CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Maybe I'd gotten turned around. On the other side sat a young woman, studious and thin, at a small desk. A writing quill in one hand, holding down the edges of a scroll with the other. The soft scratching noises of her writing were the only other sound in the room besides my breathing. I looked at the other two walls. One had several sofas in front of it, and the other, large pieces of parchment with looping handwriting on it. However, there were no doors anywhere.

I sat up as my shaking subsided.

"Where... where am I?" I asked.

The woman lifted her monocle, placing it on one eye and studying me.

"You're at the Contractor's Office. Did you enter by mistake?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"But... there's no door," I said.

"Yes, there needn't be one right now. If you would like, you may take a seat..." She gestured at the soft, immaculate sofa. "Or you may study the terms of agreement on that wall over there." She pointed at the parchment. "The Contract Maker will be available to see you shortly."

I studied the flowered wall. I walked up to it, touching the flowers delicately. The petals were soft and real against my hand, and I slipped my fingers around the bottom and snapped off one of the blooms. I held it, rotating it in my hand.

"How do they grow without sunlight?" I asked.

"Magic," the woman said.

"Of course." I pocketed it, visible in my vest. She didn't mind that I had picked one. The flowers were not precious to them. I walked over to the large parchment on the wall. I had never entered one of these places before, though they had always been on my periphery in big cities. I studied the terms and conditions on the wall.

Common Questions for Potential Contracted to Ask

What does it mean to sign into a Contract?

When you sign into a contract, you are agreeing to become the possession of the Contractor. You are then considered 'Contracted.' You will be magically bound to obey his/her will indefinitely.

What will be expected of me as a Contracted?

The Contractor will sell magical ownership of you to a Client, hereafter known as Client. You will serve the Client for the duration of exactly one great task or duty, as determined by the Contractor and the Client at the time of signing. You have no input on the terms of this great task or duty. You are the possession of that Client until the great task or duty is fulfilled, regardless of chronological duration.

What if I do not perform the great task or duty?

The magical bindings you willingly entered into when the Contract was made will tighten as you resist. If resistance continues, you will die.

What if the Client makes unreasonable demands of me?

You're only bound to the task or duty. If the Client threatens your body, livelihood, or dignity in orders not related to the great task or duty, you may refuse to obey them. If the Client threatens you with magical or bodily harm unrelated to the great task or duty, you may defend yourself.

Are there any ways of getting out of a Contract?

You are released from your contract under any of the following conditions: If the Contractor fails to uphold their side of the Contact and your wish becomes irrelevant or obsolete. If the Client verbally releases you from your Contract. If the Contractor dies without transferring your Contract to a Client. Most Contracts end when the great task or duty for the Client is completed.

What do I get in exchange for signing into a Contract?

One wish. The wish is guaranteed to be granted with no tricks or doublespeak immediately upon signing. The effects of the wish are guaranteed a minimum of five years where time is applicable. For example, if you wish for someone to be cured of a terminal disease, they will not only be cured but immune to that disease for five years. Unlike other wishes, the Contractor wants to assure all are satisfied with the terms and conditions and so does not engage in intentional wish duplicity.

Are there any limitations on wishes?

The wish cannot conflict with the Centralized Magical Arcanacracy's central Tenets of Order and Stability. It cannot be an 'Infinite Offense' by the Avalon standards. You cannot wish to become Enchanted if you are not already so. You cannot wish for more coin than the Contractor themselves can pay you from their own resources.

I stepped away from the paper on the wall. Great task or duty sounded pretty ambiguous, but I supposed most of these were sold out for Provings, like the play had said. The Centralized Magical Arcanacracy wouldn't ignore hostilities of sorcerers against other sorcerers... though that comment by Osoro about Winsor burning down Bernard's shoe shop got me to wonder if I really knew as much about the CMA as I'd like to think I did. What were their actual terms and conditions?

"Do you have any questions?" the woman with the monocle asked me. I shook my head. "Are you having second thoughts about signing one?"

