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| − | [ST] Dock Four had been one of the last built in Icehome, constructed barely fifty years before. Separate from the other docks, it juts out into the chill waters of Icehome's bay far from the lights of the city. Twenty years ago, a terrible explosion rocked the bay, and a hideous mist descended upon it, and people died. The legends are still not quite clear, but since those days the dock and
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| − | [ST] the region around it has become a blighted place, too risky even for Icehome's smuggling class.
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| − | [ST] By the time the Once Dead arrive at the outskirts of its abandoned zone, a ring of mouldering warehouses wreathed in mist, the sun has sunk behind the walls of the Greenfield, casting the dock into darkness. Streets stand empty and desolate. Warehouses lean along a curved road that winds toward the long, rock spur of the dock. In the distance, the swamped hulks of abandoned ships wallow.
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder had departed to return Shimmering Twilight to the monastery, yet he must have moved with uncommon speed - the Once Dead spot him racing up the road towards them as they stop at the outskirts of this blighted place. Laughing Jek has departed to inform the rest of the Once Dead, but someone waits there at the outskirts to take his place - Winter Fish's friend, Kekkonen. Snow
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| − | [ST] Peacock looks around like a hunted thing, wishing she could have been the one to deliver the message.
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| − | [Hare] Faithful Hare fits her tiger claws over her fingers. "We should stay together- work in concert." She flexes her claws. Yes. "Does anyone have any experience in ordering small-unit combat?" The Once Dead usually did well enough with disordered melees.
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| − | [ST] "Not me," Snow Peacock mumbles, drawing her chopping sword. "I'm just a pretty face. Are- are you sure we shouldn't wait for the others?"
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| − | * Fish is now known as Kekkonen
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder skids to a stop, breathing heavily.
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| − | [Hare] "If we wait, they could escape with the engine. They'd take it to the Bull of the North, and you'd be sorry when you caught an arrow in the throat from a fleet that slipped right over the city walls."
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| − | [Kekkonen] Kekkonen shrugs, flexing his fingers as he works his hands into the tight cestus straps. "Nah, I can't keep track of everyone in a brawl. Fish?"
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| − | [Hare] Faithful Hare speaks calmly enough, and her face is carefully blank, but she stares at dock with a tense eagerness.
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| − | [Fish] He waggles his crossbow. "I can't be ordering you about, I'm off with this on a roof somewhere." He's still glancing about for an appropriate spot. The mist makes it hard to see very far, so he'll have to be abit closer than he'd like.
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| − | [Hare] Hare grimaces. "An unordered scramble it shall be, then." She breathes in deeply. At least her children were taken care of.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He looks at the mist "Hey, you really think they're in there? I mean, the guys said they weren't at the other docks, but you sure they're here?"
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| − | [ST] "I don't really want to go in there," Peacock says. "I mean... you've all heard the stories, right? They say sometimes a headless maiden comes from the mist, holding her hair by the head, weeping blood..." She laughs, visibly gathering herself.
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| − | [ST] "Well, won't be the first stupid thing I've done."
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| − | [Kekkonen] He retightens the straps on his cestuses, then loosesns and retightens them again.
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| − | [ST] "Evil must be punished, indeed," Brother Thunder agrees tightly. Something in his eyes that hardened when the boy was discoered has yet to fade.
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| − | [Fish] "I'm sure they're in there, and besides, we don't have time to go haring off somewhere else."
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| − | * Kekkonen grimaces
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| − | [Hare] "It's duty," Hare snaps at Snow Peacock. In other times, she might have agreed, but not now. Not when the future if Icehome hung by a thread.
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| − | [Hare] And anyway, it wasn't headless maidens that were likely to skewer them.
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| − | [Hare] "We'll move as a group," she decides, since the others seemed inclined to hang back like skulking dogs. "Go quietly from warehouse to warehouse. No warcries- if there's a chance of catching any of them unguarded, we have to take it."
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| − | [Kekkonen] Kekk nods. That he could do. Still, he's hanging back, in the middle of the group, until Fish gives him a sharp glance.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Fish: "You should lead" he orders him sharply. The man was letting the docks get to him, or he would ahve been off in the mist already.
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| − | [ST] "I will lead, if no others will," Brother Thunder says firmly. Peacock's face twists in a 'better-you-than-me' expression
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| − | [Hare] "Let's go," says Hare, ignoring the by-play. She slinks off into the mist, sticking close to a slumped warehouse. No need to be more obivious than they had to. She glances back to make sure the others followed, especially Snow Peacock. The pain low in her stomach is getting worse.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Kekk sticks a hand into the bristly ruff of his dog's neck, and squeezes it. He wouldn't be alone. He doesn't want to be alone in that mist. "I should lead." He agrees with Fish. It was always easiest to. But he probably wouldn't be far ahead of the others.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He jogs up to the others, then stalks ahead, keeping low and breaking fast between cover, the low shape of his dog following right behind. He wished there wasn't the mist covering him also. He'd rather be under the sky.
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder joins Hare as she moves into the mist, looking at her with some concern. Snow Peacock brings up the rear, the hair on the back of her pale neck bristling in the fog. The group moves between sagging warehouses, open to the elements, battered by years of ice storms and howling winds. Most stand open, doors long since rotted off the hinges. In their darkened interiors, the
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| − | [ST] remnants of broken shipping crates and ruined goods can be seen.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Fish: Fish decides that he'll have to go into the mist to have a chance at a shot when they do find the enemy. He ghosts after the rest, hanging back, wanting to be close enough to hear when they made contact, and far enough back to be hidden from the enemy when it happened.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Fish: He'd have to find a hide then.
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| − | [ST] It was considered an ill omen to take anything from Dock Four, but some were truly desperate - in places, ruined clothing litters the ground along with ancient cedar shavings. Pieces of charred furniture, broken to feed desperate fires, lie here and there. The Once Dead advance, investigating as they go, staring down a number of blind, mist shrouded alleys. Weird noises rise and fall,
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| − | [ST] a sussuration of whispers, cries, sobs, and then vanish. The wind blows colder than ever, with a strange taste, as of bone and blood.
