13

The idea to negotiate with Troykin was to get them stirred up some, and then you could get them to agree to most anything. Plus, losing face was a big thing to Troykin, so what they agreed to they'd stick with, however they agreed to it. I had asked Fawn about the Troykin up here, and she had told me that they were generally willing to work with humans.
Larry Potter was a name known up here, as his shop catered to all races, and considering a lot of the wild racist xenophobia practiced by humans and the non-human on each other, Larry was considered a good man to know and helping his sister-in-law could be seen as getting a big discount on something. All told it was a good thing to be Larry's sister-in-law.
The Troykin almost fell over themselves when I told them who I was. They didn't believe it for a moment. I sighed to myself. “Okay, what will prove who I am?” I asked the supposed leader of the bunch. “We know of the name of the Ne...pilim you fought, what was the name you called that creature?” The name I called him. “That piece of filth was called Ahiah, but I called him 'Baldy'.” It was the right answer. What did I tell you about magic and coincidences? How likely do you think that the bottle and the name of the Nephelim would come up on the same day, and linked to each other? Really? You're a bigger believer in coincidence than I am, that's for certain.
“Now you are free to ask one of us to help you, but I recommend Zik'k. His family owes Mr. Larry very much for his kindnesses, and has the largest honor-debt.” A lean, scarred-up Troykin stepped forward, then put his hand over his face and bowed. Hmm, some kind of ritual greeting? “No need to be formal, Zik'k, we'll work better if you just call me Fern.” I said. Zik'k straightened and held his nose. “Peeee-eew, human, what kind of magic have you been rolling in? Gah, the smell's awful!” I blinked in surprise.
Troykin could smell magic? “You can smell magic?” I blurted out. All five heads on five Troykin nodded. The leader who'd suggested Zik'k said “That we can, but it's not something we advertise much. You have to be a pretty powerful wizard to have a smell on you, and yours is,” I watched his face screw up in concentration as he hunted for a suitably diplomatic word, “pungent.” “Are you going to get all huffy about it?”, I asked, getting huffy about it myself. Hey, it's a girl's privilege to be huffy when called pungent.