"I... uh..." I remembered my vow that I wouldn't sell myself into a contract because of the guilt it would cause Mallow. Now I was in here though. Worse yet, I had run in here to save my own skin without a second thought. "I'm not sure what I would wish for," I said.

"That's fine, no hurry. Take a seat, if you'd like." She gestured. "And if you've a relief related care, there's a water closet over there." A small, narrow door formed next to the couch. I realized I did have to go, and I wandered over to the door. I opened it and stepped inside.

"That is probably the cleanest stool chamber I've ever been in," I said, after I'd come out.

"Magic," the woman replied. I took a seat on the sofa. I crossed my arms behind my head and winced. Pulling my arm away, I noticed that blood was caked under my hair from my injury earlier. If they'd gotten one good hit, I might be a goner.

"What's your name?" the monocle clad woman asked me.

"Azark," I said. I shifted on the sofa. It was so comfortable... "And yours?"

The question caught her off guard.

"Lena," she said.

"Lena, are you Contracted?" I asked. Lena pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side.

"It's not really relevant."

"Lena..." I sat down on the couch and studied her. "Lena, tell me about yourself? I need to get my mind off what I ran away from, so I can think clearly. Could you do that for me?"

Lena set her quill aside and then plucked out her monocle. Her eyes were wide and bright when not narrowed in concentration.

"All right. I am supposed to make potential Contracted comfortable, so he would not begrudge me five minutes." Lena placed her narrow hands together.

"My mother, when she was young, she had come and gotten a Contracted ring long ago—"

"A what?" I asked.

Lena stopped and then blinked.

"Right, right. You're new to all of this," She paused and reached under the desk, pulling out a ring. She handed it to me. It felt light and fragile in my palm. It was five dried twigs twisted together.

"It's a bit underwhelming, coming from a sorcerer," I said.

"That's so no one is tempted to steal it. Sometimes people come here, thinking they're ready to commit and realize only when they're in the waiting room that they have more options than they originally thought. In that case, the Contractor gives them one of these rings."

"What's it do?" I asked.

"Absolutely nothing, if the wearer is content with their lot. However, it opens up the option of speaking to the Contractor at any time. Many times, when we most need help, we are not able to take a stroll down the street to get to a Contractor's office. Often, when people really need a wish, it is in the middle of a journey, in a reeking dungeon, or bleeding out on a path after a confrontation with bandits."

I thought back to my own excursions with the bandits, and how if not for Mallow I would be dead a dozen times over. I tried to picture, if I had a ring like this, would I have been tempted? Would I have tried to fight, or surrendered and let the powerful sorcerer take care of it for me?

"My mom got it when she was young. She held onto it for years, through hardships. She got married. She had three beautiful children... and then..."

Lena took the ring back. She spoke to the desk drawer instead of me.

"The Contractor says that the moment I was born, I started to die."

This was a common thing, I knew from the women that would buy potions from me that they feared their babies would not be born healthy. They often weren't. I gave them hope, at least. If they died, it would have been whether or not they ever met me. It was obvious my potions wouldn't work though. Parental desperation made people gullible.

"My mother immediately wished for me to grow up to be a healthy child. She screamed it, and then I was breathing normally, several pounds heavier, and a healthy ruddy color. My mother waited for the Contractor to whisk her away, but he told her to raise me as normal."

"So you lived with your mom?" I asked.

"I stayed with her for several years. The Contractor would stop by every few weeks, my older brothers and sisters said, and everyone would get nervous and tense. Everyone was terrified that this, this would be the time he came for her for real, and we'd all lose our mom."

Lena shrugged.

"I can't remember; I was too young. I began to speak well. I was probably four or so, and he finally made the offer to my family. He said he would transfer my mom's contract onto me if I would serve him instead."

"He can't make an offer like to that a child," I protested.

