"Ho boy, Samantha, that is a pretty big price you're going to pay," said Emil with his eyebrows pushed up as far as they would go. "But I gotta tell you now, it's not gonna be good because, you see, is expensive. Not because I want to take your money, even though I do, but because doing magic is expensive.

  "It gonna take a lot of materials. It gonna take a lot of price to pay for you doing magic."

  "Okay then, Emil. I'll give you the binding of Paimon the King, as well as a gold coin. I can't keep on getting worked over as I have been."

  Sam had been given two gold coins. One for retaining her services and another for defeating Reverend Smith, who would have done terrible things to the city. She had negotiated a third gold coin by simply being audacious enough to ask the Spirit of the City for one when they first met.

  It was a fair bargain. In exchange, Sam had, without reservation, believed every word the spirit had told her and offered her loyalty and the best of her ability. Such wealth was unheard of in Sam's life. With possible exception of her childhood.

  Emil pushed back the wispy hair clinging to the sides of his head. His eyebrows remained pushed up as high as they could go. He shook his head and muttered to himself, considering Sam's offer. Sam forgave him the hesitation, as she had, in her own estimation, not been a great friend.

  Sam had not been a great friend to anyone. The desperation of her childhood and the roughness of the city had sculpted her into a mistrustful, angry person. Her time in the military had straightened some of that out. The training made her feel more capable, able to deal with the slings and arrows of ordinary life. But the atrocities she had seen in the war, the ones she participated in especially, weighed on her mind. It was selfish, she knew, but she couldn't bring herself to get close to anyone. Emil's friendship was simply another victim of the war, even if he helped her escape it.

  She heard stories of soldiers who had returned unable to deal with daily life. The fear of every loud sound reminded them of the terrible explosions and bloodshed they had witnessed. How they had awoken screaming at night from memories of terrors they'd experienced years prior. She supposed it was like that, if mercifully less extreme. It was another reason for her to lament the fact that she could no longer drink herself to sleep.

  "Okay, so I'm going to say yes, it's going to be good to learn for sorcery. For you, it's going to be good to not come to me with your problems anymore. Maybe if I teach you, you're going to come to my house, we going to be buddies, we going to have tea, instead of you come and you do amputations and you leave.

  "But I am wanting you to understand, Samantha, it is not because I want your monies. It is because you have to pay a lot of money to do the magic. This is why no many people know the magic; it's because it's a lot of learning and it's because it is also expensive. So you're going to learn, you're going to have to pay to learn. This is not me be a cheap guy, this is you'll be a good student and pay price to demons for the contract.

  "You understand? Sometimes you pay with blood. Sometimes you pay with silver. Sometimes you pay with your memories or your parts of body. You sometimes pay for with the pains of another person. You know, sometimes, only one time, do you pay with your soul. You only got one of those you can pay with."

  "I understand, Emil, and I'm grateful to you."

  "Okay. Then I'm gonna teach you in the fast way. I want you to understand for me. No is fast to learn. Most times when you learn the sorcery, you're an apprentice for years before you learn any bindings. You do laundry, you clean up, you do cooking for your master, and they teach you a little bit. They teach you a little bit. They teach you a little bit, but then one day they get sick of teaching you, they make enough money, and then they tell you everything. Then, you go out and you be a sorcerer.

  "Five years I was apprentice before I learn anything. Then my teacher done teaching me in like six months. I say 'Ho, boy! You mean I could have been done this that quick?' What an asshole that guy was.

  "Of course I'm pretty smart guy. I think maybe you not so smart, it takes you longer."

  "Good Lord, Emil, I will bring a bottle of wine, I will ask how your mother is doing."

  "I tell you she is dead already. You are terrible listener. Maybe it's gonna take you longer to learn. Open your ears, we getting started. I'm gonna concentrate on my English so you can understand, but I don't think it's gonna matter much."

  Emil began by explaining the universe.

  "The universe has three parts, okay? There is this part, we live in this part. It's a good part, you know? It's got summer, it's got nice girls, you know? It's a pretty place. This world we live in is Earth, Garden of Eden, it is the first place created by the Word of the Creator, my mama calls him God. Some people say he is the Demiurge. I think we're going to just call him God to be simple, but he's not God-God. You understand? The Demiurge is the one who created the universe, but he's not super God. He's an imperfect being with immense power. He created the entire universe, but he's not perfect.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Now, to us, He is God, so we say: God, okay? Okay. Demiurge, he speak the Word. The Word is everything. It is the light in the sky from the sun, it is you, it is me, it is rocks, it's trees, it is everything. This is the Word, it's still being spoken. He created His assistants, these are angels. These are immense, powerful beings who help Him create the Universe. You understand? I wonder if you understand. Tell me who made the Universe."

  "The Demiurge, Emil. I remember the things you just said."

