Raven drew her short dark cloak around her as she looked for the house where she was going. She had medicine in her carrying pouch from her employer, Master Kobach. He trusted her to deliver his wares to his customers.

She didn’t know why.

She did like the job. It took her all over the city. She met people that seemed happier than she thought they would be. And she helped them by giving them the medicine they needed, or carrying messages, or just talking to them even though she didn’t feel like it most of the time.

And Kobach treated her like an extension of his family for some reason. He paid on time, invited her to family gatherings, tried to set her up with one of his sons when he thought he could.

Raven tried to be gentle but told him that she liked living on her own with no one to get in her way.

She spotted the number and shook her head. You have a dark house, use a lighter color of paint to put your street numbers on it. How did you expect people to find you?

Raven gently vaulted the railing on the stairs to get to the porch that took up half of the house’s front. She didn’t see any lights on. If no one was there, she would have to take the medicine back and try again later.

It wouldn’t be the first time she had been sent to a place, and the customer had forgotten they had ordered something from Master Kobach.

She knocked on the door. She had to at least try to deliver the stuff before reporting failure.

The silence inside the house bothered her. Maybe she had misread the address, or had come when the customers were out.

Some people liked to visit their neighbors when they should be watching for a

messenger.

Raven knocked again. She always gave the customer three knocks before leaving.

She heard something moving then. She frowned as she listened. It didn’t seem that normal to her hearing. She backed away from the door in case there was a big surprise behind it.

People tried to rob messengers all the time. She had escaped her last attempted robbers by taking to the roofs and leading them a merry chase from building to building.

Raven knocked again. Maybe the resident was coming to the door.

The door opened after another bit of silent waiting. An old lady in a shawl wrapped around her head and shoulders and a dark dress stared at her with eyes that seemed ready to burst from her skull.

“Why are you bothering me?,” said the old lady.

“You Mrs. Keswick?,” asked Raven.

“What if I am?,” said the old woman. “Is that a crime?”

“Maybe,” said Raven. “I’m just here to deliver some medicine from Kobach the alchemist.”

“My glow,” said the old woman. “It’s finally here. Give it over.”

“I need the coin to take back to the alchemist,” said Raven. She pushed her bag behind her in case she had to deal with this woman with her fist.

She didn’t want to handle things that way, but sometimes old people didn’t want to pay for anything, talking about a tab, or something.

Larry Kobach never opened a tab. He wanted cash on delivery, or an explanation of why not.

And Raven didn’t care enough about their customers to let them have whatever thing they bought for free.

So cash on delivery was just as good for her.

“I’ll get your money,” said the old lady. “Wait here.”

She slammed the door in Raven’s face. She bumbled around inside her house for a bit before coming back and opening the door. She had a bag of coins in her hand. She held it out for the delivery girl to take.

Raven pulled her bag around and opened the flap. She took out the bag of glow and they exchanged bags. She opened the bag to do a quick count of coins in it. She saw some rocks and metal beads.

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“This isn’t money, Mrs. Keswick,” Raven said. She indicated the bag with her other hand. “Where are the coins I’m supposed to take back to Master Kobach?”

Mrs. Keswick dumped the whole bag of glow down her throat. She smiled as the drug hit her system.

Raven frowned. The last thing she wanted to be dealing with was a drug addict high on her supply.

Why did some of her deliveries turn into fist fights? And why was it almost always old people?

“This feels great,” said Mrs. Keswick. She looked thirty years younger, taller as her spine straightened, and more muscular. “Thank Master Kobach for me. I plan to enjoy my night.”

“I need the coins to pay for what you just snorted down,” said Raven. “And you were only supposed to use a pinch because that stuff will burn out your brain.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” said Mrs. Keswick. “Tell Master Kobach to put it on my tab.”

“We don’t run tabs for old people who might drop dead at any moment,” said Raven. “I’ll just grab something for collateral. You can have it back when you pay your bill.”

She slipped past the woman and started looking around for anything she could pawn for the money. She was not going to go back empty handed. And she was not going to let some old hag try to get out of paying the bill because she took a lethal dose of her beauty drug.

“I’m not letting you ruin my night,” said Mrs. Keswick. She stomped inside the

house. “I’ve waited a long time to get my hands on some Glow. I need it.”

They all needed their drug.

Raven continued to search, wondering if Mrs. Keswick had some jewelry around she could fence for the cost of the glow. She didn’t see anything outstanding.

