Ixxy slammed the mug down on the table and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand in a most unladylike manner.

She should have fucking flayed that Dalton asshole right on the spot. Just responded to pain in kind and make him hurt until he screamed and begged; until he was nothing but a broken shell.

But no. She tried to be crafty. She tried to take the long view and save him for some mythical future payout instead of just extracting whatever fun and enjoyment she could get out of his screams of pain right there. It was the one time the Grand contract would have let her legally torture a mortal and she blew it because she didn’t want to lose out on the souls he’d owe her otherwise.

Which she was going to leave behind without collecting. What a fucking waste.

“Barkeep! Bring me another one!” she shouted at the harried looking man behind the counter who just shook his head and turned to get her order.

As soon as she finished spending the little money she’d accumulated, she was out. As in going back home. And of course she was going to blow it all on Red Pepper Cocktails. Because what the fuck else was there to spend it on?

“Ixxy?” Ixxy craned her neck to find Leez standing behind her, staring at the pile of empty mugs on her table. She’d just returned from her shift. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” Ixxy huffed. “I’m drinking.”

“But… why?”

At that moment, the barkeep came past and put a full mug of Red Pepper down in front of her.

“That’s your last one,” he said sternly. “Your tab’s exhausted after this.”

Leez watched him walk back behind the bar, a shocked expression on her face. “Did you pay him up front?” she hissed incredulously, but Ixxy just waved her off.

“Yeah, what about it?” Ixxy scowled. “I’m fucking done. This world can suck a dick.”

Then she grabbed the mug and began chugging the entire thing. Leez tried to say something, to interrupt, but Ixxy just held out her hand, palm out, and kept going. She downed the entire mug before slamming it back onto the table and wiping her mouth. Only after a loud burp did she finally lower her hand.

“Ixxy, you’re supposed to sip that stuff,” Leez said.

“Doesn’t matter. This place has fucked me over for the last time. I’m sick and tired of nothing working out, of getting nothing but one disaster after the other and of being treated like this place’s post-diarrhea anal washcloth. I’m done. Finished.”

She stood up. “Sazka was right, I’m not built for this. I can’t deal with this anymore. I’m going back through the Obsidian Gate and there is nothing you can say that is going to stop me. So goodbye and good fucking luck, because anyone who lives in this screwed up place is surely going to need it!”

Spinning on her heels, Ixxy took one step towards the door… and promptly fell straight forward onto her face.

“What I meant,” Leez explained patiently, squatting down next to Ixxy’s head, “is that if you drink too much, it causes an effect not unlike intoxication in mortals. Except it’s only your body getting drunk. So you have to be careful or it can sneak up on you.”

“Now you tell me,” Ixxy groaned from her place on the floor.

Leez helped a very shaky Ixxy up off the ground and back onto her chair before taking her own seat opposite her.

“What happened?” she asked as she dusted Ixxy off. “Did you give up on getting out of your contract with Mulder and Heath already?”

Ixxy shook her head and groaned. “No, I managed to figure out a way out. I found a loophole.” She sighed and hung her head. “And then I fucking blew it…”

She proceeded to tell Leez the whole story. From the start. How she’d contracted with Timothy, convinced him to pay up front and then was unable to finish the deal, so to speak. How she’d looked him up again and how he’d helped her find a loophole, only to refuse to help her pull it off.

“I don’t get it, Leez!” Ixxy complained. “I offered him a year of slavery! Of fulfilling every single sick fantasy his little mind could come up with! And if he’d pushed it, I’d have gone so far as offering it for his entire natural lifespan!”

“Isn’t that a bit much?” Leez asked carefully.

“Who cares?” Ixxy exclaimed. “Not like I don’t have the time to fuck his brains out whenever he wants! I’m literally doing nothing else! And at least that way I’d get some fucking action!”

“But you’d still have to earn rent…” Leez tried, but Ixxy just gave her a flat look.

“Leez, the guy’s a stick insect. Stamina of nil. I could pop his cork and then spend the other twenty three hours and fifty minutes of the day working for actual souls.”

“Still, Ixxy, you shouldn’t treat your time so lightly,” Leez chided. “Yes, mortal lifespans are short, but you’d probably still go crazy if you were stuck with him for fifty years.

“That being said, that was a really good offer for him, I can’t believe he just flat turned you down.”

“Well, he didn’t, exactly,” Ixxy said awkwardly, squirming a little. “He made a counteroffer.”

Leez laughed. “Which you didn’t take, I presume, or we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Now I have to hear what he could possibly have demanded that was worse than a lifetime of slavery.”

