Chapter 2

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I think I'll miss you most of all.

~Dorothy

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So while we were waiting for Aahz to return we got dragged into a family dispute that turned into a meeting of Titanic forces, literally. Having to negotiate with a psychotic Titan with more power than my team combined was...interesting. But we managed to get him out of our clients' hair and even resolve their issues by restoring the heirloom they were fighting over to both of them, though that was more their father's work than ours.

It's been about a week now, and other than the Imp siblings, we've turned down most cases and had to turn OUT several hundred curious gawkers aiming for a peek at the Magnificent Skeeve, possibly coming back out of retirement? Who knew!

My disappearance from and then return back to Deva was all very mysterious to the denizens of the Bazaar, and therefor incredibly interesting. There were merchandisers already trying to cash in on the action with cheap wares that almost crossed the line of copyright infringement. Almost equaled a nice profit at the Bazaar.

Heck, crossing the line equaled profit if you have a bookie friend willing to take bets on the outcome of whatever battle occurred over the insult...for a cut, of course.

We were all pretty tired of waiting for it to die down by this point, so when Bunny mentioned being hungry while she was reworking the filing system which had somehow degenerated to chaos in her absence, I leapt on the chance to get out under disguise -- my actual appearance -- and escape the constant (if slowing flow of gawkers. He dropped his Garkin-disguise in some shadows and joined the tail of a group of "well-wishers" who'd just been turned away, leaving unobtrusively as possible.

Once I was away from the crowds, my entire body relaxed. It's been a while since I've been subject to so much attention in tight quarters.

I took my time walking the Bazaar, stretching the moment of freedom as long as possible before returning to the bedlam MYTH Inc. had briefly become.

On the way back I managed to come across a despondent Pixie by the name of Flinna who'd taken one look at me and then related her woes: a Pixie who didn't like flowers was a little strange, but what she could do with birds was pretty amazing. Those illusions were incredible. And yet, she couldn't find work at all, anywhere. And if it wasn't available at the Bazaar, I understood why she didn't think she'd be able to find it anywhere. Deva is well known for it's ability to take anything and turn it into a marketable trade, mostly because the Deveels here have the training and personalities to make a drowning man pay top dollar for a glass of water, and are actually the origin point of that saying if the rumors are true.

But Flinna's story struck a chord in me: just yesterday, when I was helping Bunny with the filing out of sheer boredom I overheard her and Maasha trading gossip back and forth. What struck me now was the bit about Maasha's old friend, Princess Gloriannamarjolie and her prince having a bit of a tiff about his hunting hobby, and how she didn't really like it but had at least convinced him to keep the numbers down to avoid a serious impact on the fowl-ecosystems.

Wasn't that just perfect? I wanted to make sure I understood the one-sided conversation I'd heard though, so I got Flinna to come back with me and we snuck into the MYTH Inc headquarters passed the crowd with a nice veil I picked up in my studies.

Back inside their HQ, Bunny confirms what I thought I overheard. I explain Flinna's circumstances and after a minute Bunny's eyes widen. Nobody paying attention could ever accuse her of being slow on the uptake. "Skeeve, that'd be perfect!"

I grinned. "Let's hope they think so."

A few calls later and I was escorting Flinna to an interview with Prince Bosheer and Princess Gloriannamarjolie. I was relieved to see them hit it off immediately after a little confusion with the Prince, who was relieved to find that he could hunt to his heart's contentment and not impact the local populations at all.

I happily left her to settle into her new career of choice. All in all, it felt nice to be doing what I thought I'd be doing when we came back. Flinna even paid two gold pieces for the service despite not being obligated. I figured on sharing some of the profit with Maasha, being as she'd been the one to mention the need in the first place.

After stopping in to let Maasha know what'd happened, I headed back to MYTH Inc's tent to find the crowd had finally dispersed. When I walked in, the looks on everyone's faces showed a certain nervousness. And Aahz was standing in the middle of the room, staring at me blankly. I moved two steps closer automatically, then stopped at the less than welcoming blankness on Aahz's face. "Hey, Aahz."

