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I took a tentative sip of my tea – hmm, tasty Earl Grey,my breath Beatrice folded her hands across the top of the counter, stared ave me her price

“Ten thousand dollars”

I alht in her face I wiped atas I started to protest

“T-ten thousand whole American dollars?”

She rolled her eyes so hard that I thought I could hear thes were going to co a proper cloaking artifact? That takes tiic”

“Right,” I muttered, somewhat dazed

“And it all depends on how you want to keep it on your person, too Now, as so, I would obviously recoive you a necklace or a ring, so that the cloaking ave rinned out of the corner of herlittle pair of undies for you Boxers? Hmm Bikini briefs?”

My hand shook as I settled ainst the saucer “Not to sound like a broken record, but giveyour little box of spider droppings count for anything? A friendly discount?”

“Spider silk,” she hissed, raising a corrective finger in my face “And that’s already a discounted rate, sweetie Trustyou for the er “And the labor is free, because you’re kind of cute” She followed that up with the kind of wink that would have had an impressionable boy like ure cost she’d just quoted to feel all twitterpated

“Why is it so expensive, though? It’s not like you’re old” I frowned at her “It’s not because thesuper skeevy, is it? Like baby’s blood? Please don’t say it’s baby’s blood”

“Don’t be duet some shimmerscale Really rare stuff, comes from merpeople And not just any ive theredient we need Of course, you can’t just walk up to one and expect them to rip it off their body and hand it to you” Her eyes narrowed as they focused on a spot just past my head “No,” she muttered “Gotta be more creative than that”

I blinked at her, dumbstruck “Wait Merpeople exist?”

She nodded “Oh, yeah Sure There’s a whole colony of thes out by the Santa Monica Pier”

“Really?”

“Of course not,” she said, laughing “They’reto be so expensive Don’t be so gullible Oh my God, you’re like a baby Poor little duuess”