“He wanted me to be his girlfriend instead,” Ixxy admitted.

Leez pursed her lips. “And he wasn’t agreeable when you told him you’d have to fuck around and couldn’t explain why without revealing things we’d rather not?”

Ixxy shook her head and looked miserable. “No, I never even got that far. I kinda freaked when he asked…”

Heaving a deep sigh, Leez pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead. “Ixilis. Why?”

“I don’t know!” Ixxy spluttered. “It all felt super fuzzy and undefined and I didn’t know what he meant by it or what he expected from me…”

“Ixilis!” Leez snapped, grabbing Ixxy’s wrist. “None of that matters! He asked you to be his girlfriend, so the only thing that matters is what that means to you! Heck, you didn’t even need to tell him you were going to have to sleep around, mortals cheat all the time. It would be completely within the definition of a ‘girlfriend’ for you to earn your souls behind his back while keeping up the illusion of being the loyal lover. Lying is basically an integral part of all mortal relationships!”

Ixxy took a deep breath. Leez was right, she knew that. It just… felt wrong, somehow. “Look, it doesn’t matter now,” she said. “Some stuff happened and the deal fell through completely anyway. I missed my chance.”

Awkward silence followed for a few moments before Leez changed the topic.

“Have you talked to Sazka yet?” she asked.

“No. Sazka’s gone. Nobody knows where,” Ixxy replied. “And it’s probably for the best. She’s going to kill me. Literally. In the most painful way she can think of. No, my best bet is to just be gone when she gets back.”

“I don’t think you give Sazka enough credit,” Leez replied. Ixxy didn’t respond.

To Leez, Sazka was maybe someone she felt she could depend on in an emergency, but Ixxy was already on her shit-list from all the crap she’d pulled. She’d exhausted whatever goodwill she might have had and Sazka did not seem like the kind to tolerate people who wasted her time.

“Look, Leez, I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, but I think we both know I’m not made for this,” Ixxy finally said. “It’s better if I go.”

“And your debt?” Leez asked.

“I’ll handle it from the other side,” Ixxy said tiredly.

Actually, she expected her father was going to handle it. And not in the ‘I don’t have to worry, daddy will take care of everything’ kind of way. Rather, the asshole was probably chomping at the bit right now to scoop it up the moment she defaulted and lord it over her for the next thousand years. Yeah, she wasn’t going to be wandering around any of the mortal planes for at least a couple of centuries. She was going to be staying put where he could keep an eye on her and her chances of successfully wiggling out from under his thumb and being her own person was going to be basically nil for the foreseeable future.

Leez was helping Ixxy stumble drunkenly out the door of the brewery when she suddenly stiffened.

“What?” Leez asked, concerned.

“I’m getting a… umm… I’m being summoned,” Ixxy replied awkwardly. The sensation was not unlike a chime going off in her head. A mildly itchy one.

“What? Who?” Leez asked. “I thought you couldn’t take contracts?”

“It’s… umm… it’s the guy. Timothy. The one who wanted me to be his girlfriend.”

“Really? That’s great!” Leez exclaimed, nearly dropping Ixxy in the process. “You got a second shot at this!”

Ixxy shook her head and for a moment felt the world spin. “No, look, he probably just wants to finish off our first contract…”

Leez grabbed her by the biceps and looked her right in the eye. “Ixxy, it’s not about what he wants. It’s about what you want. And you want him to help you break your contract.”

“But…”

“No buts except the ones in your pants! If you need to play pretend girlfriend for a while to make it happen, do it! Exploit the shit out of the spineless little turd! Whatever it takes, Ixxy! Don’t take no for an answer!”

“But…” Ixxy tried to protest again.

“What is it?”

“I need to throw up…”

The summoning didn’t require too much in the way of preparation. With Gora and Samual’s help, Timothy just shoved the furniture against the walls to make a bit of space on the floor and sent Rita and Samual to wait upstairs in the loft, where Gora’s bedroom was. It was partly to restrict information from the summoned demon — standard practice, for these sorts of things, anything they saw they could use against you so you made sure to tuck anything unnecessary that you could away — and partly just because there simply wasn’t space for both them and the ritual downstairs. Gora’s apartment was kind of cramped with so many people inside.

Just like the first time Timothy had done the summoning, there was a sudden flash and a gorgeous, red-skinned woman was sitting on his summoning plate, arms folder around her knees and… naked. Again. Dammit.

