"You…you dug up Grandma?" Lucas' eyes grew large.
The rest of the men guffawed and chuffed.
Candi stared at Lucas with horror-stricken eyes.
Slate patted her on the shoulder. "He's just messing with you, Candace. She's not our Grandmother."
Candi closed her eyes. This was getting more and more out of hand.
"Look, I get paid by my organization to dig up antiquities to be restored or kept from further damage. The gemstone is an anomaly."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't normally steal from private collections. I steal from other organizations."
"And do what with the stolen objects?"
"I hand them to my Head Supervisor. I don't hold onto anything…except for that book." She ended the sentence with a barely audible mumble.
"Slate." Ray Torra waved his hand.
"I'm on it."
Candi looked up. "Wait a moment. What are you going to do?"
Slate turned his brilliant blue eyes in her direction. "I'm going to have your Head Supervisor join us later for a brief...meeting. It seems as if there are some things that we need to discuss."
Candi stood up. "Look, can you please let me go? The gemstone is back in your possession. The book is in a locked vault within the archaeological building a few miles from here. I can get that for you."
Slate pulled a book out of thin air. "You mean this one?"
Candi glanced at the familiar yellowed scroll with the barely legible title on the front and nodded.
She did not need to ask Slate how he was able to extract something that was placed within such a highly secured area. Even she could escape with that book and she was a mere mortal.
She looked down. "I don't have anything you want. Please let me go." She looked up into their collective eyes.
"I promise I'll never say anything about having ever met you. I promise I will completely forget about your existences if you will just allow me to leave."
Leonardo smiled. "Darling, you have just mentioned the very reason why we can never allow you to leave."
"That's right," Jason shook a finger at her. "You are not allowed to forget us. EVER."
Candi swallowed. Perhaps she had said something wrong. These were demons after all. Perhaps what they needed was to be remembered.
"Absolutely!" She turned her position around on a dime. "I will never EVER forget any of you. If you allow me to leave, I will set up seven shrines and light incense for each of you every day until I die."
Pffffttttttt!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
The men roared with laughter yet again.
Ray Torra shook his head. "I'm afraid it's too late for you, Candace Farrah. You've been pulled into this maelstrom and there is no way out. You have no choice but to go through."
"Please let me go."
"We can't let you go, Candace." Slate's gravelly voice resonated within her ears. "The heads of your organization will never forgive you for stealing the book and the gemstone and then running away."
"But I didn't—"
Slate threw the book on the table in front of Candi and picked up the gemstone. With inordinate care, he placed the gemstone on top of the book and pulled out a mobile device.
In an instant, he had taken a photo of the book, the gem, and Candi's stricken face.
"You're quite pale, but still beautiful."
He tapped on the screen and the photo disappeared.
"What did you just do?"
Slate leaned in, close to Candi's face. "I just proved to your organization that you are their best thief. You just stole two extremely valuable items from an organization that prides itself on being the thieves of thieves."
"No!" Candi cried. "What have you done. They will hunt me down and will not rest until I'm dead. You might as well kill me now."
Slate growled with something akin pleasure. "Are you offering yourself to me? Because if you are, then I accept your sacrificial offering."
She grabbed her head and sank her face down onto the table. "My life is over. My career is ruined. Nobody is ever going to hire me to do anything ever again."
Dante chuckled. "Come work for me. I have a dozen companies for you to choose from."
Candi lifted her head. Was he for real?
"What kind of companies?"
"You name it, I run it. I have a media company, an export company, an import company, a chain of hotels, a luxury cruise line, and I own my own phone company because I got tired of dropped calls."
"So you're a CEO?"
Dante shook his head. "No, Darling. I'm the CEO of the CEOs."
Candi sighed. "Thank you for your offer. Unfortunately though, I'm not good with doing much except digging through grave sites and reading ancient manuscripts."
Leonardo's eyes gleamed. "Aren't you also a good thief?"
Candi nodded. "Good enough, as long as Slate here doesn't body slam me to the ground."
Ray Torra stood up. "Candace Farrah. You say you can read ancient manuscripts. Prove that to us." He pointed to the almost crumbling book on the table. "Read the first few pages of that book."
Candi glanced around the table.
The demons looked eager, as if they wanted to see what she could do.
She cleared her throat. "Okay, but just so you know. I don't really know how to pronounce all the words in that language. I just pull out the ones I do know how and translate them into English."
"Do your best." Ray Torra prodded with a gentle look.
Candi took a deep breath. He had turned back into that nice friendly porter she had first met.
Reaching out with hesitant fingers, Candi removed the pink sapphire stone and picked up the book. She opened up the first page and began to translate in halting English.
"And so it was written, that reality was one. And the one reality, for lack of excitement…" she looked up. "Sorry, that word is not excitement, it's more along the lines of interesting-diversions."
Ray Torra nodded and indicated for her to continue.
"And the one reality, for lack of interesting diversion, began to splinter itself. What was one dimension turned into many dimensions. What was many dimensions turned into…"
She grimaced. "I think this next word is something like 'exponential' but it is depicted as multiples of multiples multiplied."
The men nodded. Their eyes guarded.
"What was many dimensions turned into exponentials of dimensions and…" She scratched her head. "Exponentials of fractals were created."
She looked up. They were looking at each other with eyes that spoke volumes.
"You guys think I'm making all this up, don't you?"