The wagon rumbled and weaved through the mountains well into the night. Jimmy wasn't sure this was a good idea, since the old cart almost fell off the trail twice and was perpetually on the verge of falling apart after every big bump in the road, but time was of the essence. Besides Ulfgar and his band tracking him and a crazy semi sentient blade he had barely contained, he now literally had to worry about his old master's 'personal' demons.

"…and after that I drank a forty of gnomish spirits..hic…not the imi..imy…fake stuff from Khazy Nargy …but the real stuff from …where do they make gnome spirits again…."

"Gnomar…" sighed Jimmy as he shook his head at his old now very drunken master.

"Yhearh..Gnomyarg. After that I guzzled some weally nice snow berry wine that I had saved up," continued Martinez.

"Please don't tell me you guzzled down that bottle of spirits given to you by Champion Brita. We hunted down a Glabrezu demon haunting one of the Order of the Snow Lion's keeps for that. That's worth thousands," sighed Jimmy, regretting he didn't get a taste of it himself. "You vowed you were going to save that for your marriage to…"

"Is Champion Brita the elf with the big tits? Cuz that's the broad I got my booze from," interrupted Martinez.

Jimmy didn't continue his sentence. His old master was drunk, but not drunk enough to let him bring up bad memories.

"Isn't it odd that the Champion Brita is an elf, but she has such big jugs. Like she's clearly a woman and one to die for fer sure. I mean aren't elves supposed to androgynous or sumthing like that. I know she's like a half elf or sumthing, but she must be more elf than human right? They made her the queen for Koryis' sake. I mean, sure they're beautiful, but they all are in that skinny, mysterious, flip a coin sexuality kind of way. But who can tell the guys from the gals. Like look at her daughter Surry. Would you know she's a woman if it weren't for her name? It's always a shell game with elves. I'll admit I got the big shock more than once taking one back to my room from a hard night at the tavern," rambled Martinez barely coherently. Rina was leaning at his side, and mumbled something. Jimmy was just glad she was asleep and missed that particularly lewd tirade.

"…and another thing, you shudda let me locked myself into the circle. Sealed mahself in along with whatever is whispering inside my head," said Martinez as his mood turned dark. "I..I can't live with it anymore. I can't let it win…."

Jimmy shook his head." You know I can't do that. Or at least not without trying to get that 'thing' out of you. "

Martinez frowned unconvinced. "I've already tried….I consulted with all the experts…what if it gets free…..," he said followed by a loud burp.

"Then I'll either seal you away myself, or…." Jimmy didn't finish his sentence. There was no need since his old master had finally passed out snoring, though he was sure they both knew what had to be done. If a demon could not be exorcised, there were desperate measures one could take. Killing the host would risk the demon hopping into another vessel, perhaps a human or even an animal, one could never be sure. However, death of the host in a sanctified area could drive the monster back into the lower planes, or in rarer cases trap it into an object. Most people would get squeamish or absolutely refuse such a course of action, and Martinez was no objection. He knew the options and would rather lock himself up than commit suicide.

Or at least that's how he felt. Jimmy wasn't so sure now though. His old master's spirits seemed to be bolstered by his presence. As though an acquaintance or even an old friend was enough to push him to the ultimate sacrifice.

Jimmy wasn't sure how to feel about it all. Though they parted on less than amicable terms, their reunion, demon possession and all, was less stressful than he had imagined it. In fact, it was just like old times, except in the good old days they would come up on top. Jimmy couldn't see them 'winning' this time, but he had to try something. He had his doubts that if the sages and priests that Martinez had dug up failed to drive the demon out of him, that he would have better luck. His contact at Grom City was talented in such affairs, but she brought a whole new set of problems into the equation.

Still, he had to try. For his master's sake and for his own , he supposed. He couldn't simply just seal him up for all of eternity trapped with a demon…could he?

"Hey? Is that old drunk finally passed out yet?" asked Chloe as she turned around, and placed both hands on one of the upraised wagon boards.

