The Intellect didn’t answer for a long time. Rosefinch gave me an icy glare then a worried look at the Intellect.

  “I would see the bound creature,” the Intellect said at last, in carefully measured tones. “Depending on the creature, I would like to explore several different avenues of approach. If it is within my power, I will remove the creature from your arsenal. If it is not possible, I would like to study it. With your permission. But it is my belief that you will not want to part from it.”

  “I’d also prefer it if it wasn’t changed or altered in any negative way,” I said.

  “I will take a look at it, and inform you before attempting anything,” She said. “But know that this is as far as my mercy allows, Jain Shin Hallow. The deal was for you to bring it to me. I will take a look at the creature.”

  I winced at the rancid note in the Intellect’s voice which hadn’t been there last time. “I know. I swore.”

  “Now show it to me,” She said, a hundred rat snouts speaking at once from her hideous body.

  I reached into my back pocket and produced the knife. It was just as I remembered. Jet-black with the spines folded at the sides. When the Intellect drew near me, it quivered like the thing was alive.

  “I wouldn’t advise touching it,” I said.

  The Intellect’s wings parted and a… limb… reached out. It was pink, bloodied, and –no other way to describe it– freshly created. The misshapen appendage edged towards my gravity knife but when it got within a finger’s distance, the spines opened up all around except for the parts where my hand was touching it. When the limb retreated, the spines retracted again.

  “If this is a jest, it is a poor one,” Rosefinch said frostily.

  “I didn’t do it on purpose,” I hissed.

  “Oh? Think about how it looks from our side, little Mageling. We send you to fetch an eldritch being, you bind it into one of your raiments, where it has attained sentience enough to refuse an outsider’s touch,” Rosefinch said each word with calm eyes, dealing out her points with cold impunity, “From this side of things, mageling, you have forced us into a position where we are at your mercy to further negotiate for a new bargain or pact for something we’ve already agreed on the price for.”

  Her beautiful, pale lips bared up in a vampiric display of sharpened canines, “Did you truly not do this on purpose?”

  My voice was weak by comparison. “It wasn’t part of my plan. This isn’t exactly favorable for me either.”

  “It's fine, my friend Rosefinch Valstein. He is new to the practice, errors were built into the expectation,” the Intellect’s wings had spread wider, and countless eyes were staring at the knife in my hand. “Reveal the blade’s edge, Jain Shin Hallow.”

  I flicked it open.

  The Eldritch Eye stared out from within the confines of the blade. It pressed up against the edge, peering at the Intellect’s army of eyes with its own.

  I looked away before my Third Eye decided to get in the ring..

  We remained like that for a minute. I struggled to control the sensation of numbness that was spreading from my pits. I genuinely felt sorry for the Intellect. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have had this happen. To either of us. My best interest would have been to keep up my end of the bargain without crippling my own practice. I still had no idea what effects binding the eldritch eye in my knife would have.

  The wings around the Intellect gathered and closed shut.

  “I do not need a closer look,” the Intellect said quietly.

  “Inty?”

  “I can tell the bound being is different from the one of my encountering. Being near it will not help. I will be redirecting my efforts,” She said, resigned. “But first, what was said has been done. The boons are yours, Jain Shin Hallow.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief and reached out for them.

  “I am no longer interested in the being nor your arsenal,” the Intellect continued, as if she didn’t just confirm that the deal was finished. “However, I have questions.”

  I sighed. “Of course.”

  “I would like a formal explanation of how you came to separate the madness from the daemon,” She said.

  “I banished the daemon, but bound the eldritch into the knife,” I said and felt somewhat dumb as I did.

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  “An oversimplification,” Wol said but didn’t offer much else.

  The Intellect Transit waited.

  “I don’t know. I’m making up a lot of it as I go. I think the daemon was bound because it was forced to give me its name. As for the binding, I think it was possible because of the book you gave me as part of the boon.”

  “I have employed the method in the book and others to separate the madness that scours my mind to no avail,” She said. “I am interested in the factors that might have contributed to your success.”

  “It might be more circumstances than what I did,” I said, starting to realize this was becoming yet another time sink. But the Intellect had been nice to me, and I wanted to repay her somehow. “I’m sorry.”

  Her wings trembled slightly, either in excitement or disappointment. “No. Perhaps we can speak another time. Rosefinch?”

  I received the boons from Valstein, who dropped them onto my palm. The small compass with the power to enthrall beasts. The other was a leather parchment from the Wickerman, a list of locations where I could bargain for power; though I was having a hard time picturing what that meant.