  "Well, we're going to see, okay? The Demiurge made the Universe. The Demiurge also made angels. The angels go around, they make sure creation works good, and they are also super powerful beings. They are not God, but they have power over the Word of creation. They can make changes, their word can change the world to make it be more perfect, to make more in line with His vision.

  "But the Demiurge is not perfect. This means what he makes is not perfect. You see? So he makes some angels. Those angels question his creation. They say: 'Why you do it this way? Shouldn't it be a different way?' This questioning of the Demiurge is rebellion against his Word. This contradiction, you go against the Word of creation, you being bad, okay?

  "The Demiurge says, 'No question,' he says, 'You go away from the Word.' He makes another place, away from the original Word: Hell. We call it Duzakh. That is a special name. Other people have simpler words for it. They say Hell, but I think that's too simple. Duzakh sounds more dramatic.

  "But I think for you, we're going to say 'Hell' because we want to simplify.

  "But if you wanna sound like a real sorcerer, like you know what you're talking about, you say Duzakh, okay? It sounds good, it's gonna make you sound very mysterious, like you know special magic.

  "It's pretty simple when you get into it. It's not very difficult. You do the binding, you pay the price, say the words, and you get the magic. It's not very complicated, but you see, it is going to be a little complicated. I'm gonna teach you a lot of stuff, okay? You gotta be ready."

  Sam nodded her head. She did wonder how relevant this was going to be to her goals. She supposed she needed to understand the theory behind what he was going to teach her. But if it was so simple, why not just skip to the end?

  "I think also you're going to be coming over a lot, okay? I think you wanna bring some wine when you come, like you say. Okay? I think it's part of the price. We're going to say that.

  "Into Duzakh, he pushed the bad angels, and they became demons. We know seventy-two demons, but there are many, many more, thousands and thousands of demons. These demons came with the ones we know the names of. There is more we don't know their names. The ones we know the names of are the ones we can talk to, we can ask for things. Now, the ones we know the names of are strong. The ones that are strong, we have bindings to get their attention.

  "Now, let me tell you this for free. Used to be, we knew seventy-two angels. This means the Demiurge created one hundred forty-four angels in the beginning of creation. He then have half of them question him. If you question the instructions of the Demiurge, you're contradicting the Word of creation, so he push you into Hell.

  "Like we say, Demiurge, imperfect, he's not good daddy. He says, 'You go to hell,' but this means seventy-two angels were left. We know their names. We used to know the seals to binding them, to draw their attention to contact them. They're all gone. Every one of them. We cannot talk to angels anymore. Used to be, you could find books around here where they talk about blessings and magics they did by talking to the angels. Just like we talk to the demons now, they talk to the angels. But then, poof! Like that, all the seals, all the bindings. We don't know them no more. They don't work. We got the seals; they don't work.

  "But the demons? The ones that rebel? Ah, we got them. We can talk to them, no problem. Okay? Is very, very strong evidence. If you atheist, maybe you got to open up your eyes because we can talk to demons."

  Sam wasn't sure how far she believed the Demiurge God business Emil was talking about. She knew that most men of God were like Reverend Smith. They promise you salvation, but offer you up as sacrifice given the opportunity. She'd never seen any evidence of the good side of supernatural creation. She'd seen pretty mornings, sometimes woken up without a hangover, and those times she would say, "Oh, thank God." The truth was she didn't care.

  "Okay, so now you know all of, you know, business about how the universe created, how there is demons and whatnot. Okay, now I'm gonna tell you about the bindings. You need to know about this because it is everything that you want to learn about the magic is the bindings. Each demon has different bindings if you are wanting different things from them. You understand? You gonna ask a question? There's a binding for question. You gonna ask for a little pouch to hold your earrings? Different binding."

  "I understand. Can I ask a question?" said Sam.

  "You know, Samantha, asking if you can ask question is already asking question. Why not just ask the question first, rather than say 'can I ask a question' and waste everybody time?"

  "Emil, you are saltier than seawater soup. What are the bindings? How do they work?"

  "Ahhh! Samantha! Maybe you are not so stupid!

  "Okay, we're going to tell you about what this binding is. Some people say there is no magic for humans. But then how does binding work? You see, you gotta get magic from a demon. But then, how do you get the attention of the demons? The demons do not live in this world.

  "Okay, here what I think. Nobody knows what the bindings is. We know they work. I think there is other secret magic, human magic, that we could have discovered, but you know we find 'hey I talk to demon I give a little blood I get a little bit of magic' you know? So we stop there, you understand?

  "But the bindings are ancient. We know that if you make a mistake in the binding, they don't work. There is something in the shape, there is something in the words of bindings that makes them work. You cannot make new bindings; nobody does this. Nobody knows how.

  "So, where do we get them from? Did they come from the angels? We cannot ask anymore, you know?

  "So okay, okay, I'm all done talking to you right now. Listen, I'm gonna give you a book and then I'm gonna send you home.

  "Then you're gonna tell me, when you come back, what kind of demons you wanna talk to."