“How may I serve you this time, M…” Ixxy began in an uncharacteristically annoyed sounding voice, but then she froze, her eyes locked onto Gora.

Gora was next to Timothy, leaning against the kitchen counter, her hand casually resting on the hilt of her sword sheathed at her hip.

“Really, Cuz? A pleasure devil?” she rumbled, her voice like a bag of rocks being tossed down the stairs.

Timothy blushed beetroot-red. “It’s not what you think!” he protested. “It was just for an Academy project!”

“Sure, Cuz. Whatever you say,” Gora replied sceptically. “Those tits beg to differ, though.”

For her part, Ixxy still hadn’t moved. She was still frozen in place, staring intently at Gora from her seated position.

Trying to move things along to cover his embarrassment, Timothy cleared his throat. “Ixxy!” he intoned in a feeble attempt to sound commanding. “I have summoned you here…”

“I’m not diddling the Halfie,” Ixxy suddenly interrupted, staring directly at Timothy. “I don’t care what you’re offering.”

It took his brain a few moments just to comprehend what she’d just said. Then the completely unbidden mental picture of his huge, muscular cousin being… involved with the gorgeous, shapely Ixxy popped into his mind and his brain just sort of shorted out for a moment.

That meant Gora was the first to react. “The fuck you just called me?” she demanded, taking a step closer to the summoned Pleasure Devil, her hand clenched tightly around the hilt of her sword, ready for violence.

“Halfie,” the demon explained non-chalantly as she got to her feet and dusted herself off, completely ignoring the implied threat. “As in ‘halfbreed’. Half demon, half…” She looked Gora up and down. “…gorilla?”

The sight of Gora huge, meaty fist closing around Ixxy’s throat finally snapped Timothy out of his stunned state.

“Gora, wait!” he pleaded, tugging on her arm. “We need her!”

“She needs to watch her mouth,” Gora growled, but let go of Ixxy anyway.

“You need to watch your weight,” Ixxy cut back while rubbing her neck. Even while Gora’s hand had closed around her neck, she hadn’t made any move to escape or fight back, instead just glowering at Gora.

“Can I just cut off a few pieces then?” Gora retorted, drawing her sword. “She doesn’t need her legs, I’m sure.”

“Please, Gora, can you just back off a bit?” Timothy begged while futilely attempting to push the large, muscular woman back.

“I don’t like you dealing with these things, Cuz. They’re evil,” Gora growled.

“Gora, you literally asked me here to deal with one for you,” Timothy said.

“I don’t mean demons, Cuz. This shit. Pleasure Devils.”

Behind him, Ixxy just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.

“Okay, I understand,” Timothy tried to calm her down. “But she is what we have, so this is what we are dealing with, okay? Now, will you please step back and let me handle this?”

After a few moments of staring the demon down, Gora finally relented. “Fine. But she’s putting on a shirt. I don’t need you distracted by a pair of pretty tits, Cuz.” With that, she stepped back and headed for the stairs.

Only once she was out of sight did Ixxy finally speak up. “’Cuz?’” she asked.

“Gora’s my cousin,” Timothy admitted, blowing out a breath and collapsing into one of Gora’s chairs.

“Uh huh,” Ixxy replied. “Your cousin’s a Cambion. Great.” Then she gave a deep sigh. “Look, I know I said I’ll do any kink you have, and normally a bit of incest just adds a bit of spiciness, but with her? No. It’s not happening.”

“No, Ixxy, that’s not why I summoned you.”

“She also doesn’t get to watch us finish off our contract, if that’s what you were scheming,” Ixxy added.

“Gods, no!” Timothy replied, going quite pale. “Most definitely not!”

“Good! Then what the hell is she doing here?”

“I’m here ‘cos it’s my house you’re standing in,” Gora’s voice rumbled from above before heavy footsteps denoted her coming back down the stairs. “Here, catch.” She threw a bundle of cloth which struck Ixxy with enough force to send her stumbling off the summoning plate.

“A shirt?” Ixxy asked with a scowl after recovering her balance and unfolding the garment that had struck her in the face.

“One of my shirts,” Gora rumbled. “Put it on and don’t rip it. I don’t want to have to stare at those honkers you got strapped to your chest.”

“Jealous much?” Ixxy snapped back before sniffing the shirt. “Stinks like halfbreed.”

“That’s enough! Both of you!” Timothy shouted. “We have business to discuss and you two have already wasted ten minutes of the summoning on bickering! Ixxy, put on the damn shirt. Gora, shut. Up!”

