Tenth Passing

Everyone knew what lay to the east of Gutworth. The important question was why anyone would bother.

It was known as the Second Sea. A seemingly endless plain of gray dirt, purple sky, and floating white cubes, people who came from there could not say what was on the other side, as they have traveled long enough to have forgotten.

The entrance to it was a small fissure in the wall, barely large enough to squeeze through. Once one got through that, they were introduced to the Second Sea, and the image they were graced with (dusty ground, purple sky, and an infinite number of cubes) would not change, no matter how many miles upon miles they traveled. Quetra had only been here for a week, and already she could feel her prior context slipping.

She put a hand on the rough underside of one of the cubes. It had a faint energy to it, like all the others. There was a pulse like a heartbeat as her palm slid across it. She had never been this far out beyond the Drum. She turned back, expecting to see the massive outer wall of the Drum, but all she could see was a flat gray and purple plane of infinity.

When she started running out of rations, she knew she was close.

He had only packed enough food for two months, and so had she. Of course it was not an exact science, he was larger than her, and what he would eat in a day was considerably more than her, but this was around the time she started to see remains.

The remains of wooden structures, leftovers from overnight camps. She even found what seemed to be a settlement, years old and stripped to the framework.

On the eve of the sixty second day she found him. The sky was darkening, she would never have seen the dangling rope ladder if not for her light. It lead to a hole, and within that a surprisingly well lit interior.

On the edge, about to pull herself up, she was greeted by a Remark straight to her face. A shovel, nothing more. Utilitarian, practical. In a certain light, terrifying.

”What are you doing here?” An ambivalent question. There was no indication he even recognized her.

She pursed her lips, talking to his Remark instead of him. “You haven’t changed at all, Johann Remainder.”

Johann, a mountain of a man, dressed in the same dockworker uniform he was infamous for. He had killed a Constant in that. Through now it was tattered, the frayed edges trailing off onto the dusty floor. His hood had two holes in it. Self made, roughly equivalent to eyes, but too high up to be used. His real eyes were obscured by shadows. He had grown a beard, he used to be clean shaven. The beard was nice on him.

His grip on his Remark wavered. “What are you doing here? We had a deal.”

”Things have changed. I thought we agreed-“

She hoisted the top half of her body up, hard to do with one arm. She was about to throw her legs over, but was stopped again by his Remark cutting into her throat. It was enough force to draw blood.

“Johann.” She said, trying to be patient. “Why do you think I showed up?”

He said nothing.

”Do you really assume I’m here to kill you? That our offer of peaceful exile was a bluff? And we would wait years before actually executing you?” She laughed. “You think I would travel four months, forward and back, to kill a doddering hermit?”

“You said things have changed, so I don’t know! Maybe!” He said, voice raised. She had forgotten how stubborn he could be. Absence made the heart forget the hate you hold.

‘Alright. No need to shout, it’s all for your benefit. Karol has left, and Yucian has died.” She had thought before to mention his sister, dead with all the rest, but at the moment she only wanted to feed him good news.

A slight smile. He got a kick out of that. “Someone finally did it. So you’re recruiting new Constants, is that it?”

“The Constants are no more. We’re making a new Legacy, dropping the reliance on the Lemure name, it will be one for the Wyrm” He would love that. “one made up of locals with no rank.” He would love that as well. “Karol’s not part of this. Karol might as well be dead.”

”Okay.” He cocked his head, his high up eye holes made him look like an Aberration. “who’s the death squad you’ll send if I don’t agree?”

”Do you think we really have the people to spare for a death squad?” She said, her one arm trembling. “Why the Grand do you think they sent me? We have no one to spare. Some weird girl with a Remark that wasn’t even hers has killed half our ranks. Daaz is trying her best back at home but the city… the city needs your help Johann. And, honestly, out of every person I know in the Legacy, including my fellow Constants, you’re the only one I’d trust to do a decent job.”

