CHAPTER NINE
Oliver sat across the large table from Mistress Moretti. The temperature in the Rome Seer School was chilly and it only served to make his nerves more pronounced. He could see the gooseflesh on his arms.
But more anxiety provoking than that was the strange bronze instrument on the table. It looked a little like a lie detector test, but an early prototype version made with copper wires and burnished metal. It certainly didn’t belong in the fifteenth century—the materials and alloys involved had not yet been invented—so Oliver guessed it was seer technology from the future.
“Please relax, Oliver,” Mistress Moretti’s lilting Italian voice sang in his ear. “The ritual will be difficult, yes. But my hope is it will not be painful.”
She held out two probes to place on his temple
