“Yes, but there are so many other things we could do to entertain ourselves. Plus, until the contract is signed, it’s unpaid hours. Esjay would say that’s unethical. Although, didn’t you say you got kicked out for being unethical? Maybe you don’t mind.”

He was fishing. I didn’t honor it with a response. God knew me and I knew myself, and that was enough. He was right about one thing, though: I didn’t want to work for free. But this place needed to be cleansed badly, and now. “Who makes the rules here, you or Esjay?”

Magnus was speechless for a moment, just looking at me. “In that case,” he said, suddenly, “I’ll leave you to enjoy your work.”

He turned on his heel, the bells on his ankles growing softer and softer the further he journeyed down the hall.

I headed back to the stairs, looking at where the cracks and shifting had appeared last night. They were still as a frightened lizard. But there was a presence, barely echoing off my amulet, so subtle I could almost mistake it for my gentle heart.

I sat in the middle of the stairs, setting the basket beside me, and put on the safety goggles. I closed my eyes for a moment, and the chalk marks in my mind became clear. Four edges, each a diamond shape. Rows of crosshatching along the inside. A basic amulet design, but tedious. Perhaps an hour to construct.

I removed one of the silver disks from the basket and flicked the geared flint on my pen, igniting the small torch where most people would find a simple writing tip.

This was my favorite part.

Starting with the edges, I moved the torch point through steadily, removing excess silver in large pieces. And then it was time to line the diamond shapes up. I handled the pen a bit slower so I could feel when the stroke lined up with the chalk blueprint in my head and sliced off the necessary silver.

I double-checked the edges were even, then clicked the magnification up on the goggles to start on the crosshatching. The Xs of the hatching had to line up, each be the same size. An easy technique, but I still couldn’t be lazy about it. This was the part that could mess up the entire amulet if I made a stroke outside of the blueprint.

The evil didn’t respond to the metal itself, but as I welded away at it, shaping it into the very thing that particular Manifestation despised, the cracks began to voice their protest as rumbles in the forming amulet.

I paused every so often, just to relax my eyes from the magnification and flex my fingers.

Almost there. Just a few more adjustments—

“Andromeda!”

Magnus knew I was working. He had hired me to do just that. Whatever he needed would have to wait.