“I wish for you to bind it, and bring it to me.”

  “No,” Wol answered immediately, his tone like granite. “That’s insane. My Practitioner was awakened yesterday. Not to mention that Nameless beings are that because they do not possess names. They are the antithesis of everything that a Practitioner is. I won’t allow it.”

  Valstein’s silver eyes shone with malice. “It’s not up to you, little spirit. It’s up to your,” She dripped three fingers into the wine glass, “Precious. Little. Mageling.” With each punctuated word, she wiped a finger on her tongue and sucked them out with a pop, one by one.

  Wol turned towards me, fur bristling. “Jain, tell them no.”

  “I–”

  “I would choose the next words out of your mouth very carefully,” the Vampyr interjected, “little Mageling.”

  “That was a threat,” Wol spat.

  “Rosefinch Valstein, please,” the Intellect said in a disproving tone.

  Rosefinch shrugged languidly. “Advice, not threat,” She said and went back to tasting her wine.

  “...I want to ask some questions,” I said.

  “Ask, Jain Shin Hallow. But by our deal, I am required to remind you that any time you spend asking questions will impact the likelihood of you reaching your trial safely,” the Intellect Transit said.

  “What do you mean? You promised us guest rights and protection.”

  “Yes, but you will accept my request and I cannot predict how much of the night will be swallowed by this task.”

  I looked down at Wol, who looked just as puzzled as I was. I narrowed my eyes, “You seem pretty sure I’ll accept.”

  “Yes. I am,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Because to have a glimpse of chance of victory on the morrow, you will become my champion.”

  “Now that,” I said, “sounds like a threat if I ever heard one.”

  “You misunderstand me,” the Intellect said, no more in a hurry than before. “I simply state what I can deduce from my children’s observations. You were awakened yesterday, yet they pit you against practitioners that have been trained their entire lives. You are outmatched in experience, preparation and skill. The chances of you winning is low. None.”

  “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

  “Let her finish, Mageling,” Rosefinch said with a raised eyebrow.

  “Should you accept, I will attempt to balance the scales in your favor.”

  “So to reiterate, you want me to be your errand boy and fetch the friendly neighborhood eldritch horror,” I blanched, “And in exchange, you give me some help on my trial.”

  “Yes,” the Intellect said simply.

  “Has it ever occurred to you that I’m in this mess because of you guys? If you hadn’t put the bounty on my head–”

  “The situation would not have changed,” the Intellect cut me off. “You would have meager hours to polish what little tricks you could muster up for the trial. There would be no big ‘wildcard’ that you were hoping for, Jain Shin Hallow. You know this. You simply wished to blame anything other than those who put your life’s events into motion years ago.”

  I had nothing to say.

  Because she was right.

  Having the bounty hunters after me was not the real reason I was going to lose. I knew the moment I saw Mina take out her staff that I was kidding myself. When I heard Victor’s Salamander feeding on the flames? I felt despair.

  This whole time, I kept telling myself that it was someone else's fault. That these higher uncontrollable powers called the ‘Table’ was ruining my chance at this. That if it weren't for the mercenaries chasing me, I would have time to study and maybe put myself in a position advantageous enough to do something. But it had never been about the mercenaries. It was about how this whole thing was set up.

  This trial? I never had a chance in the first place. Hell, I wasn’t even standing on the starting line.

  The real reason I was going to lose was because I wasn't good enough. Simple as that.

  That made me seriously consider the Intellect Transit’s offer.

  “Jain?” Wol said, looking up at me. “You’re not considering this.”

  “Unfortunately, I am,” I said. “And you’re not going to like the answer.”

  “Jain, no. You do not know what you’re getting yourself –us– into. A nameless being is… you are years away from even being able to understand what it is. Even I don’t understand.”

  “Wol, you make it sound like I had an idea of what I was doing before this,” I said. “News flash, I never did. Zilch. Zero. Nada. I’ve been running through this on sheer adrenaline and funnies, and I’m afraid there’s no more energy drinks and I’m all out of punchlines.”

  “We can walk away,” Wol said. “Find the lawyer. Emyrith.”

  Hwari hovered near my head, worry emanating from her but not saying anything. Jesus, if Hwari was scared, this was really bad.

