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| − | [ST] The Talon of the Realm in Icehome is a neat but rather unassuming building, a two story structure rising up not far from the Immaculate Temple. By the time the Once Dead gather there, Brother Thunder has already vanished within, hastening to find Cathak Sora as part of a hasty agreement between the two groups.
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| − | [ST] Whether the woman will be amenable to the search is a different question entirely.
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| − | [Hare] Hare is grim-faced as she marches through the street, eyes shifting left and right, responding in monosyllables to any comments directed her way. Mud and snowmelt dirties the bottom of her coat. She raises a fist and bangs on the door.
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| − | [ST] "She shouldn't be doing this, not now," Hare hears a voice whispering behind her. Snow Peacock and Jek stand there, and the young, beautiful woman stares at her with troubled eyes. "She's not thinking clearly-"
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| − | [ST] "Leave it," Jek hisses, more harshly than he usually chats the woman up.
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| − | [Fish] Fish drifts along in her wake, content to let her shift things up so that he could feed on whatever popped free.
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| − | [Hare] "Open up!" Hare yells hoarsely. "We're here to see Cathak Sora!"
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| − | [ST] The door opens, revealing a harsh young woman wearing breeches and pants cut in the strange Realm style. Her gaze suspiciously slides across the others, and her mouth quirks a bit at Hare's outburst.
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| − | [ST] "Brother Thunder has informed us of your coming," she says stiffly. "Follow me to the garden."
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| − | [Hare] Hare's hand falls. She nods. "Right. Remember. Need to make this fast."
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| − | [ST] The woman leads the group wordlessly down a long hall and up a stair, passing through offices and reception rooms thinly staffed and obviously disused. From time to time, the odd bureaucrat working at a desk looks up, regarding the newcomers oddly. As the Once Dead climb the stairs to the second floor, the woman comments, "This is most unusual. Had Brother Thunder not spoken of your coming,
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| − | [ST] I daresay you would have been unable to secure an apointment at all."
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| − | [Fish] Fish slides in behind Hare, smiling as innocuously as a Raven can. The effect is to seem like a rather vapid, friendly killer, someone you might want to have a beer with, but never annoy.
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| − | [ST] At length, the woman opens a door and ushers the Once Dead into a curious room - a greenhouse of sorts, a large glass skylight letting in the sun. Paths lined with flowering bushes and grasses alien to the Haslanti League wind through the room. A pond's stillness is disturbed by a leaping carp. This room is a symbol of immense wealth in the far north.
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| − | [ST] A woman sits on a bench before the pond, and raises her arm as the others approach. She is a mortal, and aging - perhaps in her early forties, her brown hair streaked with gray, her eyes severe and harsh. She does not rise.
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder is seated on another bench nearby, his pose seemingly calm. His eyes dart back and forth as he lingers, stuck between political and paternal duty.
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| − | [Hare] "We can be persuasive," Hare replies indifferently. She taps the hilt of the knife at her belt fitfully, scanning the room. She wanted to hurt someone, hurt Blood Rose. Such a waste of time. "Cathak," Hare greets her.
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| − | [ST] "Greetings. Welcome to the Talon of the Realm. Brother Thunder says that you must speak with me, and have need of haste." She nods. "Indeed, I am Cathak Sora, head of the Talon here, and primary Realm diplomat to your government."
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| − | [ST] She says the last with a bit of bite, as if to chastise poor manners.
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| − | [Fish] Old money, solid, not to be dealt with, and certainly not interfered with. It made him nervous.
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| − | [Fish] He bows at her rebuke. He'd deliberately given up dignity a while ago. It had value, but only in making people see what you wanted them to, and now he wanted them to see less, not more.
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| − | [ST] "Have a seat."
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| − | [Hare] Hare watches her with narrowed eyes. She was of no mood, any longer, to tolerate Dynastic pretensions. "Brother Thunder will have told you why we're here," Hare remarks bluntly. "I see no point in going over it again. You were friends with one of the deceased. We need to know what you know, and fast. There's a child missing. Possibly two." She had no forgotten the "boy", or the piemaker.
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| − | [ST] Cathak Sora's nostrils flare - an unreadable expression flickers across her face. "I regret that you are wasting your time. I can tell you of... the deceased, but nothing of his killer."
