The Partisan Chronicles [Dystopia | Supernatural | Mystery]

Feargus

Obligatory Strauss Check-In:

Hour 1:
• Ate some oats.
• Shaved.
• Took a bath. (No, I didn't watch. I had boundaries, barely.)
• Sat on the edge of his bed and stared at his blue ribbon wistfully.

Hour 2:
• Gave a group of kids a reading lesson in the courtyard.

Hour 3:
• Awkwardly dodged the advances of two single mums picking up their kids.
• Spoke gently with Captain Lobodin about reaching out to Palisade for help on the missing persons case. He offered to deliver the request to the Drop personally. Captain Lobodin shot him down. Strauss didn't press, or even react at all.

Note: I followed Lobodin after leaving Strauss, and overheard him asking one of his men to deliver a request for help from Palisade to the Drop. Poor Strauss.

Obligatory Ivana Check-In:

• "Cookies."
• Lunch.
• Drink making lessons.
• "Cookies."

Obligatory Alexander/Faust Check-In:

• No change.

Other than Zack's random hunch, I didn't have any immediate reason to suspect a male client over a female client when looking over Johan's list. The man touched on average forty-six people a week. According to Kavelin, the Ambiance problem started about six months ago, so while everyone was sleeping, I had a peek through the schedules, looking for anyone new in the past six months who maintained consistent appointments with Johan. I narrowed it down to seven: three women and four men. Nice as that was to know, though, it wasn't particularly helpful. Johan could have gotten the Ambiance from anyone, including another employee. Whoever it was, it was someone who would have built some trust with him over time. They were putting themselves at serious risk shilling illegals.

The brothel reopened the next day for evening service. While everyone was busy with work, I slipped out of the main hall under the excuse of going to the kitchen for lemons, but before I even reached the kitchen, I detoured through the corridors and searched everyone's things instead. Gotta do what you gotta do, mates. But let's be real: I wasn't expecting to find the dealer necessarily, though maybe another employee who'd acquired some the way Johan had. Not a single tablet in sight, mind you.

When I was done searching, I actually did stop by the kitchen for some lemons.

"Jack, good seeing you," the cook said.

"And seeing you, Vera, is the highlight of my day," I answered.

You should remember Vera from Adeline's story, that time when in the future I set her up with a job at that very brothel and she learned a deep, dark secret about that very middle-aged cook. She chuckled and swatted me with her dishrag.

"Have you got any lemons?" I asked.

"Those were the last of them. Produce imports have been a little unpredictable lately."

"Have you got any limes? Oranges? Anything colourful?"

"Oranges, yeah, there's a crate down in the cellar."

I thanked her and hopped down the hatch.

In the corner, there was a pile of stacked crates, and from on top one of the crates, Everleigh Gloom stared at me. As always, she looked unimpressed.

I closed the hatch and darted over to her.

"What are you doing down here?" I asked quietly.

"I like this place," she answered.

"The cellar?"

"The brothel. But aye, the cellar, too. It always smells like food. And upstairs, I get to see naked people."

"I just now realized how much we actually have in common, new best friend."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The corner of her lip twitched.

"Does anybody know you're living in the cellar?" I asked.

"I'm not living here, I'm just—look, I need an update on Zack."

"Still working on it."

Eighteen and a half seconds. That's how long she stared me down, and believe me, any number of seconds getting stared down by Everleigh Gloom feels like a century. Finally, she poked me in the chest with a skinny, pale finger. "I'm counting on you."

And all at once, I was properly put in my place and shamed.

It wouldn't make sense to be down in the cellar any longer, so I made for the crate of oranges, grabbed a few, and with my tail between my legs, climbed the ladder.

Back at the bar, I sliced thin strips of rind from around the oranges. I used the peel to decorate the drinks, made them look like little curly tails. Once I had a bunch of garnish stocked up, I squeezed the fruit for juice. It was about then, midway through the shift, Ben came to see me. He'd been given the night off under the circumstances. There wasn't any point in asking how he was doing. It was fairly obvious and to be expected. So I gave him a meaningful handshake with my clean hand.