Aahz stared at me for a minute before his face softened just a bit. "Hey, kid." He smiled, a hint of fang showing. "Hear congratulations are in order? Or should that be 'welcome back'?"

I shifted to a slightly steadier stance, unsure of my own reactions to seeing Aahz for the first time in so long.

Okay, that wasn't completely true. I was unavoidably aware of certain reactions, being that they were biologically undeniable. But emotionally? Uncertain was the word. "I guess that depends on..." not Aahz alone, though his opinion was probably the most important one, but I wasn't going to disregard the rest of his friends either. "Everyone."

"I was going to try something sort of different from MYTH, but I don't want to--I didn't mean to step on any toes. I don't think it would be in competition, but when I realized how everyone thought...they were kind of cool when they realized I was thinking of setting up shop in the Bazaar again," I tried not to think about the sinking feeling I'd gotten leaving, that first time. "It's understandable, so we came back and I figured we could all...talk it out. We were waiting for you."

Aahz glanced sharply at the active members of MYTH Inc and the guilt on their faces was pretty clear. "Did you at least say welcome back before making him feel like mud?"

They winced. "Of course we did, Aahz!" Tanda protested.

Chumley held up a hand. "To be honest, little sister, we said we were pleased to see him before he told us...and our congratulations immediately after were less than sincere, I'm afraid."

I'm not proud to say I was shocked into momentary silence at the stand off, but only for a minute before I caught up and grabbed Aahz's arm. "Hey, no, I really do understand now, Bunny explained it to me. I just...never thought to compete with you guys, I guess. I wouldn't hurt you, you know that, right?" Vigorous nodding from everyone currently worried about an angry Pervect, and Aahz was at least looking at me and not sharing his impressive scowl with the others.

I licked my lips and continued. "I've been gone a while...I needed to go, but I don't think I explained myself well at all, and I've been gone a while, so it...I don't like that I was such a bad friend that you all thought I'd do something like that, but that's my fault, not yours. I'm really sorry."

The look on Aahz's face stopped me cold. The rest of any explanation could wait. My throat went dryer than the desert but I had to say it again, because he deserved it. Looking straight at Aahz, I repeat. "I'm sorry."

Aahz watched me for a moment, eyes missing nothing, before he nodded slowly. "Guess you're not quite as smart as I thought you were," he finally said.

I frowned. "Is that really fair?"

Aahz smirked and slung an arm around my waist, tugging me to a seat. "Winner decides what's fair. Anyway, what's this idea you had?"

I let myself be distracted; I was happy to just be allowed back with my friends crowded around me, and I had been a bit stupid about it all.

The next week and a half was not one of the longest of my life: that title probably has to go to the several stretches of time when I was responsible for Queen Hemlock's taxes. Even so, it was a nerve-wracking week: we managed to get ourselves between a deposed monarch and her deposer, and both of them were asking for help for free or next to nothing.

Me and Aahz nearly argued over how to help -- if we were helping at all, without being paid well -- when Bunny put her foot down. After discussing the issues a little further and thinking about both stories we'd heard, I asked Bunny if she thought it might not be a bad idea to get the two leaders of Foxe-Swampburg together for a necessary discussion.

Bunny had already called them back and shortly it came out that neither was quite what the other had feared. It wasn't apparent to me until Bunny explained it later, but it was also found that the two were in love.

That was well enough, but they still had the concern of Foxe-Swampburg's finances immediately and trying to figure out how to resolve the issue with the death warrant on Princess Hermalaya and the martial law Matfany had nearly imposed on the populace.

They were talking about unique points in their home world, and when Princess Hermalaya explained about her life-long dedication to Cake, I came up with the idea of possibly marketing Cake. The others weren't sure it would work, but Hermalaya was happy to provide a demonstration and everyone was very impressed afterwards.

We agreed it could be a start and I was given the task of being the face on that exercise so the princess wouldn't be seen as mercenary. Aahz didn't believe that would be worth much and so took on Matfany and decided to take a tour of Foxe-Swampburg to see if he could come up with anything better.

