"You must trust the goose," somebody whispered in Robert's ear, startling him so much that he fell out of his chair.

The oracle was back, appearing out of thin air. Anne and Jessie were as startled as Robert but they managed to stay in their seats.

"Why are you telling Robert that he needs to trust me?"

"He thinks you're moving too slowly and that at this rate you'll never catch up to the raven, although I must say, I don't entirely disagree with him."

"We go through this every time and these anxieties always prove to be unfounded, just like they will be this time, so, let's move on by having you tell us why you're here."

"The raven's making its move for the lion, the snake's adoptee, Dr Fyodor Milichenko, is going to make contact with the lion's adoptee, Ms Sonya Kruschenko, and try and get her to join them."

"What are his chances of success?" The goose asked.

"I'd say the likelihood is that he fails, but with the snake involved we can't take anything for granted."

"I spent some time looking into Ms Kruschenko, she doesn't seem like the type that would be easily corrupted, but that's assuming that her political ambitions aren't greater than her sense of integrity."

"That's almost never the case," the oracle responded.

"Maybe in this case it is."

"I hope for your sake you're right."

"Where are they meeting?" Robert asked.

"There's going to be a conference in Moscow, The Growth and Opportunities Conference, Dr Milichenko is going to be there participating in a political roundtable; Sonya Kruschenko is one of the organizers of the event and she's going to be participating in a number of roundtables herself, that makes this conference the most likely meeting place for these two."

"Should we go to this conference and talk to Sonya and warn her about the raven?"

"At present we've got nothing to offer her, so it's pointless us making contact with her," the goose answered.

"Why is it important for us to have something to offer her?"

"The lion's adoptees are always very ambitious and aim for positions of power that will allow them to fully exert their strength; Dr Milichenko is most likely going to present her with an offer that the raven's prepared for her, whether she takes it will depend on how attractive the offer is and how strong her ambition is."

"What if she accepts?"

"Then the goose will have to find the dragon and make a deal with it," the oracle answered.

"There's a dragon?"

"Yes Robert, tales of dragons didn't come from ancient civilizations finding dinosaur fossils and not knowing what they were, those tales are based on the dragon."

"The dragon exists in a state of perpetual hibernation, awakening it requires special approval and is only to be done if we are confronted by the most extraordinary circumstances," the oracle added.

"Is the dragon dangerous?" Jessie asked.

"The dragon's power far surpasses that of any other guardian. It has the power of all the other guardians and is able to use any combinations of them it wants. It's far too dangerous to awaken, which is why it's been left to hibernate since the last time it was awakened."

"Who awakened it the last time?" Robert asked.

"The raven; it tried to manipulate the dragon into doing it's will and the dragon got angry and went on a rampage. It descended into the ocean and used the water guardian's power to summon a gigantic tidal wave that sunk the city of Atlantis," the goose said.

"So you see, the dragon is far too dangerous to be brought into play, which is why you can't afford to allow things to get to the point where you have to turn to the dragon as a final gambit," the oracle said to the goose, "you should consider taking Robert's advice about being more proactive, even if it does mean going against your normal modus operandi."

"Call me crazy, but something about Sonya Kruschenko tells me that she wouldn't accept an offer to ascend to power that rendered her beholden, when she takes power it'll be on her own terms, that's how it normally is with the lion's adoptees and Sonya is one of the most strong-willed of them all, she reminds me of Catherine in that way."

"Can we go back to dragon please," Jessie said, "what happened with Atlantis?"

"The Raven created Atlantis to be its utopia populated by the best of humanity and wanted the dragon to destroy the rest of the world; the dragon didn't like that the raven thought it could use it like that so it destroyed the raven's utopia instead by sending it to the bottom of the ocean," the goose said.

"Do I have your word that the situation won't become so desperate that we're forced to turn to the dragon?" The oracle asked the goose.

"You have my word."

The oracle left as suddenly and mysteriously as it had arrived, leaving the others behind to contemplate what came next. It was no understatement to say that the direction that events proceeded in whether they would be more beneficial to the goose or the raven hinged on this meeting between Fyodor and Sonya, which, if it went according to plan for the raven, could put the United States and Russia within its grasp, which would force the goose into a desperate play with the dragon. The goose understood Robert and the oracle's frustrations and in truth it wasn't without its own doubts, but the fact remained that only through revelation could they find the one true path that they were meant to take.