  Getting them in my hand sent a trill of power surging through me.

  I set my backpack down on the floor and Wol helped me put the newfound boons inside. It took a bit more effort to put the backpack on than it had been to get it off.

  “Thank you,” I said once everything was sorted out.

  “You are welcome,” the Intellect said. “I understand you will need to make preparations. Please, feel free.”

  I turned around without another word, limping back the way I came. I heard the beginning of another conversation between Rosefinch and the Intellect right before the door shut behind me.

  “Rosefinch. I wish to discuss the repayment of a favor...”

  The council room had nearly emptied out, but about half the previous were still here, joined by newfaces I hadn’t seen. There were hundreds of them. Short goblin-looking creatures who leered at everything that wasn’t another goblin, spirits that were more than a ghost but less than living, and other things that I didn’t know the name of.

  “Practitioner?” He asked. “What now?”

  “We have what, forty minutes? Forty five?” I said. “That’s plenty of time.”

  “You mean to make deals,” Wol said. “Most won’t offer powerful deals in a place as public as this. Bestowing gifts and making deals in public? That’s a Fae custom. Most will prefer to deal in isolated areas that have thinner walls to other places. Easier to bend the rules and keep secrets.”

  “Can’t we just duck into the hallway like before?”

  “Others will see, and suspect,” Wol replied. “And they’ll be badgered for it.”

  I thought to myself. “You have someone in mind?”

  “Several,” Wol admitted. “The bakeneko. The Fae. Other practitioners from Society, as well as the followers of the individual Table members.”

  “You’re forgetting that I still need a second,” I said, looking around. Menele and Kita were still here, carrying conversations with other beings. “And worst case scenario, there were those who already made offers.”

  “I recommend the Fae,” Wol said immediately.

  I grimaced. “I knew you’d say that.”

  “The namahage looks powerful. And old. But in a trial, physical prowess can only go so far,” Wol continued. “A Fae of Menele’s age would have experience to draw on, and would be bound by her word.”

  “She reminds me a little too much of an unhinged Rosefinch,” I said and quickly looked over my shoulder to see if anyone heard. “I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every step of the way. Also, she demanded years of my kids. I don’t even have a girlfriend, Wol.”

  “A small price to pay, which could change depending on the negotiation,” Wol replied. “But you are right, Practitioner. We should hurry.”

  Sometimes, Wol said things that reminded me that he wasn’t much different than the beings I was scared of.

  I looked around the room again, trying to see if anyone in particular stood out. No one. Except Yokocho, the bakeneko.

  I kept feeling my eyes drawn to Yokocho. He was the first one to approach me out of everyone here after all. I wasn’t sure he was harmful, but I wasn’t entirely sure he was helpful. Just like everything else, it was probably a mixture of both and would depend on how I dealt with him. Both he and Kita were from Japan, but the two couldn’t be more different. Yokocho reminded me a bit more of the fae.

  Perhaps the initial introduction had been a tactic, whether it was a simple sales tactic or magically induced, there was no way to tell right now. Maybe Yokocho had foreseen this outcome, where I’d be shopping. Or as Wol and Hwari said before this; a place like this with a huge gathering of preternaturals was bound to have an exchanging of favors and gifts. Yokocho could have been banking on the possibility that I’d be one of those too. Besides, he also looked knowledgeable. Perhaps he could give advice on the whole issue of choosing a second. The fact was, I needed to talk to someone and time spent choosing was time that I could’ve spent doing something.

  “Ok, you agree on the bakeneko?” I asked and when Wol nodded, we began walking together as one.

  “Practitioner, nothing binding and nothing too complex. Keep it simple,” Wol said.

  “Got it,” I mummured, “Hwari, would you mind? I don’t want anyone else to surprise me like when I was talking to Kita.”

  ‘I will be the eyes and ears,’ Hwari’s voice echoed in my mind.

  Yokocho was standing by a corner talking to a ghost dressed in a navy sailor’s uniform. When I got there, the ghost vanished without a sound.

  “Oh, Jain! To what do I owe the pleasure? By the way, I did rather enjoy the show that you and the Fae put on there. Quite a few of us are quite taken with you now. Please! You must join me at my shop sometime. We have the most wonderful time! Tea, rice crackers, anpan!”

  Something about Yokocho tickled the mischievous side in me. “I have coin if you have wares.”