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Everyone ignored them Julia squished herself into one corner of the couch She pulled her feet up, putting her shoes on the nice antique upholstery

"I guess we take a number," Quentin said

"We have to wait," Julia said "He will call us"

She took off her glasses and closed her eyes She was starting to withdraw again He could see it It seemed to come in waves Maybe it was because she felt safe here, she could let herself go for a while He hoped so He would take it froet you some water"

"Mineral water," she said "Fizzy And ask hi prepared you for, it was talking to domestic staff The butler had both ht the rye neat, which seenored the water He worried about her drinking Quentin liked a drop here and there, God knew, but the voluht of what Eliot told him, about what he’d seen at the spa It was like Julia was trying to anesthetize herself, or cauterize a wound, or fill in so

"Warren’s fixer s," Quentin said "This place is nice even by ician standards"

"I cannot stay here" was all Julia said

She sat there sipping the rye and shivering, cupping it between her hands as if it were aher eyes, like a baby Quentin had the butler bring her a wrap She had the butler bring her another rye

"I can’t even get drunk anymore," she said bitterly

After that she didn’t speak Quentin hoped she could rest He occupied the other end of the couch, sipping a Venetian spritz (Prosecco, Aperol, soda water, twist of le about what they’d do if this didn’t work out The palace directly opposite the it salmon Its ere all shuttered Over the years it had settled unevenly--one half had sunk slightly while the other half stayed where it was, creating a fault line up the , all the roo on it Stripy poles stuck up at odd angles froe to be in a place and not be king of it He’d gotten out of the habit It was like Elaine had said: nothing made him special here Nobody noticed hi It was an hour, and Quentin had cut himself off after his third spritz, before a s Italian in a pale suit, no tie, came and invited them upstairs It was the kind of outfit an Aotten aith in a million years

He showed them into a small all-white salon with three delicate wooden chairs set around a table There was a plain silver bowl on the table

No one sat in the third chair Instead a voice spoke to theh and whispery, al from

"Hello, Quentin Hello, Julia"

That was creepy He hadn’t told anybody their na us"

"You’re welcouess he doesn’t know everything

"We’d like to ask for your help with so"

"What would you like me to help you with?"

Showtime He wondered if the fixer was even human, or so her thousand-yard stare, a million miles away

"Well, we’ve just come from another world From Fillory Which as it turns out is a real place You probably knew that" Aheain "We didn’t o back there"

"I see" Pause "And ould I want to help you with that?"

"Maybe I can help you too Maybe we can help each other"

"Oh, I doubt that, Quentin" The voice dropped an octave "I doubt that very ht, look, where are you?"

He was starting to feel painfully aware of how vulnerable they were He didn’t have y And the fixer shouldn’t have known their na thought

"I knoho you are, Quentin There are circles in which you are not a very popular man Some people think you abandoned this world Your oorld"

"All right I wouldn’t say abandoned, but okay"

"And then Fillory abandoned you Poor little rich king It doesn’t seem like anyone wants you, Quentin"

"You can look at it like that if you want If we can just get back to Fillory everything will be fine Or at any rate it’s not your problee of what is and is not my problem"

The back of Quentin’s neck prickled He and the fixer weren’t getting off to a roaring start He weighed the advantages of laying on soht spook the fixer into trying a preelance, but she was barely following

"All right I’ in the silver bowl at this juncture seemed like a bad idea Quentin stood up

"Listen If you can’t help us, fine We’ll go But if you can help us, give us a price We’ll pay it"

"Oh, but I don’t have to give you anything at all I did not invite you here, and I will decide when you can go Look in the bowl"

Now there was steel in that high, whispery voice