The accountant rubbed his wrists and staggered around the fire. “Did you have to kill them all?” Ellison stepped over one of the corpses, working the kinks out of his arms. The stars were bright in the sky. Normally, in Krim City, the constant smog blocked much of the view. Out here, you could see …
Ellison lunged towards the fire, trying to grab the poison capsule, but it was gone. One of the guards immediately grabbed him by the back of his jacked and pulled him away. “None of that,” said the guard. “We went to a lot of trouble to catch you.” One by one, the prisoners were re-shackled, …
Ellison didn’t know if the cult was watching him or not, so he followed the recommendation to go the King’s Arms and asked loud and detailed questions about the menu. “What do you mean, you don’t have turkey legs?” he complained at the bar. “The Middle Ages were all about turkey legs.” The bartender pointed …
Ellison stepped through the gate in his new avatar, wearing a randomly-generated face and a default adventurer outfit. He looked around as if he were on Krim for the first time. Matilda was nowhere in sight, but there were a lot of people milling around between the merchant stands in the Gate Plaza. Or she …
Ellison and Matilda met with the Round Krim Society late the following morning to deliver the bad news. The brothers were in the main meeting room downstairs, sitting around one of the long tables at the back, drinking herbal tea. Linota stood up when she saw them walk in. “Did you find him?” Ellison shook …
The wench avatar was a big mistake. Barking Street was much shorter when Ellison had walked up it while wearing the assassin outfit, with its long pants, jacket, and heavy, hooded wool cloak. Walking back down to Aldwich Row in a skirt and a bodice-baring chemise was an endless march. At least the skirt had …
Matilda and Ellison exited the Aldwich Row Community Center through same back door that they had come in through. There was a line of people in the alley and they pressed in as soon as the door was opened. Matilda pushed the most aggressive devotees aside but Ellison had neither her forceful personality nor the …
In the hallway outside Remember Keturah Bohannon’s office Ellison stopped to check the floor. “Do you see any scuff marks?” he asked Matilda. “You mean, from when Remember dragged Fulke out of his office, into hers, and threw him out the window?” She pursed her lips and looked at the floor, then grabbed an oil lamp …
Returning to Krim never got any easier. Even knowing that the fleas were all in his head, the minute he stepped through the gate, his entire body began itching again. His body felt heavier. His shoes were too tight around the toes, and too loose at the heel. The air, full of soot and aerosolized …
After getting back to city center, Ellison veered off for the central gate while Matilda continued down Knots Hollow Way, to the rooming house on Marylebone Place where Fulke lived. Ellison’s brother, Jerald Crewe, owned an investigation agency that mostly handled background checks and delivered subpoenas. When Ellison got out prison, Jerald was the only …
“You should have come and talked to me first,” the waitress said. She came up to the banister, keeping Ellison between her and Matilda, and looked over the bay as she tilted her head towards him. “I know all the goss. I’ll give you the straight story.” “What did Captain May lie about?” Ellison asked. …
“Apparently, to have a completely realistic physics engine, you need a computer as big as Krim itself,” said Ellison, walking up to Matilda’s table at the King’s Armpit. She normally sat at the bar. The choice of the table, in the far corner, was so that she could have a private conversation with some guy. …
Taenaran the Bard confirmed that he saw nobody else upstairs except Brother Fulke before the rehearsals began, then nobody else went up and down all afternoon. “We were short of chairs and a couple of guys had to sit on the stairs,” he said. “Nobody snuck past us.” “Did you go upstairs at anytime during …
“So let me get this straight,” said Ellison, looking around the office. “You want us to find evidence that Krim World administrators kidnapped your leader…” “Brother Fulke,” said Brother Linota. “…And are keeping him trapped in some kind of secret dimension where they keep everyone who disagrees with them.” “Yes.” “So that you can sue …
Damp darkness surrounded the back door of the Aldwich Row Community Center. It was colder by the door, with a mist rising up from somewhere to the right of the entrance. The only light was a faint glow from a second-floor window of the building on the other side of the alley. Someone up there …
Ellison put his hands in his pants pockets. He could feel the notebook in one of the inside side pockets of his jacket, just under his left elbow. “What’s in the notebook?” he asked. “Nothing that anybody else would care about,” said Rodge. “Just a record of transactions between me and Elea.” “Sounds very romantic.” …
Why would Rodge hire someone to steal a blank notebook? Ellison stopped under a streetlight and pulled it out of his pocket. He felt the pages. There was still nothing hidden in them or between them. He put the notebook away and continued down Leadenhall back to the Barley Mow Inn. Maybe Harmen Chapman stole …
Quimby Plummer, owner of the Barley Mow Inn, refused to tell Ellison where Donna lived. “I know you’re working for that Rodge guy,” Quimby said. “After you two dragged my customer right out of here, I’m seriously considering kicking you out. Next time, drag them out after they’ve paid for their meal.” Ellison sighed, then …
Matilda left, to put up more reward signs and to listen for gossip about the jewel. Ellison stayed behind. With Rodge down in the basement, whipping the thieves, it could be a good opportunity to talk to the guild members. And have some chamomile tea. Danmak had a pot going in the break room and …
“Wait at the entrance,” Matilda told Ellison as she walked into the inn. “Don’t let him go upstairs or into the kitchen.” She pantomimed a knife across her throat. “You want me to slit his throat?” he whispered. “No. If he gets to the kitchen he might slice his own throat and we’d lose him …
