It was obvious that the man was screaming his head off so that Orison would have an idea what was going on. For whatever reason, Orison noted that the truck was pulled up in a way that he was partially covered by it. Zeke quickly made his way around to the other side as well, leaning against the wall of the truck bed as if he didn't have a care in the world. Despite that, the young mage could tell that Zeke was tense.

Orison whispered, "What's going on Zeke?"

The ex-mercenary rubbed his nose and under his hand said, "Sicilian mob. My cousin played with fire in more ways than one. Kind of ironic when I think back to what we talked about a few days ago."

A man got out from the pa.s.senger seat of the lead car and walked forward. "Your cousin owes two grand to the bookies, wiseguy. He didn't think to check who owned the insurance company he tried to scam. I doubt he'd have tried to rob us to pay us back. If he did, he's dumber than a box of rocks to think he could get away with it."

Orison narrowed his eyes and said, "What does that have to do with my a.s.sociate or me, for that matter?"

Zeke shot him a 'what the h.e.l.l are you doing!?' look.

The man with what Orison identified as a Jersey accent, said, "What's a family for but to help each other in times of need? Your 'a.s.sociate's cousin is in a world of need right now."

Orison said, "Do you give a d.a.m.n about your cousin?"

The ex-mercenary shook his head.

The young mage turned back to the man and said, "If he doesn't care, then you could douse him in gas and set him on fire in my front lawn and all I'd do is look for hot dogs and marshmallows. So, once again, what does this have to do with my a.s.sociate or myself?"

The man smirked, "Well you see here, this is a two for one gig. My boss was pretty put out by Muriel suddenly pus.h.i.+ng daisies and it cost him some dough. All things considered, since we took the blame anyway, We figure someone owes us and it looks like you're in the best position to pay. Fifty grand should cover it."

Orison looked at Zeke and said, "Stay behind the truck. It'll be easier this time if I only have to worry about me."

The ex-mercenary looked at Orison dubiously but slowly nodded. As the young mage walked around the truck, two more men, armed and pointed at Orison, stepped out of the back of the two other cars.

With a saintly smile, the young mage said, "And how would you like that payment? Would you prefer a little pain and a message back to your boss, death or a lifetime of servitude in the Abyss?"

The man in front chuckled. "Hey guys, we got a real nut job this time."

Done delivering his punchline, the man stepped towards Orison to deliver a more physical version. Tapping the side of his head three times, a helmet covered the young mage's head before the leading man's chest caved in with a sickening crunch from a telekinetic blow. There was a dead silence that followed the man flying backwards a few feet before rolling to a stop. Once the reality of the situation sunk in, the two men with guns opened fire.

As bullets ricocheted off him, protected by the teaser suit and a quarter strength field of force, Orison said, "Those two are yours, Ignatius."

The left gunner took a moment to register that the sound of bullet spray was reduced from two sources to one before he too was whisked away by a hot blast of desert wind through an entrance to Ignatius's plane that laid less than a dozen feet below. With a disgruntled huff, the ifrit provided a little after service by taking the dead body as well.

The three drivers dropped their own guns and tried to restart their cars that had shut off during the gun fire without them realizing it. Jammers handed Orison three spark plugs. It seemed like it would be dangerous to choose that method but he figured Jammers wanted to make sure it would be easy to fix them later. The familiar wasn't much for the idea of breaking things. The little guy even looked sadly at the spot where the lead man had died before returning back to the car garage where Jimmy was likely hiding in a panic.

Orison shouted, "The first one of you to come and kneel before me gets to deliver the message, the other two are going to lose half their left pinky. That's how your group atones for a grievous error, right?"

All three tried their d.a.m.nedest to be the first one there but the driver of the lead car just had too much advantage. Fearing that they might rush Orison, Zeke stepped up beside him. The one to the right had a glint in his eye that faded as soon as he was locked onto by the ex-mercenary.

Zeke said, "Yubitsume is a Yakuza thing."

Without looking away from the man in front of him, Orison shrugged. "I'm a man of my word. As long as you don't do anything dumb, you're off with a message and a sc.r.a.ped knee. Stay like that until I say otherwise. I really don't think you want me to get the wrong idea."

The first driver who had turned to give a pitying look at the last driver, snapped his head back forward. The last driver sounded like he was muttering some kind of apology to his mom or praying, it was hard to tell. The second driver was thumbing his belt knife but didn't have the guts to take it out.

Surprising the young mage, the first driver said, "Can I do the finger thing for Emilio?"

Curious, Orison asked why and the man said, "He took over playing the organ at the church when his ma got the arthritis bad. He can tickle the ivories pretty good too."

Orison said. "No. You can't but he can."

The young mage looked at the second driver and said, "If you're willing to lose the top half of your other pinky, Emilio can keep his. Conversely, if you can talk him into it, you can keep yours."

