[Xanth]

They had agreed to meet on neutral territory. Despite her fondness for Earth, it was one of few planets in the cosmos that had evolved naturally and belonged to no one. Her early interferences were ancient history for the humans; it was as good a "neutral place" as any.

They stood on the rooftop of one of the many skyscrapers in one of the many cities that spewed toxic air into the atmosphere. Though few people ever came to places like this, she had warned him to fit in and chosen to wear her long wheat-gold hair loose and curly over a mottled brown-and-gold gypsy top and a floor-length multi-layered skirt that swished around her legs as she moved. Her tattoos and wings were hidden, the power in her violet eyes banked but still visible — just in case he got any ideas.

“Do we have a deal?”

[Dananka]

Earth was disgusting. Toxic fumes flooded the air and its peoples cared not a whit for the world dying around them. Danae had never understood Xanth's fascination with the place, and that was when she first discovered this world — when it had been cleaner and purer and fizzing with elemental exuberance.

She had flashed him an image of the type of clothes he could wear to fit in. He had chosen the finest robes available, a tailored charcoal suit with a crisp white shirt, pale blue tie and leather loafers, and tied back his feathered white hair in a leather queue. If Xanth did not want their presence here to be noticed, he was willing to play along. For now.

"Do we have a deal?"

They had a long history together. He had loved her once but had loved himself more. The arrangement she proposed was unusual among their people, but that was the result of allowing a female the kind of power she had accumulated in the last twelve thousand years: They got ideas. It was also dangerous, for both of them, but it did present opportunities he would not hesitate to exploit. She had to know that, and the spark of purple in her eyes warned as much, but who was he to say no?

“Deal.”