{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/eifre-quest/a4",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/eifre-quest/a4",
  "publishedAt": "2021-03-30T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: {.subchapter .passing-notes}\nWhen the conversation has stalled and Marka has the space to think, she\nrealizes what's left is not actually silence. There are sounds Marka\nhasn't heard outside of a music hall --- resonating plates and thrumming\nstrings, energetic drumming. The timbre is off, like those in charge of\nthe hall's acoustics had failed utterly.\n\nThe blackbane is turning her head around, searching the room for an\nexplanation. It's out of the way, nestled in one corner: a device that\nexposes a two-roll scroll (or what loooks like one), only with lines\ninstead of text, and a needle running across those lines. Or one long\nline, rather, which snakes back and forth.\n\nMarka stands up to investigate. The material looks too thick and dark to\nbe normal paper. Something vesper-made? Or a mundanity she'd never\nencountered? By the mechanics of the device, one roll is unfurling into\nthe other, the needle dragging horizontally across the roll, back and\nforth. Looking closer at the line, she sees in it fine patterns. When\nMarka touches the needle, the sound stops. So the needle rubs against\nthose patterns, and this becomes music somewhere inside the box?\n\nMarka rubs her own palps against her face. It's like talking, the box's\nneedle-arm like a mechanical palp, and the not-scroll a very long pars\nstridens.\n\nWhile she fiddles with the box, Wik walks over. Without giving the box\nmore than a moment's glance, the tallowbane hits a lever on the side,\nand the music dies. The box is still.\n\nMarka cocks her head at the other mantis.\n\nWik says, \"I dislike music.\"\n\n\"Oh. I liked it.\"\n\n\"Too cheerful --- I find it inappropriate.\"\n\nThe tallowbane gestures back to the seating. The same high end style\nshe'd seen downstairs, outside this parallel space. Pale red cushions on\nthe abdominal rests, while the struts and supports were the white of the\nwalls.\n\nEarlier, the bee trapped in hardened honey, Felme's gift, had been\nmindlessly dropped on the center table, far from the documents Wik had\npreviously flipped.\n\nFeeling a pang of hunger, Marka reaches for it now, slender digits\nenwrapping. Her body heat means the substance melts minutely, and\nsticks.\n\nWik stops her. \"Don't eat that.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"It's cruel.\" Wik's cotton antennae fall down on either side of its\nhead. \"Would you eat a mantis?\"\n\nThere's a joke which almost feels perfectly set up. How would they have\nput it? Sultry, something like 'If there was enough passion --- or\ndisappointment --- I might give a nibble.' Maybe they would have said it\nsnappier, but really, it isn't Marka's kind of joke. Growing up under\nher father, anything approaching that kind of attitude would be crushed\nby his hard words. After she left, though --- in the Wardens --- she'd\nseen more of it. Often enough for it to creep into her thoughts here.\n\nIf any part of her was tempted, Wik's ambiguity (it was shorter, but\nnot that much shorter), makes the prospect precarious. And this all is\nhardly a chivalrous mode of thought.\n\nThis is serious. After all this stress and arguing, her thoughts are\nfraying to thin ends so easily now.\n\n\"Of course I wouldn't,\" she said. That is an embarrassing pause, but she\nhopes she speaks definitely enough to compensate.\n\n\"Are bees any different? Bees farm, and their production of honey is\ndelicate as any science. They had cities, before the third dominion.\"\n\nMarka frowns, her antennae curling up. \"So they're like roaches, then.\nNot mantids.\"\n\n\"I think you shouldn't eat roaches, either. They are like us.\"\n\n\"What about vesperbats, then? They had had cities, too.\"\n\n\"That is different. They are different.\"\n\nBecause their blood is so useful?\n\nMarka throws her antennae back behind her head, and she waves her\nraptorial, as if swiping away this conversation. \"This is all besides\nthe point,\" she says. \"I won't eat the bee. What are we going to do\nabout Felme?\"\n\n\"Not much,\" the tallowbane says. \"He has us dead to rights. This is his\ndomain, and he will get what he wants.\"\n\n\"Sure, but which oath?\" She says this slow, at the same time reaching\ninto her bag, grabbing more of the paper she'd written her Wardens\nreport on. What Wik just said reminded her of what it had said earlier,\nsomething she'd registered but let go unremarked.\n\nOn the paper, she writes quickly, sloppily.\n\n> said something about privacy? think he's listening?\n\nMarka slips Wik the paper. She affects stealth and passes it low, the\ntable obscuring it from some angles. This feels silly, and probably\npointless.\n\n\"We choose the second option: take the debts. My plan was to destroy the\ngang without gross violence, by seizing their finances. We cannot do\nthat under the first oath.\"\n\nWik is writing, and it's unhurried and precise. When it returns the\npage, the new writing has a maleish neatness.\n\n> I cannot rule it out, and he's exactly the type to do so.\n>\n> What do you intend to keep private?