There was silence for a moment before the man gave some kind of sob story to Emilio and Orison was content to watch the drama play out for the time being. The man tried to appeal to Orison that he could play the mandolin pretty good too among other nonsense that the young mage didn't care about.

Eventually, the young mage got tired of hearing the one man monologue and said, "Somebody needs to be offering me a finger before I lose my patience."

For some twisted reason, the second driver thought that meant he could save his own by forcefully taking Emilio's. Orison responded by throwing his own dagger into the second driver's wrist that was extended out in plain sight. He misjudged the force, how sharp the enchanted dagger was and how thin the man's wrist was. Instead of just sticking the guy like Orison originally intended, he sliced most of the guys hand through.

While the guy rolled on the ground screaming, Orison asked Zeke to pin him and use the driver's tie as a tourniquet so he wouldn't bleed out before he said, "I don't remember offering the option of taking something that belongs to someone else..."

Emilio got sick from all the stress and the first driver subconsciously blocked the young man from Orison's view causing the mage to ask, "Who is this man to you?"

The first driver said, "He's my sister's kid. He don't know nothing about all of this. I told him I'd give him a few bucks for helping us out as a driver today."

Orison sighed and said, "I don't completely believe you but it's obvious he's no hardened criminal. If you really care about him, keep him out of this stupid sh*t in the future... Emilio, you owe me three piano performances. If you swear it on your honor, I'll let you go."

The young man practically fell over himself to agree. Orison threw him a spark plug and told him to 'beat it'.

Tossing a spark plug to the second driver, he said, "Get your miserable a** to the hospital. If you see me in the future and you don't think you can keep the hate out of your eyes, best make your way to the other side of the street and find something interesting to look at because I can feel that sh*t and I will kill you."

Turning to the first driver he gave his message. "You tell your boss that all is forgiven clean slate if we don't have any more issues. I'll mind my business if he minds his. Muriel might have turned into a monster when she got mad but when I lose my temper, even f***ing demons make way because I'm the G.o.d d.a.m.ned devil... Make sure that the director of the late Muriel's gallery has Emilio's number by tomorrow evening. If he's good, I might even pay him."

Returning the last spark plug, Orison watched them struggle to get them back in before he finally called Jimmy out to help the drivers put them back in. To play it safe, he pretended that Jimmy was some random guy he'd called to look at one of his cars and luckily he picked up fast enough to play along.

Once they were gone, Orison turned to Zeke and said, "Nice surprise follow up. I thought I was going to have to suddenly remember where the pinky cutting thing came from. I didn't know it had a special name, though."

Confused, Zeke said, "What purpose does that serve? And why did you expose yourself like that? Won't you get yourself in hot water with the rest of the societies you told me about if you draw too much attention in that direction?"

Orison said, "The boss will think I might have dealings with the Yakuza which will give him pause. Even if he doesn't, he'll know I must have heard or seen it somewhere. As far as I know, that's not common knowledge here... And what is it that they saw exactly? Me punching someone really hard and making a couple of people disappear with some crazy magic trick? They'd much rather believe I'm a skilled guy with some weird b.o.o.by traps on my property than someone who can play with their lives with supernatural ease.

"Maybe they'll think I really am the devil but I can only see that working in my favor. Even in the worst case, there's omerta to fall back on. It would be a huge loss of face for their Don to have to go to someone for help. I just hope I chose the right chicken to kill to scare the monkeys. The loudmouth was either someone acting brave to make a name or someone who thought he was untouchable. Considering he was getting instructions from the first driver before he got out, I'm pretty sure it was the first.

"The driver of the first car was the only one I was a bit concerned about hurting. He was someone important. He didn't even have the subtle reverence that most would have towards their Don when he mentioned his 'boss'. He's either family or a close friend."

Zeke said, "You trying to show off to me?... The most important one was Emilio. My guess is that the kid is probably the Don's youngest son or oldest grandson... One way or another, that kid's gonna be taking up piano like his life depends on it."

Orison sighed, "As long as he can read sheet music enough to knock the dust off the baby grand at the gallery without embarra.s.sing himself, that's good enough for me... Alright, I need you to throw your arm around my shoulder like we're buddies going inside for a drink to celebrate our victory or whatever and help support me or I'm going to stumble around like a drunk person."

Once they were inside, Orison had Zeke take him down to the bas.e.m.e.nt to do some emergency alchemy. Fortunately, he had already planned on doing some since the circles had been laid and he'd had a chance to make sure that nothing wonky was going on with their mysteriously strong synergy.

As the young mage got busy with Zeke playing a.s.sistant, he said, "Fun fact. Just because you can emulate being bullet proof, doesn't mean you're shock proof. Underneath my suit, I'm pretty much a single large bruise and my internal organs aren't doing so well... I know that this country was based on the idea of personal responsibility of its citizens being able to check 'out of control' government but do civilians really NEED access to automatic weapons?"

