I walked up to it. Well, metaphorically. Because in a world where there is neither ground nor walls nor ceiling, there's no such thing as up or down. Besides, an ethereal being has neither arms nor legs, so it can't walk… "You are not – and I mean this- going to stay here. I don't know how you came(1), but you can't be here!" I told him. He ignored me. The guts of it… he actually acknowledged my ethereal being by a "hmm?" Why, if it was possible, I would have killed him for it. But it wasn't. Not over here. "Listen Nat-boy, this is a place of chaos and inconsistence, you can't organize our ethereal particles by- Hey, what do you think you're doing?" He barely gave me a look. Well, there are no eyes here, so he couldn't look at me, but if he had some, it would probably be what he was doing.

"Listen, Bartimeus, if I understand correctly, I am going to be stuck here for eternity, so I'm going to organize this place and put things by level, and mostly concentrate on separating all these entities." Nathaniel, AKA John Mandrake said. This is the problem, I say… A human gets an ethereal body and comes to live in this place of comfortable chaos and disorganization… And it just had to be one of the most rational and organized ones on earth.

This was going nowhere, this argument just made me feel stupid, especially when the ethereal presence of an imp would have sniggered if it had a mouth to do it, when it went past the two arguing packs of particles which were me and the brat. "I'm going to kill you!" I threatened him. Again, his pack of particles seemed to disregard the comment. "Do you have iron? Do you have silver? Do you have spells? No… I thought you didn't, not here, well then, sorry, but it seems you can't kill me over here." Why did the kid have to get the hang of this place in such a fast and rational manner? And mostly… Who is he to talk to me like that? I am Bartimaeus, Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the Mighty, the Serpent of Silver Plumes. I have built the walls of Prague. And he was a brat(2). How dare he talk to me like that?

The argument would probably have continued if it weren't for that familiar but oh so hated tug. Someone was sending a fishing cane through reality and pulling both me and the brat out of this now organized chaotic ex-paradise. Here I was. On a floor. In a pentacle with the kid who was –and this is the first reason he is still alive- was holding Gladstone's staff. The second was that I was wondering how come we were both summoned in the same pentacle. But things had to be done. What would I do? A gust of wind? Too simple. A monster? Too common. I tried a new one. The brat's twin(3).

Same clothes, same face, same staff… It might not be great, but it was the first thing that came in mind.

As a matter of fact, I was more surprised about the summoner than the fact that I was summoned. "Any idea how long we've been away?" Natty-boy asked me while I was still trying to get over the shock. Besides, wasn't that a stupid question? After all, time doesn't exist in the other world, so how the hell should I know? I could have sworn it was Kitty but…

(1 )And I don't really care as long as he finds a way to leave the place.

(2 )Admittedly, an ethereal spirit brat, but a brat nonetheless.

(3 )While it may not be very scary, a doppelganger is always quite surprising. Especially when you expect to fetch two spirits and find out that you only got twice the same.