The Blunt Reaper

Mara's hand moved toward the crystalline sphere concealed inside her coat.

Rook noticed immediately. "Don't."

"I'm only checking that it's there."

"You checked five minutes ago."

"I'm protecting the dangerous object we nearly died to obtain."

"I didn't nearly die to obtain it. I nearly died trying to destroy it."

Her fingers closed around the sphere through the fabric. Something shifted inside it, pressing faintly against her palm.

"Have you ever looked through one?" she asked.

"No."

"You knew what it was."

"I know what they do."

"That wasn't my question."

Rook's expression became slightly harder. "I've seen other Reapers use them."

"But you haven't."

"I can't."

Mara pulled the sphere from her coat. Its crystalline surface appeared darker outside the Bastion. The pale edges caught the lantern light, while the smoke trapped within it folded through itself in slow, restless currents. Whenever she moved the sphere closer to Rook, the darkness gathered against the side facing him.

Rook kept his distance from it.

"Why can't you touch it?" Mara asked.

"Same reason my weapons passed through it."

"You don't know Death."

"I don't remember mine." Rook lifted his blackened arm slightly. "No Death Imprint means no ability. No ability means I can't Cull. Anything formed from an Abomination's spiritual condensation might as well be smoke to me."

Mara held the sphere toward him. "Try."

"I have."

"Try again."

Rook released an irritated breath and reached for it. His fingers passed through the crystalline surface, causing the sphere to ripple around his hand without moving. Darkness scattered through his palm and gathered along the back of it, giving the brief appearance that his flesh had become transparent. Rook withdrew his hand before the images inside could form.

"Happy?"

"That was strange."

"It's been strange the last hundred times too."

Mara turned the fragment slowly. "How do I look through it?"

"You don't."

"Voss said the memories could be separated."

"Voss also grabbed you by the throat."

"He can be both a liar and correct about something."

"An unfortunate quality."

Mara focused upon the smoke moving beneath the surface. At first, nothing happened. The pale light along the edges continued shifting with the movement of her hand, but then one of the darker shapes stopped and stretched across the inside of the sphere.

The world around Mara disappeared.

She lay upon a broken road, though she had no memory of falling. Something heavy pressed against her legs. Her hands scraped uselessly against the stones as she tried pulling herself forward.

The hands were not hers. They were larger, scarred across the knuckles and missing two fingers from the left.

A sound came from behind her.

Sword limbs struck the road in a rapid sequence.

She tried to turn, but something seized her waist. Pain opened across the borrowed body as several points entered the flesh and dragged her backwards. Her fingers caught between two paving stones. The nails tore away before her grip failed.

A mouth opened above her, splitting sideways across an owl-like face.

Mara felt every hooked tooth enter.

The memory changed.

She was somewhere else, suspended upside down in darkness. Pale ribs surrounded her like the bars of a cage. Something had opened her stomach, yet she remained conscious. Shapes moved beyond the bones. Faces appeared, screamed and were dragged into the same narrow body.

Another memory forced itself over the first. A woman ran through grass while something followed without making a sound. Another soul woke inside a mouth. A Reaper screamed as both arms were torn away.

Someone begged to forget.

Someone else begged to die.

The Fourth Rank consumed them all.

Mara dropped the sphere, but Rook caught her wrist before her fingers opened completely. The fragment slipped from her palm, passed through his hand and remained floating where she had released it.

He pushed her hand beneath it, allowing the sphere to settle into her palm again.

Mara inhaled sharply as the darkness vanished, leaving only the hills and black grass around her. Her stomach twisted hard enough that she bent forward. She swallowed several times, fighting the lingering sensation of teeth closing through a body that had never belonged to her.

Rook watched her without sympathy. "Enjoyed yourself?"

"I saw it eating someone."

"You'll see that often."

"It felt like it was eating me."

"The fragment remembers from the victim's perspective."

Mara stared at the sphere. Her hand had begun trembling around it. "There were others inside its body."