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| − | [Fish] He sits, wincing internally at the tone. He never would have accupted the insult when he had run his trade. He doubted Cathak sora would either.
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| − | [Fish] Attempting to placate her would probably offend her more, but he would ahve to say something if Hare kept on like this.
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| − | [Hare] "How did he come to the Immaculate Faith?"
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| − | [ST] "I made a gift to him of the Immaculate Texts after we shared a pleasant working relationship for several years. He found an interest there, and I saw no reason to discourage it. I found it pleasant to find an inquisitive mind." She gazes into the depths of the pond. "In time, his faith grew. I suspect he was more devout than myself, in the end."
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder doesn't seem to notice this remark. He looks upward, through the skylight, his gaze distant.
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| − | [Hare] Stow the anger, Hare tells herself. Be cold. Clear. Watch her. No doubt the Cathak fancied herself one end of a doomed romance. "What do you think brought him to the murderer's attention?"
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| − | [Fish] "Was there any other project he was working on besides the trade negotiations? It might help narrow the killers motive."
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| − | [ST] "I... couldn't tell you why he might have been killed. According to my holy brother, it was for that very faith... but if so, it was desperately misguided." She shakes her head. "I know only what he told me, which was little. He was a professional man, and we had pooled our resources to work on the trade agreement." She frowns slightly. "Doubtless you will not believe me, but it was
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| − | [ST] mutually beneficial to both our governments. Almost moreso to your League, for the Realm can survive without such an alliance."
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| − | [ST] "Broken, now. There is no one to take up the task that I trust, or that trusts me. You damned, foolish Haslanti. You hurt yourselves more than the Realm with this murder."
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| − | [Hare] Hare's lips quiver, almost in amusement. "Then why do you feel so guilty?"
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| − | [Fish] "We didn't kill him." And they would probably do fine without the Realm if it came to that.
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| − | [ST] Cathak Sora's face contorts, for the briefest of moments, before smoothing itself out again. "What do you want me to tell you? That I slept with him? That I loved him? One is definitely false... I don't know about the other. You cannot understand. And you did kill him. Your hatred of the Realm. Your ignorance. You killed him. You and I together."
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder looks markedly uncomfortable, like an animal coiled to spring.
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| − | [Hare] "Why you?"
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| − | [Fish] "Nuts killed him, looks like." Dangerous lunatics, more like. But more organized than he was willing to say. But he was feeling rather offended for the Haslanti for some reason. This woman put his back up.
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| − | [ST] "I made him a target. I introduced him to this faith. Your people used it against him."
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| − | [ST] "Lunatics?" Brother Thunder speaks up. "You've identified the killers, then?"
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| − | [Hare] "A small cult. They appear to be servants of the Bull of the North." She looks unsmilingly at Cathak Sora. "Hardly a Haslanti ally."
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| − | [Hare] Perhaps the Haslanti would prefer she had kept that to herself. It might provide the Realm an excuse to strongarm the kingdom, erode its independence in fear of the big bad Icewalker. Just now, she didn't give a damn.
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| − | [Fish] "We killed her husband too, apparently." Definately not politic, not for anyone in the room. But he was getting annoyed.
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| − | [ST] The woman seems to digest this, and nods. Something in her seems to thaw, or break, and she sags a little. "The servants of the Bull... this is serious news indeed. They have struck against him... and... your husband?"
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| − | [Hare] "Yes. Among others. Quite a raft of people are ending up eyeless these days." She glances at Thunder. "Perhaps that sweet girl as well," she adds brutally. "If you've nothing else that can help us find the killers we should be going."
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| − | [ST] Thunder flinches visibly, pain crossing his face. Cathak Sora nods, and rises, swaying a little - it's only when she's on her feet that one notices her left leg is oddly twisted below the knee. She must lean on a cane to stand. "For what it's worth... I cannot love your people, but I hope you bring Bear's killer to justice. They must be doing this for some reason. May you find it swiftly.
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| − | [ST] Take your leave."
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| − | [ST] "Only a few more weeks before we shall have to close the snow shutters, Lessa," she mentions when the woman comes in to lead the Once Dead out. "The garden will wither in this damned winter."
