Chapters tagged slow burn

by pwizdelf

Chapter 50

A few hours later I woke again to Curry shivering so violently it vibrated the bed. He was too cold to answer me when I inquired what was the worst of it, so I repeated everything I’d done the night before—building up the fire, hot-water flasks, heaping on the blankets, cough rem...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 51

When my surprise kept me from answering right away, he said, “How are we ever meant to get over you if you keep coming back and getting our hopes up, only to dash them every time?” in a tone of such openly plaintive despair that I felt immediately guilty, which was ridiculous, wh...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 52

I woke with a start to the now unpleasantly familiar sound of Curry coughing, more feebly than before, and understood I had slept much longer than twenty minutes. I rubbed my eyes and stood up, squinting at the clock in the dim firelight. One in the morning. “Are you yourself aga...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 53

===10 Spring 1386========== Out of nowhere I shuddered awake, completely awake, unsure what had roused me. Not a dream—I was pretty sure I hadn’t been dreaming. It took me a moment, while my eyes adjusted to the darkness, to realize that in my sleep I’d turned over and curled up...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 54

A long, terrible moment passed, during which nothing at all happened other than my eyes began to water from the sharp, biting stink of fumes, and then Curry’s eyelids fluttered and he made a faint, groggy sound of displeasure. I almost began to bawl again, just from sheer relief,...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 56

===28 Spring 1386========== Nan had been back from her visit to Valder Keep eight days now, and she had spoken to me maybe three times in that interval, one of which was on her immediate arrival home, before she found out that Magnus had died ten days before, and that I was the...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 57

===?? Spring 1386========== The startling thing was this: I was asleep. It was so startling, in fact, that I was out of the chair like a crossbow bolt, and on my feet almost before I remembered what things like _awake_ and _asleep_ even meant. I whirled to take in the room, sti...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 58

Yeah. That old chestnut ===?? Spring 1386========== The Rook the hospital sent was a baby-faced blond human man who introduced himself and explained that he was in his final year of practical physician training at the College, but had completed his healing studies, had some fir...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 59

Mid-afternoon was an _outrageously_ annoying time to have to storm out of one's house in a fury, I ruminated angrily as I kept my head down, trying to conceal the fact from passersby that I was outright gasping with the gale of my babyishly hurt, frantic sobs. This was a _p...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 60

It took me long enough to steel myself to go on that Baggett looked down again to see if I had changed my mind. “Sorry. I’m just bearing up,” I said. “I don’t think it would be good for my career, if other people at the Watch knew.” There was a flicker of apprehensive interest i...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 61

Once we had our “trash food,” as Baggett termed it, and settled ourselves on the nearest bench least plastered in gull shit, he cast his sharp eyes over me and said, “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you never mentioning exactly what your _thing_ is, that made the College of Rava so...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 62

I wanted rather more to hear whatever was behind Baggett having paid out of pocket to ward his guard badge, but I also knew him well enough to know that the finality in his tone meant if I pressed it now he’d clam up and divert me. “So last night, I was really worried,” I said, i...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 63

Back at the house, Yergen was gone but had left Baggett a note saying Curry seemed to be equally out of physical danger and out of sorts, with the tongue lashing I’d given him before fleeing, and wanted to be let alone. Thus Yergen had decided to go. Baggett went home, graciously...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 64

This is a landing page to help organize additional stories about these characters taking place around this point in time. If you're thinking, what a long-ass time jump. You're not wrong.

by pwizdelf

Chapter 65

===39 Winter 1395========== “Hey Bersk?” Erskine asked, and then there was a short silence before I looked up from my paperwork a moment later to see why she wasn’t talking. “Sorry Ersk,” I said, giving her a little smile to apologize for not getting to her right away. “I forgo...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 66

Baggett marched down the aisle, also cloaked and shaking off wintry residue, exuding general pique. He stopped next to his desk and moved to pull his chair out, then stopped, surveying the lame chair irritably. “Bersk, where is _my_ chair?” “Bag, the fact that you’re asking _me...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 67

Outside, I pulled the heavy wool around me against the snow and tried to decide what I wanted to do. Curry would probably show up at my door sooner or later tonight, since I’d stormed out of the watch house without uninviting him. I was still undecided as to whether I wanted to b...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 68

I’d left the door to my tiny water closet—which wasn’t even a bathroom in the sense that there was no tub, only a bit of a bathing area with extremely limited duration hot water—shut that morning, with the result that it was on the chilly side now. But I hadn’t peed since before...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 69

===63 Winter 1395========== “Oh, _Bersk_!” Baggett crowed, leaning over from his bar stool and half-colliding into me with silly enthusiasm. “Look who it _is_! Perfect Hair Guy is _finally_ here to see you!” “You are _drunk_,” I informed him, then with faint surprise suddenly p...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 70

Scarcely ten minutes later Roland was letting us in through his kitchen door, which he barely got shut before I’d removed my cloak and tossed it on his kitchen table. “Can I—” he began, but I cut him off with a kiss and he wisely shut the fuck up. His lack of experience was evide...