Jason's future is pried into over the course of days by Miles, and it is determined that if Bill stays enchanted, Jason will become a disconnected deliquent. If Bill returns to normal, Jason has about the normal chance of beinga well-adjusted young man. And if they keep Jason enchanted as well, he'll flip out, run away from home, and then... Miles cannot see what will happen, something is blocking his view. Magda and Bill decide that it would be best for Bill to return to normal. He is sent to City Hall to work on some papers, and lo and behold it works. The general consensus, though, is that he'll still live an interesting life. Magda tries to teach him to pick locks in preparation, but he's not really interested. Jason, however, is a quick learner.
Anyway, a couple of weeks pass and one Saturday morning Miles is awakened by the arrival of Bertiel, looking for Soraya. He tries to get some information out of the angel, but Bertiel is very resistant. He leaves after determining that Soraya won't be back for a good long while. Miles does look at Bertiel and determines that the angel has no destiny. None. Zip.
Also that morning Sir Ten - Harry - calls Magda and asks her to come with him to a meeting with the Master of Chinatown, and she agrees. He also asks for someone who knows Mandarin - Harrry speaks Cantonese only - to come along and Magda suggests Milton, who also agrees. There's a flurry of discussion about ettiquette, including Desiree interrogating Raf Terrible, who has actually met with the Master on several occaisions, Milton doing some research, and a shopping trip by Sir Ten and Milton to Hong Kong looking for an appropriate gift - a large antique carved jade, which soaks up most of Harry's savings.
Meanwhile, Miles finds someone who looks a lot like Bertiel, only better dressed, sitting in his bar, and it doesn't take him long to realize it is the demon, who is quite affable. The demon tells him that there's a new plan in the works where they won't make Mile's life difficult, realizing that that is just a losing strategy where Soraya is concerned because she loves him so much. Miles isn't buying any of it. The demon asks if Miles will fill out a survey detailing how much he suffered under the old plan and how much better the new plan would be, because the Boss is a traditionalist and needs persuasion. Miles refuses. The demon offers him some stuff to fill out the survey. The demon finally gives up and asks if he can use the phone and apparently calls his Boss. They have a short discussion about the new way in which the demon concedes it's not working. The Boss says he should go back to the old way.
Apologizing to Miles for the inelegance of his methods, the demon causes the bottles on the bar to explode, and then lights the resulting alcoholic puddle. Miles tackles him and strangles him in the flames, killing him. Then he tries to fight the fire a bit but fails and has to run out. The fire department puts out the flames and Miles runs back in - there's a charred body!
The Police arrive and take Miles in for questioning. His story -
that this guy arrived to see a friend of Soraya's named Bert who had
already left and then turned violent - is pretty shaky when he can't
give any details on any of the people involved. He doesn't even know
where Soraya is. But Magda has called a lawyer, Sir Michael, and
while Magda can't extract Miles, Sir Michael cuts through the police
department like a hot knife through butter.
Sir Michael is Lucia's lawyer, a tall pale Sidhe lord. Driving Miles
back to Maggie's house, Sir Michael gets the full story out of Miles
and begins concocting a defense. They want to rush this thing though
if Miles does get charged with murder, because for a changeling being
in prison is quite probably fatal to the fae part of the soul.
Next morning the demon shows up at Maggies and offers to straighten everything out if Miles will just fill out a new survey and do a couple little things as tokens of how much he would prefer the other way of doing things. Miles says no, and when the demon notices that Magda has the Tenth Child he is clearly uninterested in pressing his case over Magda's objections, though he is obviously interested in the sword. Also that morning Sir Michael calls Desiree and asks her if she would be willing to pose as Soraya should that be necessary to defend Miles. She agrees if Miles does. Desiree then calls the DeRada house and gets filled in.
That evening Harry, Magda, and Milton go to Chinatown to meet with the Master. They are ushered into the upstairs banquet room of a very nice Chinese restaurant, which has been divided in half with a curtain. On their side of the curtain is a set dinner table and and old Chinese gentleman who introduces himself as Li Huan. Mr. Li is the spokesman for the Master. The air is heavy with the smell of cinnamon and hot metal, leaving our heroes with little doubt as to what is on the other side of the curtain.
Harry presents the jade as an unworthy gift, surely the Master has one already but perhaps this one will be appropriate to show to children in case they would break the clearly superior specimen the Master already has. Mr. Li accepts with great praise of the piece. This sort of politeness goes on through dinner, and nothing much of consequence is discussed.
After dinner Mr. Li mentions that the Master is displeased by Sir Ten's presence in his domain, especially now that he is the heir to the Duchy. Sir Ten is sad to leave his grandfather but will do so if it is necessary to placate the Master. In passing, Mr. Li mentions that the Master has a daughter of about Sir Ten's age, and perhaps they would be a good match. Then of course Sir Ten could stay where he wished. Also, there is an item the Master would give to Sir Ten should he marry the daughter... a large pearl - really large! - is brought out, and it seems to contain within it the missing part of Sir Ten - that would be number two. Nothing is decided however. On the way out, Mr. Li mentions that the Master would also like to know who is disturbing the feng shui of Boston.
On the drive home, Sir Ten is unsure what to do - on the one hand, this would be convenient, but then there's Desiree... but maybe she doesn't like him anyway. Magda counsels talking with Desiree about the night's doings. Milton counsels having a matchmaker look over Harry and the dragon's daughter and see if they are compatible at all - that's not committing to anything, just a preliminary "yes I might be interested" sort of thing.
The next day, however, Sir Ten has not called Desiree when Magda talks to her, and Desiree is left confused because Magda won't say what she thinks Sir Ten should talk to Desiree about. Then Magda persuades Harry to ask Desiree out to dinner, and there is much confusion about that. Sir Ten's image as master of all arts is pretty much crushed by his pathetic nature when dealing with the concept of a date with Desiree. He calls on Miles for some help, and dinner is arranged. It's unclear, however, whether Desiree knows this is a date or not... Sir Ten definitely thinks so.
Next week: Desiree's big date!
Player Notes:
Maggie suggested laying the blame for the arson at Forkas's door,
since the police never knew he got slain. -MIN