"Well, no, usually it's considered in bad taste. But... it was a transfer. The other option was that he would sell my mom to a Proving party or a mercenary service in quest of some ancient relic, and she would die. She would definitely die. She was old and tired and underfed, and her kids needed her. My mom kept saying she wouldn't, but my siblings... I do remember that." She rested her chin on her palm. "My siblings, they'd pull me aside and say, 'You've got to do it, Lena. You've got to. It's only fair. It's your life that had to be saved.'"

Revulsion followed understanding in my thoughts.

"It makes sense. All of you losing your mom so she doesn't have to lose you... which she would have done anyway..."

"No, it wasn't about that. It was about my choice. My mom loved me, and she couldn't stand the idea of giving my destiny over to someone else. She said that was a choice everyone should have, that freedom."

"So, if she refused to transfer, how did you end up here?"

"I made the contract. I loved her back, so I made the contract. It was a struggle. My older siblings coached me, but eventually it was made, and my mom's contract was voided."

I stared.

"As a kid, you couldn't have understood..."

"We never really understand. All I knew was that me not serving the Contractor was tearing my family apart, and I loved them, and even back then I would do anything to keep them happy. So I took on the burden of my mom's contract, the only wish being to lift her obligations."

I was staggered. Children were selfish and dumb. They couldn't, wouldn't, ever act like this...

"And... just like that, the Contractor took me away the next day. I moved to Blythe with him."

"Why did he want you?" I asked.

"I ended up being a sorceress. Or did you not see the trick with the door?"

"Wha... how can that be, your parents weren't?"

"Sometimes the blood lines can get confused. A child born of ungifted parents whose forgotten lineage is Enchanted can meet another descendent and the magic can reawaken," Lena said. "Oh, but that's a whole other issue. I'm not very powerful, not like the Reglars, though they do invite me to all of their events..." She shook her head. "I've stopped going since Bernard left the manor though; Winsor's not a very good host."

"Can you contract the gifted? I would think..."

"If they know they're gifted? Usually, no. Thus why he went out of his way to acquire me. A magic Assistant is much more helpful than a mundane one."

"So what's your great task?" I asked.

"To grow into a powerful sorceress. If I can ever beat the Contractor at a duel, then I am free."

"But... He's training you, you'll never-"

She raised a hand to calm me.

"It's not too bad. He's a kind master, and a sorceress enslaved is better than an ungifted free." She brushed a lock of hair over her shoulder and peered at me. "There, I shared my side. Probably more than I should have. What about you, Mr. Azark?"

"Just Azark, it's a first name," I said.

"No family?"

I grimaced.

"Not... anymore, no. Well, there's Mallow," I explained how Mallow always kept me safe and about how I found her as a baby. Her face was at first horrified, before melting into recognition.

"A Moon Giant? Yes, I think I've seen one wandering around town a few days ago. I thought it was a sorcerer's trick," she said. "She's your daughter, then." She attempted to see behind me. It would be absolutely absurd if she saw Mallow there, all things considered. "Where is she?"

"Um..."

Her eyes softened instantly.

"Is that why you're here? Did you lose her?" she asked.

"Sort of. I actually ran in here to escape the mob of angry customers. I... I don't know if I could wish away my freedom so easily when I might find her anyway." I ran my hand through my hair, a few blonde strands coming free between my fingers. "I mean, especially considering I wouldn't be getting anything from it."

"I often notice those that wish for the benefit of others are happier with their contract than those that wish to gain for themselves," she said, eyebrows quirking up.

"That doesn't make any sense to me," I said.

"It's—" she began, but was cut off. A small mirror facing her lit up, and a withered old voice floated from it.

"I'm ready to see the next one, Lena," it whispered.

"Have you thought about your wish?" she asked me. I licked my lips, and shook my head. "Ah, I see. Master, he is not yet ready."

"Understood. Time is of no consequence. Speak to me when he is adequately prepared." The voice was like the wind through the trees. I wanted to see the ancient figure that such an odd voice would belong to, but if I went in there without a wish fully formed, I wouldn't get a second chance.

"Is it really okay that I take more time?" I asked.

Lena gestured over to the sofa.

