Therazine sat atop a bluff overlooking the sea. Her legs were curled up underneath her, feeling the wetness of the wooden bench. A single tree grew next to her. This tree was entirely devoid of leaves. It had been for as long as she could remember. One of the tree’s heavy branches stuck out before her, protruding into the open air. A tattered, ancient rope hung from its end.
Over the edge of the cliff and far below were thousands of ships. She watched absently as distant fishermen unloaded their hauls and carried them to the rows of canneries set amongst houses and oil refineries. Factory ships sat anchored amongst the bobbing waves beyond the rocky barrier that surrounded the harbor. She heard faint shouts from men and women working the docks, tolling bells from work ships, and the fog horns of vessels just coming in. The canneries that rested in the hills above the docks were the heart of this place, and men and women streamed in and out of them like flowing blood. The smell of gutted, rotting fish wafted up to her, mingling with the salty air coming off the sea and the ever present egg-like stench of Celedin’s rancid atmosphere.
The rain had lightened up, but it was still omnipresent. It was cold and soft, like the mist of a wave breaking. The sun had just set, and the world was descending into wet, thick darkness. She caught sight of a massive whaling ship emerging from the smog, its electric lights shining like the eyes of a great waterborne demon. The ship bellowed, a deep, throaty sound. In the growing darkness she couldn’t make out any of the ship’s features beyond its lights, and she could only imagine what monstrous beast it held in the chains that dragged behind it.
She thought of the creature in the ship’s tow, and where it came from. The seas beyond the city of Celedin were vast and mysterious. To say that they were uncharted was not entirely accurate. Explorers had been going further and further into the great Aizhur Sea for thousands of years. Each time they came back with reports of new islands or reefs, but they never found an end to it. She’d read of voyages that lasted for more than a year before they returned. The sailors never found new land. The sea stretched away from the city in every direction, and it never ended.
It was strange to her that human beings had poked holes in the Real to find other worlds to inhabit, and yet they still hadn’t even discovered the entirety of their home world. But she recognized the necessity of it. Celedin was a vast city, stretching across the Continent from one coast to the other, but it was full. Buildings can only stretch so high, and when you’ve covered even the mountains in stone and steel then it’s time you look for other places to build. Mankind sought to pierce the dark membrane of the Aether not to blissfully colonize, but to survive.
Therazine wondered how many people were in Celedin. In her youth she’d read at the orphanage that it numbered in the billions, but that was decades ago. She could scarcely imagine the amount of people dwelling in this world; and it was only one of nearly a dozen. There seemed to her nearly infinite people within the entirety of the Real, and nearly all of them lived under the banner of the Commonwealth.
And she was supposed to kill their Holy Emperor.
She looked up into the black sky and let the sour rain fall onto her lips. Where should she even begin with a task as monumental as this? She knew that the job Alyxandir Arkide wanted her to do was going to be daunting, but she hadn’t imagined it was this. A thousand questions raced around her skull. Why do Arkide’s people want the Emperor dead? Were they part of the rebellion the ticket taker had mentioned? Where does the Emperor reside? What sort of defenses does he have? What does he even look like?
She’d never seen the Emperor. She doubted few people ever had. As the rain caressed her skin, she let her mind drift to her childhood, to find any stray memories that would give her any indication of who her quarry might be. The other children at the orphanage only traded in fantasy. The Ivy Street merchants spoke only rumors. The Society cared not for the machinations of the government, and so she’d learned little in their care. All she could recall was what every citizen in the Real knew: the Emperor was an ancient hero, the Emperor was immortal, and the Emperor was holy.
Immortal. She hung on that word. Was there any truth to it? He was clearly deified by the populace, which could account for the use of such an audacious word. But it was commonly said, in all circles. No one questioned the Emperor’s ageless, undying state. She’d seen some bizarre things during her years with the Society. An immortal king who rules the universe wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility.
She almost laughed. How does one kill an immortal?
The whaling vessel droned again. She craned her neck to try and peer through the smog that surrounded it. Some part of her was desperate to see the slain leviathan. Perhaps laying eyes on the dead whale, a creature of unfathomable size and power, would spark the confidence within her that she needed. But the shroud did not lift. Only the ship’s piercing lights were visible. In any case, the whaling ship was undoubtably armed for its job. Harpoons, chains, lines, and hooks assuredly hung from its sides, dripping with the blood of their kill.
Therazine had no harpoons with which to kill her whale. She ran a hand through her soaking hair. How helpful the Bloodletter Society would be right now.
“Thera?” came a gruff voice from behind her.
Therazine turned and saw Vexxer Roz standing just beyond the crooked tree. The large coat he wore clung to his huge frame, and water streaked down his bald head.
She blinked, and then turned back to the harbor, folding her arms across her chest.
“Thera, it’s getting dark. You said you’ve no place else to go. You can’t stay out here at night. You know you can’t.”
She heard his feet move slowly through the mud until he was standing above her. She didn’t look up at him, letting him stand there. After a moment he sat down.
“How’d you find me?” she asked.
“You always used to come out to the hanging tree when you needed to do some thinking,” Vexxer said. “You didn’t know I knew that, but I did.”
