The car ride over to Fremont was tense. Earnest tried a few times to make small talk but got nothing but grunts from Ronnie. There was a brief moment of terror as one of the wheels threatened to fall off over the bridge, but the car held together. Earnest directed Ronnie to a parking lot that was mostly intact and was usually safe. “The troll bridge is a few blocks over. Gotta walk from here,” he offered.

“You sure?” Ronnie looked at Earnest with a scowl. “Sounds to me like you just want a clean exit.”

Earnest scoffed. “Yeah, not likely,” he said dryly. “I’m tied to that coin of yours, kid- rather not get my essence sucked in it by running too far away… do you know how long that shit’ll take to regrow?”

“You tell me. I’m just a human too worried about my soul. And stop calling me kid just because you have a longer lifespan than me.” 

“Alright, Rainmaker. Not that you care, but the kind of suck that coin has? It would bottom me out in an hour, and if it actually doesn’t stop before it takes my whole soul, I’d die. But bottomed out? It would be a month before I could cast a glamor. It’d be six months before I could work a single rune, probably close to a year before anything more complicated was even a consideration.” Ernest shivered at the thought. 

“Damn.” Ronnie whistled. That would fucking suck, but she still reminded him, “Still regrows, though.”

“So humans like you keep reminding the rest of us planar creatures.”

Ronnie rolled her eyes. “So you going to show me this gang of miscreants who somehow got Vent’s totem, or not?”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist. This way.” Earnest strode off towards the west, and forcing Ronnie to jog to catch up to him.

Seeing as how he got himself caught so damn easily, Ronnie was surprised to see that Earnest was as fast as he was. His long legs were covering the ground at almost breakneck speed, making it difficult for her to catch up. Now, Ronnie was no slouch herself- you didn’t survive twenty years of Vent breathing down your neck by being slow - but Earnest was making her look like the slowest kid in grade school gym class. “Would you slow the fuck down!” Ronnie yelled, making her reluctant partner stop and give her a smirk. “Some of us don’t get to use the aether to be speedy, asshole!” 

“Man,” Earnest said, thankfully coming to a stop and looking her up and down, before giving her that damnable smirk again. “Humans really are unfortunate creatures, huh?”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Ronnie said with a snort and couldn’t help a grin. She smothered it quickly; this wasn’t some social outing, and she damn well didn’t make friends with planar creatures. How could she when she’d hunted them down for years? She cleared her throat. “So do you know this other gre…grekelhind?” 

Earnest considered her, his eye color shifting too fast for her to catalog, not that she’d ever spent enough time with a grekelhind to learn all their hues. “I used to,” Ernest finally said. “He dated my sister before he got mixed up with another one of Vent’s minions. It took way too much work to get her to dump the asshole. Thank the fires those of us who’ve come to Earth don’t cling to ancient blood betrothals, or I never would have got rid of him.” 

Ronnie didn’t like the pang of sympathy curling in her gut. She dealt with her fair share of bad exes while taking care of her own sisters. “She the family you mentioned taking care of?” 

“You suddenly care?” Earnest scoffed down at her. “A few hours ago you couldn’t possibly believe a grek was out making an honest living.” 

Ronnie stuck out her chin. “I don’t. I just figured you were probably some deadbeat dad with ten kids.” 

Earnest laughed. “How old do you fucking think I am? And do you know anything about the planars you feed to that damn dragon?” 

She swallowed a few times, because nothing she could say would make her seem like anything except a complete shit.

 “Yeah, I thought not. But for the record? I’m only a hundred and twenty-two. We can’t breed until we pass two centuries. At least now you can say you’ve learned something today, huh?”

“I’d sooner learn about this damn totem,” Ronnie snapped back, then sighed again. “Look, I’m not used to ... working with a partner.” She left working with a grekelhind unsaid. It was accurate enough, anyway. Hell, the times she took even a human partner on jobs were rare. 

“That supposed to be an apology?” 

“Close as you’re gonna get, yeah.” 

It was Earnest’s turn to sigh. “Can’t say I’m used to this either, kid. Let’s just try and make the best of it, ok?” 

