Facilier lead his new "assistant" to the Emporium. Clary forced herself not to panic, he hadn't hurt her yet. True he'd put some sort of spell on her to bind her into a contract but he probably wasn't going to kill her. Maybe it wouldn't be to terrible, she's have a place to stay and all she'd have to do was run errands for him. How bad could that be? A bit of shopping here and there, try to draw customers, that wasn't so bad was it? In spite of her attempt to rationalize what was happening she couldn't shake the feeling of dread that was building with each step she took towards her new home...

Facilier tapped his cane against the door frame as a signal that she should go inside. Clary took one shaky step in.

"Don't be worried now chère, ain't no body in there," Facilier said putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her further in.

It was a fairly dark place, the shelves were lined with all sorts of macabre, voodoo paraphernalia that made her shudder to look at them. A grinning skull stared down at her and eerie cloth dolls seemed to follow her movements with their button eyes.

"Come on you, stop lagging and follow me to your room," Facilier growled prodding her with his cane, "I ain't got time for you to stand around gawking."

Clary lifted her carpetbag and did as she was told. Facilier lead her through a door at the far end of the Emporium then up a flight of stairs and through a narrow hallway until they got to a small room at the end with a cot and a single worn down dresser and an old, rusted lantern. It wasn't bad, she'd slept in much worse since she left home and at least it was warm.

"What exactly will ye have me do?" she asked apprehensively.

"Well, first and foremost you'll be doin' all my shopping and you'll be drawin' me some customers," said Facilier "I may have other jobs for you later but for now that's all I need. That don't sound too bad does it?" he added with a wink.

That didn't sound so terrible, but if all he wanted was errands and advertising why would he have put her under some kind of binding contract? And a magical one at that. No matter how Clary tried to rationalize it nothing seemed to add up.

Facilier ignored her silence and tapped the door frame with the head of his cane.

"This room is all yours, I don't care what you do here as long as you don't bring visitors. You're in charge of getting your own dinner and the rest of my house is off-limits to you unless I say so, that all clear?"

Clary gave him a short nod.

"Good, " he said, "Now you get to unpackin' and get some rest, you'll start work tomorrow and believe me you'll need your energy."

With that he was gone, leaving her alone to settle in to her new room. Clary didn't have much to unpack, her possessions were as followed: A tattered, knee length coat, a comb, spare trousers and a shirt, and a tin of odds and ends that she'd collected while traveling. She put all of this in the top drawer of the dresser and undressed for bed. She was a bit grimy from her long trip and she hoped she'd get to bathe in the morning. She sat on the cot, testing its softness. Not as nice as her old bed back home had been, but better than the luggage car of a train or a barn. At least she wasn't homeless anymore and if there was one thing she could be certain of, it was that when you were at the bottom you could only go up.

...

Clary was awakened sooner than she would have liked to be by the sound of Facilier's cane rapping on her door,

"Rise and shine chère, it's time for you to earn your keep!"

Clary jumped out of her cot and tugged on her clothes. They were wrinkled and far to large for her small frame, having belonged to her father, but she'd sold off most of her nicer things to pay for travel and food. She was certain her short hair was a mess but didn't bother to comb it before she went outside to see what Facilier wanted.

When the girl stumbled out into the hallway the good Doctor took one look at her and wrinkled his nose,

"Those the only clothes you own?" he drawled.

Clary flushed and nodded. "I sold all me dresses ta make some money."

He looked her over, her hair was sticking up every which way and she was a little grubby, that would never do.

"Before you do anything else I want you to go to the washroom and take a bath, and comb that hair! You're gonna scare off any potential customers lookin' like that. I swear I ain't never seen such a mess on one person's head in all my life," this was a lie, Facilier himself had an unruly rat's nest which he kept well hidden under his hat, but that was beside the point. "When you finish come down to the Emporium and I'll put you to work."

Clary was only to happy to comply, the prospect of a bath almost made up for the fact that she was indefinitely contracted to a witch doctor and Clary began to feel a little hopeful about her situation.

Fifteen minutes later a still wet Clary was downstairs dressed for work. Facilier was not incredibly impressed with her clean appearance. She was still wearing those ill-fitting clothes from before but he could fix that easily.

"Today's job is simple, I want you to try for a job at a restaurant called "Tiana's Place," it's the only place in town that's still busy these days. Now I don't care what job you get, just make sure that the owner Tiana hires you."

Clary was instantly suspicious, why would Facilier want her to get a second job? Surely he didn't expect her to pass on her income to him...further more what did this have to do with black magic? She'd been under the impression that she'd be doing his shopping and picking up customers.

"Why would I do that? That seems a strange request to be makin' fer a warlock."

"Warlock?" Facilier knit his brow and frowned down at her.

"Ye know, a male witch?" Clary had heard stories of evil warlocks quiet often in Scotland and this Dr. Facilier fit the description of one almost perfectly.

"I ain't stupid girl, I know what it means. Let's get one thing straight, I'm Doctor Facilier. I go by Conjurer and Shadowman but you will call me sir or Doctor. I don't want none of this warlock business," he could see that this girl was unfamiliar with his particular brand of magic. But she'd catch on soon enough, although he wasn't about to go around with her calling him a "warlock" or a "wizard" it was just undignified...

"Aye sir, if that's what ye want. I'd still like ta know what you're doin' that involves this Tiana's Place," Clary kept her tone even so that he didn't think she was over stepping her boundaries as his servant. She didn't want to risk setting him off, after all he could put a hex on her if he got angry...

"Well for one thing I want you to learn the layout of the restaurant, find out enough about it that you could maybe run on yourself," said Facilier.

"You plannin' on runnin' a restaurant?" Clary asked raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

"Never you mind what I'm doin', just do it! One more thing, you even think about goin' back on our deal... I'll turn ya into a slimy little frog!" Facilier said lifting his cane threateningly.

"Alright! I'll do it! Just please no black magic!"

Facilier tilted his chin up and grinned down at her, "Do what I tell you, and there will be no problems you understand?" he said his demeanor again calm and almost deceptively charming.

"Aye sir," replied Clary, she hesitated for a minute before speaking up, "Sir...when do I get to hear about me dad?"

"After you get that job and work there for a while I'll do a tarot reading for you, if you're meant to see him again it'll be in the cards," Doctor Facilier tipped his hat at her and gave her a gap-toothed grin. His aim was to disarm the girl and it seemed to work, she visibly relaxed. He had good reason to go after Tiana's Place...after Bid Daddy Le Bouf lost most of his fortune The Shadowman lost interest in him. Now the princess of Maldonia was the wealthiest person in New Orleans...and that made her a prime target. He didn't want to fill Clary in on any details just yet...better to wait until she was in to deep to back out. If everything went well she'd be a big asset to him...whether she wanted to be or not!