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| − | [Hare] "Reconsider the trade deal," Faithful Hare suggests as she leaves. "Or does the Realm always retreat in disgraced when faced with the Bull's machinations?"
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| − | [ST] "We shall see," she says, smiling tightly at the woman's retreating back. "Who your government provides for me to treat with."
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| − | [Hare] Hare buries her hands in her coat as she turns away from the cripple and follows Lessa away, mind ticking, tocking. Blood Rose had known who to kill. A key diplomat. A spy. A lump rises in her throat. Important engineers. The League ended more isolated than before.
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| − | [Hare] "I think one of the Ears is feeding them information," Faithful Hare says to Fish as they trod away again through the muddy streets. "Perhaps aligned with the Bull, perhaps only out of a political disagreement- a desire to avoid entanglements with the Dragonblooded. Maybe this Hooded Owl character Pear reported to."
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| − | [Hare] She is heedless of listening ears.
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| − | [ST] Brother Thunder hurries to keep up with the two, hovering like an anxious moth. "But if this is true, why target a girl? Surely Shimmering Twilight isn't connected to your government. She's only a child."
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| − | [Hare] "Blood Rose is vicious. She doesn't kill just politicallly...just kills theologically. A sadist. Like a monk who burns down some poor peasant's house for leaving an offering. She's associated with the Order. I'm sure that's enough."
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| − | [ST] "...must you be so cruel? It avails you nothing." He does not respond to the rest of her barbs, tight lipped and quiet.
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| − | [Hare] "Cruel?" Hare glances at him in surprise. She hadn't meant to be cruel. She clenches her fist, useless yawning anger battering at the edges of her composure. "I'm sorry. I'm...I'm not myself." She falls silent.
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| − | [ST] "I can see that. Some of your companions spoke of... your loss. I am sorry. I know you are not of the Faith, but pain is one thing that all creatures know more intimately than they might wish." He reaches out to pat her shoulder briefly.
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| − | [ST] Behind, Jek and Snow Peacock shoot each other a curious look.
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| − | [ST] "Did you find anything?" Jek asks. "Was Bear drillin' the old windbag or what?"
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| − | [Hare] "More contextual information. Nothing of real significance, I think." Nevertheless, Hare is leading them swiftly and purposefully towards the administrative center of town.
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| − | [ST] "Do you... could your skills lead you to Shimmering Twilight?" Thunder asks, springing over a patch of still frozen ice.
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| − | [ST] Around the Once Dead, the city begins to come awake, revelry reviving, the drunks in the gutters beginning to stir as the sun rises. Most people seem utterly blind to the urgency of their errand.
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| − | [Hare] "Yes. Especially if you have something of her's- blood or hair would be best, of course." She pauses outside the shabby office of Public Works and Road Repair. The Ears had been merciless inspecting the agency for signs of corruption since the great bridge scandal two decades ago, and the fortunes of the institution had dimmed when it found itself unable to enrich itself.
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| − | [Hare] "But first I want to narrow it down." She opens the door and shouts. "Ho!"
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| − | [ST] Bureaucracy has always been something that the stoic Haslanti accept as a necessity without much enjoying it. The middle aged man sitting behind the desk within the room looks as if he would much rather be herding elk on the outwall. An eyebrow quirks up on a tattooed forehead. "Yes?" He spots the Raven on Winter Fish's cheek, but it doesn't quite stop him giving Brother Thunder a
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| − | [ST] suspicious look. "To what does our humble department owe a visit by the Once Dead?"
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| − | [Hare] She drops a few crumbling bits of tar on the desk. "We need to find out what road was freshly tarred, say, two nights ago."
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| − | [Fish] "Before you try to scry her out, lets visit the docks and see if I can't turn up anything there." He'd have to avoid old friends, but he'd have time to contact his new people. And he knew how to find things there. It'd seemed like Rose was fresh off a boat, and dock warehouses were easy and relatively cheap to hide things in. He'd rarely bothered with anything more complicated.
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| − | [Fish] "Easily coul've been from a boat."
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| − | [ST] "Well... we do have records... a moment." The man rises, departing into a backroom, where a brief murmur of voices can be heard.
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| − | [ST] "...want WHAT?"
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| − | [ST] "-nce Dead."
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| − | [ST] "Oh -ing find it, then."