"Errr…shouldn't you be concentrating on driving this wagon? I mean driving a cart is serious business at the best of times. Right now we're in the middle of the night, on a rickety mountain path with questionable horses, and you've decided to chat instead of watching the road."

Chloe rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Look Jimmy. Don't worry about the horses or the night okay. I can drive this cart with my eyes closed. Not only am I a dryad, I'm also a druid, and more importantly I'm a dwarven TEAMSTER. Like that's what we do you know? Run numbers, give high risk business loans, sell 'accident' and 'business' insurance, deal in questionable contraband, and of course drive horses. We have our roots in a legitmate buisness you know. Unlike you who just does the enforcement part of the gig, I had to work my way up from the bottom. From a basic runner, to driving a team of drafties, to currently leg breaking. "

Jimmy stared at her. "I thought you said Hoaglie needed a druid. Why would he make you work your way up the ranks?"

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "Well at first, he didn't want me in the business at all, but that's something I wanted. He wanted me to get a proper education and raise me proper, but that wasn't for me. A ...buisness 'competitor' tried to get in his face once, and I watched him smash his face and after that I was hooked. I dunno why, maybe it's a survival of the fittest thing, or maybe it just seemed fun, but after watching my old man pour on the violence, I knew that was for me."

Old man? Hoaglie was Chloe's father? Jimmy tried not to look stun. He knew that Chloe was the child of some dryad queen and one of Hoaglie's mobsters, but he never assumed it was Hoaglie himself. That would explain his treatment and trust of her, and why she was chosen for this mission. Besides gauging the worth of this sword, he was slowly grooming her to take his place. Anyone could be a dwarven Teamster, but only a real dwarf could ascend to the higher echelons like Hoaglie. Would being a half dwarf hinder Chloe's ascendency if that was her goal? He wondered how many other people knew of this and why did Chloe let this slip? Did she trust him or was this another joke to her? Regardless, it was still hard to imagine the old dwarf loving anything but his money.

"By the way, thanks for the save back in the Sanctuary. How did you know to incapacitate the demon with the local potato spirits?"

Chloe turned around and yanked one of the horses to the left, before turning back and shrugging. "After I dispatched those shadow demons, I came down and overheard some of your conversations as your master was beating your ass. He sure has some moves for an old guy. I was going to attack from behind, but he kinda reasserted his control or something, and I decided to try the booze thing. It sounded like the demon couldn't handle his liquor, but I wasn't sure. It's sort of like those big half orcs that come to town, you'd think they can handle their booze but they just aren't use to it since they don't have any proper distilleries in the wilds, unlike halflings which look like they can't drink more than a tankard but those little brats have been half drunk since they can scrape together two coppers. Anyways, if that didn't work, then I was ready to change into a muskox and charge the hell outta him. "

Jimmy nodded. "A good guess then. That tactic didn't even occur to me till after things settled down and I had a talk with a drunken Martinez there."

"Speaking of which, what now? We haul his ass over to Grom City to find someone to drive the demons outta him? I'm not one to do go around being the philanthropist but normally I'm game for that. He seems like a cool guy, once you hose him down and wash the stench off. He's got that whole ladies man veteran cagey fighter vibe going for him, but ….let's be honest. We're in over our heads. We have your buddies on the bats and griffin tracking us, and let's not forget about the grey sword you're lugging around. "

Chloe stopped midsentence. At first Jimmy thought her keen senses had detected he did not, but the young girl simply picked at a chunk of what appeared to be dried manure from the inside of the cart. Jimmy was about to point out she should be watching their trail, but Chloe simply hefted the dried crap and threw it lazily a few inches over Rina's head.

"Just making sure she's asleep,"said Chloe after judging Rina's lack of reaction. "Anyway's what's with her? Why are we taking her a long. It was nice that she procured this cart for us from the villagers, but we really shouldn't be dragging her with us. I'm not one to turn down cannon fodder, but we aren't exactly looking for a fight. We're trying to be sneaky like. The drunk at least has some skillz, but I'm not sure about her."

