Chapters tagged slow burn

by pwizdelf

Chapter 1

Initial chapter for some brief orientation. First off. This is some long haul saga shit. _Shogun_. _Thornbirds_. _Cien años de soledad_. _Dune_. OK maybe not quite as bad as _Dune_. This story starts with the main character and her partner (cop partner, specifically canonically...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 7

===32 Wintertide 1378========== I stood shaking on Curry’s kitchen step, arms crossed and hugging myself nervously, hoping desperately that he was home, and hadn’t decided to get a pint with somebody from the Fourth, or some other kind of detour. But he answered the door after o...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 8

By the time Curry knocked gently on the door, then nudged it open with a tray in hand, I was feeling a bit more like a person again than a doll somebody had played too rough with and tossed aside, and the steaming hot warmth of the water had made me pink all over and a bit less s...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 9

“Beef strudel, or Damavarian curry?” Curry asked me shortly after that, surveying the available leftovers Nan had stored in the cold box. “And yes, obligatory, ha-ha.” I was torn, since I’d never tasted anything called curry before. “I don’t exactly know what curry is,” I admitt...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 10

Upstairs Curry got an extra bedsheet from the linen closet and we sectioned his bed into two separate sleeping areas by folding each sheet in half and then replacing the remaining bedclothes over that. I had a toothbrush in the downstairs water closet, so I used that and washed m...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 11

When I woke again from a mildly unsettling dream in which somebody unseen wouldn’t stop fumbling with my clothes, it was morning and I didn’t remember falling asleep. Curry and I had lain there a long time last night whispering in the dark, half bullshitting to reassure ourselves...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 12

“Lieutenant?” I asked timidly, knocking lightly on Blankenship’s open door two mornings later. “I, er, do you have a moment, maybe?” The lieutenant looked up from whatever papers were in front of him, then glanced at the clock and nodded. “Come in.” He motioned me and Curry in a...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 13

“Um, I see your predicament, sir,” I said after a moment. “I’ll… tell you who it was, if you think it’s best. But if you don’t mind, I’d still rather not talk to IG? I’m a bit worried if I do, nothing will come of it and then he’ll know I told and he’ll still be around, only more...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 14

“I’m talking about succession planning, officers,” Blankenship said, tapping his finger on the list of names written on the current page of his ledger, and when we continued to stare uncomprehendingly at him, he explained further. “The current composition of SCD is a bit skewed,”...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 16

===80 Summer 1380========== “Through here,” old Eiwan Fearcher told me and Curry, motioning us to follow as he shuffled slowly toward the alley on unsteady legs, stumping his cane ahead of him. “There’s a cat or a possum what must have got drowned in there,” he said, pointing fr...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 17

It took not quite half an hour for Curry to come back, and I could tell he wanted to talk about it, except that by now a few people from the neighborhood were beginning to gather at the corners, drifting curiously toward us, and we realized it would be necessary to cordon off a l...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 18

The scene still wasn’t wrapped up by the time our shift was meant to be over five hours later. Both Curry and I would have preferred to stay and see things through, except we weren't approved for overtime, so Lamb and Ladd sent us away with strict instructions to shower, get a li...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 19

Since it was already eight o’clock, and today was only Seconday, when we got to our local there was no difficulty getting one of the good booths up by the front window. “I wish summer wasn’t almost over,” I said a little wistfully, once the owner's daughter Elena had served us e...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 20

All in, the bell tolled for a half hour before it finally stopped. By that point we'd already been at the castle a good ten minutes or so, which with the two pints I’d guzzled too quickly was enough time for the sound to lodge in my consciousness as a semipermanent background ins...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 21

Standing between Baggett and Curry, I heard the sharp intake of Baggett’s breath, and the barely audible sound of dismayed surprise from Curry, and wondered distantly what they had observed about my own reaction. I felt the odd pricking sensation of hairs standing up all over my...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 22

Outside, the castle bell was just tolling eleven and the castleyard was empty, which must mean the search for Ladd had begun. Curry reached for my hand before I could reach for his. I gave him a fierce squeeze, which he returned, then kept hanging on to me. “I don’t see how one...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 23

===82 Summer 1380========== “How did it never occur to us that they’d place watch wards here?” Curry lamented as we stood in the hall outside Lamb’s door staring in stupid dismay at the glowing watch wards that if crossed would tell the real guards we’d been here without...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 24

“What is that?” Curry asked, as he and I moved over to look. Anton shook his head and passed him the sheet. “Public house menu.” He knelt and began gathering up the others. Curry stared at the page, then turned it over and studied it for a moment before holding it out to me. “T...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 25

Curry had reconstructed the material substance of Lamb’s mad-looking string map on paper, better than I ever could have, and wanted me to attest that his two dimensional replica was faithful enough that he could now pull down the real thing and transfer it into our possession. I...

by pwizdelf

Chapter 26

“You are lucky Markus Lydell is fucking dumb as wet chalk,” Baggett said as soon as we emerged, taking a long pull on his cigarette and studying me from where he stood leaning against the building. “Anybody with the slightest bit going on upstairs would have noticed the unmissabl...