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| − | [ST] Every now and then, a cold shudder steals through the bodies of the Once Dead, and for a moment the sky overhead seems to change, the familiar signs of Fate replaced with alien stars.
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| − | [Hare] The place must be almost a shadowland. Faithful Hare wonders what happened here, and idly, if the last few deaths- of the Once Dead, or the awful tigers- would be enough to push it over the edge. The followers of the sun burrowed in the shadows. But it gave her an idea. "Bide a moment," she tells the others, and halts herself.
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| − | [ST] Weird shapes form in the mist, congealing for but a moment, shifting depending upon who observes them. Hare sees Alyeska's face, and Enigmatic Butterfly's, and the crimson tint of blood. Kekkonen sees the bergs of the Great Ice, the faces of lovers past, the shifting forms of dog sleds. The others see their own visions, and a tear slides down Peacock's face at hers. Stubbornly, she wipes it away.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Kekkonen halts gladly, crouching behind the corner of a derelict warehouse, lost in the clutter there. Something smelled like rotting meat nearby.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He closes his eyes, whispering silent commands for himself "I look for them. I see them, I kill them first. The mist is mist."
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| − | [Hare] She digs a small red crystal out of her pocket, a piece of string, and several beads. She bites her lip when she sees her loved ones, but otherwise stubbornly ignores them.They didn't matter for what she need to do. She loops the string through a hole in the crystal, knots it, and adds several more beads. She wraps the thread around her middle finger and suspends the apparatus from her middle finger. The
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| − | [Hare] crystal spins randomly, glinting with fire at its heart.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He opens his eyes, looking around sharply, afraid something had crept up on him. Beast nudges his fingers with a wet nose.
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| − | [Hare] It begins to slow, orienting itself in a particular direction, drawn irresistably to power as a magnet is drawn to the pole star. "There."
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| − | [ST] The crystal flares suddenly as it receives a very powerful signal, staining the swirling mist nearby a lurid red. It locks firmly north, pointing toward the finger of stone that juts out into the bay.
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| − | [ST] "Out there?" Snow Peacock sounds incredulous. "Nothing but cold stone and colder sea off the end of that dock."
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| − | [Kekkonen] He turns at the flash of red, and scrabbles backwards into the corner, before realizing that it was Hare, at her tricks.
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| − | [Kekkonen] "I hunt, I watch. I see them first." He mouths the words, trying to calm himself down. Fish would be ashamed of him.
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| − | [Hare] Faithful Hare moves toward the light.
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| − | [ST] Kekkonen sees it first - the glare of the stone striking something not of the fog, something metal, sticking out of the upper window of a sagging two story home across the street. A moment later, Beast snaps his head towards the sound, and Faithful Hare follows that motion.
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| − | [Hare] Faithful Hare glances down to see what direction the crystal pointed.
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| − | [ST] Snow Peacock reels back suddenly, a crossbow bolt piercing her thigh. Blood sprays across the stones, and the mist seems to gather around it, hissing.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He is moving, rolling to the side to get his feet back under him, the a half dash, half jump for the sagging corner of a nearby building.
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| − | [Hare] Faithful Hare pulls her coat over her head and charges forward, across the street and under the eaves of the house. She's panting already.
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| − | [ST] Two more figures emerge from the fog, bent low, moving awkwardly in buff jackets. A young woman, perhaps a teenager, her hair braided in pigtails, and a young man, the left side of his face disfigured by a scar.
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| − | [ST] Snow Peacock skids backward along the street until her back meets the warped wood of a warehouse, levering herself up with difficulty.
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder gives a howl and leaps at the closest of the figures, lashing out with the knife edge of his hand.
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| − | [ST] The woman staggers back, gasping sharply and clutching at her throat.
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| − | [Kekkonen] This he knew how to deal with. The toughs in the street were worthless, the danger was the crossbow. He bolts from the corner, laying into Thunder's target with his fists, but not slowing down as he mvoed to the sniper's house.
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| − | [Kekkonen] As he leaves the corner, a low whistle and a gesture from his left hand give Beast his target.
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| − | [Kekkonen] The jagged iron ridges of his cestus bite into her leaving streaks of shallow gashes and hanging flesh behind.
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| − | [ST] As he moves past the woman, Kekkonen's blows strike her back, stunning her and causing her to stumble forward. Even as she staggers, the young man screams out, "Ruth!" and takes a step toward her, turning his head just in time to see Beast's approach.
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| − | [Kekkonen] The dog is waist-height, crouching. It runs low over the street, then leaps biting at the man's hand.
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| − | [ST] The young man shouts in alarm, jerking himself out of the way, and the Omen Dog's fangs only scrape his arm, ripping through the sleeve of his buff jacket and drawing blood rather than tearing his hand off.
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| − | [ST] The girl shakes her head, laughing, pain in her eyes and blood coursing down her back. Her pigtails flail from side to side, the ends growing crimson and wet. Around her, the mist gathers and moans. In the light from the lanterns and Hare's crystal, her features can now be seen. She could not be older than fifteen, buck toothed, her face disfigured with the scabs of whore's blossom. A
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| − | [ST] clumsy golden circle has been painted on her forehead.
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| − | [ST] "For the Shining Ones!" she shouts, leaping at Brother Thunder. A wickedly serrated knife is gripped in one small fist, and she does her best to gut the monk with it.
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| − | [ST] But Brother Thunder is too fast - he dodges smoothly to one side, extending a foot, and the girl trips over it and crashes gracelessly to the ground.
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| − | [ST] The man, blood still gushing from his wounded wrist, moves towards Hare, his eyes narrowing. "How dare you defy the work of the Shining Ones?" He screams, and springs at her, his knife awkwardly seeking her throat.
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| − | [Hare] Hare bends backward. The knife darts narrowly over her throat. She grabs his arm and twists it, throwing him over her hip into the mud.
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| − | [ST] "Is this shit supposed to be funny?" Peacock snarls, wrenching at the bolt in her leg. A moment later, the shooter fires again.
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| − | [Hare] She glances swiftly at her geomantic orientation device to make certain that it is undamaged. It's blood-like glow draws attention, so she covers it with her fist and puts it in her pocket.
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| − | [ST] Another bolt flies out of the mist, striking the back of the hand Peacock is using to steady herself against the wall and pinning it there. She shrieks.
