vinced me it was unlikely I’d find him traveling in financial
circles. That left the magicians.
As Edvick had warned, the sheer volume of Pervects in
the magik business made the task seem almost impossible.
It was my last idea, though, so I had to give it a try and
hope I got lucky. By the time I had visited half a dozen or
so operations, however, I was nearly ready to admit I was
licked.
The real problem facing me was that the market glut had
made the magicians extremely competitive. No one was
willing to talk about any other magicians, or even acknowl-
edge their existence. What I got was high-powered sales
pitches and lectures on “the layman’s need for magikal
assistance in his day-to-day life”. Once I admitted I was in
the business myself, I either got offered a partnership or
was accused of spying and thrown out of the office. (Well,
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162 Robert Asprin
a couple of them threatened, but thanks to Pookie’s presence
I got to walk out with dignity.) What I didn’t get was any
leads or information about Aahz.
Despite my growing despair of succeeding with my quest,
it was interesting to view magikal hype as an outsider.
Kalvin had admonished me for being too insecure and down-
playing my abilities. What I learned that day after sitting
through several rounds of bragging in close succession, was
that the louder someone blew his own horn, the less im-
pressed the listener, in this case, me, was apt to be. I thought
of the quiet confidence exuded by people such as the But-
terfly and Pookie, and decided that, in general, that was a