Note: Thanks to all the people who helped me avoid slip-ups in Markus' scenes!
The market of the dead
-I'm really curious of what ever gave you the idea that we were not going to leave as soon as a new councilor for magic was chosen.
-I was hoping you would have enough brains and morals to not take the most powerful person in the country away from the capital. I will have a hard time holding her ground for her if she's not here.
As far as Sigrun was concerned, Helena and Randi had been throwing variations at the same argument at each other for the last ten minutes, and both had yet to find the variation that would make the other budge. Helena had every reason to not want to stay in the palace any longer than strictly necessary, and couldn't leave without the girl who was her daughter as far as all but a select few were concerned. Randi had equally good reasons to not want the mind of the woman who was both her lover and one of the people really running the country to leave both the palace and the capital. Sigrun glanced into Emil and Lalli's room from the door between the suite's two rooms, thinking of the fact that Lalli occasionally had interesting insights, but tended to be less willing to care about disputes the closer they got to mutual shouting.
-Maybe we should stay. Definitely not in the palace, but maybe somewhere in Mora or its outskirts.
Sune's unexpected words at least had the merit of interrupting the argument. Helena turned towards Sune and crossed her arms:
-And what would we gain in doing that?
-We don't know what to do with "Janine" because wherever we take her, "Vivian" will be able to watch and listen to us and any caretaker we leave her with. Just about anyone we could foster her with without looking like bad parents is also someone "Vivian" would be all too happy to be able to keep an eye on. But she's not doing much harm if she stays in Mora. All the councilors have their largest number of spies in the capital, so an extra spy in the capital won't see many things that the others haven't already.
Sigrun swore she briefly saw a smile on Helena's face:
-Fine, let's say you, me and "Janine" stay here. Sigrun and Lalli probably want to get out of here with "Stig" in case Randi isn't the only one who figured out who he is on their own. With all their stories running around about us, we may have trouble finding a welcoming neighborhood outside of the palace.
Sigrun suddenly realized that just leaving the palace could actually work for them as well:
-We'll need to wait for "Stig" to wake up to see if he agrees. But I know he already told you he and Lalli have plans to move back to Scandi eventually. The three of us mostly came here to keep an eye on the two of you and find out more about a certain rumor that didn't quite make sense to us, but it would save us a lot of future effort if we just didn't come back from this trip. But you better be serious about the "not in the palace" part. That thing that bunch of nobles and merchants is passing off as Prince Emil has been freaking him out, and he could definitely use seeing it a little less often. The only downside is that I don't have much of an idea of where we could go.
Daniel literally appeared out of thin air, holding Janine:
-I performed all the tests I could think of. I unfortunately can't see an easy way to reverse the process, either. Randi, the mansion is empty except for a housekeeper. I thought one of you would have at the very least lent it to someone by now.
Randi finally let go of the victorious expression that had been gradually forming on her face ever since Sune had suggested to stay:
-Honestly, we all knew it would be unwise on our part to assume that the Wonder School would hold you for very long. We also assumed you wouldn't be very happy with what you found if you ever made it back here. Tobias had no interest in it, so we kept it aside as a ready-to-deliver peace offering. I guess it's as good a time as any to remind you that if you desire to get the mansion filled up again and lack the acquaintances to do so, it is my responsibility and that of the other members of the Council to provide you with any personnel you desire to have.
Daniel gave Randi quite the death glare as he handed Janine to Helena:
-I think I'm going to go with hiring my personnel myself. I may have slightly less of a chance of ending up with people who are actually spies working for you or the others.
Randi sighed:
-I had your mindset when I started out, but I have personally found that incompetent employees are more of a problem than employees who are actually spies when it comes to their job's day-to-day requirements. You just need to avoid getting too friendly with any of them. If they work for the other members of the Council, at least you know who they are working for. People picked up off the street are more of a gamble. If you have any idea where to find at least half a dozen competent people both willing to work for you and unlikely to turn on you, when Helena is the closest thing you have to an actual friend among the upper crust, I wish you luck.
Vivian's reaction to that last sentence was as much as a chuckle as she could manage via Janine's inability to speak.
xxxx
Randi had gone back to her own quarters and everyone else besides Helena and Daniel was asleep. In Sune's case, this was enabled only by Helena sitting on the bed right next to him. Helena spoke:
-This is as alone as we are going to get, barring any ears in the walls. Now, that explanation you promised me.
