An unedited snippet of Family Law 7 in progress.

“Good evening. We haven’t met but your private com number was given to me by April. I’m Lee Anderson and resident on Derfhome below you. April and I are friends and are doing a lot of business together. I have an art project I’d like to propose to you.”

“I very rarely accept commissions,” Lindsey told her. “April is one of the few for whom I’ve drawn a custom image. Also, Heather, though that was through my dad. Tell me what you have in mind. It will have to be something interesting that I want to do.”

“I’m going to be striking coins for my world. Providence. I want an image of the flying Derfhome carnivore named the Twool for the coin faces. That’s also the name of a extraordinary vehicle I own and it will be struck on millions of coins eventually for which you’d be known as the artist. That’s advertising of the sort you can’t just buy and whatever fees you wish to charge me for your services.”

Lindsey was irritated with this person. She wasn’t just confident. She was well past that and just radiated arrogance. Friend of April or no, she’d dispose of her in short order. She thought a moment what to ask. A London Good Delivery Bar was about five hundred solars. One of those, no, two of them sounded about right to be an insane demand.

“Yes, I’ll drop everything I’m doing and make your image for a sample of each coin upon which it is embossed and a thousand solars.” She smiled, waiting for this young woman to faint away or erupt in objections.

“That’s fine,” Lee agreed. “I have quite a few images and videos of the creature. Would you like them to work with or would you prefer to find your own sources?”

Lindsey stared at her a moment before it registered that Lee was entirely untroubled by her extravagant demand.

“Your*pix*would*certainly*be*helpful,” Lindsey heard a stranger slowly say with an odd catch to her voice.

“Sweet, here’s a link to my Twool folder,” Lee said. “Let me know if you need any other resources. I understand you work with Heather’s mom, who understand carving and engraving. If she requires a separate fee to help with the conversion of your images to fab files for the dies let me know.”

“I’ll*put*that*to*her,” Lindsey promised, still in shock. She sat frozen staring at the blank screen for several minutes after Lee had disconnected. Finally, she recovered, realized what she’d done, and did the first very difficult step of this project.

“Sylvia! I’m sorry. I’m afraid I accepted a joint commission without consulting you.”