"Oh. Skeeve," Bunny said, shaking her head. "Here at the Bazaar, everyone does know about the Great Skeeve. When you retired, you were the hottest act in the dimension. Of course people are going to come to you when you open your own business."

"Isn't that the whole idea?" I said, genuinely puzzled.

"Of course, that's the same pool of clients that are currently going to M.Y.T.H., Inc., isn't it?"

"But... That isn't... I ... Oh."

Suddenly everything fell into place, and I was in complete touch with my feelings. Mostly, I felt immensely stupid.

"Two of their biggest clients are the Chamber of Commerce and Don Bruce, both of which made their original deals directly with you," Bunny said. "How do you think they're going to react when they learn that you're opening your own solo operation?"

Now, in addition to feeling stupid, I was feeling the beginnings of a splitting headache. Sometimes I think being in touch with one's feelings is massively overrated.

"Maybe I should go back and talk this out with them," I said, turning around and gazing back toward the direction where the tent lay. "This isn't at all what I intended. If nothing else, there's no way I could take on either the Chamber of Commerce or Don Bruce's jobs by myself— excuse me, with just the two of us." I didn't want to offend my only remaining colleague. My brain felt as if it wanted to force its way out of my eyeballs.

"No. Let it sit for a while," Bunny suggested. "Like you said, they are your friends. Give it a while to sink in. They don't want to keep you from going back into business any more than you want to put them out of business. In the meantime, you might be putting some time into figuring out exactly what kind of work you'll be looking for that isn't in direct conflict with their operation."

I followed her glumly toward the Merchants Association tent. First things first: we needed a place to set up shop. Then I needed to think about what exactly I would be doing in it.