Originally this page had Miranda breaking out the Sixth Pentacle of Mars...then I decided it wasn't doing anything useful, and took it out. Now she's just making an emphatic gesture.

(It's a serious defense spell: "It hath so great virtue that being armed therewith, if thou art attacked by any one, thou shalt neither be injured nor wounded when thou fightest with him, and his own weapons shall turn against him.")

Sparrow would love to literally say "we did it thirty-five minutes ago" here. Was it anything close to 35 actual minutes? Who knows. Probably not. She would be too delighted with the reference to care.

[thump]

Blake: Careful, boss . . . You can touch it gently, but if you blot out any of the letters . . .

. . . I think something bad happens.

Miranda: It’s the Contract . . . and there are ways it can safely be rewritten.

We can take a Being out of the Game. We know one who was made without it, and we’ve upgraded several others. We do that to Blake, we put him back together afterward, everyone goes home happy.

Walker: I have a better idea. You put Blake back together right now, without making any changes whose purpose and effects I have no way of verifying . . .

and I give you the locations of certain other Beings, to which only I have access. I can assure you, they will make far better guinea pigs. One of them is even in the same order as the guinea pig.

Sparrow: . . . ooh, can I tell her?