Draft prologue to The War of Trees and Sorcerers (sequel to Rainbow Lullaby)

Elsewhere, the War of Trees and Sorcerers was beginning. Elsewhere, someone named Harriet was puzzling over someone named Edwina, who was rumored to be capable of miracles. But here, at the coffee shop, to the screen alight with candles and rapidly changing numbers, Luke demanded, "What. The. Fuck???"

Although he'd spoken somewhat loudly, no one nearby seemed to notice. Even if they had, what could Luke even tell them? That the charts were being screwy; zigging when they should be zagging? That there were fishy discrepancies between what tokens were trading at and what they should be trading at given the size of their respective market shares? That it seemed as if one or more secret coins were quietly being capitalized by complex, multi-part procedures involving a bunch of totally worthless alt coins?

Obviously, Luke knew better than to say stuff like that to normal people. Or sane people. But the fact of the matter troubled him. What were these hidden tokens? Where exactly were they traded? What he was seeing was too big for the penny-ante dark web stuff always happening in the background. Tens of millions were moving around in non-advertised ways, through a combination of nothing-alts and user issued assets. And the actual markets seemed disproportionately influenced by this hidden stuff. Was this evidence of the fabled 'body tokens' used by big companies, mobsters and intelligence agencies to track, trade, buy and sell human beings? Did it concern some baser form of slavery? Arms? Narcotics? An index of nefarious shit? Luke didn't know.

Probably it was just evidence of a new kind of gambling, maybe using news coverage as the ultimate 'oracle' of true/false to settle bets. Whatever it was, Luke didn't like it one bit, because it produced an environment he couldn't reliably trade in. So, grudgingly, having watched this screwy market activity become increasingly pronounced over the course of several months, he finally gave up. And, stepping away from his computer in the coffee shop to perch on an outdoor bench for a refreshing face full of the day's light rain, Luke turned his full attention to the War of Trees and Sorcerers.