Rose from the River skids on grass. Only her sense of touch remains fully hers; she feels how her heel digs into the earth, how she leaves a strip behind her as she comes to a hard stop. Without thought, the Conciliatory Ice-Star Blade, still sheathed in its staff-shape, cracks right through Will0 WZP’s head; the lack of feedback means that she has no choice but to lean into the motion, to flip heels over head and land crouched low. Only then does she realize that she has been assailed by a [i]sales-sprite[/i]. Of all the misfortune!

If she was a great sage, then perhaps she could meditate here until Will0 timed out. But then her Chen, which is to say, the Princess that she had defeated in battle and who had been temporarily removed from her care, which was in and of itself a temporary state, and not something that should make her want to scream at Will0 to get out of her way, would be sold off to a fox, and the fox would send her elsewhere, and likely as not great mischief would be done. But here is an enemy that cannot be fought with force of arms, one that steals perception and offers to sell it back to you at high price. How, by the jewel and the thunder, is she to overcome this demon of offers and deals?

The perfume is sticky. It makes Rose’s bark-smoothed skin prickle with unease. It reminds her of places she has been before: throbbing nightclubs, ultraviolet back rooms, urine-marbled restrooms. The sugary quality makes her teeth ache. It completely drowns out the scents that she has grown for herself with care. And, worse? Will0 makes the robe work. It is Vantasblack with gold accents, abstract designs interlocking at the sleeves and the placket, hugging her upper body tightly before spreading in a halo around her legs, one silver stilletto barely visible. It is wealth and good taste, and the good life which could be hers, all she needs to do is become her own boss and become a part of the Family!

(It would not particularly matter to Will0 which Family it was: the ones that sold miracle cures, the ones that sold weapons, or the ones that sold insurance and its breaches. What matters is that for a meager upfront cost and with a go-getting attitude that saw people around her as marks, she too could end up helplessly entwined in debt, moving product just to keep her head above water. Marie Ojixa explained that to her at length at the Sagegrass, so serious behind her thick glasses, speaking just loudly enough to be heard over the thump-and-boom of the music.)

(Later she’d cracked Marie’s glasses in the fight in her apartment, leaving Marie squinting tearfully as the HUNTER-Class 猎犬 wrapped its adhesive-secreting tentacles around her and pulled her into a cruel, hopeless embrace. Eighty years at an Incarceration Center and Production Facility for sedition, breach of contract, and propagation of terroristic anti-capitalist philosophy.)

No. The only way out is through. What is her pride, that she should cling to it?

“I need Foxes Near Me and route mapping,” Rose from the River says, rising to look Will0 WZP in the phantom eyes. “In return for two ninety-minute Ownership credit chits.” She flicks her wrist, and behold! Two of the iron coins, favors in material form. “Scales of Meaning, unfortunately, cannot afford two revelations and an epiphany, which, as you certainly know, is the current competitive price for my long-term service contract. However, I would be delighted to offer [i]her[/i] a one-day free trial in my [i]Secrets of the Black Serpents[/i](trademark) meditation wellness therapy course if she wants to branch out into the market.” She talks shop patter exactly like she drank it in during infiltration. “Again, this is a limited time offer; we can only afford to offer two ninety-minute chits for the next forty-five seconds, so be sure to pick up this deal before it closes!!” That was… too much like Will0. And Rose has no way of knowing if anyone is nearby to have heard the way she just chirped. Please, by the axis point, let nobody have witnessed her Saleswoman Smile.