“Yeah,” I said.
“That’s not really an answer, baby,” he said, very gently.
“No, I guess it isn’t.”
“Family stuff? I know you aren’t close to your folks. If it’s people you feel you have to protect…”
“It’s… more that I don’t want you guys embroiled in it,” I said.
I could tell that saying as much annoyed him.
But he bit back the annoyance and asked, “Did you talk to someone last night? Did you get help?”
“Less than I’d hoped,” I said. Did massive understatements like that affect my karma like outright lies did? Probably not, but it felt like they should.
“Police?”
“I don’t think that would achieve anything,” I said. “And right now, I just need to do what I need to do, and try to find my own way through it.”
“You don’t need to do this alone. Do you want backup? We’ve got flexible schedules, for the most part. If you need company, someone to watch your back, we could set it up, so you don’t have to go anywhere alone.”
I knew why he was being so persistent, I just wished he wouldn’t be. “No backup, not right now.”
“Do you need anything? Don’t jump to saying no, either. Think about it. Because if you’re right, and this is as bad as you’re saying, somehow, you can’t leave us feeling like there was something we could’ve done to contribute.”
I tossed all the extra stuff I’d placed on the dining table into the toolbox. “I’ve got a bunch of… I guess you could call them errands, these next few days. A few people I need to see, to try and make sense of it all.”
“Accountants?”
“In the loosest sense, maybe,” I said. “I’m liable to be out late.”
“You want something in the fridge, for when you get back? A waiting meal?”
“That’d be excellent,” I said.
He smiled.
“I owe you guys,” I said. “Really.”
“You’ve always been too uptight about making things equitable. Giving me your bike..”
“You gave me your car.”
“Lean on us, Blake,” he said. “You’ve damn well helped us out without getting paid back in kind. If you’re in trouble…”
There was another knock on the door.
“Another favor, if you can, Joel?” I said, as I headed for the door, “If people are saying they’ll drop by, maybe tell them I’ve got my hands full right now. Odds are good I’m going to be in the middle of something or I’m just plain not going to be here. I don’t want to sound like you’re not welcome, but-”
“But you’ve got your hands full.”
I opened the door.
The nameless practitioner with a name.
I glanced back at Joel. There wasn’t the slightest bit of curiosity on his face.
“The details you requested,” Fell said.
“Thanks,” I said. “Hey Joel?”
“Yeah?”
“What if I told you this guy was one of the people who might be trying to kill me?”
He frowned a little, but it was very little emotion for what I was telling him. “Is he?”
“I don’t know yet. But maybe remember his face, and if something happens to me in the next few days, assume it’s him?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, frowning a bit more.
Fell reached out to put his hand on my shoulder, and I stepped out of his reach.
“Enough nonsense,” he said.
“Whatever,” I said. “Lock up my place, Joel?”
Joel nodded. “Of course.”
I popped into the kitchen, found the plastic container and grabbed a cupcake. I offered one to Fell, and he shook his head.
I headed down the hallway with Fell. When we were out of sight of the apartment, he reached into a pocket and threw a full handful of white sand onto the ground behind us. It made a small cloud as it hit the ground.
I saw the connection between him and Joel disappear entirely, in the midst of it.
He glanced at me, clearly irritated. “Don’t do something like that again.”
“Seeing what the limits are,” I said.
“You invite someone into our world, the costs are on your head,” he said.
“I wasn’t inviting him to our world. I was telling him you might try to kill me, which you might. If you use magic to fuck with him, then the costs are on your head.”
“Mm hmm,” he said. “Do you really want to tempt me to go after your friends?”
“I’m thinking,” I said, “That if I already haven’t, I’m going to take steps to protect my friends postmortem. You don’t want to see the sorts of traps I could set up.”
“I can see the connections around you,” he said. “And I know bluster when I see it.”
“How does a guy like you wind up working for Conquest, anyways?”
He didn’t reply.
“Shadowy guy, going almost completely unnoticed, apparently good at manipulating connections. What’s the rationale?” I asked, before taking a bite of the cupcake.
He gave me a look, but again, he didn’t reply.
I swallowed, then responded, “Alright. None of my business, maybe. What is my business, is this info.”
He handed me a piece of paper.
C. Dowght.
1412 SunnydriveEtobicoke, ON
“That’s… not terribly helpful,” I said.
“This and this as well,” he said.
He handed me a large splinter of wood and a bone. I held both in one hand and used the other to raise the cupcake to my mouth for another bite.
While I examined the items and chowed down on cupcake, the only noise were three sets of footsteps and the sound of a chain dragging on the floor.
The connections between the wood and bone and some distant location were rather strong.
“No details on what the enemies are?” I asked.
“I know very little,” he said. “But I can answer questions.”
“C. Dowght. The possessed guy, I presume?”
“Possession is the wrong word, but yes. He’s cut himself off from friends and family, and neighbors have started to complain about smells and pests.”
“Pests?”
“In the past, the mote has touched other individuals. Trash collected around them, and animals were drawn to the trash. Stray dogs, raccoons, rats…”
“Other individuals, plural?” Rose asked, speaking from the mirror pendant. “The mote hasn’t built up strength? Catalyzed? Become something more dangerous?”
I finished eating the cupcake while she took over the questions.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“What does the mote look like? What are its behaviors? Powers?”
“I don’t know. The Lord kept an eye on matters, which is his responsibility, but things never reached a dangerous point. It grew to a certain strength, then moved on, starting over. We never had cause to act.”
“That’s all you know?”
“Essentially. He’s been abusive, threatening neighbors, they’ve complained numerous times, but the mote travels, distracting, and intercepting communications.”
“Sounds more like an imp,” Rose said.
“I wouldn’t know.”
“And it’s interesting that it’s roaming. That suggests something about it,” Rose said. “It doesn’t need to micromanage whatever it’s doing.”