Daniel took a deep breath before answering:
-You know how we were always taught that the spirit realm has two layers occupied by living people. One for mages, one for none-mages. And how it takes a while to figure out how to move from one to the other.
-Yes.
-There is actually a third one, that overlaps with the physical world in a way nobody quite understands. Once one has figured out how to go there while awake, it's quite easy to go back and forth. Someone hiding in that layer might as well be a ghost when it comes to their interactions with the physical world. There are a couple catches, though. One is that it becomes more likely to spontaneously temporarily kick people out in some way the longer they choose to stay inside it, and resisting the phenomenon drains a lot of power. The other is that it that one's spirit realm safe area somehow ends up there on a permanent basis. Nobody has figured out how to move from that layer to the better-known ones, be it while awake or in their sleep, yet. The ability to move to that extra layer was used during that war. The Finmi mages never knew what hit them. Once the war was over, many people in high places didn't like the idea of too many people being able to use that ability, so its practice in most magic schools teaching Isle style magic was outlawed forty years ago. There is one place still teaching it legally on the Grand Isle of Icy Wonders, officially for the sake of knowledge preservation. It's a good magic school in its own right, and the place to go to make the most of a permission to have a long visit on the Isle. However, they are still against uses of that ability they consider wrong, and will only teach it to people fulfilling an odd set of criteria. But if they consider someone qualifies, they don't give them much choice about it and get them locked up in a special wing of the school they can only ever leave by learning how to use the ability. The place has Moon marble walls much like the Isle's prisons, so contact with mages outside the building is impossible whether one has figured out how to use the ability or not. More mundane forms of contact with the outside are prevented, as well. That wing has living units for families.
Helena had to take a few moments to process the information before finding something to say:
-I'm not surprised you got yourself out of there in only a few years. I may need to sleep on the rest of this before deciding what I think of it, and get rid of that impulse to slap you and a few other people. Is there any information you need from me? I know I have… taken you for granted at times, so you're probably of two minds about some of the things you have heard.
-You had your own way of taking me for granted, and it didn't match any of the stories I was hearing. You also happened to be within my eyesight and earshot a few times while I was covertly scouting for my plans to enter and exit the masquerade ball. Your attitude about… bedroom activities is very different from the one you used to have, and I didn't see many things that would make it change in such a way. Actually, I have a question about this, if you don't mind.
-Go ahead, but no more than one for tonight.
-You remember how we managed to still "see" each other, even from very far away?
Helena nodded. The fact that they had presences much like their own bodies in the spirit realm had resulted in quite a few interesting options.
-Did Tobias ever "visit" you there?
-No, and it was one of the few upsides of the whole thing. Sorry, but now I really need to…
Just as she yawned, her brain put Daniel's question and his reasons for lack of contact together:
-Are you thinking it could be because that person can do the same thing as you?
-I'm not thinking it. The soul that currently inhabits Vivian's body has its secure area in the same layer of the spirit realm as mine.
Helena walked on the water-like floor of the spirit realm until she found an extremely small safe area right below its surface, just big enough to contain the spiritual "body" of an adult woman. She hadn't given it much thought before, as it had made sense for Tobias to put Vivian's soul there. This technically put Vivian in the non-mage layer, which kept her from using her own power to escape. Now, it was a lead in a mystery that Helena had had no idea existed until this evening.
-So, what brings you here, this time?
Vivian's voice was fainter than it would have been if they had been face to face and technically in the same part of the spirit realm, but still audible. Helena answered her:
-Daniel told me a few things. However, some sounded like that if what he tells me is true, Tobias shouldn't have been able to do this to you. I think a few things may have been hidden from Daniel.
-I think you're not quite grasping the full implications of your own theories, Princess. If the mind we know as "Tobias" has existed longer than most people get to, they may know things even Daniel's professors at the Wonder School don't. Ugh.
Helena saw Vivian's silhouette twitch in pain as her prison was very briefly filled by what looked like miniature bolts of lightning. Tobias had apparently realized that double-crossing Vivian while putting her in a situation that gave her plenty of time to think could easily backfire. One of the many spells in her prison hence seemed to be present to cause her pain if she entered certain lines of thought. Both Vivian and Helena had found a way to exploit this, by paying attention to the exact thing that was being discussed when the spell activated. Helena however didn't want to abuse it, if only to keep Vivian more or less on her side while the two of them had to play the roles of a newly reunited mother and young daughter in public. Unfortunately, if Vivian was right, Tobias might be the only person able to reverse the switch of bodies. And neither of them had a clear idea of whether Tobias was actually planning to do so in the future or not.