Ronnie laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Best of it? Did you have some other conversation with Vent that I wasn’t part of? We’re bound, Vent’s ready to kill you if we don’t bring back his totem, and if I lose any more of my soul, I’m going to have to leave my sisters on Earth to take up residence on one of the other planes.” She was going full steam now. “I can’t leave my sisters unprotected. Not after,” her breath hitched, “... everything I’ve done to keep them safe.”

Earnest’s face faltered a little at that, but thankfully, he didn’t pry. “Then it looks like you and me better get this solved, huh?” He turned away and started digging in his pockets, giving her a moment to take a deep breath. “Can’t imagine you want to be bothered with a grek like me, anyway.” 

Hearing the insult being tossed back at her made her wince- Ronnie hated when the planars spat ‘human’ at her like it was such an insult, or dismissed her magic and skill just because she wasn’t a resident of the planar realm. Knowing that she was doing it to someone else that was just as fucked wasn’t a good feeling. “Guess it could be worse,” she mumbled. “Could be stuck working with Vent.” 

“You’re right,” Earnest said, taking his hand out of his pocket and staring at his watch. “We both know I’m much cuter than he is.”

Scowling, Ronnie reached down and hurled a rock at Ernest’s head, growling when he bent the air and let it harmlessly sail past him. “You just had to be a jackass, didn’t you?” 

Earnest just shrugged, then frowned. “Whatever... just make sure you keep that coin hidden,” he warned, glancing at the bridge. “Neither of us can afford for those club-footers to snatch it.”

Ronnie didn’t bother to point out his hypocritical use of a slur. “How we going in?” 

“This is just a conversation. What, are you always so ready to fight?” He held up his hand. “Don’t answer that. I’ll lead — they know me from when Binks dated my sister.” 

Ronnie’s eyes widened as Earnest straightened himself, the coin humming against her breast as he accessed his soul to alter his glamor. His skin rippled as his shirt vanished, and gossamer-like scales rippled across his skin, like a delicate full body tattoo composed of metallic inks. He grew taller by nearly a foot, bulking out in well-defined musculature. His hair lengthened from a greasy ponytail to a clean mane down to his mid-back, and his facial features sharpened. The previously round ears shifted into a point, pupils slitting as the irises widened to consume the whites of his eyes. When he smirked this time, his eye color washed with a sunlit yellow, the hue dancing over the scales covering his well-defined chest, arms, and neck. 

She’d heard half-glamors resulted in mayhem and terrifying sights far more often than beauty, the results a reflection of the mind casting. This, however, was almost ethereal — it was difficult to reconcile the image of the creature in front of her with the greasy fry cook she’d almost murdered before.

“Might want to lift that chin, Ronnie. Don’t want anyone to think you’re some kind of tourist.” He tossed her a wink as he turned and strode toward the troll statue.

Ronnie hadn’t realized her mouth had dropped open — just a little — and closed it with a sharp click. She took a deep breath to calm her racing pulse. It was a surprise, that was all. Hanging out with planars wasn’t exactly at the top of her to-do list — hunting them was. 

She almost believed the lie. 

Composure regained, Ronnie strode off after Earnest. His legs were damn long, with or without the aether. By the time she caught up, he’d already engaged a mixed group of planars sitting at the base of an ancient troll. None of them used a glamour, and as she glanced around, she saw she was the only human within eyesight. Fantastic.

Oblivious to her concerns, Earnest was gesturing at one of the planars. “Binks, come on! That was decades ago.” 

The other grekelhind’s scales danced colors, the rainbow of hues concealing his true feelings. “Then you won’t mind if I give your sister a call, then? Wait — she’s still hot, right?” 

Earnest’s scales — to Ronnie’s human eyes — blinked. Whatever he felt about that comment, he’d shut it down fast. 

The troll started laughing, a deep booming sound. “Ah, leave poor Frenchie alone, Binks.” The rest of the crew took their cues from the troll and let out nervous chuckles. “’Sides, we wouldn’t want to embarrass him in front of his new dosthy, now would we?” The larger troll grinned, his rotten teeth bared for Ronnie to see. “Guess trying to blend in with the humans finally rubbed off on ol’ Frenchie.” 

At that, there was no mistaking the color in his scales- Earnest’s scales went jet black for a moment before returning to normal. “You know me better than that,” he said blithely. “I’m just here because someone stole from Vent... and left me holding the mark.” Then he turned to glare at Binks, his expression tight. “Know anything about that?"