He stared at her, his jaw did small circles as he processed this. She didn’t know how much longer she could tolerate this stand off. This pose was becoming tiresome.

And then

The Remark was sheathed. In its place, he offered a hand.

Eleventh Passing

“Did the guy giving us the watches seem weird to you?”

Stumble shrugged, closing the lid. “He seemed like a guy selling us sketchy merchandise.” She shoved a fistful of the watches into Collapse’s hands, who shrugged as well and walked off with them. “What exactly did you expect?”

“Not someone who knew we were from Gutworth.” Trip answered. “I could have sworn I’ve seen him before. It was strange. Those questions he was asking… it felt like he was grilling us, trying to find out information.”

She turned away from him, rubbing her hand on the large blue limbs of the aquatic fer as they passed underneath it. It was a shame they had already collected all of its nuts for the season; now it was just a pretty spectacle to float by. “He was curious about Gutworth, the closest city to his tiny little island. We definitely didn’t look like we were from Luminescia, where else would we be from?”

“How did he even know about Yucian’s death? Didn’t he look familiar?”

She snorted. “News travels fast. Especially when you’re next to a port town, didn’t you start blabbing to people about that?” She shooed him away “Go downstairs and get some rest, I know the others are playing cards. That sounds fun.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Sure, fun.” He shoved his elbow across Stumbles' own and sulked down below deck. The sound of swords clashing and heavy grunting was clear in the green tinged atmosphere. A colony of skulkcrows emerged from the water and did their thing.

For them the sky was the sea and the sea was the sky. And within a small cubic space of around 2 feet, the sky went along with this, now the sea. It manifested terrified and confused minnows scooped up from the corresponding space below them. There was a heavy thud below deck, spooking the skulkcrows. All at once they dived back in, creating cubic bubbles of air under the waves.

“They sure are going crazy in there.”

“Yeah, she’s still new at this, and Hailien’s a hard ass. I don’t think they’ve stopped for the last-“ She realized at this point she did not recognize this voice, nor understand where it came from. She glanced down at the barrel of watches she was leaning against.

“In here,” The voice said, muffled. “But don’t let anyone see you.”

Intruiged, she slowly lift the lid up, not checking if she was alone (she was).

Inside were the watches, all of them in a dormant state, the smoke hissing from their nozzles furiously and LEDs glowing painfully. Suddenly, the watches shifted, disturbing the smoke was a piece of string that slithered out and floated high above the barrel.

Stumble was delighted! The joy she felt reminded her of being a child, seeing the acrobat in the traveling circus. The magical way she had contorted her body into something impossible. A connected memory; When Stumble saw the acrobat again, years later, she was surprised to see the woman was still in that exact pose. It was as if she had never gotten out of it.

“Quick” the string said to her, wasting no time on introduction, “Let’s go watch the show.”

In a daze, Stumble followed it to the grating where the shadowed figures of Hailien and Devon played. The two were in a neverending duel, only pausing when Devon was knocked to the ground, or so critically injured that Hailien froze midswing until Devon’s remark glowed, and she flashed a smile that seemed to signal “I’m better now, keep it coming.”

If they were placing bets on a winner, Stumble would have put her life savings on Hailien, and not cause she owed the woman her life. Her skill and proficiency as a fighter was as obvious as Devon’s freshness. While there were minor things to be impressed by, the younger duelist could not hope to equal Hailien’s skill or power.

Strangely, there was a bright smile on Devon’s face, as if she was content with this.

“How long have they been fighting?” The string said, having formed a circle. When it talked the circle moved up and down, imitating lips.

“This spar?” It seemed to have been going on for hours.

Devon pounced on Hailien, her Remark raised over her head. Hailien raised a hand to block it, but didn’t account for Devon predicting the move. She lodged the Remark in Hailien’s wrist, and springboarded off of it.

Devon ran on all fours to some place beyond what Stumble could see. Swearing, Hailien ran out of view after her, like a mom attending to a toddler on the loose.

