The sorcerer man rubbed his temples. He wasn't the least bit embarrassed by the display; must be a side effect of always having the help watch your family life, I thought.

"As far as you're concerned, I'm Rick. No title yet on the Centralized Magical Arcanacracy's sorcerer scale, but I'm hoping for at least Whimsight when this is all done. My older brother got our parents' town so I'm starting from scratch. What do you think so far?" His chest puffed up with pride, making the jeweled kerchief peering from below his neck more prominent.

"It's... it's amazing, sir."

"Enchanted One, if you don't mind. Avalons are sirs." His good mood cracked.

"Enchanted One," I quickly corrected. "You are very powerful."

"Yes, I am. If I didn't want to settle down, I could earn a higher ranking title in the military or finance, but family life calls to me. I want a home." Pride was back in order.

"Understandable." I didn't understand. Homes weren't permanent or safe; that was an illusion. I'd rather be rich than cozy. At least I wouldn't forget how unsure life really was.

"Well, go ahead, take a seat and let's discuss this proposal that I absolutely must hear."

He took a seat, gesturing for me to do likewise. He clucked at a servant to present him with the baby. The maid plucked it up, staggering at the unexpected weight. The baby was dense. She cried as she was held out in front of the sorcerer.

"Infant who is wailing, now your cries will be failing. Sounds that grate, will now abate." The baby continued to thrash and kick, but there was no more howling.

"That would have been handy during the trip up here." I joked, although I was annoyed he had taken control of the kid so easily when it'd given me so much trouble.

"Surely," Rick said. He eyed me appraisingly. "What do you think of the construction so far? Are you wanting to settle here? It will be a grand city once I finish it, I promise. I already consider the new citizens my extended family."

"Oh, uh, no," I said. "I came to discuss her, mostly." I gestured at the infant.

"You should at least feign politeness, even if it isn't natural to ungifted." Before I could apologize, he continued. "Ah, it is not your fault. You can't help it. I should expect this as the way of things for a while until I cultivate these surrounding lands properly. I did decide to build this far North. You're all just doing your best to survive out here, no time for manners." His gaze drifted to the open window. He was fixated on something high in the distance. A cloud maybe? Or a bird? "But... if my ancestors managed, no, thrive in this land, then so can I. Unwarm seasons or no, I am powerful enough."

The sounds of wood being sawed, workmen shouting, sheep bleating, horses clopping through the streets filtered in. He muttered something, and the window panes closed, muting the noise.

"But no man rules alone," he said to me, levity returning to his voice. "Shall I take this child as an application for the Assistant position I've been advertising? Most of the applicants have been underqualified. Can't be helped in these parts I'm afraid." He rubbed his forehead with a twinge of distaste. "You're not a Wishid, but I have resigned myself to the reality that most of the individuals here will be ungifted. I have three ungifted already in my employ as Assistants, but I would like a larger team that would work together. They run errands, fend off people who are resistant to my erecting a city here, procure magical goods that cannot be merely bought...." His eyes lingered on her, trying not to look interested but clearly fascinated.

"A— Assistant?"

"Yes. This creature is evidence you have a charming combination of luck and ingenuity that is well suited to the work I have in mind. You've earned my attention."

"I... I wasn't here for a job. I wanted to sell her to you. I heard sorcerer's like this sort of thing." My voice sounded so small to my own ears.

Rick frowned, put off, but then steeled himself again. All business.

"So, what payment were you thinking for this?"

"I..." I had half expected to be offered nothing, just like with the Avalons. I alternated wildly between fantasizing over riches and being chased away by guard dogs. "... Two, maybe three hundred?"

"Two hundred thousand coin?" He'd squinted. "Hmm... and here I didn't think you'd know what it was worth." He ran his hand over the baby's soft round forehead, avoiding the messy tears now streaming down her face. She had kept throwing out her arms. "That is a fair price... but... all the same..."

He forced the bottom lid of her eye down with his thumb and the top up with his forefinger. His servant held the baby's arms down to its sides to prevent Rick from getting whacked in the face. The infant's orange pupils strained to the very corners of its eyes. I swallowed.

