Sam

"Sam. There's something I need to give you a heads-up on. At some point today, I might leave suddenly or begin acting strangely. If either of those things happen, just play along, okay?"

She gave Will a sidelong glance. "Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not."

"All right, then—I'll play along. If you promise to dance with me tonight."

"I told you Sam, I can't—"

"Nuh-uh-uh, no excuses now. Just a bit of slow dancing, 'kay? All you need to do is shuffle your feet about. I know you can do that much."

"Fine."

Sam grinned. "It's a deal, then."

After that, Will brought her along to find his friend Fletcher, the mousy librarian of the Sheerhome Academy, who had squirreled himself away from the rest of the party inside the living room of the farmhouse. He had pulled most of the books from their shelves and was in the process of reorganizing them according to some sorting system of his own devising. The little man whispered under his breath while sending volumes flying hither and thither about him; one hand stroked his chin, another held a wine cup by his side—seemingly forgotten—and two more were making quick gestures to direct the books under his control.

Sunny was lying on the floor scribbling, feet kicking in the air, and paid the whole spectacle very little attention.

Fletcher didn't notice them come in, even though the doorway was well within his field of view. Will cleared his throat, but the librarian remained fixed on his task.

"Fletch!" Will called.

The librarian jerked in surprise. All the suspended books tumbled out of the air and crashed unceremoniously to the floor. "Ah!" he shrieked. "I told you, I don't…!" His eyes focused on Will, and he let go a deflating sigh. "Oh. It's just you, my boy."

The little girl still didn't look up from her drawing.

"I see you've taken the liberty of familiarizing yourself with my collection," Will said. "See anything you like?"

The librarian's two extra arms retracted back inside his robes, vanishing. "Quite the opposite! Your indexing is a mess!"

"A thousand apologies."

Fletcher hoisted an admonishing finger. "Glibness does you no credit, young man. You can tell everything you need to know about a person by how they treat their books."

"Like how some people are uptight pedants."

Fletcher sped him a sour glare. "What did I just say about being glib?"

"What's 'glib' mean?" Sunny asked absently.

"It's like being a smartypants," Will explained.

"Uh-huh," Sunny replied, sounding disinterested.

"Why did you have to drag me all the way out here, William?" Fletcher asked, his voice suddenly rising in pitch until it was almost a shriek. He padded halfway toward them, then stopped. He finally recognized the cup he was holding and drained it in one long swallow. In a quieter, more conspiratorial tone, he added: "There are so many you-know-whats here. It's not proper." He glanced in Sam's direction, then quickly looked away, seemingly wanting to ignore her existence entirely.

Will sighed and rubbed his sad eye. "Fletch, come on. You're being offensive."

"No, you come on! What possible reason could you have for bringing me here? You told me it was important!"

"It is."

"Well?"

"Two reasons. For the first one, let me ask you a question. Fletcher, what do you think about the idea of restarting the Academy?"

"It's my dream, of course. But everything went all to hell after the Deicide, and now no one is interested in higher learning anymore."

"If you want to make it happen, you've got to stop sitting on your bony ass and get something done."

"Manners!" Fletcher squealed, toting his empty cup like a deadly instrument.

"Oh, get over yourself." Will crossed his arms, and though nothing about his expression changed, the unnerving sense of being watched he brought into a room intensified. He was losing his temper. "How about a little gratitude? I brought you here so you can rub shoulders with people who have the money and influence to fulfill your so-called 'dream'. Not to mention a potential assistant."

"Why would I need an assistant?" Fletcher hissed. "I already have you!"

"I probably won't be visiting the city again for a while."

The librarian made a strangled noise deep in his throat, and began pacing around and around in a little circle. "This is all too much. You don't understand what women do to me, William!"

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"I understand perfectly."

"How could you—"

"Please watch your tone around the child," Will interjected. His tone was calm, but there was an unmistakable edge to it.

Fletcher stopped in his tracks, frowned at the girl lying on her belly not ten feet from him as though seeing her for the first time, then resumed his pacing. "Of course. I'm sorry. Got a little carried away."

"Now, how do we feel about the whole thing after what I just told you? I can introduce you to Lord Buck and several other influential figures."

"I… think you may be onto something. I only wish there had been time to compile a formal proposal."

"You can tinker with that later. Tonight is just about testing the waters."

"I see. Yes, you're right."

"Worth enduring a few hours out of doors, no?"

"I suppose."

Will nodded in a way that suggested the matter was closed. "Good. Then, you can repay me by assisting with the second reason why I brought you here."

Fletcher stopped, his thin eyebrows raised high. "Oh?"

Will held out his open hand to Sam. She hesitated for a moment, then gave him a crisp high five.

"No!" he said, scowling. "The amulet! I need the amulet."

"Oh. Should've said so, you dorkasaurus."

She was reluctant to hand it over considering that it didn't seem completely inert and Will was still very much in recovery, but he looked pretty insistent, so she eventually pulled the chain over her head and dislodged the silver star from between her boobs and let the metal links pool in Will's waiting palm.