Helena was suddenly surrounded by a landscape that could be mistaken for Mora's central market at first glance. The counter of a stall now stood over the location of Vivian's prison. She took this as a signal to wrap herself into a cloaking spell that would get her mistaken for a rogue spirit at a distance. Those cloaking spells were meant to keep everyone coming to that market anonymous and dissuade anyone with more legitimate business in the spirit realm from following them. However, the different ways one could make that spell, acceptable personal touches and the agreed-upon signals to advertise what one was looking for, what they had for sale and various other things others may want to know made it easy for someone sufficiently smart to identify specific individuals. Someone whose death was faked may change the way they presented themselves, but it happened so rarely that it wasn't hard to figure out that a new visitor and an old one that had been lost to anything other than old age were one and the same. Some downsides to being officially dead remained, including the fact that such people had no choice but to buy even basic necessities in illegal markets. If the "deceased" was a mage, they tended to prefer the one that had just appeared. Negotiations and payments happened in an artificial safe area that only existed during late night and extremely early morning, and goods would find a way to turn up wherever the person was hiding. This, combined with the spirit realm location, had earned that market to be known as the market of the dead. As people masquerading as rogue spirits filed in, Helena made a beeline to the illusion counterpart to the Planner's stand, which here belonged to the market of the dead's Coordinator. The current Coordinator had taken his position a few days after the Royal Palace fire, whose official victims had included one of the market's frequent high-ranking visitors. He scorned upon noticing Helena's presence:
-You.
-Don't worry, I don't mean to bother you for very long. I've just come here to tell you that Daniel is back, in case your own King hasn't informed you yet.
It was practically mandatory for the black-market King to be a non-mage, precisely so he could have plausible deniability over the market of the dead's very existence. Helena continued with the other news she had:
-The means by which he was kept busy for the last three years now prevent him from having any contact with this part of the spirit realm. It's hence up to you whether he finds out whether you're still alive or not.
-This is easy. He must not know. How many for keeping your mouth shut, and will it be tokens or money?
Helena was tempted to mention that she had just recently found out first hand just how big that kind of lie could be, to be able to put a high price on her silence. Unfortunately, giving that reason would also tell the Coordinator that she was in possession of an important piece of information. That fact would make it to the black-market King, and if it made it to the black-market King, it would make it to Harald, who would then ask for his spies to actively look out for that piece of information on top whatever routine surveillance was already being done. She fortunately found a reason that didn't justify much of an increase in price, but had the merit of seemingly telling the Coordinator something he already knew:
-Go with a thousand, you're asking me to lie to someone I care about. And make it tokens, I may need to do a little shopping here myself.
-Nine hundred, and a piece of information both you and Daniel will have interest in knowing.
Helena held back a sigh of relief. Back when he had been officially alive, one of the Coordinator's frequent negotiation moves had boiled down to "if you really care so much about Daniel, you should accept to be paid significantly less than your desired price if I throw in a cheap and legally available item that will make a good gift for him".
-Deal. What's the information?
-The person masquerading as Vivian tried to order a large quantity of Moon marble. They won't get it because the True Rulers from forty years ago weren't stupid. Even now, the illegal markets are going to make sure that nobody can buy enough of the stuff to make something in which they can fit a person, unless they need it for an actual jail cell. Daniel should keep an eye on the orphanage if he ends up moving back into the mansion.
