"I will eagerly await your return. If I may ask one thing of you... do not tell anyone you have healed me. I would rather keep it under my wing, until the time comes to reveal it."

"I won't."

"Thank you. I believe that is all we required from each other, unless you had some other request?"

"No. That's all, thank you." 

She hugs the University papers close to her chest and departs, heading back thereto. 

And who should meet her on her way there but the Soulless Provocateuse.

"You really do have a way of escalating quickly," she says without preamble. "We bring back Dr. Vaughan, and not a day later does my brother come and tell me he needs me to sow dissent at the Brass Embassy and keep them from rioting at the prospect of a Rubbery Scholar. I do that, and I start hearing tales from all of my contacts that you engaged in some kind of sorcerous siege on the Echo Bazaar and then walked straight in through the Steel Door. Now, I recognize the Correspondence, even second-hand, so I know you were communicating with someone. The question is whom."

"Did you know that the Bazaar itself is a person?"

Her eyes widen. After a long moment, she shakes her head. "I should have. The clues were in front of me. I thought people were simply being - romantic, metonymous-"

She shakes her head again, more vigorously. "That's not the important part, not really. Will you tell me what you spoke about?"

"I will not tell you everything. Some of it is my own business. But--we spoke of a great many things, and some of them I think you'll appreciate hearing about. Uh, I think the first thing is, if you have to tangle with any Master, Irons is a good choice, avoid Fires, and for the love of all that is holy stay away from Veils. Veils is bad news. I mean I'm not saying don't act against him, just, be careful, he is such bad news."

"That's... news to me, at least. Not the bit about Fires, everyone knows Fires is a right bastard, but February has always had a great deal to say about Iron, none of it good, and Veils has often been called one of the friendlier Masters."

"I'm not saying Irons isn't a bastard, but I think he's a bastard who can be reasoned with. Veils, uh, there used to be another Master, and they and Veils were lovers, and Veils killed him and fed him to--I don't actually know off the top of my head which city, but, the people who sold one of the Cities."

The Provocateuse sucks in a breath. "Oh, that's dangerous information. Be very careful who you tell that to."

"It is?"

"If even the Revolutionaries think of Veils as the most civilized of the Masters, then either he actually is, or he has put an immense amount of effort into making that impression. You're telling me that he is not, and that the Masters squabble amongst themselves, and that they can be killed, and that they can love. With one sentence, you've made me a downright repository of secrets. Secrets that any of the Masters, Veils especially, would likely kill to protect."

"...Oh. Well--I guess that makes sense, except--of course they can love, they're people, it's not like the Bazaar that pretends to be just a building, they're openly people, they communicate and everything."

"Not all things that we call people can love. Devils spring to mind. Rubberies. Clay Men. If you had asked me yesterday, I might have told you it seemed an exclusively human ailment. And an ailment of the soul, at that - I know I lost it with my own abstraction."

"--Rubbery Men can love, they just weren't allowed to. I guess I don't know much about Devils or Clay Men. And souls--um--yeah it turns out they're more important than the Devils would like us to know about, I'm considering breaking into the Brass Embassy to retrieve yours."

The Provocateuse doesn't seem to know what to say to that.

"Why," she manages.

"Every soul has the potential for apotheosis." 

"Not more enigmas. Why me? I'm already giving you what I can give."

"Oh! You accidentally befriended me. I take care of my friends."

"...I suppose I can accept that. If you want to retrieve my soul from the Embassy's vaults you'd probably need me with you, a soul can be found more easily with the help of its owner. But that's probably something to plan another day. Did you have any other shattering revelations to give me?”

"Umm...you know the Chain exists, you didn't know about the Bazaar, did you know that stars are people? And at the top of the Chain?"

“The Judgments and their dragons are known to me, yes.”

"Okay--Judgments are capable of love too. And the Bazaar. I think love's pretty much universal honestly."

“The devils view it as a weakness, one that they are not subject to. But perhaps they’re unique in that. Or perhaps they're lying, but I don't think so."