Chapters tagged slow burn

by pwizdelf

Chapter 28

===81 Spring 1382========== “Victim’s body can’t be identified in the first twenty-four hours and description matches no missing persons alerts,” Curry read aloud from the study sheet he was using to quiz me on watch guard recall policies, swinging one leg idly off the side of t...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 29

“Some things are the same… a DNR order filed by the victim still takes precedence, assuming a city magistrate doesn’t overturn it for some reason. But that’s not very common,” I added, which we both well knew because if it were at all common for magistrates to rescind a DNR, they...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 30

“Children,” Nan interrupted us politely in Csoglaran after I’d finished explaining to Curry’s satisfaction what Watch Guard recall policy said must be done for a week-old body found in the harbor. “Not that your graphic talk of rancid corpses isn’t delightful, but—” she motioned...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 31

===85 Spring 1382========== In the end, the detective examinations week was one of those strange times that made me feel as though I had never done anything in my whole life but prepare for and take exams, and never would do anything else, while at the same time, concluding itse...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 32

It took me a moment to catch up enough to parse all of that, and then I was horrified. “You think I cheated on my detective course examinations?” There was a long, deflating silence during which she didn’t speak, or at least, one that felt long to me, and when she still didn’t sp...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 33

“I think you should retake the oral section of the examinations,” she said, “in a written format. The purpose of the oral examinations is to observe the student’s ability to respond to certain thought exercises on demand. Typically the more expedient approach is oral question and...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 35

===27 Harvest 1383========== “Hey,” Curry whispered, leaning over several stacks of papers and knocking his boot against mine where our two desks were pushed together. When I looked up from my busywork he grinned happily at me. “Guess what. It’s Fourthday afternoon, and we’re de...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 36

“Soo… hey,” Curry said, coming back from the bar and leaning on our high table some hour-or-so later. “Hey, you. Want another pint?” I asked. “Or… do you want to go?” I was pretty sure Baggett and I were both fine with it if we just all left and then resumed our aggravating, not...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 37

I was still mulling over what the evening might hold in store, glancing around the taproom to see if anybody caught my eye—or if I’d caught anyone else’s—when someone slid into Baggett's seat next to me, cheerfully drumming their fingers on the table. I’d already half-turned, thi...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 38

“I don’t know if there’s any sight quite so joyful,” Baggett said in a dreamy sort of voice, passing me the hash joint he’d just rolled, then leaning on the boardwalk railing, “as a bird so absolutely determined to eat a piece of paper that once had a fish pie wrapped up in it. I...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 39

I tiptoed upstairs, knowing Nan would be long asleep by now. Curry’s door was shut same as it had been when we left that morning, and I didn’t know if that meant he hadn’t come home yet, or had been home for a while already and was asleep or reading or something. I was quiet, but...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 41

“Wait—wait—wait! What do you mean, Bag thinks Barty’s suspect for Khan is the same as ours for Ethelbanian?” I asked, sitting up all the way from where I lay sprawled on the garden settee next to him, and eyeballing Curry. “Same suspect as in coincidentally knew both women, or sa...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 42

“This looks far more insane than I imagined from the description I was just given,” Baggett said when I came downstairs some fifteen minutes later, having struggled a bit with the unwieldiness of the large corkboard on which Curry had recreated Lamb’s city map. But his eyes had a...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 43

This is another landing page to help organize additional stories about these characters taking place around this point in time. This is also me mentioning to anybody who is not in a place suitable to consuming content that goes to fairly emotionally bleak slash dark places—I'm g...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 44

===8 Spring 1386========== “I don’t follow, he thinks the green string means what, again?” I asked Curry, puzzled, then drew in a sharp gasp when I accidentally drove the needle I was using to resew a button on my cloak straight into my thumb. A bright spot of blood beaded up im...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 45

===9 Spring 1386========== When I woke for a second time that night to the sound of Curry coughing in the next room, I slipped out of bed and padded barefoot into his room in my pajamas. He sounded much worse than I’d expected for it only being a few hours, and his lungs had tak...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 46

By the time the stove was hot enough to boil a kettle, I had everything assembled and measured out properly. Hoping that the anise wasn’t a critical component, and that the laudanum’s properties might do most of the heavy lifting, I hung the lamp on the hook by the stove and set...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 47

It was cool out when I opened the side door that led to the walk, so I ducked back inside and got my cloak from where Curry had left it on the settee, then shut the door behind me and set out walking, buttoning it around my shoulders as I went. The guard kiosk was only a ten minu...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 48

Much as I didn’t want a protracted eyeful of his private parts, I quickly figured out that if the point was not to make a mess, I did have to watch the whole time, to make sure the jar didn’t tip and wasn’t getting too full for its current angle—_yeah_. Well. When he seemed done...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 49

When I came back from looking for something to read I checked on him, and he was still awake, a little, so instead of taking the armchair I climbed onto the bed with the book I’d picked out. I leaned against the headboard with the fat tome on my lap, holding the book with one han...