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| − | [Hare] Hare flinches as her comrade screams. "Peacock, you-" idiot, but stuck there now. She stomps brutally with her iron-toed boots on the hands of the man who tried to kill her.
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| − | [ST] The man howls as his fingers break under Hare's boots with a loud crunch. Even as he shrieks in pain, Brother Thunder kneels over the fallen Ruth.
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| − | [ST] The man struggles to get up, raising his head just in time to catch a kick by Hare that knocks him senseless to the ground.
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| − | [ST] "I wish I could say I was fully sorry for this necessity, child," Brother Thunder says, drawing back his hand and making a fist. "But blasphemy draws just punishment. And I am no Sextes Jylis." Ignoring the terror in her eyes, he slams his fist down once, twice, thrice.
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| − | [ST] Peacock's drops her blade so that her free hand can fasten around the bolt. With a grunt, she rips it from the wall and her hand in a spray of blood.
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| − | [ST] A tooth goes flying as Brother Thunder batters away, but the girl clings stubbornly to consciousness.
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| − | [Kekkonen] The crossbowman, he had to die. Kekk grabs a javelin from the brace of them on his back and spears it through the window. That'd give him something to worry about at least. Then he makes for the nearest door.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Beast darts over to Thunder's victim, leaping onto her back and biting down at her flailing arms.
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| − | [ST] The shooter curses, withdrawing, as Kekkonen's javelin cuts a narrow gash in the back of his hand.
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| − | [ST] The girl turns, faster than perhaps should be expected, and batters at the Omen Dog with the hilt of her blade, taking only a few glancing cuts from its teeth. Her eyes are crazed, wild.
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| − | [ST] With a wordless shriek, she lunges at Brother Thunder, stabbing wildly.
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| − | [ST] Thunder looks down in horror, finding the weapon buried up to the hilt in his gut.
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| − | [Hare] Hare curses, runs across the street and tackles the girl, banging her head against the cobbled street. It's easy; the girl goes down with scarcely any resistance. She's loathe to bloody her claws, somehow, against the child; that is reserved for Blood Rose. Hare gives the fanatic one last kick in the gut, then looks at Thunder, grimacing.
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| − | [ST] As the girl slumps to the street, unconscious at last, bleeding freely from her wounds, Kekkonen mounts a tilting wooden stairway and bursts into a room with the crossbowman, a rotund, balding man with a red face and the same crazed look in his eye as the others.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He races at the man, fists clenched, turned with their backs to the crossbowman. Hopefully he could catch a bolt with the jagged iron ridges of his cestuses if the man managed to get one off before he hit him.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Nope. He grins, backhanding the fat man, then following with a left to the face, and then a flurry of body punches. He liked to get his fists wet.
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| − | [Kekkonen] The first backhand crushes the mans cheekbone and slices the side of his face to ribbons of meat. The followup left caves in his eye socket. Luckily there is too much blood flying to see what had happened to the mans eye. A fist grinds into his kidney as his body turns from the force of the blow to the face, and then a followup in front and above breaks a rib. More follow. Kekkonen stops when the man slumps bonelessly against the window sill.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He reaches a bloody hand up to pull his javelin from the ceiling, and then gives the unconscious and dying body a quick search. The crosbow at least would fetch something. He pushes the man out of the window to join his fellows on the street, then comes back down the staircase, slower now, trying to make less noise than his thundering run up it.
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| − | [ST] On the streets below, Snow Peacock finishes ripping a piece of cloth with her teeth, tying it around the hole in her hand. She slumps against the building where she was recently pinioned, looking down at her gushing leg. "Don't think... I can get this to close..."
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder still stares rather dumbly at the knife piercing his side.
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| − | [Hare] Hare puts a hand around his shoulders. "Brace yourself," she says, and wrenches it out. She staggers as he sags.
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| − | [Hare] She helps him over to the wall, one hand pressing into his side where the knife had been. "Keep pressure on it," she instructs him evenly, moving his hand to the wound, even as her nerves sang with impatience.
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| − | [ST] Blood bubbles out over the monk's hands as he looks down at the wound. "It's true," he says weakly. "Pride cometh before a fall, and rage leads to nothing but pain."
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| − | [Hare] "Not dead yet," Hare grunts, ripping fabric from his robes and tying it quickly around the wound.
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| − | [ST] Hare works diligently at the wound, but it's too large. The clumsy stitches she keeps trying to make break free, and more and more blood bubbles forth.
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| − | [Hare] "Fuck," she whispers as she works. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..."
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| − | [Kekkonen] Kekkonen rejoins the group. "I don't know about that. Being sad ain't going to help you not get cut in a fight. And bein angry can keep you alive."
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| − | [Hare] "Help Snow Peacock," she snaps.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He kneels down to scratch beast thoroughly behind the hears with both bloody hands. It doesn't make much difference, as the dog's huge muzzle is bloody enough already. "Got em good, eh?"
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| − | [ST] "Perhaps," Thunder says. He is white as a sheet, bleeding out. Steam bubbles from his wound as Hare works, and he bleeds, and he bleeds, and then, miraculously, she gets the wound closed, and the bleeding stops.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He gets up, and walks over to her. "Aw, you know I'm no good at this stuff." He squats down by her, and circles her thigh with his hands, putting extra pressure on the arteries on the inside of her thigh. It would help, temporarily. "Get yourself another strip f that, then well wait for Hare and her needle."
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| − | [Hare] They were losing too much time. She spends only moments on Snow Peacock's leg, untying her clumsy bandage and rewraping tighter. It was already almost soaked thorugh. She jerks so hard on the edges that Snow Peacock goes white. "Wait for relief," she tells them sternly. "We're going on." She fixes a fierce glare at Kekkonan, in case he objected. They had lost half their number. Ordinairy doctrine inisted they
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| − | [Hare] retreat.
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| − | [ST] "I can still fight," Peacock says stubbornly, as if ashamed of her earlier fear. She struggles to stand.
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder does as well, but falls back, his eyes weak and sickly.
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| − | [Hare] "You'd just soak up arrows," Hare tells her bluntly. "We'll be faster without you. Make sure no one kills Brother Thunder. He'd be a chewtoy to the smallest predator to come around."
