21

We decided that I'd check in with Cobb the next morning, and get to work on the fae records, if they had any, and let Larry and Fawn work without letting Cobb know they were helping. I got the feeling if he knew, there' d be something he'd try to pull that would lock Larry and Fawn into the service, so I sat down that evening and wrote out a simple contract saying that Larry was assisting me locating books and reference materials, and that it was the only thing he was doing, and that I was paying him to do so. I wanted to make sure that Cobb couldn't get them with some kind of 'volunteer' meaning volunteer to do the service.
I went back home and packed a few items in a backpack, and made sure that I had no iron or steel when I went to see Cobb the next morning. I went with sweat pants and and canvas sneakers, half because they were comfortable, and half because I knew Cobb didn't like me looking 'tacky' on his time. Petty, but what do you expect? I'm not a saint and I sure as hell don't like being tricked into being a pawn for some grandiose asshole.
Cobb was waiting when I drove up. He gave my wardrobe a sour glance as I got out of the car. I pulled the backpack out, and that caught his attention. “No iron, you know that.” I smiled sweetly. “I know that Cobb, I just brought along a few other things to help me out.” I set the backpack down. “You want to check it over?” He didn't say anything, but picked up the pack and rummaged through it.
I had a bottle of salt, some blessed water from a catholic church. Four notebooks and ten pencils with the metal eraser holder removed, three pink erasers, my mothers ceramic paring knife to sharpen the pencils with, a silver letter opener, and five candles, a box of beads, another box of modeling clay, and two changes of clothes, one pair of sweats, and a black tube dress, just in case some kind of social event were to happen. Sounds like deus ex machina there? Remember, Cobb is an asshole with an ego and Fae like social events to practice their politicking.
Plus, although I wanted to piss Cobb off, I didn't want to do so to other fae, and if being polite and playing dress-up helped get information, then I'd play dress-up and trot out my best social manners. The tube dress was just a tad slinky and a little 'slink' might be useful.
He finished looking through the bag, and placed everything back in it before handing it back to me, and then taking me on that disorienting trip to Underhill. Time to start hitting the books. “Where to first, you have a library or something?” I tried to sound flippant, but all I got was snappish. He took me back up to phone booth central and pointed out three booths that had been colored green.
“Those are archives that I keep here. The two booths on the end that are white will take you to others that also have references to Anolyn, and are willing to allow you to peruse them. I do not know if they are duplicates of what is here, you'll just have to look through their archives yourself.”
He didn't wait for an acknowledgment, but turned away quickly and stepped into one of the phone booths and disppeared. Oh, yeah, a classy way to make a girl feel welcome. Run off and leave her. I shrugged and walked to the white booth on the left to start. I tightened my grip on my backpack, took a deep breath and stepped into the booth.