Considering what Tobias had done to the councilor of magic's traditional act of charity, Helena considered the Coordinator's worry about the orphanage's future to be completely legitimate. There were almost three hundred children in that place at a given time, and they were just as likely to turn out to have magical powers as the general population. The mansion that was Daniel's by all rights was right across the street from the orphanage, thanks to the buildings that had been connected together to make it having once been the wisdom councilor's mansion, the national affairs councilor's mansion, the law councilor's mansion, the money councilor's mansion and the foreign affairs councilor's mansion. Nature councilors tended to keep their properties in a semi-wild state either for show or because of genuine belief. Magic councilors tended to have their own nitpicks about how their property was arranged, alongside a never-quite-absent risk of blowing the place up someday. That had resulted in those two properties avoiding being assimilated into the orphanage to this day, while the reason the five other councilors had quarters in the palace instead on their own mansions had become a piece of trivia to share with people with minimal knowledge of the country's history. Helena thought it could be a good idea for their group to find a place not too far from the orphanage as well, before realizing the reason for which that chuckle has come out of Janine earlier. Being aware of two groups of people who didn't realize they held a possible solution to each other's problems tended to be a source of amusement for Vivian. The localized ripple-like feeling in her cloaking spell told Helena she had gotten her payment in full. She had one last thing to tell the Coordinator before doing her shopping:
-I'll do my best to treat Daniel more fairly this time. Promise.
xxxx
A good night's sleep had given Helena enough wits to no longer blindly accept Sigrun, Lalli and Emil's own words concerning his own identity. To Emil's dismay, she now wanted concrete proof, but washing out the dye and shaving his beard weren't options while he was still in the same building as that thing that many thought to be the real him. He had tried showing her his birth tattoo and the talisman that had been taken out of his ear, but she had pointed out that the tattoo could be faked and told him the Royals were hardly the only people who were fitted with those talismans. Helena had decided to test his memory by seeing if he could identify the very man from last night who had made the piece of metal drop out of his ear, who had turned out to be a friend of hers. The man was currently sitting across the table from Emil. Emil only had his own memory to rely on, as Helena had prevented Lalli, Sigrun and Sune from helping him. Emil thought. He must have seen him at least a few times for Helena to expect him to place him. The man had shown that he was a mage. Some acquaintance of Niels or Vivian's, perhaps? The man looked to be around his, Lalli and Helena's age, so he was probably still growing at the time. A guess formed in his mind. He wasn't sure about the face or hairstyle, but the hair color matched.
-Are you that kid who sometimes showed up with Niels, by any chance? I… think I forgot your name.
Knowing his old self, he had probably never bothered learning it in the first place.
-It's Daniel. I technically have a last name, but it's just a random thing the orphanage bestowed upon me when I was a child. Nothing worth remembering.
-Pleased to make your acquaintance again. Is there any reason you were already here when I woke up?
-I was chosen to be the new councilor of magic yesterday. I'm also technically Niels' next-of-kin. Between those two facts, I have a nice big house in the town's outskirts to live in. I've been told you and your friends may be looking for a place to stay around town, but feel you have worn out your welcome in the palace. I'd be pleased to have you all, alongside the two members of your close circle who are still in Finmi. There are, however, a couple details you should be made aware of.
The annoyed face "Stig" made after being told the very piece of information that Daniel had wanted to avoid telling him the previous evening was all the proof Helena needed. What surprised her the most was the lack of faces on Sigrun and Lalli's part, as she had introduced Daniel to them as a friendly acquaintance of hers. Sune already knew, as some of Tobias' attempts to break the two of them had included mentioning Daniel. The only way they had found to counter his attempts at keeping them from finding comfort in each other had been to find time to honestly discuss whatever embarrassing piece of information Tobias had mentioned that day. Because of this, Helena had needed to explain the exact nature of her relationship with Daniel early on. Helena knew the face Emil was making, unfortunately. It had frequently preceded shouted words along the lines of "What right does this person have to have a nice thing I don't? I want a better version of that nice thing right now!". However, instead of the words Helena expected to come, the expression receded from Emil's face, he gave Lalli a glance, then addressed Helena:
-I… think I see why you would have done this. And honestly, I don't think I had much hopes about that marriage being a pleasant one either. It would have also been a little unfair if I had been allowed to have a man on the side, and you hadn't. If nobody else has a problem with this, I guess it can work at least as a temporary arrangement.
xxxx
Compared to the building that was right across the street from it, the house looked quite small, but was still visibly bigger and much nicer than Lalli's family home. Giving a second look at the orphanage, Emil could now see the signs of it having once been five separate houses similar to the one he was currently standing in front of. The housekeeper, a woman who looked two or three decades older than Sigrun, welcomed them in and told everyone to pick a room while she showed Helena, Sune and Janine the nursery. The catch quickly turned out to be that everyone would need to clean whichever room they picked, but Emil decided it was worth it when they found one in which the bed was big enough to hold both of them and high enough for Lalli to sleep under it if he wished, on the second floor. As Lalli's test of the space under the bed turned into an actual nap, Emil found himself looking for anything he could do without disturbing Lalli. Opening the window to let a little fresh air in looked like a good place to start. The first thing he noticed was that a dark-haired figure wearing leather armor was sitting on the part of the orphanage's roof that was right across from him, and sharpening a knife.