"Hey, go easy on her. She's just a kid," I said.

The sorcerer gave me a scholarly scowl.

"It's not a child. I have children. You just met one of them." He grabbed the baby. "This is a magical creature... do you even understand why sorcerers want magical creatures, even ones that are outlawed like this specimen?"

"Not really, Enchanted One." I said.

He opened her eyes wide, and I felt like his well—trimmed nails were digging into my own eyelids. I reached out a hand reflexively. "Do you see these eyes?" he asked. "These eyes, in the hands of a skilled sorcerer, can be infused into a ruby, creating a powerful gem that can be embedded into a helm, granting it magical abilities no matter who wears it. On a sorcerer, a constant spell that doesn't drain their warmth. On an ungifted, a chance to grasp on the grand edges of possibility that exist beyond their innate abilities each time they don the mantle."

He let go of the baby's eyelids and wiped his hand off on a handkerchief one of the servants handed him. His hand had been coated in her tears as he had continued to hold on. Her puffy fists went up to her eyes, and rubbed, rolling into fat little balls. I swallowed.

"You're going to kill her and gouge her eyes out?" I asked, trying to sound more curious than disgusted. The baby's orange, betrayed gaze landed on me.

"Oh, no. What a waste. No, I'm going to take the eyes and keep her alive as long as possible. Although not everything regrows, enough does that it's worth at least waiting until she's full sized."

"What different does it make?" I asked.

"Well, for one, it's more raw footage of components like the hide." He ran a finger over her arm. The baby flinched away initially, but as he tickled her stomach, she giggled. He was holding her in place on his lap. "I'm not in need of coin so badly I need to sacrifice her ineffectively."

"But if you take her eyes now, she will die."

"If a person ungifted person tried it, certainly. Us sorcerers, though..." How could he act so friendly while talking about her like this? "We have ways to keep those that should be dead lingering around. Of course, a part forced to regrow by magic isn't as valuable, since its magical property eventually expires, but..."

"I wouldn't know," I blurted. It wasn't part of the pitch. It wouldn't help me get a higher price. So why did I say it? Because... I hadn't wanted to hear. I had thought maybe he'd take care of her, like the ones in the zoo. Fed, safe, clean, if not happy. Alive. More than I could guarantee myself.

"It's nice we can make monsters into something useful for humanity, isn't it? If only the Arcanacracy would make it legal so we didn't have to get components from ruffians like you. No offense."

"None taken," I lied. The back of my neck felt hot. I leaned my face against the back of the wooden chair, searching for a cool spot.

"Are you quite all right?"

"No." The second I said it, my world stopped spinning. The edges had come back into focus, and the heat like a fire on the back of my neck receded. I swallowed, parched but no longer ready to throw up.

"No." I repeated.

"No, what?" the sorcerer asked me. I stood up and grabbed the baby from him. He was startled to stillness. I don't think he was used to being grabbed at or denied. I held the heavy child in my arms, and she clung to my chest. I ran my hand over the back of her head. I glanced down. My nails were dirtier against the canvas of her pale hair then the sorcerer's had been.

"No, I'm not selling." I shuffled toward the door, one of my foot wraps unraveling on the ornate carpet.

"Wait!" Rick got up. "What do you mean? You explicitly came here to sell."

"You can't stop me! I'm leaving!" I shouted, my voice cracking from terror. I threw open the door awkwardly with one arm and slipped through. I began down the winding stone pathway through the flowering trees, their scent sinister compared to before. I moved as fast as my fear-locked legs would let me. All he had to do was say a sentence, a cruel rhyme, and I would fall over dead. All those terrors would happen to this baby like he'd planned. I knew he wasn't against breaking the laws of the CMA so what if he did away with me? I had to get out of his sight. I had to get to a public space with witnesses.

Footsteps clicked behind me, running. My pulse raced from fear as well as the exertion of moving with the heavy Giant baby in my arms. I tripped over my own feet in panic. I thrust the baby above my head as best as I could, and in the process smashed my chin into the path. I tasted blood. The Giant baby cried, silently, like before. She had scraped her back when she landed on the pathway.