After a few moments of shocked silence, they both did as he said. Gora shrugged and went to lean back against the kitchen counter while Ixxy begrudgingly pulled the shirt over her head.

On her, it was large enough to work as a dress. The hem came down to her thigh, while the neck of it was almost large enough to let her shoulders slip through. It all looked surprisingly sexy, much to Gora’s chagrin.

“Ixxy,” Timothy spoke once she’d finished getting dressed and sat down at a table pushed up against the wall, “I have summoned you because I have a contract for you, if you are interested.”

“And I told you, if she’s involved, no deal,” Ixxy replied, nodding towards Gora.

“The contract is not sexual in nature,” Timothy explained.

Ixxy was resolute. “Doesn’t matter. No contract involving her in any way.”

“Fine by me,” Gora chipped in, “I wouldn’t sign an autograph if you were involved in any way.”

“Gora, please…” Timothy admonished, before turning back to Ixxy. “That is fine. I can assure you that the contract in no way involves Gora.”

“Then why are we here?” Ixxy asked flatly.

“Because we needed a safe place to meet and have this discussion,” Timothy explained. “You see, the contract involves a friend of Gora.”

“And this friend is why I will be contracting with?” Ixxy asked.

“Correct,” Gora rumbled.

“And the cambion isn’t involved in any way, shape or form?”

Gora growled. “I’m just here to break your neck if you step out of line. Which I figure I’ve got fifty-fifty odds on, by the way.”

“No, she isn’t involved in any way except to let us use her apartment,” Timothy clarified, ignoring Gora.

“Alright,” Ixxy conceded. “Fine. I’m listening.”

“You need me to look at her soul? That’s it?” Ixxy asked, surprised.

She’d been expecting something complicated given how circumspect Timothy and his cousin had been in their explanation, but this was fairly straightforward. Not easy, not in the slightest, but not exactly complicated.

It also wasn’t particularly fun, unfortunately.

“And heal it,” the cambion, whose name was apparently ‘Gora’, replied.

“If I can,” Ixxy added, “which I will warn you right now is almost certainly going to be a ‘no’.”

"You don’t even know what’s wrong with her,” Gora grumbled.

“It’s not about what is wrong with her, you big lummock, it’s about what I’m allowed to do. I simply cannot mess about with mortals’ souls. I can’t. It’s forbidden. Blocked. Barred. Illegal. Impossible.”

Timothy cleared his throat. “About that. Let’s say, hypothetically, that the Grand Contract wasn’t an issue. Would you be able to help then?”

Ixxy hesitated. Her mind raced, trying to figure out where the little nerd was going with this.

No Grand Contract? Without the Grand Contract holding her back, there was nothing stopping her from yanking the cambion’s friend’s soul the moment she touched her. She’d be able to make up her debt in one fell swoop. Of course she’d be killing her customer in the process, but that was just the price of doing business.

At the end of the day what was more important? Her debt or some mortal’s life? Trick question. The mortal was going to die anyway, eventually, so preserving her life was completely pointless. Especially if she was going to go around and got her soul ripped up to the point where she needed a demon to play doctor for her. Honestly, if she was going to be that careless with it, Ixxy was almost going to be doing her a favour by taking it off her hands.

But it all depended on what exactly the situation was. How did they plan to bypass the GC? How much of her soul did the friend still possess? How badly was it damaged and how much could Ixxy salvage towards solving her own problem?

“I’d have to investigate the client to be certain, but yes,” she replied carefully. “In the hypothetical scenario where the Grand Contract’s restrictions did not apply, I would possibly be able to do something.”

A plan was starting to form in her mind. A devious, dastardly plan, though it still had a lot of gaps. For now, it was important that she didn’t seem too eager and arouse suspicion while she learned more so she could flesh it out.

“But how, if I may ask, would such a feat be accomplished?”

“We intend to, ah, waive those protections in the Grand Contract,” Timothy responded matter-of-factly. “Then we will replace them with a customized set that will allow you to do what you need to.”

Ixxy raised an eyebrow. That was more direct than she had expected. She hadn’t even been aware that they could do that. But it was plainly obvious just how dangerous such a move was for mortals. It was taking away the very safety net that formed the foundation for pretty much every contract that she knew. And if Timothy messed it up, he couldn’t even really blame her for just doing what she was allowed to. After all, they’d explicitly waived the very protections that were supposed to prevent it.

Unless… was this perhaps Timothy’s plan all along? To lure his cousin’s friend into a dodgy contract so that Ixxy could scoop out her soul in one go and thereby instantly fulfill his side of whatever deal they end up making?