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| − | [ST] "Take care, then," she says with a defeated sigh. "I'll send the others after you as quickly as I can. I'm sorry. Hell of a lucky shot..."
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder reaches up, grasphing Hare's bloody hand with his own. "Take care," he manages, his voice thin and ebbing. "And go with the blessing of the Dragons."
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| − | [Kekkonen] Fish dashes up from the street behind them. "You get them all?" He asks Kekk, out of habit, but his eyes are sweeping the street, looking for another enemy. "Kekk was in the window by the time I knew where the shots were coming frm."
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| − | [ST] Beast, unconcerned with these proceedings, laps the blood from his chops eagerly.
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| − | [Hare] Hare shrugs. Snow Peacock would likely recover fully; Brother Thunder wouldn't ever walk easily again. She holds his hand for a moment, looking in his eyes. She swallows; she needed all the blessingls she could get . "Yo-Ping keep you well," she returns, with a ghost of a smile before drawing her hand back.
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| − | [Kekkonen] Kekkonen rips a cloak from one of the dead illuminated, and wipes off his hands. He didn't want to be leaving a blood trail after this. He checks the rest of himself, making sure there wasn't anywhere saturated with blood, and also checking to be sure he hadn't picked up any unnoticed cuts himself. Then he uses the somewhat shredded wool to wipe off beast.
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| − | [Hare] "No time for that," Hare says impatiently. "You'll both only get bloody again anyway. Now that Fish is here, we must be off."
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| − | [Hare] She draws her hand from her pocket and their ruddy beacon gleams again in the swirling mist.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He nods. "Stay a bit behind me, and quiet. Don't come to a corner before I clear it." He was annoyed that the others had wandered into the crossbowman's sights when he was meant to be leading. Of course, he should have seen him faster. He shivvers, reminded again of the mist.
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| − | [Hare] "Then lead," Hare snaps. She points.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He sets off, not waiting for her to answer. Already he is restarting the silent litany "I hunt . . .". It kept him focused, told him what to do. He hated this mist
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| − | [Kekkonen] Beast pads after him.
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| − | [ST] With Fish creeping behind to cover their approach, the two remaining Once Dead set off, leaving Brother Thunder and Peacock behind with the unconscious Cult members. Kekkonen moves through the mist easily with no further challenge as Hare's crystal leads them out onto the docks. The rocky structure is perhaps fifty feet wide, carefully smoothed, its surface slick with sea spray. Barnacles
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| − | [ST] have accumulated over the years on its sides and pilings, caring nothing for this place's cursed reputation.
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| − | [ST] Sunken hulks and foundered ships rise on either side as they advance, submerged in a sea nearly cold enough to freeze. The touch of that water will numb the body instantly, and kill a man in minutes. Tattered sails move in the rank night breeze. And then... the crystal sharply swerves to the left, pointing at a ship riding low in the water.
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| − | [Fish] Fish stops at the start of the docks. The pilings there would give him some cover, and would be perfect as a brace for his bow. hopefully, he wouldn't have to go farther than here.
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| − | [ST] A squat merchant carrack, several holes poked in its side, its mast shattered, its forcastle a ruin of twisted timber. It rides lower that it should in the water, slightly inclined. Fading paint on the bow proclaims it, ironically, Sol's Fury.
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| − | [ST] A number of trailing chains and slime-coered, rotting ropes link the hulk to the dock, along with a rope ladder which looks much less worn.
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| − | [Hare] Hare slides the crystal into her pocket and creeps out after Kekkonen. She flexes the fingers strapped with claws. "Up the ladder," she whispers in his ear.
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| − | [Kekkonen] He hesitates, hating that he won't be able to conceal himself when he rolls over the ships rail. But he pats Beast on the head, giving him a firm gesture to stay, and swarms up the ship's ladder.
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| − | [Hare] Hare follows him, determined but not graceful.
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| − | [ST] The deck is weather scoured and rotten, with a pair of stairs to the stern of the boat leading below decks. A large, rotting wooden grille covers much of the surface. The entire ship stinks of incense, burned as a warding against ill spirits. In fact, as soon as the Once Dead clamber aboard, the chill, dread feeling of the mist fades away.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Nothing stirs on deck. Far above, an airship moves across the sky towards the landing strip outside Icehome, momentarily blotting out the stars. It could be a hundred miles away.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Faithful Hare moves gingerly across deck, avoiding walking on the grill. Surely Blood Rose knew they were there. Surely an ambush waited beneath the stairs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He ducks down to avoid being silhouetted above the ship's rail, and creeps towards the nearest door to belowdecks.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Silently, two figures appear at the top of each of the staircases leading downward. On the left, an old man, his muscles looking strange as they bulge against his withered frame, his long gray hair blowing out behind him in the night wind. He clutches a tetsubo in both hands, the club's massive head nearly as large as his torso. He looks familiar, and Hare remembers him standing in the
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] crowd outside Whispering Bear's temple. Winter Fish, if he could make out his face from this distance, might recognize him as the old man scraping ice from the streets outside Ralinona's brothel.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The other figure wears a simple frock that bulges over the plates of armor. A golden sai glimmers in her hand, and in Luna's wan light, her eyes are alive with a violent fire. Her face is youthful, certainly no older than twenty, and her long, dark hair streams out behind her. She is beautiful and utterly mad, both visible at first glance.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "So," Blood Rose says softly. "The mice have come to hunt the tigers."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "You killed my husband," Faithful Hare says, her voice raw.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] Kekk waves a hand over the rail, telling beast to get up if he could. His other busies itself grabbing a javelin. He doesn't bother replying, just gris. This he could deal with. He almost wanted to thank them for freeing their deck of the mist. Whatever Fish had said about them, he was happier to fight them thn he had been getting here.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "He wasn't the first. He won't be the last. I've killed many men, and all of them deserved it. Do you wish to join him, cow?" She laughs softly. "You must."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare blinks away tears. "Bitch."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Well, we'll need to make this quick, we are preparing to depart. Pinyar, entertain them." She descends the stairs, calling up, "If you want me, little mouse, come show me your claws."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Pinyar inclines his head towards the Once Dead, stepping forward, weapon gripped in both hands.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He glances between the two, trying to gage which one was stronger. Pinyar apparently took orders, but that didn't necessarily mean he was weaker. Look at him and Fish.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She was a rabbit anyway. She hears Enigmatic Butterfly's words like a breath over her shoulder. "Don't let her make you stupid. Read the environment. Kill the old man first- better to fight \three-on-one twice than three-on-two once."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare steps warily back over the grill, where the wood was rotten. The tetsubo, his muscles- he was heavier than she was.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She waits for him there, where the wood is wet and slick with fungus.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Pinyar paces back and forth in the moonlight, his weapon swinging heavily from shoulder to shoulder. As Hare readies to attack him, he lets his glance flicker between the two Once Dead, moving closer slowly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Then, he turns on his heel like a man half his age, springing, the steel head of his weapon gleaming in the weak moonlight as he brings it up, then down at Kekkonen.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He raises the back of his fists, trying to deflect the blow as he move out from under it. He certainly wasn't going to be able to stop it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Kekkonen's fists are battered aside - there is a crunch somewhere in his side as the massive weapon connects.