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| − | [Hare] "I looked into it on my way back," she says, glancing at him. "Salt content was too low to come from a boat."
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| − | [ST] After a few minutes, in which it looks as if Thunder is ready to bolt at any moment, the man returns, laying a skin covered with complicated lines down on the desk before the Once Dead.
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| − | [Hare] She drums her fingers impatiently on a desk. "Come on now, how many roads do you people repair?" She was covered up to her calfs in mud. It couldn't be too damn many.
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| − | [ST] "Okay," he says, scratching his cheek. "Looks like two nights ago, the tarring was here-" He runs a finger down the road leading off into the Greenfield. "A few miles worth. Several streets here, around the Citadel. The Tomb, too. And here," he stabs a finger down north and west, near the fingers of stone that stick out into the bay. "A few streets down in the warehouse district."
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| − | [Hare] Damn it all. It could be any of those. Even the Citadel, if she was right about Blood Rose colluding with the Ears.
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| − | [ST] "Why the hell you'd need to know this I don't know."
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| − | [Fish] "Might've been an iceship, they tar those too, case the ice cracks. But they don't see much more water than summer rain."
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| − | [ST] "You think they've taken Shimmering Twilight there... wherever it is?"
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| − | [Hare] "There was gravel mixed in. It was road tar." Thankfully she'd eliminated- she hoped- the naval possibility. "Yes. I believe the warehouse district is the most likely." She glances at them. "I can perform a scrying ritual- on Blood Rose or Shimmer Twilight, if you have anything of her's."
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| − | [Fish] "By the warehouses, or by the bay. If you are going to run a scryhingg, I'll check in with some friends."
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| − | [Hare] "Right. I might be done as fast as an hour. Or...longer. Don't stay away- we'll leave without you if you're not back when I'm done."
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| − | [ST] "I... of course I do," Brother Thunder says. "Let me return to the temple- no, wait..." He reaches into a pocket in his robe, pulling out a delicate wooden hairbrush. "I found this lying out this morning. I've told her a hundred times that it's vanity to use such things, and sloth to leave them scattered about. I told her..." His voice catches, and he seems close to breaking for the first time.
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| − | [Fish] He nods. He'd hurry up, and probably wait after. But that was alright.
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| − | [Hare] "That will do very well," Faithful Hare tells him, gentle for the first time. It would almost be better to track down Blood Rose, but she knows what she would do if it were her sons so she silently takes it from him and unwraps a few strands of hair.
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| − | [Hare] "I'll rent a room in the warehouse district for the ritual. Geography is a factor."
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| − | [Fish] He nods "I'll go with you that far. Maybe you should keep an escort. We should be careful." Perhaps he'd bring Kekkonen along with him. He didn't want to fight another of those warriors alone either.
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| − | [ST] "You guys are getting awfully worked up about an old woman," Snow Peacock says, snorting. Jek doesn't join in. The hapless clerk merely looks on in confusion, thinking that at least he'll have a good drinking story.
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| − | [Hare] "You didn't fight her," Hare says tightly.
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| − | [Hare] "We'll be at the House of Towering Fronds, Winter Fish. Meet you there."
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| − | [Fish] He nods, planning. If he was actually going to be there in an hour, he'd need to be fast, organized. He'd swing by Deadquarters first, roust Kekk and send orders through the faster channel there. Then he'd talk to his friend who still ran the organized crime division of the Ears. If anyone had heard something of strange goings on in warehouses, it'd be him, at least to see that he'd get his cut. He was honest about it, no wa
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| − | [Fish] He was honest about it, no way he would have approved of what the cult had been running, but it could easily be set up to look like traditional smuggling.
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| − | [ST] Black Ice Waiting meets Fish at the usual place, at the back of his raucous dockside tavern. Even fairly early in the day, Fish can still hear the sounds of shouting and no small amount of brawling coming from the front room. Black Ice, a fat, fleshy man with deeply set eyes and a scraggling black beard, leans forward across a table, steepling his fingers.
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| − | [ST] "Can't believe they've got you on this case, Fish. Some shit luck for you and no mistake. And I guess I can forgive you for coming here, but once I let you go, I'd appreciate it if you kindly fucked off until those maniacs are caught."