"Thank you," he said, and waved Fletcher over to the coffee table, where he placed the eight-pointed star for the librarian's perusal. "What do you think of this? Can you Identify it?"

Fletcher set his cup aside. He immediately sprouted his extra arms, and a large eyeball opened on all four palms. Muttering to himself, Fletcher ran his hands in the air around the object and ignored all further questions from Will until he eventually gave up trying and just let the librarian work.

Sam wanted to know the result, but figured there was no use crowding the strange little man, so instead she went and plopped down cross-legged next to Sunny to watch the girl work instead. "Whatcha drawing?" she asked, rocking back and forth on her butt while gripping her ankles.

Sunny pointed to one thin, vaguely humanoid shape with the back of her pencil. "That's Uncle Will." She moved over to a big, round shape. "That's you." A small shape. "That's me." A roughly normal-looking shape. "That's Aunt Ember." And finally, a tall, squarish shape. "That's ADAM." She wasn't bad at drawing, but her work was a little abstract for Sam's liking.

"Why'd you make me look so fat?" Sam asked.

Sunny frowned up at her, kicking her little feet. "Aren't you?"

Sam laughed. "Ouch!"

The little girl grinned, but it was clear that she didn't understand what was supposed to be funny.

Sam pointed to a spiky black squiggle at the top of the paper. "What's that thing there?"

"Oh, that's—"

"This can't be!" Fletcher squealed, jumping up and down in frustration. "How…? It's just an Enchantment! Why can't I read it?!"

Curious, Sam got up and joined them at the table.

"You're not picking up anything?" Will asked. He looked disappointed.

"Nothing at all. Wait, let me try again." Fletcher shut his actual eyes and let his four creepy hand-eyes do the gawking, scanning over the amulet from every angle. Eventually, he took a step back and slowly shook his head, the two extra arms retracting into his body. "No. Nothing. Who made this?"

Will seemed to be debating with himself for a second. "I know you don't really have any friends, but can I trust you not to tell anyone about this?"

Fletcher nodded enthusiastically. "Of course."

He reached out and touched both of them lightly on the arm. Sam frowned down at his two fingers resting on her forearm. "For my Light Touch passive," he explained. "It'll muffle our talking so the kid won't hear."

"Oh."

"As far as I know, the amulet was made by the Godkiller."

The librarian was understandably taken aback by that information. "Really? You're sure about this?"

"Considering the quality of the Enchantment, I'm almost positive."

"Then… he's an Artisan?"

"She's an Artisan-Entertainer, apparently. And considering her pedigree, I don't think it's far-fetched to assume she's quite the Enchantress."

A flood of questions followed on from that. Will ignored most of them, and answered only a few.

"What do you think it is?" Fletcher asked, wetting his lips. He stared at the amulet on the tabletop as though looking at it hard enough would reveal its secrets.

"I have my suspicions, but nothing definitive," Will replied. "If you happen to stumble over anything related to the amulet in one of your books, please inform me immediately."

Fletcher nodded absently, unable to take his eyes off the thing. "Of course, of course. And please, let me know if there's anything I can do to assist in this matter."

"Will do, Fletch."

They went back outside from there. "Is he someone we can trust, then?" Sam asked as they rejoined the party.

"Probably. At the very least he's a friend, and I don't have too many of those."

"What's his deal with women, anyway? It kinda pisses me off the way he was looking at me."

Will chuckled. "It's less sinister than you think. He took a divine vow of celibacy. I guess he thought it would be a piece of cake at first, but after so many years without sex, he's worked up a bit of paranoia that meeting a woman will lead him to break his streak."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense. Still, he doesn't need to be such an ass about it."

"Agreed. He can definitely be a handful sometimes. Still, he's taught me a lot, and despite everything he's a good friend."

Will was reluctant to give the amulet back, but finally relented after Sam insisted a few times. They did a bit more mingling. Will managed to interrupt a budding argument between ADAM and Buck, the former harassing the latter for 'materials' he needed, although he wasn't making a very good case for himself and was getting increasingly agitated that the lord wasn't interested in giving him everything he wanted without any concessions on his end.

Will was able to explain more succinctly that ADAM was an accomplished gunsmith, and negotiated a deal between them where the robot would get all the materials he needed in return for supplying the militia with firearms and ammunition. He also set ADAM up with an apprentice in the form of a young guy named Leland, who, as far as Sam could gather, was the former apprentice of the now-deceased blacksmith who had made Will's scary sword.

Sam checked out at some point during this conversation and went to chat with Serene, but her friend was oddly distant, seemingly distracted by something. Finally she ended up talking with Mongrel and his date Annie.

"I didn't know the old man was friends with so many important people," Annie said with a pretty smile as the two shook hands. "If I did, I would have tried a lot harder to fuck my way into his heart."

"She's a gold digger," Mongrel supplied happily, sipping beer.

"Guilty!" Annie immediately confessed with a sparkling laugh.

Sam wasn't sure if they were joking or not, but decided to force a half-hearted chuckle anyway.

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