"I need it. But I won't need it for very long." Claudia is a Fawkins— and Claudia's looking at it the way only one other person has. The fire reflected in her bright eyes, making her hair glint and her face glow, looks up at it, looks and looks, and hands it back... "You don't have to tell me what else you want, but you can have it when I'm done. I mean— I bequeath it upon you, Claudia R. Fawkins, mine noble ancestor. Use it well, okay?"

"Okay." Her lips twitch into an almost-smile before she smooths them out. "...Thanks. And thanks for the body again, I guess. It beats being melted."

"It sure does. Take care of Henry, okay? I think he needs a Fawkins around to watch him."

Henry laughs. "That's exactly right. Charlotte— all the luck in the world, alright? And then some."

"Yeah," Claudia says. "Good luck."

"I won't need it." You take The Sword from her waiting hands and slide it back away. "But thanks!"

————

At last, you're able to extract a bewildered Gil from the crowd. You need him! Specifically, you need his help to work the siphons in reverse: you spent so long sucking all the Law out, but where did it go, and how do you spit it out into the Crown?

Actually, you don't care, and you let Gil and Richard handle it. They can have fun doing their boring machine thing; you can take a catnap in the gentle heat of your fire lake. Win-win.

"Lottie?"

You open your eyes. Gil's tone is concerning. "Huh?"

"Bad news." (You knew it.) "Uh... there's not enough Law."

"Not enough? Didn't we—"

"Apparently Ramsey drained it pretty good, given the— the lizard thing. I-I-I don't think she was supposed to do that. Um. And I-I-I know you collected a lot in reserve. I-I think I just fucked up, with the mini-siphons— in Headspace? I-I was supposed to stick a ton up, but I only got a couple, because I got—"

"Slow down. What does not enough Law mean? Can't you, um, spread it out around the whole thing?"

"Richard says it needs to be 100%. 110%. He says you're summoning God, so there can't really be..."

"Okay. So, what? So I can't do it? Or we need to go spelunking and fill it up really quick? It's not broken, is it?"

"Not broken. Um, yeah, a refill. I-ideally a quick one? Spelunking might be too slow. I-I-I don't know what the rush is, exactly, but Richard—"

"I get it." He probably has about 200 agents watching over his shoulder. "So it's just a little bump in the road. No problem. I wonder if—"

(3/4)