Balance II

Jareth looked positively pale, which was saying something, given his natural alabaster skin tone. "How did it get to this?"

"Look, I didn't expect to be floating this balance at this point either."

He shook his head, unidentifiable black crackles of nothingness falling off him like shadowy snow. "Magical balances aren't the same as financial balances. There are consequences if you keep one around like this, Sarah."

I flicked a spot of slithering void off my wrist. "Your understanding of mortal financial balances is weak."

"And you're changing the subject. A magical balance must be paid forthright."

"Then talk to your mother. I thought she always boasted about her endless reserves. And didn't we spend for a good cause?"

He drummed his fingers together, dislodging a drop of black ooze. "I doubt she can be prevailed upon in this case."

"Why not? This whole thing was her idea."

"Let me rephrase: prevailed upon without imposing her own draconian restrictions. Do you really want her dictating how we do things?"

I shivered involuntarily.

"Precisely. We have to pay this now ourselves and magic within our means going forward." He shook off an oily tendril that had grabbed at him from behind.

I swatted away another one that reached for me from the wall. "I admit, these are worse than mortal debt collectors. Sucking away your soul is only figurative for the mortal ones."

He snorted, stomping firmly on a shadowy thorn that had twisted up from the castle stones.

"Fine, so how do we generate the magic we owe them?"

He rubbed a hand across his forehead. "Something that generates excess magic spontaneously would be best, so we minimize the harm."

A semi-terrible idea struck me. "Like the metric fuck-ton of wild magic the triplets give off regularly that interferes with you using your own magic?"

He blinked at me. "If we could actually collect it in one place….yes."

"And this isn't like us selling them off or anything, right? It's just magic that gets dumped into the realm already, and they don't actually use it themselves."

"Yeeees…though we don't know what else in the realm may be using it. Removing that could have its own nasty repercussions."

I elbowed a spiny tentacle that whipped out from the wall. "I'll take the nasty I don't know over the nasty currently springing from the shadows trying to eat me."

"You always were the brave one, weren't you?"

"That's me, Sarah the Brave. Shall we go siphon off our offspring's excess to good purpose?"

"And never get ourselves into this predicament again. Yes, do let's."

"That's my adaptable husband."

He gave me a quick kiss, hot with promises for later. "Just one more service we offer."