Jimmy looked over Rina. She was a young woman, probably older than Chloe, but far less experienced. Hers was a story that Jimmy had seen before when he was but a young apprentice. She was smitten with Martinez, like young foolish women often were, but typically they were sent scurrying when they realized the dangers he faced. He expected Rina to do the same after the demons, but she stood her ground and was still with them. "She might be more trouble than she's worth, but she can help take care of Martinez. Also if we send her off, she might….talk to the wrong people."

"Or…we can stab her now and throw her off the cart. I can summon some wild animals to chew on her body a bit. She won't talk then."

Jimmy was shocked at the suggestion but nervously smiled when he saw his companion grin ear to ear at her own black humor.

"I get it, she's head over heels in luuuvvvv over him. She'd follow him around anywhere, and you don't want to break up such a romance," she said sarcastically. "You wouldn't want her to be rejected like a certain peasant boy and his princess. Arcturus knows we wouldn't want that. If that happens she'd be working for the mob next, trying to act more important than she really is by trying to buy their way into nobility and crap like that. We certainly wouldn't want another one of those."

Jimmy shook his head. "I share one small thing about my past with you, and it's going to haunt me forever."

Chloe chuckled. "That's one of my many charming talents."

"Speaking of your talents…." said Martinez, as he pulled out a simple long wooden box out of a pocket that was obviously too small to fit it. He worked some carefully hidden latches, before the top split in half and slid to the side.

"Is it that time again," sighed Chloe.

Jimmy nodded and with a flourish he then presented the case to Chloe to renew her vines keeping the grey sword in check.

"Err….something's wrong," said Chloe as she stared into the box. She the uttered some sylvan words and a small bobbing globe of light appeared above the box.

Jimmy was confused at first, but then held the box up to the light to take a closer look as well. Something was wrong indeed. Before the vines Chloe used were green and vibrant, now they looked black, brittle, and withered. At first he thought it was the demonic presence they had encountered. Demons did not merely inflict a direct physical toll on their surroundings, but also had subtle effects as well. Increaded chance for deformed children, withered crops, and highly aggressive animals to name a few. Often demon hunters refused to settle down and marry for fear of inadvertently passing on demonic taints to their children, but that was a very rare occurrence. Upon closer inspection however, Jimmy noticed that the blade and its scabbard had turned pitch black.

"That was grey before wasn't it?" commented Chloe.

"Aye," said Jimmy as he visually examined the weapon, careful not to touch it. While demonic taint could possibly turn a normal sword black, it would be impossible to affect a magical weapon in such a fashion, let alone a minor artifact such as this. In fact, even low level magical protections were often enough to protect against the faint demonic radiation that emanated from the hordes of the Abyss. This was something else altogether.

"I don't like this Jimmy," said Chloe as she cast her vines surrounding the blade. In the past she only required one spell to fully entangle the weapon, but this time it took three attempts to smother it. Jimmy was concerned when her first batch of vines withered almost instantly, but thankfully the second and third castings of her spell seem to take hold as before.

"We should turn back," she said as she cautiously shifted her attention back to the road, away from the sword. "We are in over our heads like…well like Rina is."

Jimmy looked at the vine covered sword before adding a pinch of cold iron dust and some powdered rock of Almarth to it before working the latches once again to seal it.

"We are almost at Grom City," said Jimmy." We can press forward with our mission, make Hoaglie happy, hopefully cure Martinez, and give a big fuck you to Ulfgar. Or we can turn back now to Lower Lueders, where Ulfy is probably concentrating on his search. We could also toss the blade and get it out of our hair, but you've seen what it can do. It will probably possess another wielder and who knows it might even come looking for us. As for Martinez, well he's coming with us regardless if we go south to Grom City or back north to Hoaglie. I owe him that much."

Though her back was turned to Jimmy, he expected Chloe to make a quip or a witty comment, but she didn't say a thing as drove her cart south along the mountain path.