With Suncat taken care of, Ratface just had to work out how to convince the living person in her head to play along.

She knew she couldn’t ask Abigail or Claudette for help. The glamour had said she could see what she’d seen so she’d know that Ratface had ratted her out to Claudette. Given the glamour’s obvious dislike of the demon, that seemed like a bad idea.

So instead, she’d gathered Albert and Tiffany and run them through the whole problem.

They looked at her with blank faces.

“It’s never just something normal with you, is it?” said Albert.

Ratface shrugged. She didn’t really have an argument against that.

“Have you tried just appealing to her? She has your memories, maybe she like Halmir?” Tiffany asked.

She grabbed a biscuit and munched on it after talking. Ratface had taken them to the tea room for this conversation and even made tea. She was terrible at making it, she’d taken one sip of her own and nearly spat it out. The biscuits were coating their tounges enough that they could stand to drink it.

Ratface mulled over Tiffany’s suggestion.

“She’s literally in my brain to stop me seeing stuff,” she said, “I wouldn’t think that she’d be inclined to help me anyway.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve managed to get any dirt on her, have you?” Albert asked.

“Same problem. Any dirt I get on her isn’t really going to be of use. She has one purpose and if it isn’t that then there’s no reason she’d help me.”

“It’s not specifically going against that purpose though, right?” Tiffany asked.

“She might see it as a trap,” said Ratface.

The problem was that the glamour had all the cards. Even now she was sitting in Ratface’s head and keeping a look out. It was a weird thing to consider. A little unnerving. She thought she heard a chuckle in her head and tried to ignore it. No one had ever said talking to voices in your head was a good idea. In fact, there was a lot of stories suggesting the opposite.

They sat staring at the biscuits in silence. It was pretty clear getting the glamour to help wasn’t going to be easy. What did you give someone stuck in your head? What tangible things could you offer her.

“You could exchange it for her safety,” said Tiffany, “Right now Claudette’s trying to find her, right? If you can swear that you won’t let her, it might get her to help.”

“It does mean giving up on that knowledge forever though,” said Albert, “still based on what you’ve told us about glamours, this should work. She may be autonomous, but that is her one goal right?”

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It wasn’t a bad idea. It’d mean giving up on those memories though. Could she really give that up just for Halmir.

A stupid question, of course she could. Her friend was more important than some memory she didn’t know about.

Ratface straightened, resolving herself to this course of action.

“Alright, it’s time I took a nap.”

“No,” said the glamour.

They were in the elf city again. This time they were in a café and judging by the sun above them it was later in the day.

Ratface took a sip of the fake drink in front of her. It tasted fake as well. Like this is what the glamour had imagined it tasted like, but they had never truly experienced it.

“Shouldn’t you be all for this? It seems like it would make your life easier.”

The elf snorted and looked away.

“Spoken like someone who doesn’t know how glamours work. If I extracted an oath like that out of you, there’d be no need for me to be so smart. I’d become a static glamour just holding you to your oath.”

Ratface tucked away that piece of glamour knowledge in her head. Talking to a glamour about how they worked was a lot better than trying to ask an elf.

“You want to live?” Ratface said in surprise.

“Everything wants to live,” said the glamour, “even being stuck in your brain is better than the alternative.”

Ratface paused at that. The idea that the glamour was alive hadn’t really considered to her. They were autonomous, such an insidious way to describe something thinking. The wording itself made to ignore their life.

It had never occurred to her that unravelling the glamour meant killing her. It was a sobering prospect. Sure, the girl was keeping things from her, but did she deserve to die for it?

It also put their negotiation into a different light.

Ratface looked around her. The glamour always brought her here, was that because she couldn’t go elsewhere? Was she stuck here.

She thought of the taste of the drink. It wasn’t good, it was what someone imagined would be good, but it lacked any flavour. Ratface smiled, the glamour had even referred to being in here as being stuck. It looked like she had a bargaining chip after all.

“You should help me, because you want to,” she told the glamour.

The glamour snorted.

“Oh, I’m delighted to see the logic here. Sure, explain why I should care for your pet rat.”

“You shouldn’t, he’s nothing to you. You get to interact with my memories of him and that’s it. I could tell you all his best features and I don’t think you’d care at all. No you should help me because you’re bored.”

Ratface leaned forward, a grin on her face.

“It must suck being in here. Watching all the adventures happen but never really getting to be a part of them. Watching a play but never getting to see what you could do.”

The glamour watched her with an amused expression, but it was a little too stiff. Ratface knew she had her interested.

“See I’ve heard that most glamours like you get to see the outside world, get to touch it. I bet at your heart your designed to want that right? It must eat away at you to be stuck here.”

The expression on the glamours face broke, Ratface had her interest, now she just had to convince her. She leaned back into her chair.

“Helping Halmir? That’s your only shot at your own adventure. How many opportunities like this do you really think a goblin like me is going to run into?”

The glamour tried to keep its face blank, but it wasn’t watching its hands, and they were tightening on the table.

“I’d need an assurance it wasn’t a trap,” she said eventually. Ratface had her.

“Sure, I’ll swear to make no attempts against you while you’re helping me. Halmir being safe at the end is my goal, why would I try and sabotage that?”

The glamour watched her a long time, but Ratface had her and they both knew it. She held out her hand.

“It appears Ratface, that we have a deal,” she said.

“So we do,” said Ratface. She grabbed the other girl’s hand and did her best not to smile too wide.

Judging by the glamours expression, she failed.