Tomat stubbed out the remnants of his cigar. The glass sat empty before him. He took up his knives and slid them away into their hidden sheathes. "And that was how you died?" he asked.

"Yes."

A grunt came from Tomat. He picked up the bottle and poured himself some more whisky. "Gunshot must have been a welcome relief considering the alternative. Crazy move, that of yours, dragging the creature over the edge with you. Must have shocked it no end."

"I didn't have any other options before me. I was dead no matter what. Best that I took him with me."

Tomat swirled his whisky slowly around his glass before taking a sip. Then he gestured towards me with the glass. "What of the box and the missing accountant. And that Miss White?"

"The box, I do not know what became of it. It is still out there somewhere, no doubt, hopefully forgotten. As it is, I believe that the key went over the Drop with the worm host. It is lost forever now and it means that the secrets contained within the box can no longer be accessed. As for Hanes, he made it back to McAllister, who reunited him with Miss White. Taking the credit at the same time, mind. They have made a new life together, free of their past."

"And is it working?"

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"That is a matter for them, is it not? Besides, I feel that they have earned it."

"Fair enough. And how did you come back anyway? It is one thing to take the Drop. It is another to return as a ghost."

"Ah, now, that is another story."

Tomat grunted. "All part of the same story if you ask me. You can't begin it and then fail to finish it."

"I have never discovered how exactly," I told him. In that I was being truthful. The mechanics I have no idea of. One minute I was dead, a body plummeting into the mists, the next I know was that I was awake again, down below, far down, confused and with barely a memory of who I was. It took a while for it all to come back to me."

There was more to the story than that but he didn't need to know. Besides, I am not sure that he was ready to believe it anyway. I am still not always entirely certain of it myself.

"And these worm creatures? Are they gone?"

"Best as I can tell, yes. I am hoping that it was alone after the first burned. I have heard no mention of any others. Given their abilities, that may not mean much."

Tomat tossed back the whisky and slammed the glass down on the desk. He touched the two tattoos on his forearms. "If there are, then we will be watching out for them."

"They are a deadly and cunning foe, Tomat, not ones to meddle with lightly."

"That hasn't stopped us before. Besides which, I don't like the thought of the likes of them running loose in our city."

I nodded slowly. Before I could answer Tomat though, a knock sounded at the door into the office.

"Looks like we have ourselves a client," I said.

We both turned towards the door, awaiting the arrival of a new client, and a new job out there in wild, unexpected and impossible city of Spire. There are always tears in Spire, enough to last for ever, but for now they came from just one, and that was enough for me.