Several days passed and with it many things to do were crossed off the long list Miss Flach had to keep adding more to. One big success was hiring staff. She now had a shop assistant, Mr Dulling, who would only be delivering salamanders to Lily's customers in future. The imps were in the care of an enthusiastic family of goblins who were even more meticulous than she was with regard to record keeping. The youngest of the family, 'The Turning of the Cogs' was particularly skilled at taking apart and putting together broken and damaged iconographs so Lily would also be offering a repair service.
However, there was one big snag. Her creditors. It was a mere three days before the store opened and now it was possible it might close. Lily had left her family home with a generous inheritance. Her father had bequeathed her half his fortune, the other half and the grounds of the family home had gone to her older brother, Neville. The problem was that unbeknownst to her until yesterday, Neville had through some legal loophole prevented her access to much of her funds so that the promissory notes she had paid out so far were bouncing harder than those big furry things on Fourecks. 'The Turning of the Cogs' had solemnly passed her new Mistress a handful of Clacks slips that essentially told her the boys were coming round for what was owed.
Fear can be a great way to get one's mind moving and Lily's was moving pretty fast. She left the shop in the capable hands of Dulling and Co and planned to visit The Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork, but perhaps via the Times Offices in Gleam Street.
As she entered the building she prayed that Otto would be there. She was coming to recognise exactly how scared by the situation she was and was badly in need of a friend. An iconographer jogged past, a Pictsie about his neck and Lily knew she wasn't about to give up on her dream just yet.
"Excuse me?" a voice asked off to her left. It was the kind of voice you were compelled to listen to and Lily turned towards it.
"Yes?"
"You're that Flach woman, aren't you?" the lady put out a hand, "Sacharissa Cripslock. I've heard lots about you, you know."
Lily shook the reporter's hand, "Oh, uh, have you?"
"Oh yes," she smiled indulgently, a twinkle in her eye. "Come to see anyone in particular?" Sacharissa was delighting in teasing Lily, just as much as she'd delighted in teasing Otto as soon as William told her about their meeting earlier that week. Truth be told she wished Otto well. He was one of the good guys; loyal, a good friend and colleague. But damned if she wasn't going to get some fun out of it.
"Is Otto here?" Lily asked self-consciously.
"You know, I rather think he is." she beckoned, "He's in the new dark room I expect.*" Sacharissa led the way, "Yes, he hasn't stopped talking about you these past few days. Lily this, Lily that. You've clearly cast some sort of spell on him."
*Otto had recently upgraded the entrance to the dark room so that rather than climbing down a trap door on a rickety ladder there was an actual upright door and steps. He wasn't in Überwald any more after all and was trying to shake off the monster in the cellar routine.
Thinking of their last encounter and the mishap with the pheromones Lily answered abruptly, "I have not!"
"Ohhh." The reporter replied in a sing-song tone with a smirk. She really did like him then. Good. After turning down a corridor or two in silence, "Here we are then." Sacharissa knocked on the door before winking at Lily and making her way elsewhere. "Have fun!"
"Who is it?" Otto called from inside.
"It's me!" Lily answered, scowling at the back of Ms Cripslock.
Otto flung the door open, popped his head out and grabbed her hand. "Qvick! Come inside!" He pulled her in and closed the door behind them.
###
"Look!" Otto whispered urgently, which was easier said than done. The Dark Room certainly lived up to its name, but as they carefully walked up to one of the benches, she could make out a sliver of light being projected from above. Tiny, greyish figures were slowly moving around the narrow beam, hand in hand. Imps, their little faces looking upwards at the light's source with an expression of awe. Then, as the light brightened they fell to their knees almost in supplication.
After a short while the light began to fade and the imps got up on their minute feet and skipped off, climbing into the back of the iconograph from which they came.
It wasn't until Otto withdrew his hand to close the back of the Pictsie that Lily noticed how tightly she had been holding it. He reached up to the lantern and twisting it, made the dark room a couple of gloomy shades brighter.
"What did I just see?" she asked, quite unsteadied by it all.
"I vas haffink a closer look inside zer Pictsie and zer imps decided to climb out of zere own accord." he explained, "Zey ver doink zat little dance for a good five minutes before you came."
"But, why?"
"If I didn't know any better I'd say zey ver vorshipping zer light."
"Imps don't do that." Lily answered plainly, although having seen it first hand, clearly some did.
"I zink perhaps zey do. And viz vorship, comes faith and faith reqvires a certain amount of imagination."
Lily frowned, "Have I given imps religion? They're not supposed to have imaginations, the whole point is they only paint what they see." She looked at Otto and her eyes began to fill up, "I can't deal with this as well."
"Vot is it?" he asked, not expecting tears, but tears there were and so he gently placed an arm around her as she sobbed out an unintelligible tale of woe. Thankfully the effect of her heaving chest was muted by the dress that was buttoned up to the neck. Eventually the crying began to subside and he drew over a chair so she could sit. Bringing another beside it he joined her and she more calmly told him about the Clacks messages and the financial trouble she was in because of Neville. "Who is zis Neville? I vould very much like a vord viz him."
"My brother," Lily sighed and gratefully accepted the beautifully embroidered handkerchief Otto offered from one of his many pockets, "He's always tormented me ever since I was small. So much so, when I was twelve I ran away from home to Escrow, to live in the forest."
"Vot?!" He was familiar with what was back then possibly one of the more dangerous towns on the Disc, "Zat's no place for a child! Unless you were planning on becomink somezink's lunch?"
"Anything was preferable to Neville," she gave a wan smile, "Anyway, I got lucky. There was a storm..."
"Zere's alvays a storm." Otto interjected with a wistful look.
"Yes, well a kindly Igor, as it turned out she was an Igorina, found me and took me in out of the rain. I spent an hour or two drying off in her laboratory before going home again. It was the most incredible place I'd ever seen!"
"And so you became an inventor?"
She nodded, "I suppose that's the one thing I can thank my brother for. But now because of him I might lose everything." her hands twisted at the hankie. "But it's not over yet. I'm going to the Ankh-Morpork bank. Perhaps I can convince Mr Von Lipwig to lend me the money? Show him I'm worth the gamble?"
Otto placed a reassuring hand on hers, "Oh you are vell vorth it. But it's no gamble. You are a..." he looked for the right phrase, "racink certainty." He smiled, "Right zen," standing up, he grabbed the Pictsie, "let's go."
"Go?" she got to her feet.
"To zer bank! I'm comink viz you. And I zink I haff a solution."
###
They stepped out of the dark room together and Otto put out an elbow. Lily shyly hooked her arm through his and they left. A short distance away, just out of the pair's view, stood William and Sacharissa. "Told you," Sacharissa said nudging her other half before leaning into him, "Bless them." William put an arm around his secretly soppy wife and kissed the top of her head.