41

“Let's talk then”, I said to it, and I was half-proud of myself that my voice didn't waver or crack. “My offer is three weeks as your conduit, and you then leave back to your own realm and no longer lay claim to anyone here ever again that has held a contract with you. You release them completely. In return you will be allowed to ride me while I work the spell and confront the dragon if it shows.”
“Oh, my, hardball I believe it is called, this will add spice to our negotiations. I will enjoy you as conduit Ms Fatelli. I will not relinquish control, but borrow your body under my full control for the next nine years, or time being considered sufficient to me desires.” it countered with a a unconcealed joy. Great, it loved haggling. It should have been a fishwife, or got a contract with one.
We offered and counter-offered for the better part of three hours, way past when I was supposed to see Cobb at Underhill. We were deadlocked, unwilling to move on the final part of the contract. The concessions that I'd managed to get were thus, it would release Megan and hold no control afterwards over her, that I would be the conduit but it would have control for half of my day each day. The downside was that Megan's contract would remain in effect until the end of my three year stint as a conduit, then it would relinquish Megan and declare Megan's contract null and void. She'd be free again. And I'd be stuck with the Darkness.
“No, this doesn't work, it won't work, and I'm not going to try and make it work any more.” The Darkness watched me and I felt the pressure of the gaze. “Why not, you argued quite decisively Ms Fatelli, I find I have enjoyed this mental sparring much more than the terror I've invoked the past three years with this young human. You will be an excellent conduit.” The confidence that it oozed from its voice was disconcerting, and I felt it trying to stroke my hopelessness, trying to convince me to give up, to let go, and agree as is. Lose my identity to the Darkness, I was going to do it anyways, everything dies and enters the dark.
I shook my head violently to stop the thoughts. This thing was insidious, and it wanted me as a conduit badly. Just how badly though was the question. It would have to wait. Maybe a delay would make it careless. Not damn likely, but I wanted to delay things some. At least give me time to think.
“I'll talk with you tomorrow, right now I'm late for another appointment. You know where I live here, so drop by tomorrow and we'll pick this up again.” “Agreed, I am savoring her hope and terror, Ms Fatelli, this has been most entertaining. Tomorrow, the same time.” The darkness roiled out from Megan and I saw tears on her cheeks as the Darkness commanded her body to do. The darkness filled the room and then receded, flowing away like water receding off a shore. The door was a black, square hole for a moment and then the darkness lightened to a grey and the door solidified and I was back in my office alone, and I sat down and pulled a bottle of scotch from the bottom drawer of my desk. I didn't indulge very often, but I wanted a drink badly. The liquid searing down my throat helped focus me, and I put the bottle back down for the next 'emergency'.
I got the blanket out of the Murphy bed and wrapped myself in it and sat at the desk. I knew Cobb would be waiting impatiently for me, but I didn't want to go yet. I needed time to get myself composed and ready to face him. It was about a half hour later that the door rattled angrily, and I heard Cobb's voice. “Ms Fatelli, answer me this moment! We had a meeting to update our situation, and I will not tolerate being snubbed in such a manner!” I stayed in the blanket and shivered.
“I can feel you in there Ms Fatelli, either come answer this door or I shall break it in!” Let him try was all I could think when he said that. I knew the door would hold against most human spellcasters, and nearly all human thugs. Then I was up and unbolting the door before he could smash the glass. I don't care how apathetic I was at the time, having someone you owe things to lose fingers or an arm to cutting glass is not a good idea. It sours a relationship.
Cobb stood on the other side of the door, haughtily looking down on me from his near seven foot height. “You did not show at the time designated Ms Fatelli, this cannot continue if I am to lend my assistance. I need to know everything so that I can”, he paused a moment, and I could hear the shift in his words, “assist in an effective manner.” “Mr Cobb, or what the hell your name is, this is a very bad time to be trying to tell me what to do or how to do it. In fact it is a very bad time to visit, and right now I want you to leave. I will talk with you tonight. Good day.”

