"This could be trouble," the goose said to Robert after they had seen the interview, which they had watched while eating breakfast together.

"How does he know so much about you?" Robert asked, lifting a spoon of Frosties into his mouth.

"You heard him, he's been zealously searching for clues about me for decades."

"Did you know about this church?"

"I did, but I had no idea he was so obsessed with me, given his obsession he'll be one of the candidates that the raven looks at."

"The raven?"

"Something of a nemesis of mine, she wants the egg for her own purposes."

"Is this raven powerful?"

"Very, her powers of persuasion are unmatched."

"What does she want the egg for?"

"The opposite of what we want it for, which is to say she wants it for something nefarious."

"Just when were you planning on telling me about this raven?"

"When I had no choice but to tell you."

"You know that's very dishonest of you."

"I've found that it's better for my partner not to know everything about all of the obstacles that we're going to face along the pilgrimage."

"So how do we deal with this raven?"

"We don't, we avoid her. Like me she's going to select someone to aid her in her pursuit of us, someone with vast resources who she's able to seduce into employing all of them in the search for the egg."

"And you think he's the one she'll choose?"

"I'm certain of it, he's got resources and he already wants me and the egg, it won't take much for her to take control of him."

"The sooner we complete this pilgrimage the better then, so when do we begin?"

"In a couple of days, everything is set, there's just one thing that I'm awaiting confirmation on but I'll be receiving that later today."

In the short time that they had known each other Robert and the goose had become incredibly close. They did everything together; Robert was open with the goose about things in his past that he ordinarily kept to himself and the goose was more open with Robert about the details of the pilgrimage than it had been with previous pilgrims that it had chosen, starting with Ren, the first person to come into contact with the blue egg since Hong had brought it down from the World Tree. Robert listened to the goose's stories and struggled to understand what the goose based its selections on. Neither Hong nor Ren seemed to possess anything special that had led the goose to choose them. Robert had been wondering why he had been chosen ever since the goose had told him about the blue egg and whenever he asked the goose why it had chosen him the goose's answers were always evasive.

They were sitting and eating their cereal when they were paid a visit. Robert got up from the sofa in his bathrobe and answered the door.

"You're..."

"Yes that's right, I'm the Oracle."

The Oracle looked nothing like the homeless woman living in a refrigerator box under a bridge that he'd met. She was now well dressed in a silver pants suit with make-up and coifed hair. She invited herself into the house and took a seat on the wingback chair opposite the goose.

"Do you think you have the time to sit around eating cereal?" She asked the goose peremptorily.

"A good day begins with a good breakfast."

"The raven's made its move."

"I know."

"Which means we need to start making moves of our own."

"I've been laying the groundwork for us to start making moves of our own, as you put it; we're just about ready to begin."

"What do you know about the vessel that the Raven has chosen?"

"He's a fanatic, he's spent most of his life researching stories about me, and it appears he's learned quite a bit."

"You've been careless, you've allowed yourself to achieve too much fame."

"Can I help it if I'm so spectacular?"

"How much does he know?"

"He knows almost everything: the eggs, the pilgrimage, he knows about all of it."

"And his resources?"

"Vast, he's the head of a church that's got millions of devoted followers."

"This one might be more troublesome than the others were."

"Robert and I were just having that conversation, and there are other reasons why this pilgrimage is going to be one of the hardest."

"I've been finding that out for myself, this country seems to exist in a permanent state of chaos."

"That's what happens when you run before you can walk; how many have you managed to find?"

"So far just one, in Iowa."

"How is it doing?"

"Not good, it's just as we predicted, this rotation was too much for them."

"We need to get to it quickly then; do we know if the raven has set its sights on it?"

"It may consider it too weak to bother with, nevertheless we should take every precaution."

Robert followed the exchange between the goose and the oracle trying to learn as much from their conversation as he could about the world that he was now a part of. The goose had said nothing to him about them meeting anybody during the pilgrimage and Robert made a mental note to ask him about it after the Oracle had left.

"You also need to bear in mind that the raven might his finger in other pies besides this pastor," the Oracle continued.

"Yes, I had considered that, and I think it's more than likely that he does, with the world as it is now there is plenty of fertile ground for him to work with."

"I'll keep an eye out for anybody else the raven might have placed under its influence, in the meantime you two need to get moving."

The Oracle got up from her seat and left the house, freeing Robert and the goose to get back to their cereal and to talk about what the Oracle had said.

"You said the Oracle needed to remain in hiding, why then did she just pay us a visit?" Robert asked the goose.

"She's worried, which means the raven is more powerful than ever."

"Just what is this raven?"