The momentary surge of panic I felt was not of me – it was something external. Induced. I don’t panic anymore. I’m not sure I ever did, but I certainly didn’t once I Converted.

“Chaz, Chaz… if you could be over here, or out there, you would be. Delayed gratification was never your groove. You may know how to get them out – but once they’re out, what then? You get to rule? They’ve never kept a bargain. They never will. You’re their friend now, you’re meat afterward. They’ll suck the juice from your eyeballs and use your testicles for chewing gum.”

He didn’t like that. Chaz’s biggest problem, I found out long ago, was his ego. He was the most important thing in the universe, and if you didn’t understand that, too bad.

“So – you need help. You need someone to do something stupid, like open a gate without wards, or astrally project right to your plane, or…”

A cold chill fell through my spine.

“Or sit chatting in this little anteroom to the Oracular Plane?” he cackled. “See you in Goshen!”