Who Was Handed a Number

12.

On this day the journal begins with Qwitch. Two vesk, albino, mafia enforcers, had taken hold of him. Then come the pictures, stills from watching cameras. One set is from the hangar where the crew had seen the two before. The other is from a private dance club: a star orchid lying white on the floor, and in front of it an orc with black running from his eye sockets and a large syringe standing out of him. Beneath them Som wrote Qwitch did this!

Who read the dead man's picture, and named the hand.

— the Long Names, Zigu, 6

It is the only mark of emphasis on the page. Surely he had reason for it.

13.

They went to Orphys to find Juanita Trucks. It is a city of the dead, under a dome, and it tolerates the living, so its air will not kill them. There were many officials to pass before they were let in. The crew set the ship to keep watch while they were gone.

Who passed among the officials of the dead, into the city that suffers the living.

— the Long Names, Zigu, 7

14.

The bone train carried them into the district of Splice. The journal is blunt about it: unappealing, necrograft factories and flesh factories, almost no law, little there for anyone who still breathes. The night in Orphys lasts fifteen days. He kept his helmet on, and an infrared sensor was in use.

The dark beyond the fire is not empty. It is only unlit.

— the Cycle, I.2

15.

At the corner of Carpul Spur and Bareknuckle Way hung a sign: a skeleton in a top hat and monocle, lettered in Eoxian and in Common. Gentle Sage's, necrografts, and sundries. Inside was the proprietor, a corpsefolk zombie who looked just like his sign. He asked them to keep their stink off the product. Down the street was a bonesmith named Jacqueline.

Heat is known before it is seen.

— the Cycle, I.3

16.

The Ministry of Eternal Vigilance stood just up the street. It is a bureaucratic branch: the citizens of Orphys must report the activities of the Corpse Fleet to it, and through it their government works to disown the Fleet. Inside were hover chairs, a second floor roped off, one human laborer and a ghoul at the desk. There were numbered tokens too. He wrote down all four: 437, Bren's, then 438, 439, 440.

Who was handed a number, and waited.

— the Long Names, Zigu, 8

What holds does not hurry.

— the Cycle, III.4

Why keep the numbers? A warrior does not record such things without cause.

17.

Juanita Trucks was a ghoul, recently turned, who had been obsessed with the history of Eox. The journal says that much and doesn't say who told them. The laborer, plainly angry, said a great deal at the desk. The ghoul took notes, and the man walked away. Then someone walks through to the flesh factory. The journal doesn't say who, and it stops there.

Where the record ends, stand.
Do not step into what you cannot see.

— the Cycle, I.5