-Hey, what you doing up here?
The figure answered back:
-I'm backup for the people guarding the gates. By the way, was I dreaming or was Daniel part of your group? The person who could be him was already stepping inside by the time I noticed a bunch of people was going into this house.
-Yes, it was him.
-Well, tell him Markus would like to know why he didn't bother sending him a single letter in the last three years.
Daniel's enthusiastic voice came from another window facing the orphanage, which seemed to be over the one Emil was using:
-Markus? I thought you would have found a job somewhere else by now.
-All my other options are either not hiring right now or insisted on keeping the wrong name in their "promising intern" records, then claimed I wasn't in their records when I asked for a job. Would you mind including me in whatever dinner plans you have for yourself and that little court of yours? Like that you'll get to explain me where you have been all this time and who all these people are.
xxxx
-So… let me get this straight. Niels grooms you to be his successor. Rest of the Council gets rid of both you and Niels so they can give the job to that Tobias guy. That Tobias guy dies doing weird magic stuff, they look for a new person, and Lady Vivian picks you. That's… exactly the kind of thing that would happen to you, actually. It reminds me of that time you…
Emil only half listened, as part of his mind had decided to fixate on the fact that Markus' clothes were much bigger on him than simply being dressed in a second-hand outfit that was a little large could account for. Not only this, but the clothes looked made to have armor worn over them in addition to having familiar colors, which suggested Markus was currently wearing his work clothes without the leather armor pieces. Lalli, who was sitting next to Emil, whispered into his ear:
-Like Sylvia, but the other way around.
-Thank you.
In hindsight, Emil wondered how he hadn't figured that out on his own. He was aware of being quite short by Scandi-born male standards and Markus had been the first man to not remind him of this in quite a while. Sylvia was the niece – thought to be a nephew in her younger years – of the tea merchant Emil had apprenticed under, and the first time he had interacted with someone in a situation similar to Markus'. Whatever event Markus had been mentioning, it shifted into just the right words to bring Emil's attention back to what he was saying:
-So that's the daughter the two of you are supposed to have abandoned? I swear I never saw that kid in the last two years. Where in the world was Lady Vivian hiding her?
Daniel put his fork down and answered solemnly:
-The answer depends on how seriously you're asking the question.
Markus gestured towards Janine:
-Part of my job is making sure nobody from outside hurts the children. As far as I know, that kid is a two-year-old with a twenty-year-old mother and a thirteen-year-old father. The whole bunch of you are moving right next door. I want the answer that will tell me how much I actually need to keep an eye on the Princess. I've lived long enough to know that nothing distracts people from real threats more than imagined threats taken more seriously than warranted. And that the people in the Council aren't exactly models of virtue, present company included, unfortunately.
Helena ended up being the one answering:
-In that case, what you need to know is that I have no memory of having a child, yet just about any magical filiation test is going to tell the mage using it that Janine is my daughter and Sune's. I also want to make clear, once again, that the circumstances that would have made Sune and myself produce a child were forced upon both of us. I have the misfortune of already knowing what I would do if my only choices were letting a child die and hurting them in any way. As long as I am not put in circumstances where I have to make that choice again, I can promise I won't hurt any more children. I'm not hungry anymore. I want to be alone.
Helena left the table, and was soon heard going upstairs. Emil gave a quick glance to Sune, who seemed to have lost his own appetite. Being able to help both Helena and Sune as Stig had required focusing on the fact that whatever had happened had been extremely hard on both of them and accepting that what details would be shared with him, if any, would have a high chance of being disturbing. However, the reason for which Sune could no longer hear anything from his left ear alone was the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Helena could have been pressured into doing to him in the privacy of Tobias' secret workroom. It was one of the many subjects Emil had vowed to not breach unless Helena breached it first. The little he had just heard was going to take a while to process. Come to think of it, he wasn't hungry anymore either.
xxxx
Enough people had given up on trying to finish up the food that had been made for dinner, between the suddenly reduced appetites and those that weren't that big to start with, for most of the household to be currently busy cleaning up. Daniel got hold of a bag that's he'd made really sure to bring back to Scandi with him, and gave it to Markus:
-Sorry it took so much time to get it to you. The good news is that it's even more top-of-the-line than you could hope for. The wing where I was kept had better material than the regular school. The changes in your body should be completed about a year after you decide to first put it on.
