20

He looked over at Cobb, who was acting as if the judge did not exist. Petty, but I found I enjoyed his attitude. It made it easier to dislike him. The judge caught my attention with a slight wave of his hand in front of my face. “You do have to work at the service. Delaying can be seen as avoiding. And that interpretation is up to the holder of the service. But, you must have some time to properly prepare for the service, Mr Cobb cannot just call you refusing it for taking a few days to prepare. So before I leave to go back to eat my dinner, how long do you consider necessary to prepare before you start this service?”
The judge had given me a breathing space and I took it. “I should need about a day to get started, but it may take a while to be able to finish. I will probably spend a while, maybe a month or more, trying to find out about the Anolyn Way and try to uncover any extra information that might help.” The judge nodded. So you will begin your research in one day's time, and will present a overview of your research at weekly intervals to Mr. Cobb. Once you have exhausted your resources for all pertinent information, you will attempt to get the Way operating.”
He smiled again, and I could smell the satisfaction flowing off of him like Honeysuckle. “I believe that covers the situation quite nicely. Please call upon me Ms. Fatelli if you should have need. I must say I am interested in this. Good day Ms Fatelli. He bowed and turned to Cobb. “Good day.” A perfunctory bow and hew was gone the same way he came in.
I turned to Cobb. “I want to rest at my home. I'll drop by the library tomorrow and see what books there are on Anolyn and the Anolyn Way.” That raised a thought. “Do you have any reference materials on Anolyn or the Way? Anything that you have, I want access to.” I smiled and smelled my own satisfaction with tweaking this manipulative jerk. “After all, you wanted service, how can I perform the service if I can't learn about the problem?”
After Cobb magicked me in front of the building that housed my office, he said a curt good bye and vanished. I didn't go inside immediately, but dial up Larry and Fawn on my Cell-phone. “Hey short stuff, how's the private entrapment business going?” “I love you too sis, told Larry about the little bun you're baking in the oven?” “Yes, as a matter of fact, she did tell me, about five minutes ago Fernie, now enough jabbering and let's go celebrate!” I could feel Larry's grin through the cell-phone. It felt really good to smile and laugh after the last two days I'd had.
Larry had me meet them at the Calcutta Wharf, a wonderful restaurant that, in spite of the name, served wonderful asian food. I'd asked about the name once, and the story came back that the owner had bought the place from the original owner, and had been too cheap to change the sign. After a while, he just left it up because people associated the sign with the restaraunt.
As we ate our dinner, Larry asked “So Fernie, did that spell work proper?” I put my utensils down, and took a deep breath. “About that Larry, it worked fine, it was the other stuff afterwards that was really the shredded pain.” I outlined everything that went on after I got back from finding and 'rescuing' Mr. Cobb's daughter, and included the trial this morning and the discussion I had with Cobb, and what I was supposed to do.
The mood went right down the drain, and I felt bad, really bad about the kind of stuff we were discussing. This should have been a celebration, and instead we're talking about how short stuff Fernie got screwed over by the big bad fae Mr. Cobb. Larry sat and just picked at the food as I wound the story down. Fawn looked pale and angry, part at me, and part at Larry because she knew he'd try to help, and a BIG part at Cobb, the author of the whole mess.
“So, what do you think we should do?” Fawn surprised us both by being the one to hint that working together would be a good idea. She looked at our faces and chuckled. “I know that's what it's going to take short stuff. I have to make decisions I don't like all the time as a cop. How's this one any different?” Got me there.