I stared up at the servant who hovered over me. I raised my arm, expecting a weapon. She held out a sack to me, heavy with bounty.

"Drop the bag." Rick's voice came from up the hill. He was walking toward us slowly, confident I wouldn't be able to get too far. Irritating. The servant released the bag. It exploded. Coin sparkled everywhere, glinting in the sunlight streaming between the tree leaves. When I raised myself off of the ground, they puddled around my hands like heavy, solid snowflakes of gold.

I whimpered. This much coin. If I had this much coin, I'd never have to work again. I let it roll over my hands. Not a copper coin in the bunch of them. I held the coin up and warmed it between my palms.

"That's 10,000 coins." the sorcerer said as he reached me on the ground.

"I told you I'm not selling." My reflection was mirrored ten thousand times, spread out before me in the tiny polished discs. Rick leaned down, and I saw in his eyes the reflection of my gaunt, desperate face, a sharp contrast to his soft, well-fed face. "Why did you throw these coins at me?" I asked. He rested one gem-ringed hand on my shoulder. The sensation of snow nipped at my skin where his fingertips touched.

"I wanted you to know exactly what you were walking away from." He smiled. "I realized while you were on your way out you had never seen that much coin before."

"No..." My voice drifted as I took in the sea of golden coins spanning ahead of me. The Giant baby, realizing no one was paying attention to it, stopped crying and slammed two of the golden coins together. She giggled in delight at the clinking noise they made. I mimicked her, mindlessly and with no laughter.

"So, do you want to reconsider? I'll have my servant gather these all up, put them in a nice purse for you. Or, if you prefer, I could give you a sum now and deposit the rest into your Centralized Magic Arcanacracy bank account." His breath was a winter breeze.

"I don't have a bank account. I haven't had money left over to save since I was a child."

"This could be a beginning," he said. He scooped up a handful of the gold and held it up to me, hovering inches below my mouth. I'd never smelled what so much gold together was like. It stank, stale but sterile. "Think of it. You'd never, ever be hungry again. You'd have so much more than any ungifted ever had with so much less work." He let the coins slip around his hand, and they'd clanked back to the pile, one musical note after another. Why did each one sound different? "And all you'd have to do is give it to me. You don't even want it."

He pointed at the infant Moon Giant. She offered a coin to me, then eyed the sorcerer distrustfully and went back to clicking her two coins together.

"A monster, born of monsters. Sure, she is cute now, but... think of how many decent, kind-hearted villagers just. Like. You..." He tapped my shoulder with the last three words using the fingers of the hand still resting on it. His fingers weren't snagging in the rough cloth. He didn't leave a mark. "...her parents slaughtered. Killed right in front of their families. And then," the sorcerer shuddered, "ate."

"But... I'm not selling." My voice trembled.

"What, you're going to keep her? And wake up one day, when she's not so little, and not so cute...?" Rick asked me, incredulous. As he trailed off, my mind filled in the remainder of that sentence. "Only a sorcerer can handle what she will become."

I recalled the carnage of the city. The people I had to leave behind. The orphans with eyes so wide and scared I knew they'd never sleep well again. The death screams of their parents being the last words they'd ever hear from them. I swallowed. She could do that to me, one day. Leave me a pile of bones in a burning city.

The sorcerer squeezed my shoulder.

"I knew it, I knew you'd change your mind." The sorcerer stood up, and gestured for his servant to gather up the gold for me. "After all," Rick clucked his tongue. "She's not a pet."

She's not a pet.

She was not some sweet, cute rabbit. She was going to get big. She wouldn't stay small forever, my companion. If a trail ever got too cold and I ever got too lost, I wouldn't even have the option of contemplating killing her for food to ward off starvation. She'd kill me first. Because... because...

She's not a pet. She's not even an animal. She was a baby.

"I didn't change my mind." I forced the words out, and stumbled across the gold pile. My feet slipped across the range of coins. I scooped her back into my arms. "You're right, she's not a pet." I hugged her to my chest. Tears burnt in my eyes, which obscured the riches. My throat filled with bile. My legs didn't want to move. I stared straight ahead without blinking.