Tao was born in the Shinn Empire off in the East, but had a vision of family ruin that she shared in the hopes of preventing it, but it came to pass, anyway. In the aftermath of this tragedy, her father is dead, her mother blames her, and they flee to the Western world, across the Long Sea. They find a bit of fortune - landing in a nice enough place in society, but Tao has to deal with odd looks, different treatment and prejudice over her appearance, not to mention her new stepfather wanting her to join the mage's guild, due to her newfound ability to foretell the future - an ability she never wants to use again after her horrendous experience with it. Instead, she runs away and travels the countryside with just her wagon and her trusty mule, Laohu, using only the slightest bit of her ability to earn coin and moving on quickly to avoid attracting the attention of the mage's guild.
Life on the road seems to agree with Tao. She enjoys seeing new places and the solitude of the road and her companionship with Laohu (her mule). That is, until she comes to a bit of a crossroads... (well, more accurately, a place where a tree had fallen across the road) ...and encounters two "adventurers" - or, more likely, highwaymen, she thinks - approaching the tree from the other side. After a bit of a tense introduction, these adventurers - the strong warrior "Mash" and his (mostly) reformed ex-thief friend "Silt" - not only help clear the tree from the road, but join her on the road for a bit, despite her insistence that it's unnecessary.
It seems that Mash is searching for his lost daughter and Silt is searching with him. Tao wishes she could help, but won't use her Greater Sight to look into the future - not even for such a good cause; who knows what she might see and what horrible things could come to pass. She will help him in more mundane ways, however, and with this random encounter, a party is formed. And despite Tao's deep-seated belief that she's a loner and doesn't need people around her, this party will get larger before the adventure is over.
The Teller of Small Fortunes has a wealth of likeable characters and does a pretty good job of avoiding "demonizing" any particular "villain" - at least by the end of the story. If anything, it's a story of the dangers of misunderstanding others and making assumptions. And that might sound like the story is preachy, which is far from the truth. The Teller of Small Fortunes is written well, and holds an interesting story, delightful characters, and a fantastical world with magic, political intrigue, fantasy races, baking, and mythical creatures. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy and is looking for a story that's not overly heavy.