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] The old man knew how to avoid an obvious trap, then, Hare thinks as the weapon connects with his side. Hare waits a moment, gauging the distance, then as the old man Pinyar turns his back she leaps at him, raking her tiger claws across his back. The deck creaks alarmingly under their combined weight.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He staggers back, gasping. He was hurt badly, surely, but he couldn't feel it at all.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Hare's first attack strikes home, ripping vast trenches in the man's buff jacket, but doesn't seem to penetrate his flesh. He grunts, fending her off, sweat running down his forehead to catch in his giant white eyebrows.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] At least his right arm was working. He still couldn't feel his left side. it must be bad, but he doesn't spare the time to look. Instead he cranks his body around, casting the javelin he still clutched, then another and another, from the brace of them at his back. Each time he torqued his torso, he felt stabbing pain in teh center of his abdomen, radiating from his side. But sill nothing there.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The first javelin hits home, punching into the old man's shoulder. Pinyar rolls with the blow, slipping sideways and directly into the second javelin. He shudders, taking a step, blood coursing down his chin. Then, he falls, and as he strikes the deck, the entire ship shudders as if some giant has fallen.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] But something else is happening - the ship is not falling, but rising, lifting its broken shape free from the waters of the bay.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "The engine!" Faithful Hare hisses.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Fish watches as the ship rises, and rises, straining and snapping ropes and rusted chains. Some break, trailing from the sip's rotting bottom like jellyfish tendrils. Others cling to the dock, tearing out vast pieces of the ship's structure. Coldwater barnacles thrash in cold, open air.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Dozens of Once Dead crowd the dock below, Jek at their head, watching as the ship rises up, up, up, its entire frame trembling. Kekkonen spots a furtive movement along the side, and Beast scrabbles onto the deck, looking at the yawning gap behind and below him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Her hand plunges into her pocket, drawing forth a small black vile. Hands shaking, she spreads it across blades on her knuckles. Now was not the time for chivalry. If she was to have any chance at all- she stumbles as the deck shudders beneath her feet. She glances at Kekk. "Can you fight?" she demands.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] Beast leaps to the deck, just as the ship starts rising from the water. The deck tilts slightly, and the dog scrabbles to regain its footing on the slick wood, its claws clicking and gouging to regain purchase.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He rolls his right shoulder, trying not to move his torso at all. "Sure" he rasps, not sure at all. He slowly moves to retrieve his weapons. He'd need them soon enough. "Guess its just us now."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "Fuck," Hare says without inflection. She glances at him. "I'll go first."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She creeps down the stairs, keeping herself close to the wall.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He staggers after her, taking the stairs on the other side of the ship. No need to draw attention to both of them, and he wasn't able to move as quickly or quietly as he was used to.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The stairs open out into a vast, dark gallery. Whatever the interior of the ship once looked like, years of disuse have left it strange and ragged. The deck is buckled and warped, holes showing the sky in a few places. Cedar shavings litter the floor, and boxes of mildewed clothing. More clothing drapes shattered spars jutting from the walls and the timbered ceiling like washing hung up to
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] dry and forgotten for a very, very long time.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She wondered what happened in this district, to leave it so close to the shadow world.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The light is weak, coming only from the holes in the floor and walls and from a room far towards the stern, where a vague, glowing blue light washes out from the essence engine. A woman, slim and freckled, sits there with her legs crossed. Her eyes are closed in an ecstatic trance, and wires run from the device to her body, clamped upon her lips, her ears, her fingertips. Essence crackles
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] and hums.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] They seemed to keep getting higher. If they couldn't kill Rose, or even if they could, they might have to destroy the engine. Didn't seem likely that they'd live through that. But maybe he wouldn't be living anyway. Pity for Beast, but he was a loyal dog.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Little mice..." the voice of Blood Rose washes through the darkness, eager. "Come to play?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] Beast growls, his hackles rising. Kekk just looks around, ready to throw the javelin he is currently using as a cane.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Faithful Hare moves forward, eyes darting from shadow to shadow. "Do you know the story of the mice who stopped a Fae army?" she calls back. If she could just kill the freckled woman... Not even Blood Rose could survive such a fall.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Do tell... I'd hate to deny you your last words."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Beast growls slowly, hesitantly, his eyes roving the darkness, nose working.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] His mind scrabbles between options. He had a shot at the pilot. Surely he could kill her. But then he wold die. If they killed the girl, they might be able to negotiate, or something, Maybe he could live. But would he live anyway, and would he live a cripple? He'd rather die than that. His mind shies away from it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Hare can see Blood Rose, standing in the dark. Doubtless the woman doesn't realize it, but a piece of broken mirror reflects the light just right to pinpoint her dark hair and her silken dress in the lee of a splintered timber column.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare continues forward as if she didn't know where the woman was, still scanning in the same way. "Not much to tell. The mice nibbled through the straps holding their armor together until they were unarmored, and then Creation's army slew them." She shrugs, turning so that her back was entirely exposed.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] Retired Once Dead were given siecures, had paths to important government positions. But noone respected a cripple. He'd be shoved away with a pension, to kill himself or live with the disgrace of being a waste.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Let me tell you something about stories, little mouse."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She hears the slight sound of Rose's quickening breathing. "Too gentle to orphan my children?" Hare taunts the darkness where she knew very well Rose did not reside. She waits for that attack, the area between her shoulders prickling with anticipation.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He stays close to the wall, not moving much. He didn't need to get any closer to the pilot to kill her. Instead he watched Hare, watched her taunt the girl. Hopefully the girl would slip up, or attack her, and then he would ahve a shot at her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Stories are something that fools create in the dark of night to feel better about the darkness outside. They tell stories of heroes, of victory. The Dragon-Blooded tell Creation the lie that they vanquished the Anathema, when they really plunged us into darkness. The mortals tell the stories of how to ward against the Fair Folk, how to stop ghosts, how to live, if you're clever. They lie."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "In the real world, mortals are helpless before the storm. In the real world- the monsters always win."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] In Enigmatic Butterfly's story, it had been the sun that sent the mice. "Not when the monsters are mortal themselves. Can you smell death breathing over your shoulder, girl?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He doesn't smile. Luckily, he doesn't have the energy to. He was right. She was aiming for Hare. Arrogance, not that he wasn't arrogant. But it was still a weakness, and he had tracked her by it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He gathers himself, trying not to move perceptably, not to draw her attention away, then strikes, stepping away from the wall and hurling javelin after javelin at the shadows inside the column where Rose was hiding. There was no finesse about it. The stalk was over, no need for quiet, now it was time for strength and the kill.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Kekkonen's javelins fly straight and true, slamming into the shadowed figure with a series of loud thunks, the sound so loud that it sounds almost vile, more than the mere shifting of blood and bone should inflict. One takes Rose through the shoulder, one in the belly, one in the head. And then...