The boat sounded its horn again. It was coming to dock, and the tiny voices of longshoremen reached her ears.
“It’s dangerous out in the Dregs after dark,” Vexxer said.
“I’m not scared of muggers.”
“It’s not muggers you need to be afraid of,” Vexxer said. He reached into his coat and pulled out a soggy sheet of paper. He unfolded it and held it out for her to read.
Public Notice For The Bounty Of THERAZINE MORLO
WANTED by the LORD CEDRIC MONDOZER of Lormian for the murders of WALLACE MONDOZER, JED MONDOZER, NIGEL MONDOZER, and EMUEL MONDOZER.
Name: Therazine Morlo, born Therazine
Race: Unknown; Celedine features
Sex: Female
Age: 32 years
Target is considered Armed and Highly Dangerous. Live capture is NOT recommended. Lord Cedric MonDozer will pay TEN-THOUSAND GLIT ($10,000) upon proof of death (head), and will be compensated for equipment/medical treatment.
Posted by the Civil Justice Authority
She was not surprised. She did not take the page from Vexxer. He held it in front of her until it began to disintegrate from the rain, and then he stuffed it back into his coat.
“Who’s this MonDozer?” Vexxer said.
“A land baron.”
“Did you have a job on his family? Somebody pay you good?”
“No.”
Vexxer shifted, and his boots squeeked. “Then why’d you kill his kids?”
“Because they killed mine,” Therazine said.
Vexxer sat up straight. “But you said—” His hands moved, and for a moment Therazine was certain he was going to put his arms around her. But they just hung there at his sides, awkward and impotent. “Thera, I’m… I’m so sorry.”
Therazine watched as the whaler’s deck lights came on. Something crashed in the darkness below, something metal and heavy, and the longshoremen’s voices became aggravated and quick.
“I don’t know… I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry.”
Therazine shut her eyes tight, and tried not to think of Bren. She focused her thoughts on Cedric MonDozer, the bastard matriarch of the MonDozer clan. He put out a notice on her. The son of a bitch sought ‘justice.’ She pictured him sitting in his mansion in Nalak, signing another downtrodden immigrant family into servitude, or plowing one of his dozens of whore wives. Don’t dwell on sorrow. No progress ever came from despair. It’s rage that’s gotten you through the hardest times.
“I have a job,” she said. “Here. On Celedin.”
Vexxer waited, and then spoke quietly. “Do you mean like—”
“Yes. I mean a job. It’s a big one, too.”
“So you still are in the business?”
“No,” Therazine said quickly. “I am not. I haven’t been since last I was in this damned city. But MonDozer ruined my family. Butchered it. I need the money, and this is all that I’m good at.”
“Thera, that’s not true—”
“I don’t need pity, Vexxer, so stop it. This is what I’m good at. This is why I was approached for this job.” She looked over at him.
Vexxer glanced away and scratched his nose, avoiding her eyes. “So what… what’s this job?”
“I don’t think I’m comfortable telling you quite yet. It’s big, is all you need to know. Big enough that I realize I’ll need help.”
Vexxer returned to her, his eyebrows raised. “My help?”
Therazine nodded. “I don’t have anyone else to turn to in this world.”
Vexxer opened his mouth like he was going to object, and then scratched his nose again.
“The first thing I’ll need is equipment,” Therazine said. “Grapnels. Poisons. Trackers, rope, needles. Guns.”
“I’ve got some stuff, Thera, but not enough to outfit you. Most of my gear is kept at the Guildhall.” He pulled out the wet page from his pocket. “And I don’t think the society would be too keen lending to you.”
“No,” Therazine said. “They’ll be coming after me, no doubt. Even without the ten-thousand, they’d take in that bounty just to see me dead.”
Vexxer hesitated. “I don’t think that’s true.”
“Who’s Archblade now?”
Vexxer looked down at his feet and breathed in heavily before saying, “Crausk.”
“I thought so,” Therazine said, and she nodded again. “He wouldn’t miss out on an opportunity to legally slit my throat. The only advantage I have now is that they don’t know I’m even here.” She gave Vexxer a hard look.
His expression twisted. He looked hurt, and his red beard twitched. “I haven’t told anybody.”
“I know,” Therazine said.
A horn blared down in the docks bellow. Another whaling ship had come in, it’s electric demon eyes shining light through the harbor. It shouted at the whaler that was already in dock, clearly upset that its place had been taken. A shouting match ensued between the first whaler’s crew and the crew of the incoming ship, with the longshoremen trying to diffuse things.
“I’ll pay you for your help,” Therazine said.
“Bah.” Vexxer waved a dismissive hand at her.
“I will,” she said. “I don’t want any ties left to this world when I’m done. No debts.”
Vexxer said nothing to that. She watched the dockworkers trying to ameliorate the mixup between the whaling ships, and she felt a bit of a rise when the first punch was thrown.
“I’ve got my Darnull that I keep at home,” Vexxer said. “But it sounds like you’ll be needing more than one handgun for this job. If the Society isn’t an option, what are you going to do?”
Therazine stood. The muddy earth accepted her weight and rose around the edges of her boots. She threw her wet hair back and wiped the water from her face.
“I think it’s time we paid Maddy a visit,” she said.
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