Jonathon Worthington: Strangelight Investigator

Case #18: The Mystery of the Purloined Past (Epilogue)

"You were a moron, sir."

I winced painfully as I shifted my arm in the sling. Lil had given me an ointment that had soothed the burns and saved the hand, but the blasted digits still felt like they'd been run through a fire and hammered into shape. The bogrin smoldress said it was a good sign, that I'd be able to use them properly again soon. But rosy predictions didn't stop the pain. I envied my ogrun companion; although the Infernals had clawed his arms up nearly beyond recognition when he'd reached through the smoke mirror for me he'd been able to sedately sit there as Lil stitched them back together.

Undead git.

"Don't you think you're being a tad harsh on me, Orsch? It had to be done."

"Did it?" Orsch asked, a little too forcefully. "Now that you have access to the Deadeye's memories, surely you can see that such unnecessary risks will eventually lead you down a path where you will be forced to make a choice you will not like, one where the lesser of evils is just as damning as the greater. Continue to tempt fate and it will answer. With a vengeance."

"He's right, you know," Aria opined, stepping up on the deck where we were arguing. She leaned against me, laughing softly at my discomfort. The Satyxis woman was very beautiful, but I had too many memories of dark deeds done together to feel at ease around her. I wasn't sure that would ever change. "If you wish to survive you will need to be more discreet, my love."

"Hands off, tart!" Lil yelled from up in the rigging. She'd elected to stay on as ship's smoldress, which for the most part meant using her extensive knowledge of herbalism and shamanistic sorcery to tend the crew's needs. That she could craft the finest hooaga out of seemingly random weeds had not diminished her standing in the men's eyes either.

Aria stiffened in indignation at Lil's insult, turning to scream back at the bogrin woman as the two settled into what was quickly becoming their usual pattern of arguing over my reluctant affections. I assumed, or rather I hoped, that Lil had given up on her unnatural desire to bed me, and that she was simply helping me keep Aria at a distance until I sorted out my feelings about the psychopathic woman. For the sake of my sanity I had to believe that was why Lil continued with her sexual innuendo in the face of absolutely no encouragement from my quarter. The bogrin never mentioned the promise I'd made to elicit her help with the smoke mirror, and I prayed to Morrow she never would. That was one debt I did not care to pay.

"Where are we headed, sir?"

I smiled up at my taciturn companion and walked away from the ship's wheel to the side. I pulled Anuk'shai out, and pricked my finger with the tip of its runed gunblade. The demonic pistol howled in frustrated hunger as I holstered it without a proper feeding, instead carefully squeezing a couple of drops of my precious lifeblood out over the railing. When the blood hit the water I felt myself fracture, my consciousness splitting and racing along the waves in all directions. It was the strangest sensation, but I'd been working on becoming more adept at using the powers scribed within my flesh, and it wasn't quite as unsettling now as when I'd first begun. Slowly, but surely, I was mastering the lost power of the Orgoth.

Harmless sea creatures slid under my far-reaching perception, but I took special note of a pair of sharks that had begun tracking the Crimson Harvest with murderous intent over the last few hours. One small expenditure of will sent them haring off to find easier prey. There was no sign of any leviathans nearby, but then again we were only seven miles away from the mainland. Other land masses, hidden by the ocean itself, sprang into my consciousness, including a dangerous reef that was missing from the maps in my cabin. Far behind us I vaguely sensed the mass ocean grave where we had laid the ship's final macabre cargo to rest weeks ago. It wasn't as proper as having a priest perform the last rites, but it was a far better fate than they'd nearly experienced.