Rhapsody

17: Samba

Claudette and Mobius looked on as the mystery girl, Margo, continued to laugh all the while Racine continued to weakly breath, she couldn't manage much more.

"I seem to be missing out on a hilarious joke," Mobius commented.

"Don't get involved," Claudette shook her head, "People like that just want to act strange so that you think they're special."

"Now that's very rude," Margo finally stopped her chortling and sneered, "I came here bearing gifts and you slap my hands away with derisive comments and hurtful patter."

"Okay," Claudette blinked in pure shock, "Putting aside the Lexicon vocabulary....."

"We see no gift," Mobius finished, "You come forward making proclamations yet provide nothing to prove your claim."

"I haven't? Really?" Margo tucked her hands behind her back, "You're sure?" she stepped to the side, pulling and then displaying an enormous red crystal necklace from thin air, "What about this?"

"It's pretty but..." Claudette shrugged.

"How do you have that?" Mobius said in an awed voice as he rose to his feet.

"Okay, supposing I should bite my tongue here but...what is that?"

"Crystallized Blood of the first demon," he muttered.

"Oooh, you like," Margo gently rested the gem on the palm of her hand and ran it up the stone and chain, object disappearing as her hands moved closer together, she balled them up and then blew them open displaying them empty, "Yeah, I thought it was pretty nice too."

"How did you obtain it?" Mobius whispered.

"How does blood crystallize?" Claudette wondered aloud.

"Really?" Mobius rubbed his head while Margo chuckled.

"I'm curious," she shrugged.

"Ugh," Mobius bowed his head, "The first demons were enormous in size, when it was finally killed a veritable lake of its blood leaked out where it was exposed to high pressure where it was concentrated and condensed, becoming hard, like a stone."

"It was later mined by Malaysians who set it into a golden holder, threaded a chain through it and made this delicious little bauble," Margo giggled, "Sorry, like I said, I wanted it for my own collection."

"How did you come by that again?"Mobius wondered.

"Oh my boss, he's into this kind of thing," Margo shrugged, "Got a whole trophy room full of crap like that."

"And why would a collector offer one of his prizes? How would he even know we were looking for it?"

"Um, last question first?" Margo tapped a finger against her cheek, "My boss just kinda makes it his business to know everyone else's business, and to answer your other question, he wouldn't, ever, unless you had something, maybe to trade."

"You dare pretend to barter with us on our own ground," Mobius snarled.

"Yep," Margo grinned.

"I'm going to kill you now and take our sacred talisman," he reached towards her.

Margo vanished into thin air and reappeared behind the group.

"Nah, I don't think so," she wandered at their backs, "Besides, even if you kill me you're not getting the gem back, ya want it, ya gotta deal."

"Hrmmm," Mobius groaned, "Then the question is what do you want?"

"Wait, you're really going to barter with this little slut?" Claudette demanded.