  “I don’t trust Emyrith right now. Isn’t it weird that he’s not shown up once to pull me out of the fire? And there’s been plenty of fire in my life the last two days,” I said.

  “Trust,” Rosefinch smiled knowingly at the ceiling, showing elongated canines, “is such a deliciously dangerous thing to place in people, isn’t it?”

  Emyrith had said something similar. Did she know something? Maybe that was knowledge I could bargain for after I sorted this situation out.

  “So if you have any other ideas, I’m all ears.”

  “Jain, death isn’t the worst thing that could befall a practitioner,” Wol said in a murmur.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I sniffed and mustered up the shattered pieces of confidence I didn’t know I still had and put every ounce of it into my next words. “Well, I have you and Hwari. Way better than energy drinks and punchlines.”

  Wol stared mournfully into the fire and I realized just how small my feline familiar was. “You have my trust, my Practitioner.”

  Hwari waded through the air near my head, ‘As well as mine, my Caller.’

  There was another reason why I wanted to accept the Intellect’s offer. I kind of bought the sad sob story about her being abandoned as a baby, finding happiness hanging with the rats and pigeons, only to have her life completely ruined by a freak encounter with a lovecraftian horror. The sadness in her voice had been every bit as real as any other I heard.

  But it wouldn’t have been the first time I’d been at the losing end of a girl using crocodile tears. I don’t know which was worse. The fact that the Intellect Transit could be human enough to feel grief, or that she was monster enough to pretend, and manipulate me with them, or the fact that I couldn’t tell.

  Maybe I’m a sucker. But at least I wasn’t a mean sucker.

  “Ok, we can continue,” I said, “These boons. Are they given before or after I bring baby Cthulu–”

  “Don’t say the names,” Wol hissed.

  “–er, Space Squid to you?”

  “One boon of your choice now, the remaining two given after,” the Intellect Transit fidgeted and I realized with growing horror that she was squirming with happiness.

  “Ok, can I see them?”

  All three of the monsters brought something out.

  The Intellect Transit took out a book from within her bosom. The rats carried it over and put it on the floor for me. “A book on the Nameless. I traded it years ago with a Practitioner who was tracing their path through the western continent.”

  It was a hardcover book that had seen better days. The red binding had nearly come undone and when I picked it up, the book ended up falling out as the stitches came undone. The title was too faded for me to read, so I opened it to the inside cover.

  The Execution of Euclidean Elements on Eldritch Ensnaring & Exorcisms

  “Euclid? He’s a mathematician.” I traced my hand on the rough pages. Despite the damage on the outside, the inside was near pristine. The author’s name was grayed out. “I think he invented geometry. What happened to the Practitioner?”

  “He went mad and leapt off this building,” the Intellect Transit said.

  Goddamit. I had to stop asking stupid questions that I knew the answer to.

  “I have made ready knowledge,” the Wickerman said. I had nearly forgotten he was there. “Knowledge of places on the boundaries. Thin boundaries, where beings do their crossing.”

  The human mouthpiece took out a parchment made of leather from within his cloak while the familiar continued its groaning whisper. The practitioner’s eyes stayed lifeless as he continued, “Grounds adjacent to others, betwixt this world and the next. Thou mayest gather materials, bargain with the beings there for power. Entreat favors of them. T’is a fitting field for young practitioners.”

  I ground my teeth. The Wickerman’s boon was exactly what I needed for the trial tomorrow, but the chances of me actually getting to use it was doubtful at best. At worst? It’d just end up in the Baek or Valentine’s hands with the rest of my mom’s stuff. Out of the two, it looked like the Intellect Transit prepared something that would be of immediate use on her quest.

  I looked at Valstein expectedly.

  She put a hand to her forehead, “Of course. My contribution to Inty’s quest and the Mageling’s survival.” She reached inside her dress and produced a little compass. When she pressed the front tab, it opened up to to reveal a glass container and within it, a single bead of floating red liquid. “A darling trinket fashioned from the blood of mine own thrall who has a way with beasts. With it, you can enthrall any three different creature of the night, three times, until the sun rises.”

  Again, something that I might be able to use in the trial tomorrow but not on this immediate mission. I had expected as much, which is why I grabbed the book prematurely. It would have been really bad manipulation on their part if the other two weren’t anything I could use for the trial tomorrow.