"You may take as long as you need."

I lay sideways on the sofa and closed my eyes, blocking out all distractions. I faded off into a nap quickly. My mind wavered between the possibilities of freeing Mallow and having all of this be over with, and of being imprisoned for the rest of my life. Given an impossible great task, or at least one impossible for someone like me. Someone who wasn't great. I wasn't an Avalon or a sorcerer. I couldn't do great things. I was just me. If I signed a contract, I would die. It would be a trade. Mallow's life for mine.

Her sweet, smiling face caused me pain each time I remembered her. My stomach clenched with remorse and fear while my heart pounded with love. I loved her. I knew I loved her, otherwise I wouldn't have rejected all of that coin so long ago. But did I love her more than myself?

Did I love her like my dad had loved me?

When I woke up, I felt more exhausted than before. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, no windows or doors to let the sunlight sink in. The light diffused around the room was magical. I rubbed my eyes and then rested my hand on my stomach.

Lena's gaze dropped to my sash, her studious expression melting into sympathy.

"Did you get hungry while thinking?" she asked. "Would you like a meal?"

Surprised by the offer, I nodded. She quickly summoned a full course meal in front of me. The biscuits smelled sweet and buttery, the meat was slicked with oils from cooking, and the cool fanning leaves of green were beautiful on my plate. I picked them up and noticed soft dewdrops of water that traveled along the crinkling vegetable. I caught one on my pinkie and then nibbled the rest of the leaf.

"That restaurant yesterday was full of sorcerers... but if sorcerers can summon food, why harvest or cook it?" I asked Lena.

"It takes more energy to summon the food than you get from it," Lena said. "So, you might be able to put off hunger for a few hours, but you'd be tired, and if you kept doing that, eventually you'd starve."

"Oh," I said. So this meal Lena had provided me had her life heat in it. "Thank you."

I ate slowly. Partially because my stomach was tight, battling between my want to save Mallow and my need, my desperate desire to remain free.

I finished the meal, full but empty. I stood up and thanked Lena.

"I think... I don't think I have a wish yet," I said.

"But... Your daughter?" My face burned from shame for the first time in many years.

"I think I can save her without help," I said. Lena's squared shoulders sagged. She reached into a drawer of the desk.

"It can't be helped. We don't want anyone to enter a contract unwillingly," she said. When she lifted her hand again, a small ring sat in it.

The twigs twisted together violently like the one she had shown me earlier. "Here, give me your hand."

I held out my hand. She grabbed it in her own. Her skin was soft like a sorceress's should be. She slipped the ring onto my finger and searched my face.

"You could save her now," she said, quietly.

"Not everyone is as charming as you are, Lena," I managed, before pulling my hand back. "If the situation becomes desperate, I'll use it."

"If she dies... there's nothing we can do. The CMA forbids bringing people back from the dead. The price is simply too high. And, even the strong can die. Winsor almost did a few years ago, and he has much more magic than your daughter," she said, and I felt fury at realizing she was using my sales technique of the time limitation. Implying that Mallow was in mortal instead of normal peril. "It might be too late by the time you decide—"

"Can you please let me go?" I snapped at her, the bond between us shattered. I watched with satisfaction as her eyes hardened.

"If you need us, shout 'Help!' We'll hear you, and he'll appear beside you," she said.

"Isn't that teleportation?" I asked.

"Not really, there is a piece of the Contractor in that ring. He is rejoining himself," she said, before summoning a door. The door's handle was the same as the one I had pulled to enter the room. Inhaling deeply, I opened the door and stepped into the sunlight.

(( A/N: Sorry for the delay in this week's update. It's a holiday week so I'm not keeping track of time as well as I should, hehe.  Can't wait for the next part? Consider purchasing the paperback edition at my CreateSpace website: https://www.createspace.com/5621397 I'll be uploading the entire story here too, one chapter a week, so you'll get the tale if you're patient. Also please spread the word if you enjoyed the story! Your feedback means the world to me! ))