40

“Don't you see? He's doing it deliberately. You came here to us when he put pressure on you, and you came over again when you needed those books rendered harmless. And again when he started asking fore 'regular' reports on progress. He's using you, making you jump to his tune and go where he wants. He wanted Larry, and he's got him through you.” She paused to let that sink in then hit it again. I think he's hoping you will use Larry again as your 'expert' to cast the spell, just like he wants. I say make him do it. He wants in, bring him in all the way! Make him earn that, and use his power to make the spell. i don't know that much about fae magick, but it can't be any more noticeable than human magick when a spell's cast, especially one that big.
Let him help, he's expecting to watch you run off the opposite direction. You want to screw him, take that offer, and make him hold his end up. I for one would love to see his face when you say yes, and then expect him to help.” Fawn was right, and it would keep Cobb where we all could see what he was up to. I still had reservations aas I was never sure what Cobb was after. Sometimes I'm not sure he did either. But Fawn was right. Keep him close, and make him work for us since he volunteered so nicely. Maybe tomorrow would be worth getting out of bed for after all.
I smiled at the notion and went back to my office to get some sleep and see the Darkness. I planned to withdraw the offer and see what would happen. Gods and magick willing, it would just go away, or crater completely and let me dictate terms. I didn't think I would get either situation, but there had to be something in-between the two extremes that could be helpful. I started to go through what I thought we still needed to do for the bridge spell when my office door disappeared in a blot of darkness.
“I'm glad to see you had no trouble finding the place” I said to it as the darkness receded enough for me to see Megan. “I am here, and I am given over to listen further to your proposal Ms Fatelli. So please, remind me of the current offer.” it said with a smug, mocking sound to it's voice. Time to spring the surprise. “I don't think we'll need you to do this, and you've undoubtedly ruined that child's mind long before now, so thanks but no thanks, you had a chance last night. In the light of today, forget it.”
The darkness expanded and enveloped the room, except for me and the the small circle of light the Darkness left around me. In spite of the fan still running in the background, I felt half-frozen with such absolute dark around me. I tried to steady myself mentally as it spoke.
“So you choose to withdraw the offer? Think carefully on your answer, Ms Fatelli, think very carefully indeed.” The threat hung in the air, and I could feel the pressure of the darkness start to creep towards me, like a vise squeezing down on an object. “I really mean it! We don't need you for this, I had another volunteer to help, he has enough power to do what I want without having to strike a bargain.”
The dark paused in it's advance. As if considering something. Then it was gone in an eye blink, and all that stood before me was Megan. Her eyes were pure black and still conveyed a haunted desperation. I felt, rather than heard, the Darkness chuckle possessively. “She is mine to do with what I will. The contract was flawed, and she is mine until I relinquish her. Quite and amusing situation do you think, Ms Fatelli?” I tweaked my weak spots like the expert it was. That frightened me it could find them so easily.
I stared, horrified, at the casual cruelty that I heard in the Darkness's voice. My imagination started to run away with the possibilities of what it put Megan through during the time it had her as a conduit, and I focused to quit thinking of that and focus on now. It meant to do this, it would crush Megan if I didn't acquiesce. Even if I did, I had to do the wording precisely correct or it would find a loophole to create some kind of misery to me or to those around me. The thought of that thing riding me like it did Megan boiled up in me again like a monstrous fever, I was terrified. But there was only one way to stop her torment, and that was to invite the Darkness as a conduit through my body.
I forced myself once again to try and ignore Megan. I had to do this right or I and Megan would get screwed over badly in retaliation for what I wanted to try.