"Tanis gave me some time off, so I'm going to stay with my parents for a few days, just, um—I was wondering," he hesitated, and I didn't press. "How do you do it?"

"What's that?"

"I've never watched someone die before. But you—I figured you might have some experience with, you know, how to get over something like that. I keep… seeing it."

Years of psychological conditioning, torture, trauma, and suppression was my real answer, but, "One step at a time. Some steps will be easier, some'll be harder, and when you take a tumble, try to remember the days you didn't. And when you don't, be thankful you didn't. You'll never forget, but with any luck you'll manage."

"Yeah." Ben nodded. "Yeah, that's good advice. Thanks."

"Sure."

"Yeah, I just—I can't believe he's gone, and for what? Why would we do something so stupid? We knew it was risky."

I shook my head. "Risky, aye, but so is crossing the road on a busy trade route. Plenty of people take Ambiance, nothing bad happens. Other people—look, it's just the way of things, isn't it? Unfortunate affairs happen sometimes, and sometimes they don't, and trying to put sense to it will only drive you mad, mate."

"Yeah." Ben nodded again. "That's good advice, too. I—heh, I'm glad I came to see you before I left. I didn't want to bring down the mood."

"Not much of a mood in squeezing oranges, but I appreciate the concern. And if you need anything, right? You know where to find me."

Ben nodded yet again. But before stepping away from the bar, he slid a small scrap of paper my way. He covered it immediately with an empty tankard.

"Oh, by the way," he said, "Tanis wants to see you."

He left, and the paper under the tankard said D.T.

I made my way to Tanis's office.

Usually when entering another person's office, they'd sit on their side of the desk, you'd sit on yours. The big hunk of wood was a subliminal divide. But not Tanis. Whenever we met, we sat in the leather chairs in the corner of the room.

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Ask me anything," I said, and I might tell the truth, but probably not.

"What did you do? For Palisade?"

"I was a messenger—need something couriered?"

"Ha, no, but I'll keep you in mind if I do. I was hoping you might have more field experience, though."

"How come?"

"Well—what happened to Johan? It's the first time somebody's died, but it's not the first time there's been an accident in recent months. I want to know where they're getting it."

I nodded thoughtfully.

"Can I still ask you to keep your ear to the ground? You're a charming kid, the others like you. They trust you. And I'm not asking you to breach that, just—I'm concerned."

"Aye, that's reasonable. I'll do what I can, of course."

Tanis nodded. I appreciated her letting me get away with not saying what I couldn't.

"By the way," she said, "we've had a few clients asking after you. If you're ever open to expanding your responsibilities, just let me know."

Reckoned I had enough responsibilities at the moment, and as much as I liked cookies, I didn't need to get paid to eat them.

A Day in the Life With Zack - Entry Log #4

"Now you choose one: draw, discard one of your three cards, or select a card from the discard pile. No peeking, though."
"I will discard, then."
"To no one's surprise."
"It's the only sensible thing to do, Feargus Finlay."
"We'll see."

Moving in and out of the underground without Everleigh's protection was riskier than a double dose of Ambiance. So it was only a matter of time before I was attacked by one of the Anima, and that time was not long after playing a few games of Hidden Six with Zacharias. He was a quick study, and he'd probably get me next time.

The Anima came up behind me out of nowhere, and I narrowly escaped their attempt to put me in a choke hold. The Anima are too powerful to let live for long—they have to be disabled quickly, killed just as quickly, or evaded even more quickly. I loaded my crossbow and shot him point blank in the heart on his next approach.

Now the idea was to run while he was stunned and distracted with pulling the bolt out of his body. But he wouldn't be far behind me. I'd have to figure the rest out as I went—

Fast as I could, I bolted through the underground network—the Anima hot on my trail until… it wasn't. Still running, I glanced over my shoulder. He was still there, but he'd stopped, and then there was nothing but the melody. Weaving through my heart as if it had always been there. The cello, the violin, the flute, and the drums. Time stopped for everybody but Zacharias Vonsinfonie who kissed the forehead of the Anima and watched, expressionless, when the frozen figure crumbled to dust.

I still couldn't move, but when it was over, Zacharias looked to me with a single nod of recognition, and then, as soon as he was there, he was gone.