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Aylin knew when it was best to not start a public fight. The candle seller knew something and wasn't about to tell her what it was he did know. With a huff Aylin let out a frustrated breath. She was not leaving because she had failed to gain any information from him. No, the decision to leave was one based on leaving the candle seller with the hint of fear and unease in his mind. Aylin knew that the candle seller would be more likely to slip up out of fear than if he had the upper hand in the situation.

"Fine, have it your way but know this I will be keeping my eye on you and your actions," Aylin warned before turning to leave the booth.

As she walked away from the booth Aylin gave the candle seller one final hard glance towards him. Aylin knew her next target in her investigation had to be that sooth sayer. She knew the woman was hiding something. Whether it was connected to the missing ships and the candle seller or not Aylin knew the woman had a secret.

There was a buzz around the market over the return of the sooth sayer. It was not every day that the woman would make an appearance at the market. Normally, the sooth sayer kept to her shop only coming to the market to sell potions and give quick bits of advice. Her more in depth readings and advice were handled in her private shop.

The booth the sooth sayer had in the open air market looked more like a small elaborate tent than it did a normal booth. Aylin knew that her investigation would not go much further if she did not talk to and question the mysterious sooth sayer. Stopping for a moment Aylin thought over how she was going to handle sooth sayer without coming out of the questioning looking like the fool.

"Sooth sayer," Aylin called out into the booth as she rapped her knuckles on its frame, "I need to speak with you. Not as a customer. Not under some kind of false facade. I want to talk to you woman to woman openly and honest, no games. What say you sooth sayer?"

Aylin sighed when she heard the request of the sooth sayer. She wanted her to light a candle with her magic. There seemed to be some type of odd fascination with candles in the market. First the candle seller and then the sooth sayer. Aylin knew that if she wanted to get anywhere with the sooth sayer she was going to have to fulfill her request and light the candle.

The spell Aylin used was kids' stuff. It was a simple low level piece of pixie magic that anyone could do. With a single word in the ancient tongue and a snap of the fingers Aylin had turned her thumb into a match. Placing the flame to the wick Aylin lit the candle before blowing out her thumb.

"There I lit your blasted wax pillar. Now tell me openly, honestly, and without any tricks what you know about the man who sells those god awful mass produced Candle Party candles. And remember I'm not here for a reading just to talk," Aylin said with a serious look on her face as she tried to find the woman's eyes under her veil.

Aylin looked at the soothsayer with a look of disgust. The woman just could not seem to do anything without trickery. Aylin did not care who listened in on their conversation. It was insignificant to her investigation in the long run. Aylin merely wanted to know why the soothsayer unnerved the man and why he was reluctant to speak about the latest ship to go missing. There was no huge secret to be had surrounding the man as far as Aylin was concerned.

Aylin sat for a moment studying the woman's actions before repeating her question. She had a feeling something was not right about her. She had a feeling the woman before her was not the same woman she had seen fifty years before. Right or not Aylin knew the soothsayer had a secret she was hiding.

"I'll say it again soothsayer tell me what you know about the man who sells those god awful mass produced candles. I want you open and honest and do not try any of your theatrics on me. That is if you don't want your own secret to get out," Aylin said in an attempt to unnerve the soothsayer and get her to cooperate immediately.

The fact of the matter was Aylin did not know that the candle seller was connected to the missing ships and she was more than willing to admit it. As far as the military knew all of the suspicion lay solely on the Hastings Air Cargo organization and those working directly under Peter Hastings. They did not know how deep things ran. They did not know if the ships going missing were caused by the weather, the terrain, or pirates. All they knew was that four ships, now five, went missing from Porta Denia and they needed answers. That was the reason for Aylin being sent to Denia.

"Well crap," Aylin replied with a slight hint of surprise in her voice, "My higher ups knew something was going on but they didn't know it was that involved. Oh this is bad. Someone is using Hastings Air in order to kidnap and possibly kill airship crews. Crap. Did they know Donovan was going to try and get through the Run? Of course they did with the amount of bragging that kid said he was doing around the docks by the port authority. Oh crap what if someone at the port authority is involved in all of this?"

Aylin was visibly unnerved by the information the soothsayer had given her. The military was under the impression that Hastings Air was merely avoiding paying out survivor benefits for the missing airship crews by hiring independent cargo crews. They never could have imagined the situation was as bad as the soothsayer painted it. Aylin knew the next place she had to go was to the port authority.

Aylin sat back and sighed softly. It sounded as though the soothsayer wanted her to fail so she could take the credit for uncovering whatever it was that was going on. That was the impression she got from the woman before her. Aylin folded her arms across her chest and looked at the soothsayer. One way or another she was going to pay the port authority a visit. Maybe it would be an official visit and maybe it would not be. Somewhere in her head Aylin knew she had to meet with the young men and women who manned the bell at the port.

From what Aylin recalled the bell at the port was rung when there was danger or a ship went missing. Each ring of the bell had a specific meaning and the worst bell code that could be rung was the code for a missing ship. Aylin figured the workers at the port who rang the bell had to be feeling pretty down about ringing the code for a missing ship so many times in one month.

"Look, my original plan before I even came here was to try and blend in with the townsfolk as much as possible and learn what I could about Hastings Air and the missing ships without arousing suspicion that the military is conducting any sort of investigation," Aylin said casually, "I still plan on following through with that. I still plan to find out what the townsfolk know through simple observation and interaction. Nothing fancy or in any way that will draw attention to my purpose for being here. Just simple observation to gauge the pulse of the town in reaction to the missing ships. At this stage in the game the military needs to find out if an in depth investigation of Hastings Air is in order."

Aylin frowned when she heard the soothsayer mention gold. She hoped the woman was not serious about wanting payment for their talk. If the soothsayer was not playing around Aylin would not be a very happy pixie. Aylin shot the woman before her a look that told her she was not playing any games. If she found out the soothsayer had faked the magic smoke and the color change just to get gold out of her Aylin would report her to the proper authorities.

The soothsayer was right about one thing someone was talking about her return to Denia. It was no surprise that Shirley Andrews would mention her in the paper. She was a social columnist and had been for fifty years. So if a friend showed up it would be natural for the woman to write about it.

"Meh, the only person that's really saying anything about me being here is Shirley Andrews. I knew her back when she and I were younger. As far as she knows, I'm just in town for a visit. I don't think a harmless brief mention of an old friend visiting a place of her youth in the social column of the paper is anything to be alarmed about," Aylin casually replied, "If you're talking about that noodle place that's an isolated incident and I doubt it'll go any further than there and here. I don't think I have too much to worry about."

Aylin stood to leave and gave the soothsayer one last good look. Her suspicions were pretty well spot on. Aylin knew people and remembered mannerisms and actions fairly well. Each move of the body and minute action were like a fingerprint and unique to each and every individual. People could imitate the way another person acted but in the end they always gave away who they truly were.

The way the soothsayer moved was not the same as the way the soothsayer moved fifty years ago. Aylin was pretty well certain this Madam Dasina was not the same Madam Dasina. The woman may have had many secrets but Aylin was sure she cracked the one that was the reason for the veils covering her face.