The Blunt Reaper

"If I train for the week," Mara spoke, "I join the search."

Elara’s expression remained guarded. "If your instructors determine you can use the Imprint without becoming an immediate danger to yourself or everyone around you, I will consider it."

"No. You will allow it."

"Mara," Rook warned.

She ignored him. "You cannot have Rook without me. I won’t release him from the contract, and I won’t remain here while he leaves."

Elara studied her.

Mara held the Vice Manager’s gaze. "If I train, I go with him. Those are the terms."

"You learned extortion quickly," Rook said.

"I learned from watching you."

"That is not someone you should imitate." Elara said."

"Hey, what’s that supposed to mean."

Elara rested both hands against the desk. "One week of training does not make you ready."

"Then make it a useful week."

Silence settled across the office.

Rook appeared dissatisfied with every possible outcome. He did not want Mara left inside the Bastion, but he clearly disliked the idea of bringing her into another dangerous region even more. Elara needed him enough to tolerate his presence, though not enough to conceal how much the arrangement irritated her.

Finally, Elara nodded.

"One week," she said. "You will report to the training facility tomorrow. You will undergo a full examination of your Death Imprint, learn the basic laws governing a Reaper’s authority and demonstrate that you can Cull without disabling yourself. If the instructors consider you incapable of surviving the search, you remain here."

Mara opened her mouth.

"That condition is not negotiable," Elara said. "Your right to maintain the contract does not give you the right to endanger my officers."

Mara considered pushing further, then nodded. "Fine."

Rook did not. "This is a terrible idea."

"You need her cooperation," Elara reminded him.

"I heard."

"And she needs training."

"I heard that too."

"You could try accepting reality quietly."

"I have never found that useful."

Elara retrieved the stone tablet and placed it back inside the desk. "You depart when the eastern officers return. Until then, both of you remain inside the Forty-Second."

Rook leaned back. "You’re trapping me here for a week."

"I am permitting you to remain despite several outstanding debts, damaged property and enough complaints to occupy one of those cabinets."

"Only one?" Mara snickered.

"The others are in storage."

Mara laughed again.

Rook looked toward her. "You’re enjoying this far too much."

"I spent the last several days watching you make everyone else miserable. This is refreshing."

Elara began arranging several documents upon the desk, apparently considering the negotiation complete.

Mara did not move.

"There is one more condition," she said.

Elara raised her eyes. "Of course there is."

"If I am training because you need Rook, then I want access to a Remembrancer."

Rook’s attention sharpened.

Elara glanced between them. "For what purpose?"

Mara reached inside her coat.

The memory fragment rested within the inner pocket, covered in cloth, where she had kept it since leaving the Eighty-Sixth Bastion. She unveiled it and placed the dark sphere carefully upon the desk.

Faint shapes moved beneath its surface.

The fragment had remained quiet throughout the crossing, yet the sight of it brought back the broken deaths Mara had experienced at the inn. A cart surrounded by hooked creatures. A body cut open in tall grass. A white room filled with machines. Pain belonging to people whose names she did not know.

Elara moved around the desk.

"Where did you get that?"

"From a Fourth Rank."

The Vice Manager stopped.

Rook watched her reaction. "Back at the Eleventh."

"That doesn’t make sense. When did a Fourth move that close to the safe regions.

"That was a safe region?" Mara asked0

"Yeah, could you believe it?" Rook snorted.

Mara turned to Elara. "The Abomination was made from several souls. Their memories are tangled together inside the fragment."

"I get that, that’s how these work. But How many?"

"We don’t know."

Elara held out one hand. "Give it to me."

Mara’s fingers closed around the sphere.

The movement was small, but Elara noticed.

"So there is something else," the Vice Manager said.

"There are important memories inside."

"All memories are important to the person they belonged to."

"These are different."

"That is what everyone says before asking a Remembrancer to violate half the laws governing memory extraction."

"I’m not asking you to destroy or alter anything. I want the memories separated so we can see which ones belonged to which soul."

"That requires examining them."

"I know."

"Then give me the fragment."

Mara did not.

The images beneath its surface continued shifting against her palm. She saw the outline of a hand. Metal reflected purple light. A pale room appeared and vanished before she could determine whether it was part of Rook’s past or belonged to one of the countless souls fused into the Abomination.

Rook looked at her. "You can trust Elara."

The Vice Manager’s eyebrows rose slightly.

Mara glanced toward him. "You do?"

"No."

Elara’s expression returned to normal.

Rook continued, "But she is honest. If she says the fragment won’t be altered, it won’t be altered. If she promises confidentiality, no one outside the room will learn what the Remembrancer finds."

"Your confidence is touching," Elara said.

"Don’t make it unpleasant."

"You managed that yourself."

Mara looked down at the fragment. "The memories cannot be shared."

Elara’s attention shifted toward Rook. "Why?"

"Because they’re dangerous." Rook replied.

"You have not examined them properly." Elara stated.

"They were inside a Fourth Rank that recognized me."

"A lot of abominations would recognize you, you’ve made it hard for a ton of them."

"It doesn’t make the memory yours."

Elara studied him. "You just claimed you didn’t care what was inside."

"I don’t."

"But you care who sees it."

"I dislike people touching things that belong to me."

"The fragment belongs to Mara."

Rook’s jaw tightened.

Elara noticed. "Why are you concerned about his memories?" Elara looked at his arms. "They are definitely not something you want to uncover."

Rook didn’t even feel offended. And had the ’I know, right,’ look on his face.

Mara looked at Rook.

He didn’t say much besides letting out a sigh.

He had said that he did not want the memories returned. He had shown little interest in discovering the life taken from him, even after the Fourth Rank accused him of causing the deaths trapped inside it. Yet the moment someone else might examine the fragment, his indifference had disappeared.

Mara turned back to Elara.

"They aren’t random memories," she said.

The Vice Manager looked toward the sphere enclosed within Mara’s hand. "Then whose are they?"

Mara hesitated once more before answering.

"We think some of them belonged to Rook."

Elara said nothing.

Mara tightened her fingers around the fragment.

"From before he died."

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