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| − | [Fish] He smiles, grim. "We've caught one so far, put her down, but I understand. It was a close thing." He taps the stock of his crossbow. "Any word? Especially around the docks or warehouses. New operations running, or just the same people as always?"
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| − | [ST] "Nothing big, not that I'm aware of, but I've kept my head down. Listen." He coughs. Perhaps it's true nervousness, or perhaps such a smooth operator can fake it well. "The fact of the matter is, the Ears are running scared. They lost one of their own several months ago, on an operation spying on the Bull. The Ears are supposed to commit suicide, but maybe it didn't work out this time. The
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| − | [ST] Ears have reason to think the Bull knows some of our secrets now."
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| − | [ST] "They want to move. They're fleas being held to the flame. They want to jump - but if they do that, they tip their hand. If they try to act, maybe they tell the Bull more than he knows already, you get it? They need someone else to do the footwork."
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| − | [ST] He smiles to reveal blackened teeth, nodding gracefully at Fish.
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| − | [Fish] He nods. Trouble, though no worse for him. The Once Dead were a little more obvious in their movements, and less reliant on secrecy. And walled off from the rest of the government apparatus.
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| − | [Fish] "And with no one on his case, he can slip by the rest of you?" Not what they were paid for. "Any other Ears get lost recently? Oh, was that whore yours - Pear Blossom?"
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| − | [ST] He purses his mouth for a moment, then chuckles. "Ah hells, she's dead already, I guess it doesn't hurt. She wasn't mine, and a damn shame that was, but she was one of ours. One of the Ears. I think the dragon lady knew it, but Pear Blossom liked the assignment well enough."
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| − | [Fish] He nods. "Wanted to make sure we knew who ran her - sure she wasn't working a second shift?" he arches an eyebrow.
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| − | [ST] "No clue. She wasn't my agent - she was Hooded Owl's." He shrugs. In the front room, there's a loud crack and a piercing scream. It seems not to bother him. "As for suspicious activity... I've seen no more than usual. We get our share of dead doxys and delirects every week. I can tell you I've received no reports of any newcomers. You think your quarry is here?"
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| − | [Fish] He nods. "And I think they shipped in. Seems like a warehouse or maybe a boat is a good way to have space and keep it private. How about the docks. Any new ships about that have stayed moored for the last few weeks?"
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| − | [ST] "Nothing unusual. A cog from out of Cherak. A few Guild Tradeships racing ahead of the winter. Everything is coming in to roost... you might as well look for a needle in a haystack. Of course..." He taps the surface of the desk. "If there's nothing going on elsewhere... you know where to look."
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| − | [Fish] He nods. "I'll give it a look. Anything I can do for you?" Relationships like this never ran one way, and he'd kept good business by making sure he kept his end of the bargain. Except when it was time to burn the relationship, and look where tthat had gotten him.
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| − | [ST] "I'll keep in touch. For now, keep my name out of this. For the love of Autumn Wind, don't bring any of those monsters here."
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| − | [Fish] He nods, "you know me, they don't kill me fast, they're dead. Won't have time to pull names out." He smiles.
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| − | [ST] "Don't let anyone see you leave," he says, waving fish off with a grunt
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| − | [Fish] He heads out of the bar, careful as he was asked to be. Besides, he didn't want anyone thinking he was an Ear, least of all Kekkonen. He met him again outside, and sent him to gather any information from the lads he'd told to gather earlier. He wouldn't bring them with him - they'd just die, then who'd run in the streets for him.
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| − | [Fish] Then he heads over to Plodding mammoth's house. The man had money enough for a back entrance, and didn't bother much with his servants. They were lazing about, and noisy enough to avoid. Helped to have a key, and know the way around the back stairs though. He knocked on his study, after making sure there wasn't a client about.
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| − | [ST] The door creaks open, revealing the man, rail thin and weak-eyed, with a pair of large round spectacles and sparse gray hair. He does not have his distinctive red cap on, but he hardly needs it. "Fish."
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| − | [Fish] It was about time for a delivery anyway, and he or Kekk were the ones that ran them here, Mammoth wouldn't appreciate gutter scrapings in his house. He fishes out a small packet from his pocket, picked up from his room.