39

I wanted it to feel pressure to make the decision right away. The more chance it got to think the more it could negotiate for. I didn't want it to feel the advantage, I wanted it careless. But unfortunately, you don't get an entity being careless very often. Such was the case here. “Ms Fatelli, I do believe you are looking to sway my decision unduly. I do believe I need time to ponder all the ramifications of the options and the information you have provided me. I will contact you this time tomorrow at your office. I will see you then. Watch your step on the way down, as there's loose material all around.”
I went back down to my car and by a small miracle didn't find it up on blocks and stripped down to a skeleton. Probably the electric shock someone would get without the proper magickal talisman in their pocket. I got back in and drove back over to Larry and Fawn's house to talk a little more about having an entity on our side to cast the spell. I thought it a good idea, I just needed Larry and Fawn to agree with me.
“Are you nuts?!” Larry said to me after I laid out trying to get the Darkness to take me as a conduit. “It will agree and screw you four ways to Sunday. That is just NOT a good idea. It may like the challenge, but if you die, it just goes back to its own world and temporarily loses a conduit to this one, until the next idiot that comes along thinks it's a good idea to play with a power like the Darkness!”
“I'm not playing, I'm trying to correct an accident that happened. I'm responsible!” I shot back at Larry. “No, you're not responsible. That girl made her own deal, and the only thing you did was try to help when no one wanted you to.” Fawn came in at that moment, and looked at the two of us. “Fernie, sit. Larry, go to the work room and play with your toys back there, I'll handle the midget from the black lagoon here.”
I glared at my amazonian sister. Six foot plus of buxom raven-haired womanhood, and in shape enough to turn heads even in a dumpy pair of sweats, which she was in. “You quit riding yourself sis, I mean it. You no more could have stopped her from trying that you could make water run uphill. The only thing here was that she did it under your cute little button nose, and you're upset that she got away with it.” I glared at her and thought about it.
She was right to a point. Megan did make the attempt and made the bargain by her own self. The trouble for me was that I'd shown her how to do it by calling the entity up in the first place. She used the same technique to call it up herself. That was my problem. “Listen up shorty, you keep dwelling on that and you'll pull something really stupid like actually taking that girl's place. You think you need that? I sure as hell don't. We can pull it off. Hell, if you want to ask for help, ask that Cobb. He's really falling all over himself to help.”
“I'm not going to ask Cobb for anything. He's not interested in me, he's interested in something else, and whatever it is I don't want to find out. Something about him has started to really creep me out. He's hungry for something, and maybe it's something to do with me, but after seeing his face, I do not want him to be doing anything for me. He can take his help and walk it of the short end of a high pier!”
Remember what I sad a long time ago about magick and coincidence? Well, I'll say it again. With magick, there are some mighty long coincidences that are not really coincidence. I was telling all about how Cobb creeped me out the last time I saw him, and we got a knock on the front door. Both Fawn and I jumped at the noise. Fawn got up and went over to the kitchen archway. I went to the door. As I reached for the doorknob the knocking started again, and I jerked the door open quickly and Cobb stumbled in surprise.
He composed himself quickly and I saw Fawn put something away out of the corner of my eye. “Ms Fatelli, it has occurred to me that since I am asking you to do this, I should be remiss if I did not lend my abilities to their fullest. So I have decided that I will take part in this endeavor. You can come see me at the usual location tomorrow. I will be expecting a full report of your progress.”
I stood there flabbergasted. He was stepping in to take charge of the whole thing after I had gotten us to a point where it would succeed? He took the silence to be acquiescence, and swept back out the door and into the night. I ran out to to catch him and tear a verbal strip off his back. He was gone before I could take three steps, a slight vacuum was the only thing left behind as he disappeared.
I stormed back into the house. “God damn his little power plays and manipulations, I am NOT going to have that high-handed bastard messing up anything! He is a fuckin' moronic idiotic miserable pompous egomaniac and anything he....” “Fernie STOP!”, Fawn shouted. My rant died in mid voice, and I looked back over at Fawn, and I heard, rather than saw, Larry come out of the work room.

38

I got an address from Anne where Megan might be found. She told me Megan had changed locations often due to the entity, and this was the most recent address for her. But the implication was that she might no longer nbe there. Only way to find out was check it out.
I went down to an old section of Halifax near the dock area. The buildings here had been partly rebuilt, and then left to rot when whatever project that got started lost it's funding. There were squatters all over, most, but not all of them human. I'd come down here to find Megan, so that's what I was going to do. It didn't stop me from wishing I had Zik'k along, this would have been exactly the place that would be great for having a bodyguard to watch your back. Unfortunately I didn't.
I walked into the semi-converted building that I think may have been an attempt to create a loft apartment. The steps led me up to the sixth floor, and the second door in from the stairs. I looked out over the street, and felt the wind come through the steel mesh that enclose the long balcony-like walkway in front of the apartment doors. I screwed up my courage and raised my hand to knock, when I heard the lock turn on the door and I saw the door knob rotate. The door pulled open and disappeared into black, not just shadow, I mean black, the kind of absolute block you can only feel properly in a cavern.
I wanted to run back down the stairs and leave. The Darkness was absolute, no light in and none out, something no sane person would ever enter voluntarily. I called out, “Megan? I'm Fern Fatelli, do you remember me?” The voice I heard never was meant to come from a human throat. “Ms Fatelli, it is a surprise to see you here, and wanting to talk. Have you fared well since our last meeting?” “Well enough, but I didn't come to talk of past happenings, I came to talk about opportunities and situations.”
“Intriguing Ms Fatelli, but I sense there is much of each that needs a more direct explanation. So please elucidate your opportunities, and describe your situations.”