If he was intending to take her up on that offer of sex-slavery, that would be a smart way to go about it. To make sure he could fulfill his side of the contract before even signing the deal. It would be the simplest thing in the world for him to just make a tiny mistake in the contract and give her free reign to do whatever she wanted to. There was no way his meat-headed half-breed of a cousin would be able to tell the difference between intentional sabotage and a genuine oopsie.

Not that Ixxy really thought that this was a likely scenario based on what she’d learnt about Timothy so far. The boy was far too honest for his own best interest.

But even if he was being completely above-board, there was still the chance he would make a mistake anyway. Then she’d get the soul she needed to pay off her debt regardless.

Honestly, this could be the big break she’d been hoping for. She would be an idiot to just walk away from it, despite the Cambion being involved.

“Alright,” Ixxy finally said, leaning back in her chair. “You have my attention. Let me take a look at this proposed contract that you have in mind.”

Timothy shook his head. “I haven’t written it up yet. I wanted to see whether you were interested first.”

“Well, you have forty minutes until my summoning times out,” Ixxy replied, leaning back and crossing her arms behind her head. “So I suggest you hop to it if you still want me to read through it and go through with the treatment as well. I assume she’s here already?”

“Yes,” Timothy confirmed, “but I was hoping I could get your agreement and hear what you need to be allowed to do to her soul in order to be able to help her during the summoning. Then, once it wore out, spend some time writing up the contract and discussing with the client while you made your way here in the real. That way we don’t have a time limit for the actual procedure.”

Timothy’s cousin shot him a quick, puzzled glance. So he hadn’t told her his plans? Interesting.

Ixxy cocked her head. “And you just expect me to walk all the way over here without even a signed contract? For free?”

Timothy frowned. “Gora, can I speak to Ixxy in private, please?”

“No,” the cambion stated flatly.

“Please?” he asked again. “It’s to do with some of our previous dealings and I’d prefer to keep it private.”

“You know I don’t like you dealing with this thing without someone a little more clear-headed present,” she grumbled. “No offense, Cuz, but this thing is designed to get you to think with your dick. And you’re kind of her target market.”

Ixxy snorted. If only it was that easy. Then she might have gotten laid by now.

“Gora, you asked me to do this because I’m the expert,” Timothy replied calmly. “You can’t go around calling me the expert and then refuse to let me apply that expertise. Now please let me do the job you asked me here for?”

She eyed him carefully for a few moments before getting to her feet with a grunt. “Alright, fine, Cuz. You’re the expert. But be careful, please.”

“I know what I’m doing, Gora,” Timothy called after her as she climbed the stairs.

As soon as she was out of sight, he turned to Ixxy.

“What is going on with you?” he demanded in a soft whisper so that the people upstairs couldn’t overhear.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Ixxy replied innocently.

“You come to me, begging me to help you, begging me on your knees to find you some contracts so you can pay off your debt, then when I get you one, you suddenly act all antagonistic from the moment you get here. Are you playing some sort of game here?”

“Life’s a game, Timothy,” Ixxy replied cryptically, smirking at him.

“Be serious.”

“Fine. I’m just not comfortable with your cousin being involved,” Ixxy said quietly, folding her arms and letting the rather expansive neck-opening of the Cambion’s shirt slide over her shoulders, revealing a generous amount of cleavage.

Timothy, however, seemed not to take the bait. “What is your problem with Gora?” he demanded. “You’ve been a complete bitch to her since the moment you arrived.”

Ixxy shrugged. “I have nothing against your cousin specifically. I just don’t like Cambions being involved. In any way. Honestly, the only reason I haven’t walked already is because she’s been mostly keeping her mouth shut and staying out of our business.”

Timothy rubbed his face in frustration. “Look, Ixxy, whatever racist issues you have with Cambions, you’re going to have to put them aside for this. This contract? It’s the only one there is. If you refuse this, then that’s it. I’m not finding you another. Our arrangement is over.”

“We don’t have an arrangement, Timothy!” Ixxy hissed in response, leaning forward over the table. “I made you an offer — a very generous one I might add — and you rejected it! Now suddenly there’s a Cambion involved and I have no idea what is going on. I’m being asked to agree to something vague and nebulous, with no clear idea what it is I am even supposed to do, when you and I both know I’m not allowed to make contracts!

“This all makes me very, very nervous, believe it or not,” she went on. “I’ve already gotten myself mixed up in one fucked up contract, I am not going to get caught a second time, understand?”

