Much like Jillian expected, Crone at first refused to admit that she was part of the reason that the contract was struck. To this, the witch simply shook her head. Seen objectively, the old sorceress was right – nobody strictly forced her hand, or Gerald’s for that matter. But putting the responsibility for the decision solely on Jillian’s shoulders was unfair because it would completely disregard the pressure that was on her at the time. She owed Gerald her life, at the very least in part to her knowledge, and even disregarding that she would know that Gerald’s fate might well depend on her accepting the contract. Refusal could easily have meant the necromancer’s demise in the near future and his continued misery in the best of cases. The general expectations that the people around her had could not be denied either. Silly as it might be, she was not immune to feeling pressured by the expectations of others. All in all it was not a decision made in a vacuum, devoid of outside factors, and it appeared that Renold agreed with the witch’s thoughts.

“Indeed. We could have made the contract after dealing with Hazzergash,” Jillian remarked upon Gerald’s first thoughts, “But somebody thought we should rush this and now we have to deal with two problems on a tight clock.”

The more she thought about it the more she wished she could make contact with the Grand Master on her own terms. The one thing Jillian agreed with Crone on was his resourcefulness. She wondered how resourceful he was in fact. What were the limits of his contracts? How much could he give Jillian, and how high would the price be? He had already proven that he had interest in things beyond simply souls, so maybe she could obtain certain powerful gifts for him in return for untold power or knowledge. Maybe, thought she felt sad even entertaining the option, even offering the souls of others. Not those of the innocent, mind, but the souls of undeserving scum. Criminals, servants of evil, that sort of people.  This, in turn, made her wonder if there was a difference in quality between different souls, and whether or not the Grand Master cared for these nuances. Did someone’s virtuousness play a role in a soul’s value? If nothing else, a magician’s soul ought to be more valuable by virtue of its sheer capacity for power. And what about non-humans? Could Jillian possibly substitute her own soul in a contract for that of a goblin or two? Or a troll? Or did the creature have to be more sentient than that. Something like a Tarke, Melanian or Deigan even? A shudder ran over her fragile spine when she reminded herself of the dark depths her thoughts had taken her to.

“Well, if we know where he is headed,” Jillian suggested, “then we could set a trap. We’re most likely much faster than he is right? We could try and find a good place one day ahead of him and set up an ambush. If we’re lucky we’ll buy ourselves enough time in the confusion and chaos to incapacitate him. If his body has human weaknesses, that should not be too difficult.”

The witch shrugged in response to her own plan. She was no tactician and fully expected either Gerald or someone else to point out the dozen flaws in this, but maybe it would inspire the others to think of a better solution. Hell, if Crone was half as powerful as she made herself out to be, she should be able to render Kevalorn unconscious all by herself, while culling his escort. If she were to receive help by a dragon, a witch and a necromancer, their chances should not be all that bad.