"You're still keen to salvage your brother's ego?" he asked with an att.i.tude of confirming a business deal.

"Yes," I adamantly answered.

"Can you ask your spider friend this question?"

I c.o.c.ked my head to one side with a pensive frown. "Okay."

"Will you temporarily give your body to the ego of your friend's brother? Even if could mean yourself being nullified?" Colin carefully signed, so I could not mistake his words and the implications behind them.

I felt troubled by the fact that the cost of transferring an ego to the form of another could mean the loss of losing one.

If Colin believed that it was possible for Small Cap's body to contain Death, what other options did we have?

"What about Small Cap?" I asked

"The spell allows for two contrasting egos to coexist in the same meat suit. The ego of a spider and human most definitely fits the criteria."

"Small Cap. Can we use your body for Death's ego until we're able to return him to his body?" I reluctantly asked the spider.

"What? Freend need... my body?" Small Cap rephrased nervously.

The least I could do was give him a straight and honest expectation, so I walked him through my understanding of Colin's question in our minds. It made the great huntsman spider tremble nervously.

"I'm not going to lie and say there aren't risks. You can say no. I would be forever grateful if you said yes. You know I will do everything in my power to protect you." I firmly thought.

Small Cap paused before returning with a shaky agreement on the matter.

"He agreed, but this better not cause harm to him." My hands reluctantly signed an answer to Colin's question.

He patted my head and stood before me with expression of getting down business.

"For success, you're to follow my instructions to the T."

Small Cap and I nodded. We waited for the next steps.

He reinforced the enclosing barrier. It further agitated Big Mama Banshee and its children.

He pulled out his fob watch. Signed words that I roughly translated to, 'I am the Light Grimoire.'

The fob watch hovered before him in mid-air. His hands clapped three times. They moved about in a delicate and graceful dance to open the watch. Silver light poured out of it with impressions of time running in the air before us.

He signed the words for Ego Port within the light. Using his fingers to form more words in the air. The glowing words were caught by his hands with graceful sweeps.

"Place Small Cap to the ground before us," he instructed me.

I relayed the instruction to Small Cap who obediently complied.

Colin placed the clear quartz crystal shard next to him.

His hands moved with a flourish and ceremonial sweeps. Making the previous glowing words momentarily reappear. They transitioned into a delicate white aura around Small Cap.

He clapped his hands three times to disperse the words and turn off the light. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the watch and returned it to his pocket.

The aura was still beaming around Small Cap.

"The spell is ready. All that is required is to break the link between your brother and Big Mama Banshee. Then reconnect his link to Small Cap," Colin advised.

He briefed us on our next actions, which carried risk and room for error. We had to succeed.

The first task was finding a vantage point on Big Mama Banshee. Once I could get close to Death, I needed to break the link.

"Ego links are psychological. So they have to be negated with psychology," Colin explained.

I frowned. Death hardly held grudges or matters close to his heart nor was he a person easily rattled. So how could a stranger demon know a lot about my brother to bind him to an ego link?

"I don't get it. Death is not one to stew on worries. I'm likely the one to feel troubled about stuff and the most emotional out of all of us," I commented and pouted at Colin's agreement to the fact.

"That's a reason you're not likely to be bound to an ego link. You're too transparent." Colin chuckled.

I yelped at the sizzling and thumping noises coming from the surrounding barrier.

"How much longer can this barrier hold?" I gulped at the sensation of losing time.

"It depends on how long I can keep my cool?" Colin smirked.

That was the secret behind his magic.

I sighed and decided it was wise to keep my own emotions in order, and my head as clear as possible.

"So, we need to negate the psychological issue holding Death captive to the banshee to break the link between them. Then re-link him to Small Cap. Get the h.e.l.l out of here." My hands rephrased.

Colin nodded his head. He went into detail of our next, actual, steps we were going to take as soon as he had removed the barrier.

I nodded my head with understanding of his instructions. c.o.c.ked the two guns in my hands in readiness for action.

"No problems. Let's get this done."