Timothy pressed his palms together in front of him and closed his eyes. “You’re right. I’m sorry. We don’t have an arrangement. But I’m willing to change that, right now.”

Ixxy sat back in her chair. Finally, things were starting to get somewhere, exactly as she’d hoped they would.

It had been pretty obvious from almost the moment she arrived that she wasn’t just here to finish off Timothy’s existing contract, and that the twerp was going to have to accept some version of her offer from before. But thanks to her little outburst and just a little bit of playing up her confusion, she’d somehow managed to create the idea that he’d wronged her by not bringing it up earlier.

Something she could leverage to get a better deal if she was just a bit lucky.

She flicked her wrist and a paper covered in scribbled writing appeared in her hand. Then she slammed it down onto the table, keeping her palm on it.

“Does that mean you accept my original offer?” she asked, ready to modify the contract as needed.

“No,” Timothy replied firmly. “I’m not turning you into a sex slave. It’s fucked up, even if you are a demon.”

Ixxy just shrugged. She didn’t really understand what the big deal was. He was okay with doing it once, but found it somehow taboo when a year’s supply was on offer? Did he have something against economies of scale?

“So, your price is still that I become your girlfriend?” Ixxy asked grimly.

If he insisted, she was going to follow Leez’s advice and just go through with it. She’d play the dutiful girlfriend where he could see her and earn her souls where he couldn’t. Not like he could keep an eye on her every hour of every day.

She’d just be careful with the wording on the contract itself so that it didn’t enforce monogamy or anything crazy like that.

“That’s basically the same thing with extra steps, isn’t it?” Timothy replied bitterly.

Ixxy just shrugged. Those things were nothing alike in her book, but she was hardly going to correct him.

“Instead,” Timothy went on, “I’ll help you if you take this contract and try to help my cousin’s friend.”

This time, Ixxy had to do a double take. His price for setting her up with a contract was… taking the contract?

That didn’t make any sense.

“Seriously? That’s your price?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

There were a few beats of silence.

“You realize how incredibly suspicious that sounds? That I’m forced to take this contract that hasn’t even been set up yet?”

Timothy sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Look, I’m not saying you have to take it. All I’m saying is that I don’t want anything else. If you take this contract, I’ll help you get the rest of the contracts you need to clear your debt and run them through as addendums to my contract. If you don’t, well, then I’m not sure I could find you the contracts you’re willing to take anyway.”

“And what if I can’t do it? What if I can’t fix her?” Ixxy asked quietly.

“That’s fine. I’ll help you anyway,” Timothy replied. “As long as you make an honest attempt at it.”

Huh. So if she took this particular contract, he’d try to help her get the others she needed to pay off her debt. If she didn’t, she was on her own and, to coin a mortal phrase, ‘up shit creek without a paddle’.

She’d be impressed with how neatly he’d maneuvered her into doing what he wanted, except he hadn’t really. That particular bit of maneuvering was entirely self-inflicted on her side. If anything, he was failing to fully exploit the advantage he’d managed to blunder into through sheer, blind luck.

She sat in silence for a bit, mind furiously working. She did still have a bit of time before her summoning came to an end, but she couldn’t afford to blunder into another foolish contract.

“And I can still charge them for this?” she finally asked. “As a way of getting started on my debt?”

“If you want, I guess. But they have to accept the contract or the deal’s off, so don’t think you can weasel out of it by asking for a hundred souls.”

“You realize the more I get from them the less I you need to find elsewhere, right?”

“Yes, which is why I say use your own judgement to get what’s fair. But you have to help them.”

Ixxy leaned back, ran her fingers through her hair and blew out a breath. “Alright, I can see how the deal is less lopsided than I had originally believed. I’ll try to fix your friend.”

“But I’m afraid I can’t tell you what I need to be able to help your client without knowing what is wrong with her,” she warned. “So unless you’re willing to give me blanket permission to do whatever I need to her soul, that means I’m going to have to examine her first.”

Timothy sighed. “I was worried that might be the case. Very well, I’ll call her down.”

“First, we sign our little contract,” Ixxy chided him. With a moment’s concentration, the contract under her hand shifted and she spun it around and pushed it towards Timothy.

She watched him carefully as he lifted the short document and quickly scanned it, suppressing the urge to fidget as his eyes slid over the blocky, infernal letters.

“Yes, this looks acceptable,” he said after a brief read, fishing a pen from the inside of his robe and scribbling his signature on the provided line. Then he looked up and smiled at Ixxy.

She smiled back at him.

He’d never even noticed the trap she’d woven into the words.