  “I choose the book,” I said.

  “Naturally,” Valstein made her trinket disappear and the Wickerman did the same with his leather parchment.

  “Anything else you might need, Jain Shin Hallow?” the Intellect Transit asked, signaling that we were nearing the end of this conversation.

  “Just two, I want to know if I’m alone in this.” I eyed the Intellect and the Wickerman, “You told me you sent champions before. Practitioners older, wiser, and better than me. If you want me to succeed, at the very least I want someone who can watch my back. Or at least brief me on what I should expect.”

  The dozens of Intellect’s pigeon eyes all careened towards the Wickerman.

  “My embers are set elsewhere. Occupied,” He answered.

  “Must I do everything?” Valstein wondered aloud, but she waved a dismissive hand and frowned slightly at the Intellect. “Inty, you will owe me a favor of equal value.”

  “Done,” She replied easily then closed her eyes, concentrating. When she opened them, they were a shade darker, closer to steel than silver. “He will help you, but will not engage directly with the nameless. Does that suffice?”

  "Where can I meet him?"

  "He's on his way there."

  That had been more than I’d been hoping for. I nodded quickly. “Thank you. Last question,” I said.

  “Magelings and their love of questions,” Rosefinch grumbled but I ignored her and continued.

  “Why’d you choose me?” I asked, staring straight at her and ignoring my Third Eye’s silent scream.

  She didn’t speak right away. The winds fluttered some of her feathers, and they revealed more of her body. Round, bulbous, and wrong in every way.

  “Why?” She repeated.

  I nodded.

  "Do you know the story of my winged children, and how they came to settle in this city? And others like it?"

  I shook my head. "No, I don't."

  "Because that's how humans wanted it to be, Jain Shin Hallow. For years, my children were bred at their hands; the ability to fly, deliver messages and return to the city of smog and pollution, that is what my children were chosen for. Those who could not do so were weeded out," the Intellect's words were slower, like she was stirring memories and trying to remember, "They live here, because that's what they were bred to do. That's what they were taught to do. That is what humans have wanted them to do, and my children forgot how to live anywhere else."

  "Yet," She said, her gaze intense, "Now they are unwanted. Spat on. Kicked. Cursed."

  She sighed, body shuddering in a bizarre display of relief. “My children have been watching you for a long time, Jain Shin Hallow. They saw the injustice you suffered at the hands of your own. How they whispered behind you. How they laughed at you. Took your things. Refused to acknowledge you as one of their own, even though in every way, you were their better.”

  “So you chose me because I got bullied?”

  “Twice, you have escaped death with naught but wit,” the Intellect continued as if she hadn’t heard me. “They saw you today. How you risked the very life you fought so hard to preserve to save those who had once persecuted you. You did not have to do that. You had every right to look away. Yet, you helped. Why?”

  I realized that Valstein hadn’t taken her eyes off of me. If anything, her staring had grown more intense. The back of my neck felt hot, as if the Wickerman was hovering nearby and studying me.

  “Because,” I said, “It… I didn’t want that on my conscience. That’s all.”

  “I and my children are the same. For we help regardless of how we are viewed.” One of the pigeons flew down from the pipes and landed on the Intellect’s wings. She nuzzled it. “I have told you that I have a connection to the purposefully ignored, the unseen, the vermin, those deemed unneeded and a nuisance.” She turned her attention back to me. “I feel a connection with you, Jain Shin Hallow. The same way that you saved those who hurt you, my children are the same. For they may be hated, but they are needed.”

  Ouch. I was sure she meant it as a compliment but still, it hurt.

  “Do not take too long, Jain Shin Hallow,” the Intellect Transit said, “I shall be here.”

  “I won’t be,” Valstein said, giving me that ‘I know something you don’t’ smile. “But do take care not to fall on the way down.” Then she stuck out her tongue and dabbed her wine-soaked fingers on it, eyes never leaving mine.

  The Wickerman stayed silent.

  I turned around to leave, remembered something, then stopped. “Wait, I actually have one more favor.”

  “What is it now?” Valstein groaned.

  “Could I get a ride? I lost my school metrocard in the fire today.”