Chapter 12 The Sign of a Noble Soul #3
“Zelvax?” He threw his head back and laughed so hard he nearly flipped out of the chair, but his tail wrapped around the desk’s leg and a flicker of purple light kept him aloft.
He cleared his throat and dropped his feet back on the floor.
“He’s been so busy with those curious shapeshifting experiments, I didn’t think he had time to converse with anyone but Itcheran. ”
“Oh, he definitely writes lett—wait, shapeshifting?”
The purple demon waggled a hand. “Orangey stuff. Destruction and creation nonsense. I’d say it’s beyond my scope, but that suggests it’s advanced as opposed to just…
diagonal to what I do. He’s also always trying to distill things into smaller and smaller packages.
Very weird, if you ask me, which you didn’t, so consider that a freebie.
Now, what can I help you with before someone senses I’ve got the wrong human in my office and calls me a two-timer, eh? ”
Brioni’s face practically overheated because she certainly wasn’t a two-timer either, and she thrust the stone at him. “Can you fix this?”
The demon leaned in close as he took the stone, silvery hair falling into his black eyes.
He flipped it over with deft hands, inspecting the crack that shouldn’t have been there and running fingers over the carved runes that should.
“Well, of course I can,” he finally said, frowning in deep thought.
“But I’ll need to consult with a colleague, and I need a few things from the city as well. ”
“I’ll get them.”
“I expected you would.” With his black eyes still on the rune stone, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a few coins, handing them over.
“Two sprigs of veshedamon, a roll of vellum—don’t let Cind sell you the old rough stuff for twice the price while insisting it’s better because it’s not—and half a dozen delfias tied with a blue ribbon. ”
“Oh, I know all about parchment,” she sang, bouncing onto her toes. “And veshedamon’s an herb, right? I think I can get that from Perennial Bloom, but—”
“There’s a florist in the southern district whose got the best delfias. The awning over her door is as green as she. Tell her Azrion sent you. She won’t give you a good deal or anything, but she’ll definitely find it humorous, and she deserves a good laugh.”
“Got it.” Brioni, of course, didn’t have it exactly, but she had tenacity, and that was almost as good.
“And don’t be afraid to charge right through the wall. It’s just an illusion,” he called as she hustled out of his office.
Brioni found Stephan and the cart on her mad dash around Heck to collect the ingredients for the spell and managed to deliver a last package of cobbling supplies to Sole Tied on the way, strategically leaving Stephan at the post between stops.
The florist indeed laughed at the name Azrion, but Cind didn’t dare try and trick her about parchment quality, yet it all still took time.
Especially when she saw Ragnar’s silver fox with all the eyes at the apothecary, but Kizros and Aofe explained that Attie—that was her new name—had a new home too.
Brioni was overjoyed, but she had no time to celebrate.
Well, maybe a little time, just to tell everyone congratulations and give Attie no less than three kisses on her snout.
The moon lingered low in the sky by the time she made it back to the Scholar’s Hall, and she worried she wouldn’t get back to Ragnar’s before nightfall if the spell took too long.
Panting, she slipped inside with more surreptitiousness than she’d harbored before, but there was no sign of angry robed demons, just that smooth glassy wall.
She charged up to it and bounced right off with an offended gasp.
I thought it was an illusion, she hissed into her mind, reaching out and running fingers over it until her hand finally fell through.
Oh, okay, still gotta find the right hole, I guess.
And with that she snickered until she found his office, door wide open and the lavender demon with his feet up again, head back, asleep.
Brioni knocked on the archway, and he snorted himself awake. “Just in time,” he said, stretching with a yawn, then he moved a few papers about on his desk and uncovered the rune. “Here you are.”
“It’s done?” She took the heavy, now glowing stone in one hand and weighed it against her satchel laden with the things he’d instructed her to fetch in the other.
“Are those my goodies?” He gracefully took away the bag and slipped out the herb, the roll of vellum, and the flowers. “You really are a good deliveryhuman, aren’t you?”
She wanted to be flattered, but confused annoyance was much stronger. “I thought you needed those?”
“For my date tonight, I do.” He winked at her. “Make sure when you place the rune, you turn it to the right until you hear a chime. Or is it left? No, right, definitely.” He checked a paper on his desk and nodded.
“I…” Brioni took a deep breath, but her grin didn’t come because the day had been so exasperating.
“I expect we both have much better things to do than just standing here,” he said, shooing her. “Go on.”
With twisted lips, Brioni managed a sincere, “Thank you,” and sprinted off for Ragnar’s.