The BMA wasn't at all delighted with the mess that had been dumped on them, but couldn't find anything upon which to fault my actions or put any of the blame on me... but it didn't stop them from trying.
They roped off the house for about a week and had lots of arc-tech gearheads going over everything with a fine toothed micrometer. They paid especial attention to her computer, where I'm sure they found all sorts of unwholesome things. No one could possibly doubt that poor misguided and now mangled Gloria had done the unthinkable for a mere 1.9 Sensitive. If they wanted more answers they could get a good Necromancer to have a talk to her corpse... too bad her soul was now off in Never-never Shadow Land with her lost Shadow boy playmate, so she'll be unlikely to answer any questions ever again.
At least they had brought along a good Healer who knew what she was doing and fixed me up rather nicely and only a few of the massive claw marks on my back should leave any kind of minor scarring.
If I never see another Stalker again, it will be far too soon.
It took me weeks to get my sword cane back and my best duster coat and suit were a complete loss. It took me over a month to finish the protections on my replacements and they don't fit half as well.
I eventually got a terse Letter of Appreciation from the Deputy Director of BMA in Galveston, which was about as much of an 'attaboy' as I was apparently going to get, but it was still better than getting nothing. They couldn't burn me for this episode but they were equally disturbed that a 'mere Adept' could handle a house full of Hulks and a Stalker. To the high and mighty Wizards living in their ivory towers, this was a major affront to their egos and placed me firmly on their 'watch list'.
No good deeds ever go unpunished.
Quietly and very privately, I did claim a Rightful Oath of Compensation when I claimed Gloria's matching pair of uber-grade Artifacts that had boosted her latent power well into Wizard ranges.
Items, especially very magical ones, don't like to be removed from their owner, dead or otherwise, and there is a sort of magical taint that briefly marks the items after any 'irregular' transfers. By making my Oath of Compensation, I claimed that I was owed by the deceased certain lawful expenses, per our Contract Oath, for the damage to my own personal magical Artifices, i.e., my protective suit and loss of blood on her behalf, and claimed in reparation her only apparent equivalent items of value, her illegally obtained Artifacts.
I told you there were subtle benefits to becoming the screwie in a breeched magical Contract!
Her bracers, a pair of oversized wristbands that were the source of her augmented power, had nearly every magical gem in them cracked and burned out. She had sucked this baby down to the bottom of the batteries summoning her last otherworldly assassin.
Eight of the large gems, very high grade Major Arcana Stones, in particular were going to be major pains in the rear to replace, especially via normal legitimate channels. I could probably replace a couple of them now, with the massive largess I was about to receive from Donald, my very grateful client. He was
