Here we went. Dealing with a devil. “Sign by putting pen to the very set of pages I’ve outlined the terms on?”
And not scrawling your name on Dowght or the underside of the table?
“Yes.”
“And your statements can be considered verbal agreement, even if you aren’t human, or if you aren’t technically there and speaking in the conventional sense?”
“Point conceded.”
“Then we agree to define anything you say as verbal? Anything you write as written by you?”
“Agreed.”
Circular reasoning, to agree to the terms of ‘agree’, but fuck it.
Where to start? How did a contract normally go?
Basics first.
“The terms of this contract exist between me, Blake Thorburn, and…”
“Pauz, given of the Marquis Andras, both of the fifth choir, feral and foul.”
I scribbled it out, leaving the names blank. “Spell. Your name?”
“In the Dutch tongue-”
“In English,” I interrupted.
“P-A-U-Z,” he said.
Huh. Not the spelling I’d anticipated. It rhymed with ‘ooze’ when heard.
“And your…”
“My sire, my lord, the metaphorical tree that bore me as fruit. Andras. A-N-D-R-A-S.”
“I bear no risk by inscribing his name or yours?”
“No. Andras is bound, and only those bearing the saber he was bound to may call him forth. I am a lowly imp, and my name has no power, spoken or written.”
I scribbled out the paragraph defining myself and Pauz as the individuals the contract referred to.
I used the spine of Black Lamb’s Blood to push the various dishes and bits of food to the floor, clearing the table in front of me, then tore that half of the page off the pad, tore it so the section of paper with the paragraph was the only thing on the page, and slapped it down onto the table.
“What are you doing?”
“Outlining,” I said. “Conceptualizing.”
If I was going to write a contract, I’d do it like I was putting something together for work. Start crude, confirm direction, refine, polish.
I needed to bind him, I needed to bind him very fucking carefully, and I didn’t have the background of hundreds or thousands of years of trial and error in diabolism to back me up.
“The goal of the contract,” I said. “Is that we bind you for a term ending five minutes after midnight, two nights from now.”
“At which point I am given over to the Incarnation’s possession,” Pauz said. “Or you are forfeit.”
“Forfeit what?” I asked.
“Your word, your being. Whatever I desire,” Pauz said.
To hell with that, I thought.
“Firstly,” I said, “I am absolved of responsibility once I bring you, bound, to the Lord. I’m not going to suffer consequences if he or you do anything after that point.”
“You give me to him,” Pauz said. “A transfer of possession, with no intent to immediately reclaim me.”
“I’m not under the impression he’d give you up once he had you,” I said, looking up from the paper I was writing on. “But yes.”
“And you make some attempt, overt or otherwise, to ensure he keeps me until such a time that the contract’s terms end and I am free.”
“Unless such an attempt would work against your goals and mine?” I asked.
“Hm?”
“If he obviously intends to keep you, and pushing him further would look suspicious.”
“Granted,” Pauz said.
I wrote it down.
“Second point,” I said, returning to the larger block of text above. “I’m not okay with that penalty for failure. Giving you all of me? Forfeiting my very existence? No.”
“I stake my being on this, what other penalty would suffice?” Pauz asked.
Meaning the imp wasn’t so happy with the idea of making a small scar in the universe and then dying ignobly.
Suspicion confirmed.
“I have two other beings to bind,” I said. “My existence and other aspects of my being are at stake. If I fail because I’m dead, we can say there’s no penalty clause.”
“Consider it incentive to fight a little harder,” Pauz said.
My eyes fell on Dowght.
Demons want a foothold in the world. What happens if I give all of myself, if Dowght is what happens when Pauz finds a crack?
Too little knowledge, with the stakes far too high.
Something else. I needed to cover my ass, while offering him something he desired.
“Property,” I said. “I’m custodian to a property, that I believe will come into my hands. We can arrange for a section of that property to fall into your possession, if I can’t meet my end of the contract, and if that property is mine.”
“I would need to see that contract,” he said.
“Too bad,” I said. “I don’t think I can get access to it by any reasonable, sane measure.”
Not without contacting the lawyers or walking through Laird’s time field.
“I’m left to accept a tenuous offer, or face tenuous reward?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Mortals pass property on to heirs, if they die. If you die before you meet your end of the bargain, the property isn’t yours to give me.”
“It’s what I’m offering you,” I said. The only thing I can reasonably offer you, if it’s even that reasonable.
It could be too much.
Oh god. Wind was blowing in through open windows and the crack in the sliding glass door. Fresh air was not my friend. It only made the stench of this place worse.
I had to hold utterly still, fighting the urge to gag, while Pauz deliberated.
“How much space?”
“Fifteen square feet, parceled out as I deem appropriate.”
“Small,” Pauz said.
“Yes,” I said. “Small.”
You little bastard. I know this is gold to you, and I’m probably betraying humanity by even offering it. Take it.
I kept myself outwardly calm, or tried to.
“Offer a larger area,” he said.
“If land isn’t what you want,” I said, “We can discuss other terms.”
Just as he was looking to achieve absolute control over me, in contrast to the tiny hold he had on Dowght, I knew I was offering him absolute ownership over the land.
I had a dim idea of what that meant.
He took his time deliberating.
“Why don’t we cut the crap and stop pretending you don’t salivate at the idea?” I asked.
“Presumptuous,” he said, the gravel of a faint growl in his voice.
The growl was echoed by the noises the animals in the corners made.
“I’m a novice,” I said, “But I know some things, and I know what you want. Take it so we can move on, or I’m going to start having second thoughts.”
He didn’t respond right away. He stood straighter, peering at me, then sat down on the table.
I got a nod.
“Verbal confirmation, please,” I said.
“Yes. That penalty will suffice.”
Which gave me the option of giving him the space inside Laird’s trap, promising to screw over either Pauz or Laird, or, ideally, forced them to deal with one another. I could take other precautions, too.
Worst case scenario, that.
I took a deep breath, the immediately regretted doing so. “I have some terms to stick onto this part of the deal. From the time I bind you, you don’t harm me or mine.”