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The dressmaker's dummy topples over, the red silken dress pinioned to it twice over, the cheap wig spilling sideways to fall to the deck, and a pile of clothing in front of Hare erupts as the woman springs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare grits her teeth as the woman's golden sai flies toward her, her claws curving upwards to slice at Rose's stomach. One wound- she only needed one wound-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The golden sai sinks into Hare's belly again, and again, and again, burning terribly without a flame. Hare smells burning flesh, feels a terrible coldness as Rose's face rests near her own. "Die," the woman whispers. "Die. Die. Die. Die."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare whimpers. No. Her daughter- Rose was killing her little daughter- "stop," she whispers. She reaches up tries to push Rose back, and she realizes her claws are already wet with blood. Vengeance, then. "Butterfly," she pleads, and blood bubbles up from her lips.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rose smiles, contemptuous, pushing the dying woman away from her. "The monsters always win," she repeats, her eyes alight, glorifying in this moment, and then she feels the first sting of pain. She looks down at the scratch that Hare's claws have made in her side, at the venom that drips from them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "N...no..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "Not - always-" Hare says, smiling slightly as she lands with a hard jar against a post. Her stomach is a nest of fire, and it makes her thinks of birthing a phoenix. But when she looks down, all she sees is wriggling red worms.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She brings brings to mind the faces of her boys, Butterfly, Alyeska, Red Boar, holds them. "Not always," she sighs, and goes still.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Her eyes stare blankly into the darkness, and blood still drips from her mouth, puddles around her ravaged stomach. But there is almost a grin on her face.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rose staggers, fury filling her eyes as she looks down at the woman who has killed her... and then, she begins to stagger, not towards Kekkonen, but the freckled woman piloting the airship.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He grits his teeth. Only him and Beast left to be sacrificed then. Whatever Rose was trying to do, he needed to stop her. He begins casting javelins again, wrenching his frame again and again, ignoring that the numbed area was growing with each throw.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] The corner of his mind not busy forcing himself on tries to curl his left hand into the command to attack. He'd trained Beast with hand commands mostly, and some whistles. But he didn't have the breath to whistle, so he had to just hope that he could make the hand move, and that Beast would take the right one, whichever the right one actually was.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rose falls, her back pinioned with a pair of javelins. "No...." she gasps, her hands scrabbling at the deck, blood bubbling from her mouth. "No... no... nuhhh..." and she dies, tears running down her face, poisoned blood stilling.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The last javelin, missing its mark, strikes the entranced thaumaturge in the throat. She gives a sudden, ragged gasp, and the ship shakes violently, beginning to spin wildly as blood sprays across the cabin.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He lurches towards the mage. She needed to crash the ship as gently as possible, if the engine or any of them was to survive. He waves feebly for Beast to run onto the deck, to save himself if he can.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He reaches the mage, and reaches down to choke her. He knew chokes. The brain lasted far longer after you closed the windpipe than it did when you cut off its blood. So he throttles her neck as tight as he can, trying to keep her from bleeding out. "Got to land this thing!" he gasps as she stares at him in horror, a hulking figure covered in blood and staring wild down at her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The woman gropes wildly as she stares up at Kekkonen in horror, snapping the wires that bind her to the machine, her leg kicking wildly to knock aside a pile of reagents and an opium pipe. She thrashes against his grip but seems to understand it, and the ship's rapid spinning slows slightly, but it's still coming down terribly fast.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] "Land it, you might live. Land it we might see about this cut. LAND IT."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Once Dead on the docks stare up in dumbfounded horror as the ship falls, spinning end over end. At the last moment, before it hits the water, it slows greatly as the woman expends one last effort, and then it crashes beneath the waves with a crunch, chill water flooding in.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Kekkonen finds himself in a swirling maelstrom of water, the woman swept away by the freezing tide. Charts and wires float before him in the murky water, and the crackling essence cables dance in front of him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He kicks with everything he has, and tries to give as good of a breaststroke as he can with only one arm working. Beast paddles along beside him, howling encouragingly. At least he'd be able to swim away if Kekk died.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Kekkonen battles his way free of the sinking wreckage with limbs he can now barely feel, and suddenly the surface is looming before him- his head bursts into the air over the night see, followed by Beast's a moment later.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "There!" A voice shouts. Soldas, of all people. "Over there!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He manages to stay on the surface after the initial shock, but in the rolling waters boards and tackle, and perhaps a body slam into him, battering him around. He feels a sharp pain in his side, something broken or cut, and he is forced under. But Beast grabs his left arm, and pulls. Pulls him to the surface, and helps pull him through the water after that.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He kicks and paddles, does everything he can to at least stay on the surface till someone can reach him, or the tie carries him to the dock, to survive.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "A fire!" Someone is calling, as Kekkonen is hauled from the water. Knives cut the straps on his armor. A dozen hands are tearing off his wet clothes, a babble of voices all around. "What's this thing lodged in his bootheel?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Expensive," Fervent John theorizes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Jek's face appears over Kekkonen's as a fire springs to life behind him, casting a welcoming warmth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Where's Hare?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] Fish is standing over him. "You are going to live, you bastard." He was useless at this kind of thing. But at least he'd been able to get him out of the water. They'd been shipmates before, and no-one wanted to freeze to death out there.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] "Shes dead," he says exhausted. He knew about this, enough about it anyways. Knew he couldn't go to sleep no matter how much he wanted to. Well, he always did follow Fish's orders, always better to. So maybe he'd make it back to the rest of the Once Dead, with another story to tell.