There were small chambers built above, and Lief and Penthos repaired to one, with Nth following numbly in their way, squinting behind the dark lenses the thief had procured for him. Once there, the magician settled himself down on the floor, and Nth sensed by the prickling of his hairs that some manner of magic was afoot, or would be if Lief would only let the mage get on with it.

“Penthos…”

The magician cocked an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“I’m just going to… can I leave you with it… him…? Only…”

“You cannot. I shall be in a trance. I can’t be expected to look after it.”

“But it’s your thing,” Lief pointed out. “You made it… turned it into… did whatever with it.”

“Dion said you had to look after it,” Penthos told him smugly. Human emotions were a new and unpleasant book to Nth, but Penthos had enough smug that even a spider was able to recognize it.

“Oh, right, fine then.” Lief folded his arms. “Well, will it do what I tell it?”

The magician gave him a level stare. “No, in which predilection it shall follow the grand majority of creation. Why should it?”

“So I get to be responsible for it but not actually get any power over it?” Lief demanded.

“Life is seldom fair. Now shut up, I need to concentrate.”

Nth, the it of their discussion, looked from one to the other, seeing Penthos close his eyes, and Lief adopt an expression of low cunning.

“What if it attacks me? No—what if it attacks you? What if Dion walks in and it attacks her, because you’re dead to the world meditating? What if it throttles you the moment you drop off, or whatever it is you do? It’s not as if I could do much to stop it—look at the thing, it must be twice as strong as me.”

Penthos rolled his eyes. “Very well. Creature, do what Lief tells you. There, happy?”

“Happier.” Lief appeared to settle down, watching Penthos ease himself into his trance, or whatever he was doing. Nth watched Lief, aware that this gambit of his was not played out, but having no idea where it was going.

Eventually, and presumably taking his cue from some familiar sign undetected by Nth, Lief stood up. “Away with the fairies, at last,” he declared. “Right, monster, you hear me?” After a pause, he added, “Answer me, will you?”

Nth judged that a nod here would be appropriate.