“Some of these builders switched roles,” Rose said. “Doing the inverse of what they’d done before.”
“Like the one the lawyer mentioned to us,” I said. “Put the stars in the sky, now calls them down.”
“Meteor showers or something,” Rose said.
“Meteors?” Briar Girl asked. “No. The stars are sources of light and energy. A being like you describe would be powerful. A leader of others of its kind. Meteors? With one action, he might bring fiery death down on your enemies, but the world would pay a cost. Every light humanity uses might be dimmer. Every source of fuel and energy might be a fraction less effective. Food, fuel, electricity.”
“People would notice,” I said.
“Never when they were looking,” she said. “No. A general or a duke, whatever he might be, this being you speak of, he should be a commander. Imps, you might call them. If he brought a darkness to the world, he would do it by scattering imps across the world. These imps would work as spirits do, but with intelligence. Ensuring that a flashlight grew dim when it might reveal a murderer or rabid animal. That a car ran out of gas where it might carry a sick man to a hospital, spelling his death. One action on your part, fire and devastation, but you never see what comes out of it. Hundreds of incidents a year, for decades or a century, before the imps are dealt with or spent of their power.”
“The rot sets in, so to speak,” Rose said. “Humanity fights back, maybe unknowingly, by having dogs beside us, or good luck charms, or other things.”
“Which is why your kind is dangerous,” Briar Girl said.
“The books went into some detail about the origins you just talked about,” Rose said. “They also said that particular story was disproved.”
The Briar Girl shrugged. “It’s what I was taught.”
“And some of the things that are in the books aren’t devils and demons, or anything that devours the world. Some are particularly nasty goblins, or other things we don’t have labels for.”
Another shrug. “Close enough. It’s about taint, about rot. Once those things get hooks in the world, the world starts coming apart at the seams.””
I frowned. “Says the girl who takes homeless people’s bodies and turns them into…”
“Feorgbold, life vessels,” the Briar Girl said. “Recycling. Death, consumption and rebirth are parts of the cycle of nature. Some of my favorite parts. I could do what I do a hundred thousand times over, and there would still be balance. Your things, they are not balanced, not in any way we want to deal with. Never simple death, but oblivion, annihilation. Helping the universe to reach zero, with screams, darkness and pain every step of the way.”
The nature spirit bristled.
“Which is why,” Briar Girl added, as if she were translating, “You should give me this territory. If someone will use it to give them a foothold, don’t give them the chance. Give it away, at least the parts you haven’t already tainted by association. Curl up into a ball, make yourself insignificant, and don’t touch a thing.”
“Laird said something similar.”
“Laird isn’t wrong,” Briar Girl told me.
I frowned. “Those aren’t words I want to hear out of anyone’s mouth. Negotiation has to be possible between us, or you wouldn’t have agreed to hear us out.”
“Agree to give me the territory, and I won’t kill you right now. There. Negotiations done.”
“You know it’s not that simple. I’ve already gone into why. I don’t own the property yet.”
“You want flexibility from us, you flex on that,” the Briar Girl said. “We can start with you signing an oath by bloodline. If you die, one of your line gives me territory here.”
“That’s asking for a lot,” Rose said. “I don’t think anyone is pretending Blake is long for this world. Giving you a guarantee? Or as close to a guarantee as you can hope for? That’s big. Making a promise that might not get fulfilled, one that could easily be beyond our power to fulfill? That’s bad karma we’re taking unto ourselves and giving to our family. Not to mention the biggest thing, which is that we’re removing any incentive for you to help keep Blake alive.”
“I’m pretending I’m long for this world,” I protested.
“We need guarantees,” the Briar Girl said, “If we’re going to put ourselves out in the open and risk retaliation from Laird.”
“Okay,” Rose said. “Let’s turn this around. Blake, tell her what you want.”
I could see what Rose was doing. I silently approved.
“I want a helping hand,” I said. “Some specific knowledge, some power. You’re at no risk, and it shouldn’t really point back to you, so long as we cover our tracks.”
“What knowledge? What power?”
“To start with,” I said, “perhaps some information about the bonds between Others and practitioners. Controlling it, using it. You have a close connection to your familiar. I’d like to use your expertise and example to prevent dangerous connections to Others.”
“Ah. Keeping the rot out?”
“Among other things,” I said.
The Briar Girl was an example, to be sure, but she was a bad example. I wanted to figure out what not to do, among other things. Like I’d told Rose, I believed the Briar Girl might have some sort of information we could use. Information that might be invaluable, if Rose was infecting me somehow, taking me over or transforming me.
By phrasing it this way, I hoped to make it hard for her to refuse without admitting weakness.
“What else, Blake? Let’s lay it all on the table,” Rose said.
“I’d want some tricks, and I don’t see myself making these Feogrund things.”
“Feorgbold,” the Briar Girl said.
“The Vessels,” I corrected myself. “But a lesson or two, or a gift I could use more than a few times, I think that’s S.O.P. for practitioner dealings?”
“It’s how most have traditionally gathered knowledge,” the Briar Girl said. “Apprenticeship, servitude, favors, or being born into the right family.”
“Gotcha,” I said. “We already talked about you changing yourself, but I’m leery of that. I don’t want to weaken myself if some rot sets in and starts changing me.”
Or if this change with the tattoos continues.
“Depending on the effort you put in,” she said, “It could make you stronger. Learn to control your body’s shape, and you can flex that muscle when something else tries to.”
“That so?” I asked. “Thanks for the info. It could weaken me, too, I presume?”
“Anything could,” the Briar Girl responded. “It looks like something or a lot of somethings already have.”
“It’s been a rough few days,” I admitted.
“My partner thinks we should let you die, or help you along on your journey,” the Briar Girl said. “No deal is going to see fruition, when you’re this weak. You have very little power, for the most recent member of a very long, very learned lineage.”
It kept coming back to that.
“The ones who come after me aren’t going to be any better,” I said. “Do you want to know why? Let me think. What was the order? Kathy was next.”