"They are cured," a quiet voice said wispily. "Including your father."

I opened my eyes. The ceiling was familiar. I knew this place. The water closet, Lena the secretary, the scroll with the contractor's obligations on the far wall...

I breathed. It came in clean and left easily. I did it again and again, greedily sucking in and not even minding the sewer stench that hung heavy in the air around me. My narrow chest rose and fell. I propped myself up on my elbow, realizing any pain was a memory. I glanced toward where the desk was.

An ancient sorcerer floated in the middle of the room. He had a long and finely trimmed beard, and his clothes were more gold than cloth. Mallow crouched before him, nodding as she listened to him. Lena was hunched in another corner. She was leaning over Chrys, who was sitting up and wiping at his mouth. Lena cast a small spell, cleaning his clothes, and Chrys was asking questions at a mile a minute.

Osoro and Bernard were dazed, breathing in a deep sleep on two separate couches on the other side of the small table in front of mine.

"Mallow?" I asked. I was afraid. I saw the black ring wrapped around her finger. I checked mine. It was gone. "Mallow, what happened?"

She moved over to me and sat down on the edge of the sofa. She wrapped her arms around me, my thick coat wrinkling as she did so.

"Oh Dad, you're alive," Her tears bubbled over as she pulled me in close, and she began to cry. "Oh Dad, I was so worried. I was so worried and, and..."

"She summoned me," the contractor said. His voice was old and slow, like sap trickling down a tree. "She cried for help. I arrived, I healed you, and then brought you back here using my magic."

"We were invisible," Mallow said, her voice snot-strangled. "It was crazy!"

"She... Do you mean..." I felt myself go cold. "You mean she became Contracted?" I shouted. Mallow recoiled.

"She did indeed," he said. "In order to save your life."

"No!" I screamed. "No! No!"

Mallow held my hands.

"Dad, calm down. Sir Osoro and Bernard and that little boy were in danger of dying..."

"No. I trade it! I trade it! I'll take the Contract. Let Mallow go. Like Lena took her mother's."

Lena peered at me from where she tending to Chrys. The Contractor laughed in his brown, sticky voice.

"I don't want you," he said. "A normal human man instead of a Moon Giant, what a bad trade. No, I am quite content with the crew I've gathered now. It is a Proving party in itself, and someone will pay good coin for it." He pointed at each one of them with his long, narrow fingers. "An Avalon, a sorcerer, a Moon Giant—"

"And a human child?" I said, voice boiling with rage. "That going to do well in a Proving?" I barked.

He waved his hand. "I'll find a more suitable contract for the boy. A better fit."

This wasn't shoes! This was lives! This was my Mallow's life! I leapt up from the bed and took a swing at the contract maker. Mallow grabbed my wrist and held me. I couldn't stop crying.

"Dad, I tried to wish for him to heal everyone, but he said only one life. I chose you... so everyone else had to contract themselves... Dad, don't cry."

"But your freedom. This was all about freeing you. Now all of it... all of it was pointless." I hugged her. "I... you're..."

"Dad, I couldn't let you die. I love you," she said. "He saved your life when I couldn't. I've got to be grateful for that... I did what I thought was right."

"I ... I don't deserve love like that Mallow. I don't deserve it."

"Oh, Dad," she snorted. "Do you think that's what I want to hear? That I made a raw deal." She pulled back, and her eyelids were crinkled with joy. "Especially when I know it's not true. I love you. I'd contract myself to a thousand Provings to make sure you're okay."

Mallow had been, and would always be, the most precious thing in my life. To only realize that when I would be losing her, maybe forever... I couldn't say anything.

 I hugged her again.