THE PERSUADERS: EPISODE 1 On the surface, Horatius and Agrippina seem like ordinary young people with ordinary lives who want nothing to do with each other. But they have two things in common: both are Persuaders, and both work for the Council. Persuaders—an ancient group drawn from every culture, race, and creed—possess what they call their "core abilities": extraordinary longevity and the power to convince anyone of anything with just a whisper. Hypnosis? It's nothing like hypnosis. Their elite governing body, the Council, exists to ensure that Persuaders do not take control of, much less initiate, history-changing events. The Council's motives are unclear—self-preservation, ethics, or something else entirely. Whenever suspicious activities arise anywhere on the planet, agents like Horatius and Agrippina are dispatched to track down the rogue Persuader and "mollify" them—stripping them of both their ability to persuade and their apparent immortality, leaving them to age like any ordinary person. RICKY VERNIO is an author, storyteller, artist, and historian. He lives in New York.