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] He grins slightly. "You know, I killed all three of them up there. I want you to remember that." He waggels a finger escaped from a blanket before someone wraps him up again.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] "Not Hare though." He adds. These thins were important.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] Beast wuffles nearby, and licks his cheek. Someone had been brushing the water off his coat.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "We should have been there," Brother Thunder says sadly. He is walking with difficulty, leaning against Snow Peacock. Between them, they have two good legs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Why, so we could be dead or frozen, too?" Peacock answers.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Hare was a good woman. I am sorry she had to die, but glad she avenged herself on those killers."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The Engine-" a new voice, coming from a figure Fish recognizes, the cloaked and hooded one who first gave them this assignment. "What of it?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Is it taken? Destroyed?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Kekkonen] "'s out there," he nods at the sea with his head, everything else bound up in cloaks and blankets. "I tried to land it as softly as I could, bt not my kind of sailing!" He laughs feebly. The world seemed funnier at the moment.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Good enough," Hooded Owl answers, voice stern. "The perpetrators will be punished."
| |
| − | | |
| − | -----
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] It's a grey, misty morning, and the sun does not penetrate the white wintry sky. Boar's house is recently painted and neat enough, especially in comparison to the rather grim dwellings surrounded it. The neighborhood is rundown, a sailors' group of hovels set smack in the middle of the warehouse district, but most local villains know better than to bother Red Boar's place. He had that reputation.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] A prematurely aged woman sweeps the evening snow from the street, her fingers knobbed and swollen with lockbone, a classic sailor's illness. She looks up when she sees the newcomers, giving them a sharp look, and slinks away when she sees the weapons.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] Fish walks grimly down the lane. He'd been first mate of his ship before he got out of that trade, and had had to make a few of these visits. But his crew mostly hadn't had families to care about them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] Some of the women kept stable shore families, but the men hadn't much remembered the women they might have had children with.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He marches alone to the door, and knocks sharply. He schools himself to his usual mask. There were moments when he hated it, but safety came before compassion.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] There is a moment of waiting, a peephole hastily opened. The door opens to reveal a large, brutish man, the type who looks like he might spend decades heaving barrels of salt fish into a hold and never stop to think about doing something else. He furrows his brow at Fish.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] When he speaks, he sounds slightly more intelligent. "Can I help you?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Behind Red Boar, a voice calls out eagerly from somewhere upstairs. "Is mother back?" Fish can hear the sound of feet hitting the floor, and there's jostling and a struggle coming down the stairs. "Mik- don't get in the way so much-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Boar marks the raven tattoo on Fish's cheek well. "You're one of the Once Dead, then." His voice carries a note of foreboding.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] So this was Boar. He wondered how they had met, what made the difference between him and her husband. He taps the raven on his cheek, to make sure the other man understood. He didn't see the kids yet, so he'd better make it fast. Boar would know what to say to them more than he. "Hare died last night."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He seemed like the kind of man that could take it blunt like that, and Fish was a good judge of men.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Boar takes a step back, staggered by the news that he was already expecting. It feels impossible. Hare had always made it out, even that time they fought the Hungry Lady. It wasn't everyone who could say they'd survived the attacks of such a ghost.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I... see. I believe Hare expected it might happen. I... never did."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] He doesn't change position, but something heavy seems to settle upon him, dragging him down. He suddenly looks every one of his years.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The killer..." he says at last. "Where can I find the killer? The crime won't go unpunished."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "Only one person made it off the ship alive. Ah , , , he said he'd killed everyone else, except for Hare." He looks away slightly, letting the other man have some privacy. Besides, he wanted to know the kids were arriving before he accidentally informed them without getting them ready first.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He slips the golden Sai out of a pocket. "He said she was killed by this. Wanted, well, someone to have it." He'd told him to give it to her husband. He had never heard that news, things had happened so fast. And it helped that Kekk was rather dense that way.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I wish I could say thank you," Boar says as he takes the weapon. He looks back to see if the children are still coming. "But against what has happened, this is a small thing."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] He thinks of Bitter Revelation, the Eastern Goddess of Irony, and his own hidden, guilty joy at Alyeska's demise.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] " I wasn't there, but I heard that she died well." He heard nothing of the sort, but he said it with confidence. Kekk hadn't been that coherent, hadn't said too much, and he was still sleeping it of now.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] They stand together at the base of the stairs. They have obviously overheard. Delya is white-faced and frozen. Mika's have gotten big and round, and he has started to cry.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Be strong," Boar says, forcing his voice to remain stern. "You don't have another choice. Being sad won't change anything. Your mother knew this might happen. She made sure you would be taken care of."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He nods. They would be taken care of, good. Never knew what a man though of another man's children. Well, if they were another man's. He gives them both a closer look, morbidly curious.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Mika is only ten, though, and he can't stop the gulping sobs that shudder out of him. He has his mother's look, her round face and hawk-like Eastern nose. Impossible to say. Delya is almost a twin of his father- black hair and square Haslanti jaw. There's something of Hare about the eyes, though.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] He puts a hand on Mika's shoulder and tries to be brave. His voice is tremulous. "W-who killed her?"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Boar takes a step towards the boys, and then another, and another. He pats Mika's shoulder absently, looking to Fish.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "This man can tell you. He worked with your mother."
