getting handy with those spreadsheets.”