The Blunt Reaper

Classroom Seven occupied one of the broader chambers beneath Beacon Hall.

Rows of stone desks descended toward a shallow floor where several illustrations of Abominations had been mounted upon the wall. Some had been drawn from different angles, while others showed bodies cut open to reveal the tangled masses of memory supporting them. Beside each image were lists of known behaviors, feeding patterns and the abilities most commonly encountered within that Rank.

Nearly every seat was occupied.

Some of the students had already awakened their Death Imprints. Others remained ordinary souls hoping to become Volunteers once the Forty-Second determined whether they possessed the necessary memories. Several Condemned Reapers sat apart from the rest, their darker Brands marking them as people who had never been given the choice.

Mara sat near the back with Rook beside her.

The coffin had been leaned against the wall behind them after three students complained that it blocked their view. Rook had responded by moving it just far enough that it blocked someone else instead. The instructor eventually ordered him to place it in the corner, where it now towered beside a cabinet containing preserved Abomination remains.

Rook appeared to consider the separation a personal insult.

He leaned back in his chair with both boots resting upon the empty desk ahead. An open training manual covered his face, concealing everything except a portion of his jaw and the dark hair falling across his forehead. Whether he was actually asleep remained unclear, but the steady rise and fall of the book suggested he was making a determined attempt.

Mara elbowed his arm.

Rook did not move.

"You're drawing attention," she whispered.

"So are you."

"I'm sitting normally."

"You're talking."

"You have a book over your face."

"It's helping me learn."

"You've been on the same page for half an hour."

"I'm studying it thoroughly."

At the front of the classroom, Instructor Talren continued explaining the differences between physical and anomalous Abominations. A set of diagrams behind him displayed three creatures classified within the Third Rank. One possessed six uneven legs and a body covered in layered bone. Another had been built from several fused torsos with elongated arms extending from every side. The last resembled a swollen man whose entire upper body had opened into a circular mouth.

"Physical classifications do not indicate the absence of unusual traits," Talren said. "They indicate that the Abomination relies primarily upon the strength, speed or structure of its manifested body. A physical-type Abomination may still regenerate, alter its shape or develop methods of concealment. The classification merely tells you how it is most likely to kill you."

He tapped the illustration of the six-legged creature.

"This one shattered an outer gate by charging through it. Its front limbs possessed enough strength to tear an armored Reaper in half. That does not mean its rear limbs were harmless, nor does it mean the creature was incapable of learning after its first attack failed."

One student near the front raised his hand. "How intelligent are Third Ranks?"

"Intelligence varies. Some are little more than concentrated hunger. Others retain enough broken memory to recognize weapons, avoid traps and target whichever member of a group appears capable of Culling them. Never assume that deformity means stupidity."

Talren moved to the second illustration and pointed toward the mass of fused torsos. "This Abomination attacked settlements for eleven years. During the first three, it rushed the nearest soul. During the following five, it began circling patrols and attacking the least protected member. By the final three, it had learned to wound contractees without destroying them, forcing their Reapers to remain close while it killed the rest of the group."

Several students looked toward the Brands upon their arms.

Mara did the same.

The markings were not hers. Volunteers did not bear them, nor did ordinary Reapers who had never committed a killing before entering the Underworld. Only those already stained by death before arrival, or those condemned for what they had done afterward, carried such marks.

Rook's sleeve shifted slightly as he adjusted his arm, the dark lines beneath it briefly visible before disappearing again.

The idea of an Abomination learning to exploit that bond felt far less theoretical than the rest of the lesson.

Talren allowed the silence to remain before addressing the class. "When facing an unidentified physical-type Third Rank, what should you do first?"

Several hands rose.

Rook's book did not move.

Talren selected a young man sitting near the center of the room. He wore a training uniform too clean to have experienced any serious fighting and possessed a narrow Brand around his right wrist. A short spear rested against the side of his desk.

The student stood. "Assess its ability before engaging. Maintain a safe distance and observe its movements until you identify its attack pattern, physical limits and any special behavior it might possess. Once those have been established, select the appropriate method of engagement and target the section most likely to contain its memory core."

The answer came without hesitation. Every sentence sounded as though it had been memorized directly from the manual covering Rook's face.

A quiet snort came from the back of the room.

Mara turned toward Rook.

The manual remained over his face.

She drove her elbow into his ribs.

His chair scraped across the floor, drawing the attention of several nearby students. Rook caught the edge of the desk before he could tip sideways, then adjusted the book as though nothing had happened.

Talren looked directly toward him. "Do you disagree, Rook?"

"No."

Mara stared at him.

Talren folded both hands behind his back. "You laughed."

"I snorted."

"Is there a meaningful distinction?"

"One is usually intentional."

Several students smiled. The young man standing near the center did not.

Talren waited.

Rook released a tired breath beneath the manual. "Are you sure you want me to answer?"

"You have been active as a Reaper for approximately three centuries. An opinion based upon that experience might prove useful."

"It might also ruin the lesson."

"Let me worry about the lesson."

Rook lifted the bottom of the book until his eyes became visible. He looked toward the student who had given the answer, then toward the illustration of the Third Rank upon the wall.

"Before you finish assessing its pattern, you'll probably be dead."

The young man frowned. "The question asked for the proper method of engagement."

"No, it asked what you do first."

"And the first thing should be gathering information."

"The first thing is moving."

Rook lowered his boots from the desk and allowed the chair to settle forward. The manual remained resting against the upper half of his face.

"Get your contractee out of its path, force it to turn and cripple whatever part of its body it uses to reach you. If it charges, move sideways and take a leg. If it climbs, destroy whatever it's holding. If it jumps, don't stand where it plans to land. You figure out the rest after surviving the first attack."

The student's expression tightened. "You're assuming it will attack immediately."

"It's an Abomination. What do you expect it to do, introduce itself?"

A few students laughed.

The young man glanced toward Rook's exposed forearms. The dark markings beneath his sleeve were not visible, but everyone inside the Forty-Second had already heard enough to know what he was.

"That might be how someone who cannot Cull needs to fight," the student said. "A proper Reaper wouldn't need to be that reckless."

Rook stared at him over the edge of the book.

The room grew quiet.

Mara expected him to respond with something cruel enough to begin another argument. Instead, Rook lowered the manual over his face again and leaned back.

"Then do what you want."

Talren looked toward the standing student. "Sit down."

The young man obeyed, though satisfaction briefly crossed his face as if he believed the exchange had ended in his favor.

Talren walked toward the illustration of the six-legged Abomination and removed it from the wall. Beneath it was another drawing of the same creature standing over several torn bodies.

"Rook is correct."

The student looked up.

Several others turned toward the back of the room.

Talren raised the first illustration. "This is the image used in your training manual. It shows the Abomination's body, known defenses and estimated locations of its memory concentrations. The information is accurate, but it was gathered after the creature had already been Culled."

He pointed toward the second drawing.

"This is what the first patrol saw."

The bodies around the Abomination had been broken beyond recognition. One Reaper remained attached to the creature's front limbs, his torso pulled open from the middle. Another lay several paces away with only part of his head remaining. No Brand marked any of them only the absence of life, and the severed bonds that had once tied them to their contracts.

"The patrol attempted to observe it from a distance. The Abomination crossed that distance before they established how quickly it could move. Three Reapers died during the first attack. Two contractees were destroyed before anyone identified the creature's pattern. The immutable rule of facing an abomination has always been to move first. Then act later."

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