"And..." "What and. Shit, not and..." Spice returned back behind the counter, taking up a drinking glass and started polishing it as if nothing was wrong at all.
"A burst of anger helps. You... don't look like it." "No need to put this much emphasis on *you*. There is a fucking reason."
"As there always is," Spice finally espied my two bags full of mortal goodies the whole city would apparently kill for, royalty included.
"Do you have something for me, perhaps?" Left speechless, I kept thinking. As I was groaning under the weight of my life's greatest crisis, Spice had only eyes for the bags.
"No," I chuckled nastily, seeing him flinch back. "Not for you. For me, you see. A tombstone is costly. Proper burial even more so."
My joke hadn't been up his alley at all since he frowned. "Here," he took a mug from below the counter, filled it with something strong and proceeded to almost knock some teeth out of me, "refreshment.
Don't dare think I let my guests run dry. I haven't forgotten the darn covenant, craven bastard." I wasn't in the mood to entertain the cynic immortal.
The youth in my arms happened to be too unresponsive for my tastes. Gone was her earlier vibrancy. "Well... in the early hours, customers are just as rare as teeth on a hare's pommel. Pray tell."
Rousing some mana from deep within me, I guided it into her cold body. What should've pepped her up just fine ended up draining me instead.
Damn contract, hindering me from doing what had to be done. The fun fact was that the collection of restrictive rules had no sufficient safeguards in place.
I mean, what I was doing wasn't exactly a pleasure but downright life-saving. Concerning the one bound to me no less.
"You're dying." "I know." "No, not leaking. I mean, you're dying for real." "Shut up." Spice finished with that one drinking glass and immediately grabbed another, his hands unlikely to rest for even a second.
"What an entire war extinguishing raves did not manage, a simple binding contract shall complete. How do you feel?" "Played for a sucker. Come over here, inheritor of my will and money."
"Yes?" It didn't even take a second for Spice to literally materialise in front of me, eyes sparkling and hands rubbing against one another.
"First," turning towards the two bags of useless junk acquired in exchange for a deadly spectacle, I was happy he finally looked this way too.
"First... for the the glorious counsel." I grabbed a jewel. "Ohh... that's some striking quality." Spice was smiling from one ear to the other.
Until the moment my claws held his mandibles in place. "Five shall do." Faster than his gears could realise the position he was in, his trap was loaded up to the brim and brought to unload with a proper jab.
"Uwwahhhgg." This wasn't the end, for sure. "For the marvellous reception at the site, here's your commission."
A small pouch's worth of gold coins landed in his gully. Spice was rebelling, but somehow my anger had fuelled my brute strength so much he couldn't escape.
"For the recommended lodgings, here's your money. As nobody bothered to ask for remuneration, I'll be very generous for once."
Two pouches worth of precious stones found their way into his stomach. "Awww. Uhhh. Nooowwwwww. Dowwwwwnnnnt~."
"The fights themselves were quite revitalising for somebody as weakened as me. Your bonus." With the next couple of insertions, one bag was eventually emptied.
"For all this splendid political exposure, for serving as an acclaimed dummy, for being the object of discussion throughout this godforsaken city...,"
One hand followed the other, steadily emptying the remaining bag as Spice's struggles grew fervent, his expression one of torment.
"...for providing an avenue where athletic sprinters meet easily, for helping this youth toughen up," the bag was now as empty as it could get. "I am in your debt."
Then, as nearly instantaneous as this rush of power came to me, it volatised again. "Now pay me back. You've given me your word."
"Arck... urgh... swakkk..." Spice tried to throw up, but the digestive track of a run-of-the-mill immortal wasn't something mortal possessions could stand a chance against.
That he eventually realised, turning to me with his head beet red and eyes ablaze with anger. "You damn arsehole.
Always finding loopholes ain't we? Thought we're friends..." "Then think back on what you did, on the information you must've surely gotten by now and on how easily you escaped my grasp."
My words rang very true too and he knew it. Spice ground a random pot on exhibition to dust. What appeared was a luminous swirl of seemingly intangible particles.
"Noxin. For you. And give that youth some too." "Will she heal?" "No way." "What?" That look on his face made my poor nerves break out in mad tingles again.
"This little bit doesn't help after a certain idiot fed her his own blood." "...it's not exactly the most nourising supplement, but what choice did I have?"
All I got in response was a shaking head. "Which means the upcoming meeting I facilitated is even more direly needed than I thought." "Come again?"
"Thoth, as I won't initiate anything magical in these uncertain times you helped worsen with each darn decision you took, you shall have enough of that to squander. For now."
"This wasn't—" "Ohh... I specified I *will* help but never mentioned *when*." "Spice!!" "Who are you?" "...what?"
"I mean I need to pound the truth in your head somehow. Better start with what you know." How somebody could so nonchalantly return to polishing his drinking glasses after what had transpired was beyond my understanding.
"Immortal." "Not that. Race?" "Nah... you know that. I'm an eternal." "Bingo." "What?" "My goodness... an eternal is of the chaotic alignment. Beastmen are of neutral disposition.
What in the blazes do you think will happen if you feed them your essence of all things? Repeatedly?!" "But... she's of my bloodline." I could swear I heard him protest rudely at my retort.
"A simple baptism ain't enough. Now... you won't like what I have to say next, so... keep your temper in check."
Something told me that wouldn't be easy at all. But I was no child any longer, was I not? "...why does the Great Consciousness disasociate itself from me right now?"
Nobody had an answer on the ready to my mutter. "...might be better to drug myself now." There were plenty of reasons, unmistakable.