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| − | [Fish] "Thought I'd keep you alive for another month, eh?" He smiles slightly. Running legal medicine could be very profitable if you had the channels. Some things people weren't willing to buy publicly.
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| − | [Fish] And some things were very hard to get. This was both. "How have the dreams been? I'm looking into some possibly theologically significant events."
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| − | [ST] "You're all heart, giving charitably to an old acolyte such as myself. You'll want something. Come in. I don't want anyone else to see you standing outside my study door." He shuffles into the room, taking a seat. "Ah, yes, dreams. The other seers may shun me, but they cannot have my dreams. Well, not for free."
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| − | [ST] "Theologically significant?" He smiles. "If I were a devout man, I'd tell you there was no other kind of event. But let me have a look at you, and I'll see what I remember."
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| − | [Fish] He slips in, and closes the door silently, but surely. He walks over, sitting in front of the seer. "Not much last night, but women. It was that sorta night." he grins.
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| − | [Fish] Perhaps living the simpler life was rubbing off on him.
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| − | [ST] "Indeed. I always find such things disrupt the serenity of my dreams." He gives a shrug as if to show that that doesn't particularly bother him, and then begins to rattle off images he has seen. "A jade collar. A bleeding rabbit. Screams in the dark. Mist. Four ravens, silhouetted against the sun. Wind howling over the Great Ice."
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| − | [Fish] He scratches his tattoo. "Did the ravens look burned, or you know, alive?" He wondered who he should pull in, so that there would be four of them to storm the place.
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| − | [ST] "They were in flight. Beyond that, I know not. But the number four... it is an ill omen. The number of death."
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| − | [Fish] He shrugs. "Seems appropriate for us. Should I pull in more?"
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| − | [ST] "I do not even know what you are attempting... but the omens for its success are mixed, and bloody."
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| − | [ST] "At this point, I just hope it doesn't involve me."
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| − | [Fish] He shakes his head. "I'm not being followed." They wouldn't bother, they'd just kill him.
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "What was the mst like, anything in it?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Nothing I could make out. It could mean anything. O rnothing."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "Have you seen or heard any more about fire, the sun, docks, maybe killings, definitely blood?" Dreams weren't literal enough, but normally he could piece something useful together from Mammoth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Nothing I can think of... well, nothing I see hovering around you. But there is this one dream..." He pauses for a moment, hesitating, looking strangely fearful. "It's the middle of the winter, and the sun rises in the east, and it's so bright that it becomes summer, but warmer than northern summers ever are. The snow melts, and crops grow... but the sun only gets hotter and hotter,
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] scorching everything, burning it..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Mean anything to you? It doesn't to me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "Nothing good." He grimaces. It didn't seem like the cult had gotten that big of a foothold yet, if thats what the dream meant. They should be able to unseat them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare leads them to a quiet traveller's inn. The crisp white shutters and ruthlessly scrubbed floors sound a distinct note of sober respectability in an otherwise rundown district.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] It was also in the very heart of the warehoues district. Hare had sometimes arranged assignations with Red Boar here; the cleanliness appealed to her and bemused him. The proprietor evinces no more curiosity about her current companions than she had about the previous.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] If Jek wants to make any jokes about the four of them piling into one room, he passes, taking a seat on the windowsill alongside Snow Peacock. Brother Thunder paces evenly and relentlessly in a most unmonklike fashion.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare shoves an area rug from the center of the floor and arranges candles. "Don't distract me, and kill any cultists who comes through the door," she instructs the others. She settles down, tossing a swirl of nutmeg and cinnamon to hover into the air. Essence is already gathering. She closes her eyes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "And stop pacing!"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Brother Thunder stops as if struck, seating himself in lotus position before the door. Snow Peacock smirks at him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare pretends to engross herself in the ritual. She bites her lip, thinking. Engimatic Butterfly had warned her against heedless experimentation, but... Shimmering Twilight warranted special measures, surely. She takes a knife from her belt and opens a gash in her blood.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] in her palm.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She lays the hair across the open wound, and layings her hand flat in the center of the circle of candles.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] The essence of things mingle.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Hare slumps forward, twitching, the darkness taking her, rising up and up. She moves south and east, back towards Icehome, swooping low over a bakery, through winding streets, into a dark alley and downwards into-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] -it hurts-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] -darkness and heat and-
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] -it hurts-
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] -the harsh rasping of breath, the taste of blood in her mouth, utter darkness. The smell of apples. She's dying. She must be, because-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] -it hurts-
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Hare starts with a jolt, breathing heavily as she resurfaces within herself.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] The words tumble out of her, disjointed."I think I can find her. She's southeast- past that bakery that is always out of candied fruit-" she gasps for breath. "An alley. Maybe below an alley."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Brother Thunder bolts to a standing position. "Then... she's alive?"