While they were deciding which clients to approach, me and Bunny brainstormed and decided on trying to find some creditors who might be moved into forgiving a debt and maybe even persuaded into donating to the cause. We immediately got a list together and realized a lot of the names on it had a home base in the Bazaar. Perfect.

I explained what we were trying to do and then we set to figure out how to best explain the situation to get a sympathetic reaction. Hermalaya volunteered her diary and I discovered that her writing skills were incredibly effective. If she wasn't a princess she'd have a bright future as a writer.

She was hesitant at first, but agreed to allow her diary to be used directly so their clients could hear immediately what had happened; I have this spell that was perfect for the situation, to really drive the story home. It shows a physical representation of anything the writer was thinking of as she was putting down her words, and Hermalaya was very thorough in her writing and imagination. It was perfect. Then Bunny pointed out that that might detract from Aahz's efforts, considering how much of the negativity was directly from the confusion between the princess and her Prime Minister, and how much bad press Matfany would get.

I immediately called for a huddle and explained our ideas and the projection. Aahz was quiet a moment, thinking it through and then...

The argument was unpleasant. I hadn't been looking at this as a contest and I was upset that Aahz thought I was trying to make his own job harder. My temper got the better of me and it took Bunny to sort it out.

She pointed out that I called for the meet to avoid any negative press, and I nearly agreed to Aahz's suggestion to turn this into a contest until I saw Hermalaya's distressed face as she clutched Matfany's hand. I swallowed my anger. It was my own fault, anyway: I left, and Aahz was justifiably angry but I hadn't wanted to see it. Aahz had seemed to accept me back and I hadn't wanted to look at it too deeply.

My shoulders sagged a little. We couldn't work like this. If this was how it would be, then...I met Bunny's eyes as she was trying to mediate and shook my head.

I turned to Hermalaya. "We're experiencing some internal politics which preclude me from being able to continue as your contact. It's a good idea, and your diary will sell really well I think. Bunny will be better at this than me, anyway."

I couldn't look at Aahz. I was too disappointed in both of us right now.

"Kid. Skeeve, stop." Aahz's voice was loud in the otherwise quiet room.

I owed him too much not to stop and listen, so I turned around and looked at the wall behind his left shoulder.

"You're walking away from this?" He demanded.

I swallowed the flood of saliva in my mouth. Have you ever noticed right when you're about to throw up, your mouth floods? Well, I felt ill and that was a sign that it wouldn't just stop at an upset stomach. "Client comes first and a contest with us pitting them against each other is not what they need," I said as firmly as I could. "I'm sorry I'm such a poor friend that you think I'm trying to willingly sabotage you, but it's clear that we can't even think of working together on this until we work some things out. I'm the one who left, I'll step back until we figure out what we need to do."

He was quiet for a few minutes. "You're right," he finally barked. "But only that they come first. I'm man enough to work with you, no matter how much of a boneheaded idiot you act like."

My temper pricked again, jerking me to glare directly into his yellow eyes. Then I realized he'd done it on purpose from the satisfaction on his face. The anger cooled a little as I realized what he'd done: he needed some kind of contest for his own reasons, so he'd turned his own need into a way to help the clients and clear up his own issues. "Anything you can do," I said smirking. "You sure you can keep up?"

Aahz snorted. "Don't get ahead of yourself, junior."

The others were watching us and could at least follow that a cease fire had been issued as a cold war moved in: they weren't really happy, but they relaxed a little now that open firing had stopped. The Foxes were less relieved, being unable to read us as easily as our friends.

We spent a few minutes reassuring them and then we were back on topic trying to figure out how to resolve the mess Matfany's temper had created.

I'm pleased to say I came up with the idea of killing Matfany and introducing a hero to rescue the kingdom and restore Hermalaya. After explaining the idea, everyone agreed it was the best way for them to be together, but Hermalaya said she would probably have to talk to the older members of the Fox community, the Old Ones. I noted that they were appropriately named, at least. They didn't seem to get it.

Foxes tend to be direct.