Invite her in

I stepped back out of her way and made a welcoming gesture, "Please, won't you come in?"

"Very good!" she cheered, clapping merrily. There wasn't a hint of sarcasm or or condescension in her voice, as though she legitimately thought I'd accomplished something terribly difficult. She bustled in, slamming the door behind her, "You can't imagine my panic this morning... came into work and it looks burglary, books gone, case open, everything missing... IT missing. So glad you're here, so glad to be seeing you, so nice to meet a new you. We are meeting, right? This is our first meeting? Or rather, back there outside it was, right?"

"Yes..." I said, "Listen, I'm sorry about all this. I have everything we took right here except for one of the rings, and I'll return it all. The building looked deserted and we didn't want to leave all this stuff for some junkie to find..."

"Sorry. Sorry? He say's he's sorry!" She didn't seem angry. In fact, she was... blushing? "Stars and stones and little tiny bells, he's sorry he says. Says he's sorry to me, for the taking? For the panic this morning? Apologizing to me? He apologized to me? Never did I think the new Rezzo would be so kind,"

"I'm sor--" I stopped myself, "I mean, back up a moment, did you just say the new Rezzo?"

"Yes...?" She stared at me as if I was the one not making any sense, "Shop closed for years, no new Rezzo to run it. Previous owner, Rezzo Trent, died many years ago. No Rezzo, no store, no enchantments. Now Rezzo Cal is here and everything will be better,"

"Rezzo Cal..." I repeated slowly. So Rezzo was a title rather than a name. She thought I was the owner of the store.

"Yes, Rezzo Cal," She nodded, apparently proud that I was keeping up, "Rezzo Cal's servants found the store. Rezzo Cal's servants found the entrance. Rezzo Cal opened the books and cast the spell. Rezzo's Magic Shop belongs to the Rezzo." she said with finality, apparently satisfied that her logic was ironclad.

"So you're saying that because we found the magic shop, and because I was the first person to cast spells, I now own the magic shop?" There was no way I was this lucky. I had to be missing something.

"Yes." she said slowly, "That's the law. Rezzo's Magic Shop belongs to the worthy. Rezzo Cal took command. Rezzo Cal showed his courage with the rings of uncertain fate. Rezzo Cal showed his wisdom in mastering Lesser Perception Filter. Rezzo Cal owns the shop. Now we can open again and everything will be wonderful! But first, paperwork!" She seemed legitimately excited about the prospect of paperwork.

So we did paperwork. First were rather pedestrian real estate and tax forms transferring ownership of the land and the building, then some more fantastical looking ones on parchment transferring ownership of the stock. One for the books, one for the potions, one for each of several artifacts including the rings, one for wands and staves, one for jewelry, one for Lulabel... "Wait, what?"

"This form transfers ownership of Lulabel Ambrosia Belboz to Rezzo Cal," she repeated patiently, in exactly the same tone she'd used on the tax forms.

"You come with the store?" I said slowly, "Like a ****?"

Lulabel blinked, "...yes?" This was the second time she'd seemed dumbstruck by my ignorance, "He doesn't know...? He doesn't know! He must not be from the guild! Rezzo Cal is a natural! He casts from talent and genius rather than study! Rezzo Cal is an outsider!" she concluded, clearly quite proud of herself, "So Rezzo Cal doesn't know! Rezzo Cal probably thinks Lulabel is a human..."

"Rezzo Cal was starting to wonder..." I grumble, rubbing my temples, "So what is Lulab-- I mean... So what are you?"

"Lulabel is an undine! Lulabel signed a contract with Rezzo Kahn to serve Rezzo's Magic Shop for one astral month. In exchange, Lulabel receives passage to the human realm, and a physical body. Lulabel has served faithfully for many astral days now, contract nearly up." she seemed proud of herself.

"About how long do you have left, in human time?" If she was about to get loose that might be a concern.

Lulabel adopted a far away sort of expression, "72... carry one... times twelve... displacement constant... square root of... minus 5..." she was counting on her fingers, despite the fact that the math she was doing sounded far more complicated than anything I was capable of, "...only about 2 million years. I think."

Okay, that sounds like somebody else's problem. I signed the paper, "So are there any restrictions on what I can and cannot make you do?"

"Yes," Lulabel answered, "Rezzo Cal cannot **** Lulabel to kill her own kind, to return to her own dimension, to travel through time, or to break the law. Also, Lulabel isn't magically bound to obey Rezzo Cal like his Sandy is, so commands against involuntary things won't work. Rezzo Cal ordered his Sandy not to orgasm, that not work on Lulabel, her willpower limited." She blushed and looked at the ground "Very limited. Would have to punish Lulabel."

We finish up the last of the paperwork, "There, Rezzo's Magic Shop now belongs to Rezzo Cal. Store wards now active. If Lulabel may make suggestion, store stock safer in store behind wards than in here. Should take all items back. Especially artifacts. Wouldn't want anyone opening IT."

"It?" I ask slowly. Clearly there's one specific artifact that she's concerned about.

"Oh yeah! Rezzo Cal is a natural, doesn't know anything!" I try not tot take that personally as she continues, "It. Was in the display case. Ceramic bottle, about yea big" she held her hands about a foot apart, "symbol for demon on it, big cork, nasty nasty demon in it,"

Uh oh.

I remembered seeing that in the display case but not in the boxes. It wasn't here. Which meant either we'd left it at the store and somebody else had it... or..."Blake. You didn't."