"I heard you talking to your friend," she said. "My parents are trying to screw you over. Why are you still doing this?"

"I have another six months to work for a licensed investigator before I can get a license of my own. And I got this stupid thing about leaving kids in the middle of big, mean cities after dark."

"At least down here, no one tries to lie and tell me that they care, mister. I see all these Disney shows about how much parents love their kids. How there's some sort of magical bond of love. But it's a lie. Like you and that troll." She laid her head against my shoulder, and I could feel the exhaustion in her body as she sagged against me. "There's no magic."

I fell silent for several paces, just carrying her. It was hard to hear that from a kid. A ten year old girl's world should be full of music and giggling and notes and dolls and dreams. Not harsh, barren, jaded reality. If there was no light in the heart of a child, a little girl like this, then what hope do any of us have?

A few paces later, I realized something that I hadn't been admitting to myself. A quiet, cool little voice had been trying to tell me something that I hadn't been willing to listen to. I was in the business of wizardry to try to help people. To try to make things better. But no matter how many evil spirits I confronted, no matter how many would-be black magicians I tracked down, there was always something else, worse, waiting for me in the dark. No matter how many lost children I found, there would always be ten times as many who disappeared for good.

No matter how much I did, how much trash I cleaned up, it was only a drop in the ocean.

Heavy thoughts for a guy like me, tired and beaten, my arms heavy with the girl's weight.

Flashing lights made me look up. The mouth to one of the alleys between the buildings had been sealed off with police tape and four cars, blue bulbs a-whirl, were parked on the street around the alley. A couple of EMTs were toting a covered shape out of the alley on a stretcher. The flashing strobes of cameras lit the alleyway in bursts of white.