She did everything she was supposed to do. Followed the protocols to the letter. Make the right offerings to the right entities in the right order. But she still couldn’t save her friend from her friend’s mistakes. The rules were broken, and there will be consequences.
She begged me to help. I told her there would be a price to pay, and that she, personally, would be the one to pay it. Not her friend, who was unconscious and unable to speak for herself anyway.
“I will pay anything! Everyone knows you don’t take advantage of people, that you don’t harm for heal! I can trust you. I’ll pay whatever you demand!”
I felt a familiar itch on my arm. I knew what the terms would be, and it would not be as kind nor as soft as she was assuming.
“I do take advantage of people. And I do return harm for heal. It’s all a matter of perspective, and what I consider a fair trade is to some people the ending of their lives. You’re desperate. You need time to think this through. I’ll be back in an hour.”
I left and waited two hours before returning, ignoring all her phone calls and messages in the interim. I spent the time conversing with the source of that itch on my arm, and making a bargain of my own.
“You said only one hour!”
“I wanted to make sure you considered all possible endings.”
“I’ve considered! I’ll pay your due!”
“No. Your original wording was that you would pay whatever I demand. Are you changing the terms of the deal?”
She blinked. Blood left her face as she tasted her words repeated in memory. This was the first time she really considered just how personal a price she was about to pay for her friend’s mistakes. I expected her to ask me to come back the next day after she made some calls to justify rejecting me after all.
“No. I am not changing the terms of the deal. I will pay whatever you demand, provided, you restore my friend.”
“As you wish.”
She held out her hand to make the sealing gesture, but I refused to take it. Instead, I pushed past her and asked to be taken to her friend’s room.
The problem was easy enough. Her friend is an initiate in a particular religion that is very strict about external dealings. She did a thing without proper protection and approval, and it bit her in her spiritual ass.
When the healers of her religion examined her, they wiped their hands of her because of her unauthorized experimentations. Not their cause, not their problem.
To put it simply, the friend’s spirit was spirit-napped and kicked into the spirit world without any means of getting back on her own. It took me longer to get comfortable than it did to find and retrieve her.
But then again, I did have help of my own having already done the hard work.
The friend’s spirit now returned to her body, I came back to myself. Now seated across from me were two members of that religion. One from the same town as me, and looking ready to slit my throat. One from another place, but having the steady gaze that comes from having experienced a lot of shit.
The experienced one was smiling softly at me.
“Successful?” Her mirth was infectious and I reflected her emotion.
“Aye. She’s back in her own flesh, but she needs to stay there for a while to seal herself back in. As an opinionated asshole, it is my unsolicited advice that she needs to walk in the path she has chosen for some time. Leave these shenanigans to those that are willing to pay the price.”
The eldress smiled and nodded. “Was there anything else you wanted to do before you left? We have some… cleaning up… to do here.”
I understood the context. “With the patient? No. My task was simply to restore her spirit to her body. Whatever consequences she has to pay physically to you and yours, is with she and hers. If all goes well, she’ll never see me again under these circumstances.”
The eldress sighed. We both knew that for all the rules in place, there would always be those that could not abide by them for one reason or another.
“That means, get out! Unclean! [Demoniac!]” The local representative of this religion and I have… butted heads… many times before. She will go out of her way to get into my business and then claim I am the one encroaching when I defend myself. I understand her mindset, having been evangelical myself, but understanding and tolerating are two different things.
As the eldress gave the younger a scathing look, I sat up and made a great show of dusting off my clothes. “My business with the patient is done. There is now only the business with my client who called me. There is a demand to make.”
The eldress placed a hand on the knee of the younger, keeping her seated while I approached the woman who called me. But as I approached her, I was filled with a different spirit. The spirit I had made a bargain of my own to retrieve the friend’s spirit so quickly.
I reached out with my right hand, and gripped the scared woman’s neck. I smiled and relaxed. She smiled and relaxed.
My hand slid quickly down her shoulder, slipping under the neck opening of her shirt, to grip the shoulder joint with suddenly sharp talons. Her eyes widened in panic as she found herself unable to move.
“My demand…” The spirit filling me and I spoke with a unified voice. The dual tone echoed in the bones of all listening. “Is that you owe me. I have the right to call upon you for one… action… and you will not be able to deny me when called. You live your life, and live it well, with the knowledge that if you die before your debt is paid, the spirit riding me will inherit that debt and your spirit will owe it, until the debt is called. That, is my demand, that you have already agreed to pay.”
I released the tightness of our combined grip on her shoulder, but continued to hold her lest she faint from fear. The spirit riding me was content with the debt as assigned and left me gently, restoring the shape of my hand to normal. The eldress just sighed deeply from her still seated position, but now she had to grip the younger woman’s hand with severity to keep her from accosting me.
The client swallowed her understanding. “I… owe you. As agreed.”
I removed my hand from under her shirt, arranged her clothing back to a neat presentation, and patted her gently on the neck. “Good. Feel free to kick your friend’s ass when she recovers. You might be due.”
I donned my hat and collected my bag. I turned back to the eldress and nodded as I spoke a formal and gracious farewell to her and her apprentice then to my client. As I closed the door behind me, I heard the friend speak for the first time.
“Oh! I’m alive! I thought I was dead! I saw the most terrible of things! Why did I ever leave the protection of…”
The door closed, and with it, the dream.