"There were hundreds inside its body."

"I saw them being pulled apart."

"Fourth Ranks don't reach that stage by avoiding people."

Mara pushed the sphere back inside her coat. "I think I've seen enough for now."

"Wise."

"For now," she repeated.

Rook gave her a tired look.

"When we find somewhere safe," Mara continued, "I'm going through the rest."

"There is no safe place out here."

"Then somewhere safer."

"That means somewhere you're less likely to be eaten while distracted. It doesn't make the memories any better."

"I need to find the ones connected to you."

"Most of what's inside that fragment will be death." Rook stepped over a patch of exposed soil and held the lantern higher. "The stronger an Abomination becomes, the more souls it has killed. You'll feel their last moments from their perspective. You'll watch the creature tear them apart, swallow them or drag their memories out while they're still aware enough to understand what's happening. Why are you doing this?"

Mara's stomach tightened again as Rook continued.

"If you want to sort through that mess looking for a useful memory, you'll need a strong stomach."

"I'll manage."

"You nearly vomited after one."

"I didn't."

"You looked committed to the idea."

"But I didn't."

The ground began changing beneath them. Mara noticed it after another hundred steps. The hard soil had gradually softened, and the black grass had become thinner until only isolated strands remained. Her boots sank slightly with every step. When she dragged one foot forward, loose grains scraped across the leather.

She lowered her gaze. "Sand?"

Rook did not answer.

The hills around them had flattened. Their rounded silhouettes sank into a broad stretch of darkness where the lantern could no longer reveal any grass or stone. The air felt cooler, carrying a dampness that had not been present near the Bastion.

Mara crouched and pressed her fingers against the ground. Fine grey grains shifted beneath her hand.

"It doesn't feel like we're in a desert," she said. "It isn't hot."

"It's not."

She rubbed the substance between her fingers. The grains clung to her skin instead of falling away. "What is it?"

"Worse."

Rook continued walking, leaving Mara to wipe her hand against her coat before following.

The farther they travelled, the stranger the ground became. At first, the sand had been loose and dry beneath her boots. It gradually grew firmer, then damp enough to preserve their footprints. Each step sank deeper than the last. When Mara lifted her foot, the depression filled with dark moisture that reflected the lantern light for an instant before disappearing into the grey grains.

The air changed with it. A cold smell moved through the darkness, similar to rain trapped inside an old grave. Beneath it lay something faintly metallic and sour. Mara tasted it whenever she breathed through her mouth.

She looked toward Rook. "How much farther?"

"Close."

"You said there wasn't anywhere safe."

"There isn't."

"Then where are we going?"

"Our next stop."

The ground sloped gradually downward. Mara could hear something ahead, though it was too distant and irregular to identify. It resembled wind passing over a cavern, followed by the soft collapse of wet earth.

Rook suddenly stopped, but Mara took another step before the contract tightened between them.

"What?"

"All right," he said. "We're here."

"We're where?"

Rook lifted the lantern and moved it slowly from one side to the other, allowing the blue light to sweep across the darkness. At first, it revealed only more damp sand. Then another lantern ignited somewhere ahead.

A single point of blue light appeared in the distance.

Rook focused his lantern toward it. The darkness between both flames thinned enough to reveal a long wooden bridge extending over the sand. Its planks had warped from age and moisture, while thick posts supported it at uneven intervals. Some had sunk so deeply that the bridge leaned toward one side. Others disappeared into the wet ground beneath it.

The structure continued beyond the reach of both lanterns.

Mara stared at it. "That's our next stop?"

"The ferry."

She looked from the wooden bridge to the damp expanse surrounding it. "A ferry?"

"Yes."

"As in a ferryman?"

"Usually."

"We're crossing the river of the dead?"

Rook stepped onto the first plank. The old wood groaned beneath the combined weight of him and the coffin.

"More like the ocean of the dead." He raised the lantern toward the distant blue flame. "You'd better hope you don't get seasick."

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