Slowly coming to, Neil drawled out, "You alright, Sonny?"

The young mage walk around so he was in front of Neil and said, "Who the h.e.l.l is Sonny?"

Neil smiled bitterly. "You are. I figured I"d give it a shot. Try it on for size. What do you think?"

Orison shrugged. "A little too gangster for my tastes but whatever floats your boat. If you can make it catch on, I"ll answer to it."

The detective staggered his way over to a couch and plopped himself into it. "Well, I"m not going back to bed. What"s that clock say, a little after five?"

Orison glanced over and replied, "Jokes about how clocks can"t talk aside, you"ve got the hands mixed up. It"s twenty after three... While we"re at it and before you ask me to make you coffee, it"s the million dollar question time. Do you just want to get better, be at the top of your game for a few more years, or are you ready to step into the great and dangerous unknown?"

Neil tried to focus on the young mage with slightly dizzy eyes as he said, "Mind making things a little more clear for the man who just got ga.s.sed by a cat burglar? Do you think you could make me one of those nifty little spray cans of lights out juice, by the way?"

Snorting, Orison said, "Only you would be itching to get your hands on something like that right after it was used on you... No, I don"t think I can personally make one but I might be able to find something like it. I"ll keep it in mind.

"As for making things more clear... Do you want to be juiced up to, lets say, like being in your late twenties and best shape of your life or do you want to take a gamble at becoming gifted? You"d be throwing the rest of your train wreck life in the toilet for a whole new set of problems that are probably harder to deal with... They"d be more interesting problems, at least."

After apologizing about the occupational hazards of his job, Neil proceeded to burn an hour asking questions about every facet of what it meant to choose either and what it was Orison wanted from him in return. During the Qu0026A, the detective shared some info of his own. The time before his run in with Muriel, Neil had taken some injuries from a creature not too unlike the "boogeyman Orison had killed when he first came to this world. It was the effects of the young mage"s previous round of medicinal investment in Neil that had allowed the man to move on from the incident without much change in life quality.

That share meant that a compromise was possible with a smaller chance of becoming some kind of wild card gifted. It also meant that Orison would have a set of medicine with an expiration date he"d have to find someone else to use on or it would be wasted. That was fine. Orison had two other candidates before he"d be grasping for straws.

Staring at the two wrapped "malted milk b.a.l.l.s" and small bottle of "gra.s.s juice", Neil said, "How bad of a time am I looking at?"

Orison shrugged. "How would I know what you"ve been eating the last nine years? Considering that it"s only been a third of the life lived that the first time cleared out of you, I"d say less sketchy roadside vendor and more cheap cafeteria. You know the drill... Drink and take the first one. Sleep and after you wake up, take the second. After that, it"s stay on standby to nearest bathroom."

"Why do you have them wrapped in tin foil? They weren"t like that last time," Neil observed.

Repressing irritation, Orison said, "It"s actually two sheets of aluminum foil and a sheet of carbon paper between. That"s because my magic seals are c.r.a.ppy right now and they make up the difference in keeping dead air from sucking the good stuff out... Lucky you, the you"re body"s riddled with bits of it so the good stuff will stick to that, letting you absorb more."

Neil looked at Orison and said, "So that"s what Jonathan meant when he talked about awakening after a trial by fire. I should have awakened if I was going to by now, shouldn"t I?"

Irritation slipping the leash a touch, Orison said, "For gawd"s sake Neil! Take the d.a.m.n medicine if you"re going to!... No. No, you wouldn"t because your life force is too low. That method only really works for young people. You should feel thankful that it wasn"t that serious or we wouldn"t be talking right now. You"d be dead."

Neil grumbled. "Bite a man"s head off for asking a few questions why don"t you."

"It"s after five! We started this at 3:30!" the young mage exclaimed in exasperation.

Sharing a few more quips, Neil finally took the medicine and laid down. Orison took the opportunity to get some more trance time in as well. Coming back to at a little after seven, all was as it should be. With Neil down for the count another couple of hours before a bubbling gut would be waking him up, Orison decided to go check on Jimmy.

A little over a half hour later, the young mage saw Smiley"s handiwork and barely contained himself. He worked through a round of meditation to get himself under control while he waited for the last dosage of painkillers to wear off. Almost like clockwork, just shy of his 8:00 medication round, Jimmy stirred awake.

Nearly completely covered in bandages and casts, the man couldn"t communicate or move. A jaw fracture even had his mouth wired shut and required he be on a liquid diet. It wasn"t so much that he was lucky to be alive, the lengths necessary to insure that Jimmy would be as full a recovery as possible were the real culprit. In spirit sight, Orison could see that none of the measures taken for Jimmy"s convalescence were particularly overboard either.

