It actually sounded like some good had come out of our madcap caper. That made me feel kind of good. Still…
“I don’t get it, Quigley. How is that a problem?”
The magician gave a wry smirk.
“Think about it, Aahz. With the feud over between the two city-states, there was no reason to maintain two magicians. It was decided that one would do just fine.”
“Whoops,” I said.
“ ‘Whoops’ is right. Massha was their first choice. She had served as magician for both city-states at one time or another, and, frankly, they were more impressed with her than with me … especially after I let their hostage demon escape at the Big Game. When they went to tell her, though, she had disappeared. That left them with me.”
I found myself wondering if Massha had signed on as Skeeve’s apprentice before or after she knew about the organizational change and Quigley getting the boot.
“She’s working with us over on Deva,” Skeeve commented, finally getting drawn into the conversation.
“Really? Well, I suppose it makes sense. After you’ve gone as far as you can go on the local level, it’s only natural to graduate into the big time.”
“I still don’t see how you ended up behind the eight ball financially,” I said, trying to steer the conversation back on course.
Quigley made a face.
“It’s my contract. I ended up having to take a substantial pay cut under the new situation. My salary before was adequate, but nothing to cheer about. Now …”
His voice trailed off.
“I don’t get it,” Skeeve said. “How can you be making less money for serving two city-states than you made working for one?”