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She staggers to her feet, stiff from sitting so long. Bites her lip. "For now. But not..well."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] He stands for a moment, silent, a terrible anger in his eyes, his hands clenching into fists. "Then... then we must hurry."
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "Is Winter Fish here?" She casts a swift, fierce glance around the room. "We should go."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare takes a step, then grimaces, one hand flying to her stomach. A sharp stabbing pain. No, she thought. Not this too.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Maybe he's waiting downstairs," Peacock offers, looking between the monk and Hare, her face drawn. "E-either way, we should get going."
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| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He's there, waiting for them to come down. "I think I know where they are." Ill omens and Black Ice's hints, both seemed to point the same direction.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "Yes." She grits her teeth and forces herself forward against the pain and out the door.
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| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She leads them quickly, sometimes almost at a run. The streets are still crowded, so they pass through narrow alleys piled with refuse and offal.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Brother Thunder races along after Hare, keeping pace, threatening to outrun her from time to time. He moves through alley and offal alike with the vigor of a man possessed.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "There's the bakery," she says as they pass it. Candied fruit is displayed proudly in the window. Typical, she thinks. Just when she couldn't stop for it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "Careful now," she says, dragging him back. They were no more then a block away from..wherever she was. She studies the buildings. A basement? Sewers?
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Hare leads the way down the winding alley, which she can see now ends in a sharp staircase, leading down into a lower alley, a pit full of stinking refuse and scuttling rats that would be snowed in if it weren't for the shielding canopy of the interlocking buildings overhead.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] At the bottom of the stairs, she spots a pile of refuse and, emerging from it, a single small leg, clad in fur pants and a small boot.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "There!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She runs to the trash and starts pulling and flinging it away.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He grunts. He'd thought it was odd they were going deeper into the city. Well, found what they were looking for, the wrong thing. But that was some of the time pressure off anyway.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] the cult didn't seem too like killing people in the day. Sensible precautions, or sun worship. Either way, they had a bit of time left before night.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Hare clears the trash away, hauling the tiny figure out of it. The small body is battered and broken, a single crusted spot of blood on the chest marking where the blade went in. Oros, the sweets boy, is tiny and shrunken in death, his eyes blackened sockets staring at nothing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] Damn, not the girl. And not alive. "Thinks shes nearby?" He absently hoped his mother would keep baking, and find someone else for the cart. She was damned good.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare just stares at him, shaken as she hadn't been even by Alyeska's death. At least he had been a grown man. Mika, she thinks with a pang of fear, he looked like Mika.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "Y-yes. She's somewhere dark. And warm."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Brother Thunder gives a cry of strangled horror as he sees the body, sinking to his knees. "Who... how... why? No one could have profited from this death. He was harmless. All the times I chided him, and he... was harmless. Just a boy."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She lays the boy gently back down. "Come on," she says grimly, pushing forward.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A few steps further into the dark, reeking hole, Hare barks her shin against something solid, heavy. The wooden cart. She can see, even in the dim light, the familiar character of "betrayal" clumsily carved in its side.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "think they just meant the Haslanti, or something more specific?" The boy hadn't seemed the type to get involved in anything like this, but it was always a possibility.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "How could he have betrayed anything?" Thunder asks, truly miserable. He reaches down to touch the dead boy's face. "He sold sweets."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "The cart-" Hare blurts out, her heart thudding. She scrambles to get on its other side. "Help me turn it over- she's inside- I can hear her breathing-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The monk moves quickly, fetching his shoulder up the side, heaving, and with the help of the others, the cart soon turns over. The door on the side breaks open, and Shimmering Twilight spills from within, pale, covered with smashed fruit and pastry remains, but very much alive, her eyes wide with shock, her breath coming hard and fast.