Originally posted September 13, 2011
"A devil, lad. Ye sold yer should tae a devil."
Tristan blinked, nonplussed. Riobhca slid back into her seat. "Aye. Tis more likely a devil than a demon. Demons just live for chaos and aren't prone to contracts."
For a moment, the young man looked comforted, then his face twisted with consternation. "Does it matter? I sold my soul!"
"Keep a calm sooch, lad," Siobhan cautioned. "Di ye knoo ye were selling yer soul?" Tristan shook his head. "Then ye got nothing tae worry about, ah ken."
"The law of the land," Riobhca explained, "controls contracts. In Michigan, you can't make a contract if you don't know what it's for."
"But I said I read the contract!"
The mage and the witch spoke in unison, "What?"
"I had to check a box to download the song. It said I agreed to the terms of the license."
"Ye stated," Sibhan said, looking down her nose at the young man, "that ye read something ye dinnae actually read?"
"Nobody reads those things!" Tristan replied, the frantic adding an edge to his voice. Siobhan shrugged as her head rolled to look at her human daughter. "Ye wuid think one wuid read such things baefore they seid they read them." Riohbca offered another upward glance as her only answer. Siobhan watched Tristan gasp for breath a few times before answering.
"Lad, what makes ye think this innae anything more than someone cutting the piss out of ye?"
"I got a phone call," he sputtered, "from someone that couldn't know that number."
"Ye'd bea surprised at what some cuid di," Siobhan chided. She kept silent for a moment, watching Tristan as the second half started. "An what di this caller say?"
"He wanted to meet, to discuss the terms of the contract."
"Di ye schedule a meeting?"
"Aye, I mean 'Yes,' m'lady."
Siobhan grinned. "There bae a question of payment iff'n ah 'elp ye in this matter."
Tristan paled. "What do you usually charge?"
The boy had the potential of a stone carried up a mountainside. "Service," Siobhan answered plainly. "A year and a day. I will pay a stipend of..." she pulled a fountain pen from her satchel and wrote a number on a cocktail napkin before handing it to him. "I winnae ask ye tae do anything illegal, but ah expect ye tae come when ah call. Ye ken?"
Tristan looked at the amount he held in his hand. "You'll pay me this much so I can hire you?" Siobhan's steady stare conveyed the message a year and a day of service would cost far more than the digits scribbled on paper. Young and dumb, Tristan ignored the look of those wizened eyes. He extended his hand. "Will a handshake seal the deal?"
Riobhca reached out a hand to cover his. "Tristan, tis bae an enforceable contract," she cautioned. "'elp in this matter fer a year and a day of service. Ye ken?" The young man shook his head and re-extended his hand towards Siobhan. Smiling, she accepted it.
"Now," she said, cheerfully enough, "let's watch the second 'alf."
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