If left to his own accord, the young man would only have a few small surface scars from bone pins, a slightly crooked nose and a couple of irregularly s.p.a.ced teeth. Jimmy"s grill wasn"t a dentist"s joy to behold in the first place but the mended bone would cause him some severe discomfort in old age and probably lead to early arthritis.

When the young man noticed Orison, there was a spark of emotional intensity ignited in his dull, painkiller addled eyes. Using a "one slow blink for yes" and "two quick blinks for no" method, the young mage managed to get the gist of the story. Jimmy saw a girl in distress only to find out too late that it was one of Smiley"s "working girls" who had washed out of the club. She was in the hospital as well but for other kinds of treatment that Orison was too afraid of his own temper to ask about.

When the nurse came, Orison helped Jimmy communicate refusal of opioids and acceptance of homeopathic treatment. A doctor came to loudly protest but once Orison started flashing some cash, those protests died. It wasn"t that the doctor was willing but that medical records conveyed a message from a higher up.

Once Orison had him moved to a private room, he flashed a little light healing, unable to do much more in his own still fairly delicate state. "Call out your familiar for me, Jimmy. I could use his help getting out the wires and pins."

Jimmy"s eyes that were misty from discomfort, suddenly spilled over into silent tears. With a little more blink session, the young mage found out that Jimmy thought his familiar was dead. It belatedly occurred to him that he hadn"t really explained it well and it had been too short a period of time for Jimmy"s familiar to have grown strong enough to re-summon itself from Jimmy"s spiritual seat. It still spoke volumes of how badly the beating had been that even his familiar had lost its form, likely taking organ and spine blows for the young man considering how little damage had been done to them.

Orison sacked a touch of life essence to the air around him to draw out a nonspecific summoning model and instructed Jimmy to direct his will into it. It took two tries before Jimmy succeeded. Despite not being quite a month old it had managed to pleasantly surprise Orison with its progress. The familiar could hover in the air on temporary hummingbird wings and had mastered communication just barely enough to introduce itself as Jammers, along with a few simple responses.

With a helper, the young mage made quick work of the impediments that would have turned his medicine into a painful ordeal. Along with a proper longevity medicine that Neil hadn"t ended up needing, Jimmy would almost be ready to be removed from his casts in a couple more hours of absorption and rest.

Not wanting to borrow a cup of trouble when he already had a bowl full, the young mage still couldn"t help but check in on the woman. Using the mind trick he had gotten much better at after having been subjected to a much more refined version from the "forgettable guy" that tried to hypnotize him, Orison slipped in and out unseen. Though it wasn"t much, he "cleaned" and applied a light touch of healing where it matter most to her with an exercise of power he could ill afford but his conscience stung after seeing the dried track of tears on her sleeping face.

The psychically enhanced "Be strong. You"re worthy of happiness." was all for her but the the following suggestion to the rotten man who sat napping by her side to keep her quite was all for himself. "The next time you see Smiley, I want you to pull your shirt off and carve a spiral into your chest. Once you"re done doing that, tell him that the b.u.t.terfly has already flapped its wings and cut your own throat... Make sure to aim your blood at him."

Obstructing free will and continued life to such a direct degree had earned the mage a little more filth in his lattice work but his target was so vile that the addition was barely perceivable. Still, it was comforting knowing that two wrongs didn"t make a right in the eyes of greater existence or whatever force was behind the collection and dispersal of corruption. With many lives to live, it was all too possible for a soul to find itself in one where it required redemption to avoid d.a.m.nation.

What the young mage had done, likely robbed the man at a chance for his. That was a fate slightly worse than having his soul stripped bare. If Orison had devoured it, at least the core would be free of its past but what awaited a man with such a dark and heavy soul was likely quite unpleasant. As a soul eater himself, Orison knew that such a soul was preferred by those who could because they left very little undigestible parts behind and for a person like that, to be devoured would be a mercy in comparison... He didn"t want it.

It took nearly the remainder of the day before Neil and Orison found themselves removing Jimmy"s casts at the detective"s office in New Yorkshire after a hospice van dropped the young man off. The ex-greaser didn"t have many prospects left in Port Haven after the garage he was working at let him go for fear of reprisal from Smiley. For the time being, Orison planned on keeping him as general staff until other employment could be found.