Markus happily welcomed the bag, looked inside it and gave Daniel a tearful hug:
-Thanks a million. And just to be clear, I'm happy to have you back, as well. But… couldn't you use all that bounty of super-secret magic books to make something that works faster?
-Something that elaborate working too fast would put too much of a strain on your body. So much that you'd be bedridden for the better part of the year anyway. It working so slowly will also make the day-to-day changes gradual enough that both you and those around you will have proper time to absorb them.
-As much as I have been waiting for this, I would kind of like to be able to work while it's happening. I'd better head back home to put that on.
Daniel briefly hesitated to let Markus go. But having him in the house next door was already much better than what he had hoped for.
xxxx
The next morning, Emil couldn't believe his ears:
-What do you mean, not a morning person? He was already in the room and wide awake when I woke up yesterday morning!
Sigrun, who was already in full bodyguard gear, answered:
-Remember that the meal we were getting ready when you woke up was lunch, not breakfast. Daniel had been awake for only about an hour. This is not important right now. Help me get him into real clothes already.
They both went to the room that Daniel had picked for himself to find that Lalli had already done part of the job. Somehow, they managed to have Daniel on the house's front steps, half-awake, dressed and cleaned up by the time he was supposed to leave if he was to reach the palace in time. Sigrun gave Emil and Lalli a pat on the shoulder:
-That wasn't too bad. It's still going to be easier once Mikkel and Reynir get here. And if we can figure out how to avoid having too many mornings where nobody has the heart to try waking up Mama, Papa and Baby too early. I feel we forgot something, though.
Daniel's stomach growled as if to prove that last sentence right. The following moment, a horse-drawn carriage whose contents were a rather plainly clothed middle-aged man with graying dark brown hair and a blonde girl in her early teens stopped in front of the house. Emil almost greeted Rolf by name, before remembering that he had yet to be properly introduced to him as Stig, and that this detail made him one of the councilors the less likely to know who he really was. Rolf spoke:
-Good job for a first day working for him. Runa and myself have yet to eat breakfast, as well. We plan to get food on the way. We have two extra seats in here. Care to join us?
Both Daniel and Sigrun got into the carriage, which soon drove away, revealing one of the orphanage's gate guards stifling a laugh. Emil looked up to see if he could make out whoever was on the roof spot Markus had been occupying the previous evening. While he didn't see him, he heard his voice:
-Don't be too surprised. Niels was quite the night owl, so Rolf got used to making sure he got to Council meetings on time. If you think Daniel's stomach was loud just now, you should have heard the collective moaning of the servants the morning after he moved in.
Wait… he knew those bells. They did their job in terms of getting him completely awake.
-Ha, I knew it was a good idea to keep those.
Daniel realized that he was in the middle of eating a breakfast pastry, that the voice that had spoken was Rolf's, and the person wiggling the bell-decorated magic councilor's headdress in front of him looked like an older version of Runa. Wait… it probably was Runa. He finished the pastry hoping it would help him wake up completely, but what he really needed was strong tea. Maybe Emil would know of something that would do the trick. Once he was done with the food, Runa gave him the headdress:
-Don't forget to thank Master Rolf for keeping the bells. Councilor Tobias really hated them and pulled them right off.
Daniel promptly turned to Rolf to thank him, and in the process realized they were right next to the door to the Council room. Sigrun was there, as well. He realized he was clothed, but didn't have any memory of getting dressed. Their group had stopped to get Daniel new clothes on the way between the palace and the mansion, but… Uh oh…
-Sigrun, who chose my clothes?
-"Stig" did, so chances are that people who care what you're wearing will approve. He has surprisingly good taste when he's given enough options to work with.
Reassured, Daniel gave the clothes he was wearing a quick look, and approved. Maybe he should have Emil officially be his dresser in addition to his tea maker. He also had a third job for him in mind, that one more compatible with Emil's own ambitions.
