"The reason I am here involves your father, actually. You have no doubt heard how he met your mother?"
"Yes," Paen said, growing uneasy. Caspar Green might not be a demon, but nothing good could come of someone from the Otherworld being concerned with his father. "They met at the conclusion of what is now referred to as the French and Indian War. My mother was French. My father fought on the side of the English. His head was almost completely severed during one battle, and she found him and tended to him despite her family's objections. They fell in love. What do my parents have to do with you?"
"A great deal, actually. Or rather, their meeting does. The story you've been told isn't quite accurate - your father was wounded, and your mother did nurse him back to health, but he himself inflicted the injury."
Paen thinned his lips. He didn't believe anything so ridiculous. "Why on earth would he do such a foolish thing?"
"Because I told him his Beloved was nearby."
"You told him?" Paen stared at the man in outright disbelief.
Caspar smiled - on the surface a pleasant smile, but Paen was aware of the aura of power that surrounded the alastor. "Yes. Your father engaged the demon lord Oriens to find his Beloved. I was charged with locating her, which I did. I informed your father of her situation, and counseled that a drastic action would be needed to get within her circle of friends. He took the action, and the rest, as they say, is history. Literally, in this case, but that's one of the perks of being immortal."
"Even assuming that's true - and it sounds highly unlikely to me - what does that have to do with my father now?"
Caspar carefully set the glass onto the desk, clasping his hands over his knee, an affectation that for some reason annoyed Paen. "There is a little matter of the debt your father incurred by purchasing Oriens's help."
Paen's jaw tightened. Yet another gold digger, albeit a demonic one. He went around to the other side of the desk, pulling out the estate checkbook. "How much?"
"You misunderstand me, Paen. The debt your father owes Oriens is not one that can be repaid by means of mortal money."
"Oh?" Paen closed the checkbook, watching the man suspiciously. "What is it he owes for this debt, then?"
"A simple thing, really. A small statue of a monkey. You may be familiar with it? I understand it is a family heirloom - the Jilin God is its most common name."
Paen frowned as he dug through his memories. "A statue of a monkey? No, I've never heard of it, let alone being familiar with it."
Caspar pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. "Here is a sketch of it. It's about six inches high, black, made of ebony. Its origins are said to be Chinese, about six hundred years old."
"Ming dynasty," Paen said absently, still poking around in his memories. As far as he could remember, his father never mentioned anything about a monkey statue as a family heirloom. He himself knew every square inch of the castle, and he'd never seen such a statue.
"Yes. How perspicacious of you to know that. Are you familiar with the era?"
"Only in a collateral sense. I am doing some research on a knight in the service of Marco Polo. He was in China during the Ming dynasty. What proof do I have that any of what you're telling me is true?"
Caspar smiled yet again. Paen was starting to get tired of that knowing smile. He felt decidedly out of his depths with the man, and it wasn't a feeling he relished. "I thought you might ask for some proof. I have here" - Caspar pulled out a small leather case, the size to hold a passport - "a document signed by your father, and bearing his seal."
Paen took the document over to where a magnifying light sat on his worktable. He read the document quickly. It simply stated that one Alec Munroe McGregor Scott, of Darmish, Scotland, did swear to provide the lord Oriens or his due representative with the statue known as the Jilin God in exchange for services rendered him. Paen, no stranger to antique parchment, and certainly familiar enough with it to detect modern paper doctored to look old, examined the item closely with the magnifying glass. He went so far as to pull out a small pocket microscope to examine the fiber content of the document, as well as the red wax seal.
"Very well. I concede this document is real. But why has Oriens waited two hundred and forty years to collect this debt?"
"Oriens is a busy demon lord. Perhaps it slipped his mind, or perhaps he had no need for the statue until now. Regardless of the why, the debt is now being called due, and it must be paid."
"I have no idea what or where this Jilin God statue is. If Oriens waited this long, he can wait another three months until my parents return from the depths of the Bolivian forests to their home in La Paz."
Caspar spread his hands. "Alas, it is not so easy. The debt must be repaid within one lunar cycle upon being called due, or else Oriens is entitled to claim the collateral used to secure his services."
Paen could have sworn his blood turned to ice. The situation was quickly going from bad to worse. "What collateral?"
"There is really only one thing a demon lord wants - a soul."
"My father promised his soul in order to have you locate his Beloved?"
"No, his soul was held in trust for another, so he could not use it," Caspar answered, shaking his head. "He tried to, but Oriens wouldn't accept that as collateral."
Little glaciers rose in Paen's heart. "Then whose soul did he use?"
Caspar smiled, just as Paen knew he would. "Why, that of his Beloved, naturally. Although strictly speaking he wasn't in possession of her soul, the fact that she was his Beloved, and would by her very nature agree to sacrifice herself on his behalf, served as a guarantee. I'm afraid that means if you do not provide me with the Jilin God in the next five days, your mother's soul is forfeit. Unfair to her, true, but that is the nature of these arrangements."