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The word "teleportation" was one of the things Fixer had meticulously researched prior to seeking out the Grand Master to make his bargain with the devil, and one of the reasons that it had taken several days of him and the Ancient One passing their contract back and forth, each time editing it themselves and reading over the changes made by the other, before they were both pleased with the terms they reached. Few people put as much thought into their infernal transactions as Fixer had, examining every individual word in the document, every blotch on the paper, and carefully contemplating the implied meaning thereof; he suspected that his tenacity and cunning in perfecting the deal was one of the main reasons the Grand Master had deemed his service valuable enough to trade power for.
"Teleportation" referred to the transference of something - matter or energy - from one point to another without crossing the space in between. This was what Ixion had traded for, and this was the ability he had gotten; it was evidence of the Grand Master's mercy and generosity that the reappearance upon vanishing was instantaneous, as the term itself implied no such thing. It was not what Fixer had bought, though. Fixer was currently incapable of the feat of teleportation. What he had traded for was "dematerialization", which had similar yet different implications. This word was defined as disappearing and becoming immaterial, just as the opposite, "materialization", which he had also included in his deal, was for something to appear and take physical form. Together the two might produce something reminiscent of teleportation, which was useful, but using the terms interchangeably would be inaccurate; Fixer [I]did[/I] have to cross the space between two points, even when he used the devil-given ability. In fact he could cross any unoccupied space in this form, rendering him capable of traversing any obstacle that was anything less than airtight or magically sealed... or he could abstain from moving at all, if he so desired. Unlike teleportation, in which only disappearance and reappearance had significance, his ability was sustainable.
To make a long story short: Fixer had not teleported away. As a matter of fact he was still nearby, except that he remained incorporeal. He was dark smoke in the shadows, the dimmer within the dim.

His form being dispersed into particles was not entirely without its own drawbacks, however. He had been extraordinarily cautious in describing his desired ability when he had made the bargain, and although he was indeed in possession of the abilities he required in this form, they were not quite the way he had wanted them. His vision, for instance, was unreliable at best as long as he remained like this. It was difficult to describe, but even though he had been careful to ascertain that he would remain able to see even while immaterial, it was... different. Without the fixed point of an ocular organ to focus his vision, it was as though he was looking in all directions at once, yet was incapable of actually registering anything occurring beyond noting light-levels and sensing significant movement, and even that he had immense difficulty as much as determining the direction in which it occurred. It took a great deal of concentration for him to direct his vision, gathering the sense and concentrating it in one direction, and even then the image he beheld was rather diffuse and monocular.
It was enough for him to witness Ixion go to the Blue Dirge and pick it up, though. [I]I figured that the chances of it just being left there for me to retrieve it were not good. You take good care of that sword, Ixion; if you let it fall back into the hands of Corpse Forge, I will be quite displeased.[/I] There was magic in the sword, but it was dormant and would remain so until the blade was destroyed, at which point it would simply transfer the power within it back to the Corpse Forge headquarters. Even its makers were unaware of the hidden power that Lysis would know how to awaken, so clearly Ixion, even with his sniffer-ally, would have no chance of detecting it. He might recognize the black beads embedded into the intertwined twin blades as Stones of the Doom Mage, though, and realize that this made the Dirge a bane-sword. Would he see any value in a weapon capable of wounding the very soul of the one struck with it? Would he be willing to use it despite of this? Interesting stuff.
Most of his other mundane senses - smell, taste and touch - were completely lost as long as he was in this form, but one thing Fixer found that he could do better like this than when physically manifested was to listen. His sense of hearing was unbelievably acute like this, to the point where he could navigate using echolocation instead of his impaired vision. He could easily hear what they were talking about, and although Ixion implicated himself in what had happened more than Fixer would have liked, it seemed as though I'onriyi accepted the explanation and believed in their relative innocence. Good. Then Fixer's work here really was done, and he could leave.

The ability to remain in an ethereal form like this was indeed sustainable, but not one that Fixer felt comfortable maintaining for anything more than brief durations at a time; though it had not happened yet, he was not going to risk himself losing concentration while like this and materializing with some part of him or another missing. He also needed to get a lot farther away from these three before he dared resuming physical form, lest the sniffer sense his reemergence into the realm of the corporeal. He could also hear the hurried footfalls, agitated heartbeats and slightly labored breathing of four persons approaching the alley, guardsmen if he was to judge by the rattle of their equipment. They would be coming to investigate what had happened.
Riding a wind of his own making, Fixer finally slipped away, soundlessly slithering away. As a disembodied shadow, unattached to any surface but never straying far from them as to seem suspicious, he headed for the outskirts of the city. His business in Zerul was done for now, anyways, and it was probably for the best that he kept his distance for a while, until the people here grew less alert... and until he had a new task here.
For now he would simply need to contact his boss and hear what his next mission would be. After all, the Grand Master was always working, plotting, listening... and he did so enjoy having his very own Fixer.