The young mage still thought that Jimmy was a bad fit for the supernatural community and hoped he could detach the young man in some kind of stable situation before it was too late. If some incident came to pa.s.s, Orison resolved to make it up as best he could. It wasn"t only pity or misplaced compa.s.sion. He genuinely believed that Jimmy had a shot at the "good ending" and getting wrapped up in secret society business or even worse, becoming a climber, would ruin that.

Over the next few days, a great deal of money was divvied at the bank for the purpose of acquiring an appropriately grand estate and Muriel"s old studio so the lives of the innocent people a.s.sociated with her death weren"t overly affected. While those proceedings percolated, Orison made his choice between the two potential recruits he had considered from his time strolling around The Village.

It had been a tough choice on who to approach first but the first woman he"d ever considered adding to his roster was eliminated by the simple fact that she"d found a special friend while he was casing his choices. They seemed like they were enjoying each other"s company quite a bit and Orison tried to think long game with his decisions. Romantic attachments weren"t that big of a deal breaker but it limited availability and increased potential guilt if something was to happen to them. If his second string pick didn"t pan out, he planned on returning to her.

His second best didn"t have such luck in the love or even the life department. Zeke Emerson was a second transcontinental war veteran and recently unemployed member of the Wackenut Security Firm and he had the "badges" to show for it. He was a healthy and capable man but was riddled with shrapnel pocks across the chest and lower jaw. A bit of spinal damage caused some nerve issues with his right leg. Combined with the bullet wounds to his left side and thigh, it gave him a bit of an awkward hitch to his gate.

All in all, the man was scary for all the wrong reasons and a few right ones. If it had just been his looks and slightly odd walk, Zeke wouldn"t have had that hard of a time because there were plenty of friendly folks in The Village community. His biggest social barrier was a violent episode from a couple years prior when he was still dealing with a little post-war/security detail anxiety issue. It didn"t help that the company he used to work for was notorious for ending protests and breaking up attempts to form unions with means both fair and foul.

The sad part was Zeke ultimately left his employment for those and similar reasons, even though he was making good money as a trainer. If it hadn"t been for the aunt he had taken care of until her pa.s.sing a few months previous, the man would have left for other parts but settling affairs had been long and drawn out. Barely ambivalent tolerance aside, Zeke"s only vice was caffeine in all its wondrous forms and had an uncharacteristic enjoyment of the offbeat poetry/music from a couple of performer groups that played in a shop near his aunt"s house.

Why he stood out so vividly to Orison was Zeke"s fair resemblance to Claudius. He had the same tired but still good natured soldierly disposition and subtle threat that was hard to shake others subconsciously responding to, especially when he went out of his way to stay in shape and keep old skills from getting too rusty. He also had a similar straightforward and easygoing manner but some of that seemed a bit forced. The young mage gave him a great deal of slack for the effort.

Unlike Claudius, Zeke wasn"t uncomfortable with the loneliness, he just wanted more. He also didn"t have nearly as large a self-esteem issue, just a few more personal demons he wrestled with. Once again, Orison cut the man some slack. Too many people don"t even try, much less reach a point where they can see the other side of the struggle like Zeke had.

The young mage had planned on watching him another day or so before approaching but Zeke had caught on to him and the situation would have only gotten awkward with time and stalking. "I hope you remember me so this doesn"t sound too weird but are you still having trouble liquidating your aunt"s grocery store and house. I find myself in a position to help if you want it."

Due to the pock scars, Zeke"s bitter smile came across as an evil leer. "My aunt"s brother and son have them tied up in court now. I"m done with it. If either of them gave a d.a.m.n about her or her employees, I would have handed it over a long time ago. Now that they forced the doors closed, I couldn"t care less."

Orison said casually, "Ah, the trouble was finding a buyer that would keep the staff?... Sucks that it didn"t end up well but at least you bought them some time to prepare for it."

A genuine smile almost managed to show through the lie of an evil leer. "I let em sack the place like it was on fire. Just wait until my uncle"s ugly mug checks the place next week to find all the deli equipment gone. I"ll deny I left the dock door unlocked on purpose if anyone asks."

Orison snorted. "Please, if it had been me, the place really would have been on fire. a.s.suming I could do it without endangering nearby buildings, of course."

Zeke said, "Let"s just say my cousin better not try to break into the house again before I move out. There"s some pretty old electrical wiring in there."

Curbing his laughter to a less attention grabbing chuckle, Orison said, "So what"s the plan now?"

Zeke gave him a mile long stare and Orison realized he might have gotten a little too personal too quickly for a man who was used to privacy. "If you feel like sharing... I"m not trying to pry."

The ex-mercenary rotated his coffee cup as he shifted to staring off into the distance. "Yes you are but I don"t mind that much. What I"m curious about is why you want to know."

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