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She takes a deep breath, looking around, spotting the body, and then begins to scream shrilly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare moves swiftly to interpose herself, hunching her shoulders at the sound. A live girl, then. But-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He winces. The girls had proper pipes. "Send for Annar, or she need help faster than that?" He moves to join her, reaching down for a bit of pastry just crushed, without blood all over it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She was glad the girl was alive. She truly was. If only - "Where is Blood Rose?" Hare whispers, gripping the hilt of the sword tightly, so she wouldn't scream herself in thwarted rage.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "Told you, I had my own leads. With her safe, we should be fine, as long as we get there before the sun sets."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Thunder hugs the girl tightly, and she presses her face into his robes, away from the sight, her screams slightly muffled. The monk looks as if he's been struck on the head.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] There's a strange sound from the mouth of the little alley. Snow Peacock, who has killed men before, is retching. Jek pointedly looks the other way.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] "Thunder..." Hare says awkwardly. "I'm sorry to leave you with- this-" she thought she knew the outline of the story, she wouldn't torment them by questioning the dead boy. "-but we need to find the perpetrator before..." she trails off.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Her eyes snap to Winter Fish. "What leads? Where?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I'm sorry," Twilight says. "It's my fault, I'm sorry, I'm sorry- we thought it was you, B-brother, and we were k-kissing and he told me to h-hide and... and..." the rest is lost, wordless. The monk nods at Hare.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I am... grateful for your help..." he says.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He nods. "I'm glad we got here in time." He was too, just not as affected as the rest of them seemed to be. "Do you want us to send for one of our doctors, or can you take care of her?" he doesn't even put any accusation in it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "We will manage-" the monk says tightly. "Sister Plum can take care of her. I would go with you, if you will have me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] To Hare: "Its not the warehouses, least I think not. No one new seems to have moved in. Theres an empty dock where honest smugglers dare tread. I'll show you. Enough leads there, and the location suits this cult's arrogance." The mask is slipping. Maybe he was affected more than he thought.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He glances back, more sharply, sizing the man up. "Not if you'll get me killed. Can you handle yourself?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare's eyes blaze and her lips pull back from her teeth. "Then lets go get them." She ached to kill Blood Rose. She ached.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Perhaps you are unware of how an Immaculate trains," the man says. "I can take care of myself." Twilight gives a strangled moan at this pronouncment.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare looks cool. "Very well. I will not stand in your way. Only consider the effect on the child." She had made her own provisions, though she planned to survive the night.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] he glanced at Hare. The man was right, he didn't. He seemed muscular enough, but that really didn't mean much.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She doesn't mistake the look. "He can handle himself. He'd be cut to ribbons if he faced one of them tigers himself, but then, so would I."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "What kind of man would I be, if I did not stand and oppose such evil? What lessons would I teach her?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] To live. To be safe, and warm, and happy, and never know fear or the bite of starvation. She had so wanted that for the boys. She remains quiet.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "That honesty can be bad, or how to lie." he grins. "Come along then, just try not to give lessons on a noble death."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Don't go," the girl pleads suddenly. She looks up with eyes red with tears, tugging at his robes, but she looks at all of them. "I h-heard them. They said they can kill anyone. A-and that they could st-teal the en- the en- the engine-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] Its a sickly gin, but hes trying at least.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He raises his hand to pat her head, then pats his side instead when she shrinks back. Smart kid. "They're wrong, we already bagged one of them, and she didn't manage one of us."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] "Hear them say anything else?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Th- there was a woman who said it was bad. Th-that they shouldn't have done it- but... I h-heard screaming, and I was sc-schuh-...." she looks at Oros's corpse and falls silent, stricken again.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I will take her to the Temple, and then join you," Thunder offers, gently pulling Twilight behind him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] Hare paces impatiently as they wait. "How will they transport the engine?" she demands of Winter Fish.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She stops in mid-pace, one foot raised in the air. "It willl transport them," she blurts out. "They don't even need a boat..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She is apalled. And angry. To use Alyeska's brilliance- his gift to his country- in such a way-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Fish] He grimaces. "Maybe we need to get there fast."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] She nods grimly, eyes burning.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Hare] A drop of blood slides down her leg and spatters onto the refuse beneath her.
| |
