The Blunt Reaper

The ferryman seized his pole again. "Powder!"

Rook crawled toward the coffin while Mara remained where she had fallen. One hand pressed against her chest as cold numbness spread from its center toward her shoulder. Every heartbeat she remembered having while alive seemed to pulse against a wound that no longer existed.

Rook tore open their last pouch of Abomination-repelling powder. Instead of scattering it across the hull, he leaned over the stern and emptied the entire pouch into their wake.

Grey powder spread across the water.

The creatures immediately behind them recoiled. A worm-shark twisted away and struck the serpentine Abomination beside it. Two mermaids released the boat and disappeared beneath the foul cloud. Larger shapes continued through the powder, but their moment of hesitation gave the current enough time to pull the vessel forward.

The ferryman drove his pole into the water, and the boat surged along the outer edge of the route.

Behind them, the armored vessel broke.

The Fourth Rank tightened its divided limbs around the hull, folding the metal plates inward. One mast snapped and fell across several smaller boats attempting to flee, crushing decks and throwing souls into the water. The upper levels collapsed into the open center as the creature pulled both halves of the ship in opposite directions.

The vessel split along its middle.

Souls, weapons, and cargo poured into the sea, and the surrounding Abominations descended upon them.

For several seconds, the fog flashed with abilities. Fire burned across the water. Spears of ice struck the Fourth Rank’s back, and a column of pale light rose from the wreckage before vanishing when something closed around its source.

Then the remains of the armored vessel disappeared beneath the surface.

The smaller boats scattered. Some escaped along the current, while others vanished into the fog or overturned beneath the creatures pursuing them. The battle continued behind Mara, but distance and darkness gradually swallowed it.

Their own pursuers remained close.

Shapes followed through the fading powder. Pale fins cut across the surface, and something struck the boat from below, although the impact lacked the force of the earlier attack.

The ferryman kept them moving.

Rook retrieved another weapon from the coffin and stood near the stern. Blood ran from his shoulder, neck, and leg. Several portions of his coat had been torn away, and one boot hung open where the creature’s teeth had passed through it.

Mara sat against the opposite side of the boat. Her wounds had already begun closing, the flesh pulling together along her calf and side until only blood and torn clothing remained.

The pain inside her chest did not fade with them.

She looked down at her hand.

Nothing about it had changed. No mark covered her palm, and no weapon rested between her fingers. Yet the same hand that had struggled to hold a dagger had touched two Abominations and destroyed the memories keeping them alive.

"That was a Cull," Rook said.

Mara raised her eyes. He was still watching the water, but the words had been meant for her.

"I killed it."

"You remembered."

Mara pressed her hand against the center of her chest, and the touch caused the cold to sharpen. "Someone stabbed me."

Rook glanced back.

"Through the heart," she continued. "A blade went straight through it."

"Efficient."

Mara stared at him. "That is all you have to say?"

"Would condolences improve the memory?"

"I jumped into the Silent Sea for you."

"Yes. We’ll be discussing that stupidity next."

"I saved you."

"You gave me someone else to save while I was being dragged to the bottom."

"You would still be down there if I hadn’t followed."

"And you would have remained safely inside the boat."

"While you died."

"I’ve done it before."

Mara pushed herself upright despite the pain spreading through her chest.

"The contract would have failed."

"It would have found another Reaper."

"I wasn’t thinking about the contract."

The answer silenced him.

Rook looked at her properly for the first time since climbing into the boat. Water ran from his hair and down the torn side of his face. His expression remained difficult to read, but something within it shifted before he turned away.

He sighed, "Thanks." But it almost sounded far too muted.

Mara caught it, smiled and said, "What was that, I didn’t hear you?"

"Nothing, I didn’t say anything."

The ferryman pulled hard against the steering pole. "You can both argue once nothing is trying to eat my boat."

A pale head rose beside the stern. Rook pulled a stake from the coffin and drove it through the creature’s head forcing the creature back beneath the surface.

Mara looked at her palm again.

The mermaid’s death remained inside her. She remembered more than the sight of its body breaking apart. She could still feel the invisible blade passing through its flesh and entering the mass of memories beneath.

She knew she could reproduce the wound.

That knowledge frightened her more than the creatures following them.

Another pulse of pain travelled from her chest into her arm, leaving her fingers numb.

Rook noticed. "How many times?"

"What?"

"How many times did you use it?"

"Three."

"Two Culls and one wound."

Mara remembered the arm that had failed to disintegrate. "It didn’t reach the rest of the creature."

"Then touching it isn’t enough."

"It worked on the others."

"The mermaid was already torn apart, and its memories were concentrated in the chest. The smaller one had almost nothing holding it together."

Mara looked toward the sea. "So I need to strike something important."

"Unless you plan to touch every part of an Abomination until one of them kills it."

The numbness reached her elbow. "What happens if I use it again?"

"You’ll find out."

"That isn’t useful."

"You awakened less than a minute ago. I haven’t had time to write instructions."

The ferryman glanced over his shoulder. "Whatever she did, it called half the sea toward us."

"That’s the issue with new awakened Death Imprint, it’s like a damn beacon. And we’re at the center of it."

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