Galactic Exchange: The Merchant Sovereign-Chapter 70 – The Clockwork Oracle

"Trade is built on choice. But when every choice is predicted—what’s left to bargain with?"

—Kairos, Sovereign Record #92

Signals from the Edge

Three days after the Null Entity’s defeat on Nion-6, the galaxy had begun to breathe again. freёweɓnovel_com

Trade resumed. Confidence rebounded. Kairos’s name was once again whispered with reverence across sectors.

But then the Clockwork Storm appeared.

No warning. No signal. Just an enormous temporal rift in the Lirae Expanse—where time fractured and space bent like folded parchment. Ships emerged older than when they entered, their crews ranting about "her," the "Blind Seer with Clocks for Eyes."

Kairos stood aboard the Unyielding Trust, scanning the anomaly from a safe distance.

"She’s called the Clockwork Oracle," said Kessie, her tone cautious. "A predictive sovereign. Her records don’t exist, but her fingerprints are everywhere—from collapsed trade dynasties to vanished political heirs."

Kairos frowned. "Another Guild Master?"

"Worse," Kessie replied. "She doesn’t destroy systems. She makes sure they never begin."

The Warning

Hours later, Kairos received a message.

It arrived on a fractal chip with no discernible source. Once inserted into the comm-port, it played only a single phrase in a haunting, multi-layered voice:

"You are three trades from failure. Turn back. This is your final window."

Kairos let the message play three times.

Then he crushed the chip in his hand.

"Prep the warp drives," he said. "We’re going into the storm."

Inside the Clockwork Storm

The moment the Unyielding Trust pierced the rift, the galaxy warped.

Time stuttered.

Forward. Backward. Sideways.

One crew member grew younger by fifteen years before stabilizing. Another vanished and reappeared with memories of a life never lived.

In the center of it all, a singular spire of gears and glowing chronowires twisted into infinity.

Kairos disembarked in a solo pod.

And as he stepped onto the obsidian bridge connecting the realm of clocks, she emerged.

The Oracle Appears

She did not walk.

She rotated—like a music box dancer on a shifting cog.

Her hair was braided from metallic threads. Her eyes—five in total, vertically aligned—ticked like clock hands.

"I am the Oracle," she said, "and I have seen your end, Kairos of the Exchange."

Kairos narrowed his gaze. "You see too much."

She smiled. "No. You act too predictably."

The First Prediction

The Oracle held out her hand.

Three gears floated into the air.

"You will make three trades in the coming week," she intoned. "Each will seem wise. Each will gain you influence. And each will guarantee your downfall."

Kairos said nothing.

He simply took out a coin from his pouch—a fresh Star Credit—and tossed it to her.

"A gift," he said. "Since you already know what I’ll do."

She caught it midair without looking.

And her smile wavered.

"You... weren’t supposed to do that."

The Break in the Pattern

Kessie’s voice buzzed in Kairos’s ear.

"Whatever you just did, Sovereign... her predictive thread just diverged."

Kairos stepped forward.

"You’ve seen the trades I could make. But not the one I’m about to."

The Oracle turned slowly, gears grinding behind her. Her five eyes closed.

"You are an anomaly," she whispered. "You hold too many possibilities. That makes you... dangerous."

Trade of Paradox

Kairos held out his hand.

"I offer you a deal."

The Oracle paused.

"You cannot barter with me."

"Oh, but I can," he said. "You want clarity. I want sovereignty. Let’s trade."

He placed a memory shard onto the pedestal before him.

It glowed with scenes of his life—childhood poverty, the night he got the system, the first Star Credit he ever earned.

"Take this," he said. "And in return, tell me how you became what you are."

The Oracle’s Origin

For a long moment, nothing happened.

Then, the clocks slowed.

The gears reversed.

And the Oracle spoke.

"I was once like you. A trader. A gambler. A believer in chance."

She raised her hand.

"But I made a trade with the Temporal Lattice—an ancient relic that let me predict every outcome, every decision... and in doing so, I lost the right to choose."

"My system became certainty," she said. "And certainty... is a prison."

Kairos watched her carefully.

"You envy me."

The Oracle’s five eyes turned toward him.

"I did. But soon, it will not matter."

The Test of Trade

She summoned three contracts.

Trade #1: An alliance with a rising mercantile guild in the Talgra Fringe.Trade #2: A resource swap with a failing planet whose minerals will become crucial in twenty cycles.Trade #3: A private agreement with an old rival, offering silence in exchange for loyalty.

"Choose any," she said. "All will profit you."

"But all will destroy me," Kairos said.

She nodded.

"Yes. Because my system has seen it."

Kairos smiled.

And burned all three contracts on the spot.

A New Path

The Oracle gasped as time shivered around her.

"You’ve broken the thread!"

"No," Kairos said. "I made a new one."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a blank contract.

"I choose to forge my own trade."

He signed it—with no item, no terms.

Only his name.

And that—somehow—rewrote the lattice.

Kessie’s voice rang out.

"The storm is collapsing! Your uncertainty just destabilized the Oracle’s predictive field!"

The Oracle looked at her hands.

Then at him.

"Impossible..."

"You should have read the fine print," Kairos said.

The Collapse of Clocks

The gears shattered.

The sky ripped open.

And the Oracle screamed—not in pain, but in realization:

That her system, built to trap every outcome... had no answer for choice without terms.

Kairos returned to his ship.

And behind him, the Clockwork Storm imploded—releasing thousands of frozen trade paths back into the galaxy.

Status Panel

Cosmic Units (C.U.): 51,200

Star Credits: 10.4 million

Trust Index: 94.2%

Name Index: 91.0%

Reputation: Kairos, the Unwritten Trader

Relics Gained:

Temporal Lattice Shard

Oracle’s Broken Gear (x1)

Titles Unlocked:

"Echobreaker"

"Threadcutter"

"The Sovereign Unseen"

New Passive: Uncharted Path – Increases unpredictability; prevents foresight-based manipulation; 18% boost to Trade Surprise effects

Network Expansion: +3 independent systems liberated from temporal loops

Special Note: The Clockwork Oracle was not destroyed—only destabilized. She now exists outside of time, watching. Waiting.

Kairos leaned back in his chair.

One hand on his ledger.

The other on a blank page.

"Let them try to guess my next move," he said quietly.

Because in a galaxy of contracts, predictions, and equations... he had become something else entirely:

A trader of uncertainty.

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