Zeke quipped, "Don't you think you're own existence is the most d.a.m.ning counterpart to your argument?"

There was some good to come out of the incident. Over the next couple of days, the ex-mercenary got to personally witness the miraculous nature of Orison's medicine and consented to starting his own course. Zeke wasn't quite ready to fully commit but it looked like it was only a matter of time once the benefits of the medicine started acc.u.mulating. The young mage only hoped that time wouldn't be longer than a little over a week or the 'awakening juice' would go bad.

It turned out an unnecessary worry. With the repairs and initial stock of 'fixer-uppers' in Jimmy's garage, it was time for the man to move out of Orison's house and go back to the mundane world. Except, he didn't want to. In an impa.s.sioned argument, he laid out a case and all but pulled a 'Stag' on the young mage. Jimmy might not have emotionally blackmailed Orison like his second student had but Jimmy wanted to be special with a hunger that eclipsed Stag's motivations.

Though he had admitted to being scared and pitted a d.a.m.ning low self-esteem argument against his own worthiness, Jimmy was ready to do whatever it took within the limits of his simple but wholesome mind to become a full fledged member. Against his better judgment, Orison relented. After having witnessed Jimmy's excruciatingly painful but successful induction into the gifted community, Zeke also consented.

Orison stared at the last mushroom that had evolved to convert inert essence into a toxin defense mechanism against consumption, the main ingredient of the awakening juice. He'd meant to save it for Neil as a 'just in case' but it became obvious that the detective was fine with nature taking its course moving forward. Orison had some spores saved back but it would likely be a long time before they would mature into usefulness beyond reducing the presence of inert essence in his bas.e.m.e.nt. If he didn't posses a strong intuition and some logical reasoning that Zeke was an essential addition, he might have left the ex-mercenary in limbo for awhile.

The recently recovered Jimmy helped Orison take care of Zeke while the ex-mercenary finished his own recovery from induction. During that time, the young mage got his first t.i.thing from Ignatius. On the essence side, it wasn't that helpful because the majority was used to recreate the link with the planar will that had been used to deliver t.i.thes before. On the material side, Orison was dumbfounded over what Ignatius had managed to collect.

Outside of the far more meager collection of special materials, Orison liquidated the rest through various channels to swell his personal wealth, grow his private ventures and create nest eggs for his friends and 'employee'. That same process also let him lay down remaining hostilities with the mafia group and allowed Ignatius to create a connection for laundering through them after negotiating hostage release. The Don and Orison even sat down to dinner together after Emilio's first performance at a gallery function.

Settling into a comfortable routine as he trudged through his own long and grueling recovery, Orison began to get a social itch. At first it was a few lunch dates with Mrs Carter and Mrs Derby that ended up including her youngest son. Then, as Orison started feeling a little less vulnerable, it extended to occasional weekend parties with the couple from The Village that inevitably included their girlfriend and girlfriend's girlfriend, etc.

Unwilling to turn his back completely on his 'fun friends' but realizing it was quickly escalating into alarming proportions, Orison acquired an unused warehouse at the edge of the border between The Village and an inland portion of the docks. To keep good with the mafia that ran the area, he hired Emilio as the manager and left ongoing renovations and party planning to him with the promise that illegal business wasn't done in it. With the organizational skills and protection of the mafia on one side and the friendly but powerful collective members at the heart of its forming on the other, it quickly became a place that people wanted to be.

Seeing all the work and love Emilio, his collective friends Mark and Amber put into the place, Orison gave twenty-five percent shares to him and the couple. As for himself, he became a silent partner who only intervened to break ties. Zeke even briefly involved himself to help set up proper safety and security measures, enjoying a little fifteen minutes of popularity in the process.

With everything running smoothly in all departments, Orison suddenly started feeling paranoid. Even when the fourth installment of t.i.thed essence came pouring in and re-establis.h.i.+ng tenuous contact with his summons, the feeling continued to grow. Unsure of what was coming, Orison stockpiled resources into his s.p.a.ce and set up contingency plans on property and for the people he'd grown to care about.

When the buzz of incoming disaster reached an unbearable peak, Orison holed up in his house. It slacked up a touch but then started building again. Eventually it reached a point where it seemed that no matter what he did, some bad fate was unavoidable. For the first time, he wished that his focus hadn't silenced the shadow in his bones.

Trying hard to focus in on the source of the intuition, the young mage tried to let the inner voice be a guide. For a brief moment, he could have sworn he heard Keita tell him to sun bath like usual. Since he'd reached a point where his continued sanity was at stake, he listened to the voice which may or may not have been there. Around five minutes later, as Zeke counseled him to consider seeking professional help, a whizzing sound preceded darkness.

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