\n\nOne thing, mainly. And Marka can't put it politely. What approach has\nthe best chance of getting an honest answer? It's not something she can\ncalculate. And there's really only one approach Marka can ever\nmarshal: the straight and direct.\n\nThe underlying suspicions weren't that, however. It was as circuitous\nand unsteady line of reasoning --- a guess, more than anything. But it\nheld a glimmer of logic.\n\nFelme'd mentioned the Golden Lady --- a renegade who'd popped up a while\nago, caused some trouble, left some spellbrands and haruspices dead, and\nthen disappeared, apparently never captured or even fought.\n\nIf one could evade capture, and avoided combat instead of overpowering\n-- what skillset was most suited to that?\n\n> are you the Golden ~~Lady~~ Genderless?\n\nWik gives her a look. A moment passes where the closest it has to facial\nexpression is the wax slowly sliding down its face.\n\n> No.I am not.\n\nMarka sighs relief first of all. Wik is making no motion to kill her for\nknowing too much. But the blackbane has thought harder than this, and\nWik is a master of disguise --- and by implication, adept at deception.\nShe wanted more than words.\n\n> could oaths be ~~amm~~ amended w/ that?\n\nA moment, and before she lets go of the note back, she adds:\n\n> i know it sounds paranoid. but something strange is going on, and i\n> dont want another spear at my back\n\nMarka's writing is bigger than Wik's and by now she's just above the\npage's bottom, cramping in the last few words, her downward strokes\ngoing off the page. She wipes ink off the stone table.\n\nA second page is passed to Wik along with a used one, but the tallowbane\ninstead just writes on the back of the first.\n\n> It is paranoid. And Felme will respect that. So if it shall give you\n> peace of mind, we can ask.\n>\n> You should say something aloud, by the way. Unless you do not mind it\n> being fully obvious to any listeners what's going on.\n\n\"Um, can you repeat that? Sorry, I may have zoned out a bit.\"\n\n\"I'll be swearing the second oath. You should too, otherwise you cannot\nassist me.\"\n\n\"I'll ask how much debt they're in. And uh, what if they couldn't pay it\nanyway? Are we just going to get saddled with a shitty debt and nothing\nto show for it?\"\n\n> and... whats down in the catacombs? why was that part of your plan? i\n> dont think its necessary\n\n\"Felme is a reasonable man. There will be a forgiveness clause.\"\n\n> Because I have no interest in getting the Wentalel guard or the\n> Wardens involved. And actually entering with their approval was not in\n> consideration until you became my accomplice.\n\n\"Okay,\" Marka says. She writes:\n\n> felme said theres something down there. it sounds... dangerous\n\nThe response:\n\n> If you insist on having your activity recorded and questioned later,\n> sure, we can see if your status is enough to grant us access to the\n> sewers.\n\n\"Are these concerns more than just stalling?\" Wik asks, and it's\nprobably not all for show. \"I am not amused by endless discussion and\nlitigation. I would rather we just do it.\"\n\n\"I guess,\" Marka says. She looks again at the page. There wasn't much to\nrespond with than a mere 'okay,' which seemed a bit pointless.\n\nOh! She writes,\n\n> one of us should eat the paper or something. keep felme from reading\n> it\n\nWik reads this with a glance, and twirls an antennae dismissively. It\nraises a foreleg. Around the digits, there's an orifice. It puckers and\ndischarges oil mixed with air, which comes out as a spray. Wik throws\nout the other foreleg, rubbing two special surfaces together, and three\nsparks dextrously fly off and two hit the oiled page. It goes up in\nflame, though sparing the stone table.\n\nThe tallowbane walks to the door, and pauses there. When Marka does not\nprotest, it leaves and she's behind it.\n\n\"-- deadline can be extended. Once. This is not generosity --- I\nunderstand the business with Osfe took you unawares. It surprised us\nall. But once. I hope this teaches you caution.\"\n\n\"I --\"\n\n\"Quiet. Save it for when we don't have an audience.\" The male looks up.\nEven after threatening their lives, Marka sees a secretary in Felme\nbefore she sees a cunning vesperbane. \"I presume you've come to a\ndecision?\"\n\nThe mantis he was speaking to --- a figure in a tattered black cloak,\nhooded and billowing, is scurrying off.\n\nMarka watches them leave.\n\n\"Don't mind them. Just business --- there's more in this city than\nconcerns you.\"\n\n\"Sorry if I have to look twice at every shadow now.\"\n\nFelme only nods with a vague mhmm.\n\n\"I believe you already suspect our choice,\" Wik says.\n\n\"Ah, how convenient,\" is Felme's response. \"For all that our kind are\nborn killers and subjugators, I confess I trust a vesperbane's word more\nthan the commonry.\"\n\n\"There is one caveat,\" Wik says. It loooks to Marka.\n\nShe realizes she has to say it. \"Vesperbanes have veritanyms, right?\nIt's how the Wardens verify renegade kills. Especially when facing one\nthat can, uh. Disguise herself.\" She sees Felme flick open a raptorial,\nsurely meaning 'get on with it'. \"Wik and I have just met today. There's\na worry --- you mentioned a dangerous renegade is in the area. The Golden\nLady? First reports ",
  "title": "Interlude 1d"
}