“No, this circus. This whole show. It’s entertaining… I just don’t see the point.”

“Yeah, it’s weird. I guess Hailien feels like she owes her. We’ve been dealing with this for… four months now? She’s teaching her how to fight.”

The string whistled, somehow “She sure is wasting alot of effort on teaching her.”

“Yeah.” Stumble said. Reluctant to admit it but the string was right.

The sound of metal on metal again, the battle continued somewhere beyond the grates view. “But she’s fresh and untested. Hailien’s smart to train her as much as she has been.” Though it did make her wonder, weren’t all five of them better fighters? Why not spend the time keeping them in fighting shape? Instead all they’d been doing since was odd jobs at small outposts and lying low.

“Now, I’m just a string, so please don’t take this seriously. I’m not an expert in anything but being me, though I can’t help but wonder, if she’s spending all this attention on this kid, well, where does that leave you and your crew?”

Funny, it was like it read her mind. Stumble breathed in deeply and exhaled like it was her last breath. She walked over to the railing. The sight of the moons-lit sea far more tolerable than some dark depressing grate. “A glorified pedicab service, really. You know, when we mutinied with her, we thought it would involve, you know, doing stuff with her. But we never see her, she never leaves. They eat together, train together, sleep together.”

“They sleep together?”

Stumble blushed. “Well, no, not like that, but she doesn’t leave, she hasn’t once. I don’t understand it.”

“Maybe she needs a distraction, something that will take her mind off that girl.” The string said idly. “I… may know a way to help.”

Her ears pricked up. Turning to the floating piece of string, it suddenly became clear how very odd this conversation was. “Who are you?”

The string rubbed its two halves together before contorting into a lopsided grin. “A Remark’s Trick, some sort of bizarre new Contender, a remarkably unique occurence of spontaneous ventriloquism, what does it matter? All you need to know is that Lemure’s Legacy knows where you are.”

“Crawl shit!” She readied her Remark, this was as good as a threat. Especially the way the strings voice had gone dark at the end. For it’s part, the string was unfazed, one might even say unimpressed.

“What could you do to me? I’m a talking piece of string.”

She kept her weapon ready, but it had a point. “You can’t just say things like that and not expect a girl to react!” She said, a bit embarrassed. “I’m on edge cause we’re being hunted. Lemure wants us dead for killing a Constant.” As soon as the words were out she regretted it. Maybe, somehow, it didn’t know that. Well, now it did.

“I don’t think you understand.” The string said, luxuriating in its answer. “I don’t care, and will pretend that I didn’t hear that last part. Morgan Lemure… he’s only interested in one culprit.” And as if on cue, Devon rolled back into view.

She was on the backfoot, being driven across the room by Hailien’s confident swings. Devon for her part had cockiness on her side, and dodged each swing with a laugh and a wink.

It was all so unfair.

Stumble had never sparred with Hailien. She had never asked her to. And here Hailien was, here Hailien had been, treating this girl like her fucking successor.

While Stumble, the girl she saved, the girl she gave a future to, had more raw talent and skill in a single hand than Devon had in her whole body. What sense did that make?

The string whistled past her, stopping at her right ear and whispered. “Lemure will come for her, that is certain, but you can still survive. And also your friends, if that matters. There is a hitch on the boat that allows other smaller ships to be attached. You know where it is I think. Put that hitch on the stern. Understand what that means for your skin?”

She nodded. “Y-yes, I’ll have to talk to the others, but I think-“

“Don’t bother hedging. And don’t share a word. The asset we are using needs training, so if you need to think, by Grand, think. It will be a few weeks, maybe a month. Just attach the hitch. That's all you need to do.”

“But how will I know-“ The string was gone. She was alone, had been alone. It was like no one else had ever been there. She left, feeling confused and half convinced it was all a dream.

And then in the watch barrel

A finger at the bottom of it. Pointer finger, severed within the day. A freshly cut finger that Stumble had not seen twitched slightly as the string wrapped itself around the finger, and waited.