#

“What the opportunity is, is a new body to act as a conduit, and the chance to challenge an established power on earth. One that may even be a true challenge to your ability.” “An interesting and intriguing proposal, but vague,” the Darkness mused from inside the room. I heard Megan's breathing, loud, steady, and very slow. The power in each breath seemed like a drum, and my body felt pressure with every exhalation. “What would be the terms of this 'proposal' Ms. Fatelli? I wonder about the details.”
I took a deep breath. You know how I jumped right into this idea of letting it use me as a conduit? Think that was fast? Wrong-o. I'd been thinking about this since Megan got taken years ago, but I only had very recently decided to propose it. I'm likely to be taking on a big, evil dragon in a short while, and I'd need all the juice I could get on my side of the fight. You have to survive to deal with the consequences, and I wasn't sure that even with the entity on my side, I'd survive it.
I really really did not want to do this, but it was a chance at some redemption for some past screw-ups, and scared as I was with this, I needed that redemption more. “I'll take Megan's place as your conduit for three months, and in return, you help me open up the Anoylyn Way. “A very interesting proposal, Ms Fatelli, very much interesting indeed. I have not pitted my abilities against a dragon, especially while in a form that has such.....limitations upon it.” The Darkness paused and I felt Megan shift slightly through the dark that enveloped her room. when she shifted the dark shifted slightly with her. It was very creepy to watch.
I stepped back involuntarily, and gave the darkness a bit more room. Something about that patch of black made me want to avoid being touched. My skin shrank away almost physically from the darkness in that room. “I would know more about the limitations you propose Ms Fatelli. After all, a smart human wouldn't leave me free to wander in a conduit for so long would they now?” I felt it's gaze like a heavy weight on my shoulders. “Feeling guilty are we Ms Fatelli? That such a young child should be so..... ill-used by one such as myself? Is that what you're thinking Ms Fatelli?”
That had been exactly what I'd been thinking, and that the entity knew my thoughts made the whole bargaining a lot more hazardous in my mind. I needed it's power a lot more than it needed me as a conduit. Unless I could think of a compelling reason that would sway it, I was likely to condemn Megan to further manipulations by The Darkness. The one thing I did have was a little time, and if I played that advantage correctly, I might get it to relinquish Megan.
“Yeah, I was thinking that actually, and how easy it must have been to lead the girl the way you wanted. I hope she's still sane enough to make her own mind when you let her. 'cause if she's gone round the bend, she's of no use to me to negotiate for her release. And yes, I want redemption. I want to make things right here between me and Megan, and me and you. You have a stake in this too. If we can find a mutually agreeable setup, we can all benefit. That's what I'm after.”
I spoke the words strongly and with as much conviction as I could project. I had to make the Darkness believe that I was working for my own interest and it's interest as well. If I did that bit of acting good enough, it might deal with me a little more fairly. Or at least less hostilely.
“I am intrigued by your bluntness Ms Fatelli. So few of you humans are willing to be blunt, it is refreshing to encounter it on occasion. What are the specifics of the proposal, beyond the three months as yourself as a conduit? What would I get beyond just the chance to operate through you Ms Fatelli?” “A chance at a different perspective from me and a different identity. Plus I'm not as likely to go crazy with you riding me. I'd think Megan is pretty close to the end of her ability to handle things realistically, and like I said earlier, if she's gone mad while you've been inhabiting her, there's no deal. She'd be of no use to me damaged like that. So what's it going to be, yes or no?”