“You can’t just step into my house,” said Mrs. Keswick. “I forbid it.”

“I need the money, or the glow,” said Raven. “And you swallowed the glow. So what do you have that is worth eighty five coppers?”

“I told you to put it on my tab,” said Mrs. Keswick. “Now get out of here.”

“And I told you Kobach doesn’t do a tab for anyone but especially old people,” said Raven. She noticed a medallion laying on a table. Would that be worth eighty five coppers?

“Young lady, get out of my house,” demanded Mrs. Keswick.

“Old lady,” said Raven, grabbing the medallion and putting it on. “You want this back, you better be at the shop with the money.”

“That’s mine!,” shouted Mrs. Keswick. She went for a punch on the smaller delivery girl. She missed, and found herself being thrown over her couch.

“Either you bring the money to pay for your drug, or I’m going to sell this and

get what I can out of it,” said Raven. “I’ll see you later.”

She walked out of the house. She shook her head. Why did people think they didn’t have to pay for anything?

She had to head back to Kobach’s shop. Late in the day, early in the night, people were coming in or asking for a delivery. She had time to make some more money as long as the rest of her deliveries didn’t try to pay with useless bills.

Raven worked her way back across the city to the rundown area that Kobach had set up in. She liked the nooks that gave plenty of handholds if she wanted to reach the roofs in a hurry.

She cut through where Moe Eisen’s shop used to be. It had been demolished after he had fled the city. The gap was like a tooth missing with brothers on either side.

Rumor said he had killed an underworld boss over a kid he had decided needed protecting.

Master Kobach knew something about it, but said nothing. He told Raven the less she knew, the less valuable a target she would be.

She didn’t agree with that. Everybody knew she worked for Kobach. She didn’t know how many knew that Kobach and Eisen were friends. That might lead to trouble if someone wanted to find Eisen and didn’t know where he went.

On the other hand, she could always find a job messengering for others if Kobach was blasted by some angry magic user on devil root.

She just wouldn’t like it.

She walked into the shop. Master Kobach was making change for a customer, another old lady. She waited for the customer to leave before giving her report.

“Mrs. Keswick tried to pay for her drugs with a bag of beads,” she said. “I took this medallion as collateral until she comes down to pay the bill.”

“Was she acting crazy?,” asked Kobach.

“She was acting drugged up,” said Raven. “She dumped the whole bag into her system.”

“The whole bag?,” said Kobach. He ran his hands through his graying red hair on the sides of his head. The middle had lost the fight and retreated to the back of his skull.

“Yep,” said Raven. “What’s the problem?”

“Glow speeds up your metabolism to create the youthful look,” said Kobach.

“There’s a chance she will burn up with the amount she took.”

“I guess she won’t be around to pay for what she took,” said Raven. She looked at the medallion. “Can I keep this?”

“Until someone comes along to settle her bill,” said Kobach. He shook his head. “What do you want with that? It doesn’t look valuable at all.”

“It was the only thing that looked out of place in the house,” said Raven. “As soon as I saw it, I decided that Mrs. Keswick would want to pay to get it back.”

“Or she’ll want to murder you,” said Kobach. “Glow makes you really aggressive when you are looking young. You are going to have to avoid her while she’s still thirty.”

“I can do that,” said Raven. “She didn’t seem that tough to me.”

“Kid,” said Kobach. “There’s tough, and then there’s tough. Don’t get them confused. The Keswicks are wired in. There’s a lot they can do to make you miserable.”

“No one can make me miserable,” said Raven. “I make them miserable first.”

“Here’s Mister Popovich’s heart pills,” said Kobach. “Go out and don’t make me any more miserable than I am. Avoid Mrs. Keswick. I’ll wait for her to come down before I tell her she’s cut off.”

“That’s good, I guess,” said Raven. “Why are you cutting her off?”

“Like I told you, kid,” said Kobach. “Glow is meant to be taken in a pinch like snuff. The stress on the taker’s system is minimized. Taking a whole bag at once means Mrs. Keswick can go up in a ball of flames at any time. I can’t take responsibility for that. I need to cut her off and pass her on to someone who doesn’t have to worry about keeping their license.”

Raven nodded. She took the package and put it in her bag to deliver it. She didn’t care if Mrs. Keswick blew up, but she didn’t want her boss to get into trouble for it if she did.