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He squares himself. This was what he had been dreading, talking to her bereaved children. He had never been comfortable with children, and less so when they were staring at him looking for answers that they deserved and he didn't have.
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "We were chasing after a very bad woman, who had killed a lot of people, including your father." She must have already told them about that, hadn't she? Well, if they hadn't know their father was dead, too late to break it softly now. "She died avenging him, saving a lot more people." A lot more probably would have died if they'd escaped with the engine. Maybe even a war.
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He hesitates, then gestures at the sai. "Thats what did her in. Brought it for you. We made sure no-one who'd killed one of ours left alive." That would comfort him, he didn't know about them. Maybe they were just robbed of their chance to get their own revenge.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Delya reaches out and takes the sai. It had been cleaned, hastily, but there is still flakes of blood near the hilt and the metal is warm. "This is orichalcum," he says suddenly, almost accusatorily. His mother and f-father had taught him some things.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "For the League, then. She died for this damn League. But who sent them?" Take your pick, Boar, he thinks. The Fellai. Shanarinara. Whitewall. Gethamane. The Bull of the Bloody North. These Haslanti were good at making enemies.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Careful," he advises Delya. He is loathe to touch the weapon again. "It's sharp. It will keep that edge forever, no need of a whetstone."
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Delya examines the weapon, stone-faced. Tears prick his eyes when he thinks of his mother, but he doesn't let them fall. He had cried like a baby when Mother had told them about father, but he'd still been a boy then, with a mother to hug him. Mika is younger and he snivels.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] He raises his head to stare at the Once Dead and hear the man's answer.
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He hated to do it, but he had to. "I'm not sure how much we can say about that." Crazy woman. Who joined the Once Dead when they had a family? Well, he never had heard her history. She must have died a prince.
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] Well, when they had children anyway. A real family, one to be close to. Most of the Once Dead that actually had no family alive left, there was some effort involved.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You'd keep it from us, even now?"
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Even Mika is staring now, with great wounds for eyes.
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He glares. Couldn't he see - if he told them that, the older kid would run off for vengeance and die. Best let it sit, let him grow a bit more. Besides, he told himself, too much chance it would get back to the Ravens, get him in trouble. "I can't speak of it."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I'll find out, boys," Boar says, by way of comfort. "Your mother may not have told you, but I'm an investigator too, if not as smart as her. But you don't need to be smart to follow a trail this big." He looks at Fish. "Don't you think news of the flying ship is all over town by now? It will get out. But cling to your secrecy if you must."
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "There are other flying ships. And hopefully few saw this one. I would appreciate you keeping this quiet." It was all right for them to hate him.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The Dragon Lady will know, if nothing else," Boar concludes. "And she owes me a favor. Stop that," he snaps at Delya. "You're going to cut your fingers off."
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Delya nods, and folds his fingers carefully over the hilt of the golden knife. He makes a promise. "It doesn't matter. I'll kill them too, the one who sent them." That Eastern bias was his mother's influence too.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "If you've nothing more to tell us," Boar says, his voice tight. "Then maybe you should go."
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He leans close. "You better think about this before you get yourself or one of them killed running off for revenge." He turns, striding off. Well, he had done what he could. He didn't think Hare would ahve wanted them to follow her and go after the Bull of the North, but he doubted anyone was going to stop them.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Mika," Boar says gently. "We need to bring in the firewood soon. Delya... if you're going to keep that, I'm going to have to teach you how to use it."
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Delya nods. "Yeah," he says, with an attempt at a man's gruffness; he sounds pitifully young.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Boar pats him on the shoulder. He had been young once, too, and on the streets of Nexus. He had had to survive on his own, and it had hardened him. These boys would have him, but they would be no less ready to face the world if he had his way.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Then let's get started."
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Delya stares at the sai, and silently names it. "Yeah," he says again, looking up at the man who had been his hero.
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| − | | |
| − | -----
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] In a room lit only by the flickering of a candle, a brush moves smoothly and quickly on a piece of parchment.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] REPORT
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] TO THE OLIGARCHS OF THE HASLANTI LEAGUE
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] RE: Aetheric Engine
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Recovery work on the aetheric engine continues. Savants of the Ear believe that it can be recovered, and perhaps reverse engineered, but the outlook is bleak. Time has been lost. A device that would have proved a decisive advantage in the coming wars will now be sorely delayed, perhaps by months, perhaps by years. The researchers involved in its construction are dead. Many of their papers
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] are destroyed. The Lookshy liason was butchered, and Lookshy is loathe to commit another in these circumstances.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] This disaster is only tempered by the fact that the Bull failed to recover the engine for his own use, and that the losses incurred by the League in preventing this were minimal. Rest assured that those who aided these enemies of our state shall be purged with steel and fire. Honor to the Broken Stones Covenant. Honor to the League.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Hooded Owl, Servant to the Haslanti
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| − | -----
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Owl's words prove to be prophetic.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Rebecca has been the doorwoman at the Temple of the Illuminated Order in Icehome for only three months, but she knows she is good at her job. She has never been good at her job before - is any whore? You do it until you're done, and good or bad doesn't figure in.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] But she is good at this job. She has a bright smile, and pretty blue eyes, or so Thomas says (Thomas who doesn't care about all that, who looks at her as men might look at women in the cheap street plays she loves to watch). She is good at making people feel welcome, even if the Temple is located in an old slaughterhouse and the smell isn't quite out of the walls and floors yet.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] And so, she doesn't hesitate to throw the doors open when there is a sharp knock, and her mouth is open to say, "Welcome to the house of the Shining Ones" when the sword takes her through the belly.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The door splinters off the hinges with a single violent kick, and the holy tapers topple to the floor, burning, as the Ears of the North sweep in. Screams blossom. Figures are thrown roughly to the floor before spears find backs, faces. A child tries to run, and an arrow takes him in the neck.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Blood spreads across the old stone floor, and the Temple becomes a slaughterhouse once more. And if there are Shining Ones in this wide, violent world, their ears are closed to desperate prayer.
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| − | | |
| − | -----
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