I was ba a Watch holding cell for the sed time this week. At least I still had my fingers, which made this my sed-ever visit to the Watch where I’d retained my digits. For now.

  They’d even healed my wounds, which was very discerting. Sure, they’d need me alive to interrogate. But diseases? They didn’t o do that.

  Had it beech who’d abducted me?

  P that was a wele distra from the ranting of the person in the cell over, who was making me miss Tommy.

  “-When I get out of here, I’m slig your horns off and using them to mutite you in ways that’ll make your parents hurl!”

  Jasper of the Pure Bloods had ranted about all the horrible things he would do to me the moment we’d been tossed into adjoining cells. Sino Watch officer had stayed behind to watch us after ensuring they’d sealed my diabolism, no one was here to tell him to shut up.

  “Yes, keep telling the Diabolist how you io gruesomely torture her wheh of you are out of prison,” I said. “I’m sure that will end well for you. Tell me, Jasper, have you ever had your extremities rotted off before?”

  Finally, blissful silence as he chewed on that for a few moments.

  “What are extremities? My fingers?”

  “Yes, although in this particur case, I meant what is between ys. I presume. It wouldn’t shock me if you pro-humaremists embraced eunuchism. The rest of your beliefs are extreme enough.”

  That set him off again.

  I sighed and leaned back. I had cuffs around my hands and leg irons around my hooves, inscribed with magic-suppressing runes, as was the metal belt they’d strapped around my waist. At least they’d left my mouth open. They would have sewn it shut in the past. Trying to butter me up, perhaps?

  The sound of the door opening interrupted Jasper’s tirade and drew my attention, but from the sounds of a cell door opening and Jasper’s rant turning into a buttery appeal to the Watch officers, he was getting dragged to interrogation first.

  I id down and tried to get some sleep ohin mattress they’d given me. Better than w about anything that may happe.

  There were no windows, so it might already be night. Time had a way of creeping past you with no way to see the sun or moon, and no clo sight.

  I drifted off till the sound of metal scraping woke me up. Amna and Tommy, along with three other watch officers. Was it just a ce these two had beeo collect me, or did they know I was also Katheryn Fara?

  What a plicated life to keep track of that.

  “Up and at ‘em, prisoner,” Amna said. “Captain Malstein wants a word with you.”

  ***

  Captain Malstein’s office was a bareboilitarian affair. A single barred window let light in, illuminating the only desk and the pair of chairs that decorated the room. I hoped for his sake he didn’t live in here, but the si off to the side was a bad sign for that.

  “Sit down,” the orc said, gesturing towards the chair across the desk from him. The desk itself was covered in papers aers, but all of them were ly sorted.

  I moved on over, Amna and Tommy fnking me as I settled into the chair. They left soon after, leaving me aloh Malstein.

  “I just got doerrogating the man you fished out of the Nover, and he had a very iing story to tell. I’m ied in how much your at matches up with his.”

  What to say first? Starting this off by provoking the Watch officer was uo end well.

  “Well, it depends on where we want to start from. My involvement in the business on the doy involvement with Voltar? Or this business as a whole?”

  Or I could shoot my mouth off instead. I’d gotten too used to not watg my words.

  “Apologies about that. I’m a little discerted by my treatment.”

  Malstein raised an eyebrow. “You have a pint about it?”

  “The opposite. You’ve surpassed my expectations,” I said. “I get to step foot ihe coffin and keep my tongue and all ten of my fingers? Your hospitality has grown expoially.”

  Malstein grimaced. “Ah, right. el Colgraves. He’s….not as urained as he might have been a few years ago.”

  “A fact I’m sure is celebrated by prisoners everywhere,” I replied.

  Malstein grunted. He didn’t seem too ined to humor. Or maybe he just didn’t like jokes about the Watch’s premier interrogator and prison warden.

  “I’m shocked you have all of yours intact, if you’ve been here before.”

  “Multiple times,” I firmed. “It takes time to learn, but I attest that maneuvering a lock pick with your teeth is a very handy skill to pick up.”

  A bald-faced lie. The only ways I’d made it out of the Coffin had always been with outside help.

  “What got old Crippler Colgraves forced to put the torture kit away?” I asked.

  Malstein sidered me for a few seds, then answered. “It turned out a thief robbing from the ates was the heir of one of the robbed families, cospying as some kind of gentlemen thief. Wheold the el that, the el didn’t believe him, and it required a very expensive operation to make sure he could perform his duties as heir again.”

  “Ah,” I said mildly. Of course, harming a noble would be the only thing to vihem to lessen how much the Crippler and his disciples did to the Watch’s prisoners.

  “el Colgraves no longer has sole authority over interrogations anymore,” Malstein tinued. “I imagine as a member of the Bck Fme you entered him?”

  “Every time I ended up in here,” I answered. “He oried skinning my hand to see if he could strip the tattoo off. He hit bone and still couldn’t remove it.”

  Malstein grimaced at that and ged the subject.

  “Speaking of that, do you mind?” he asked, pointing at my hand. “I’ve never seen one in person.”

  “Not a problem,” I said, setting my hand oable with the Bck Fme tattoo fag up. “Although I’m surprised. It’s not like the Quarter cks of the Bck Fme, if you know where to look.”

  “Ahey always seem to be missing when I visit,” he mused, looking down at the tattoo. “There’s magi this, but only signaling and trag magid you’ve disabled the tter. I thought there’d be more iurn for the cost of having all the members of the gang easily identifiable?”

  Captain Malstein had gotten both of the spells embzoned ihe tattoo. Definitely not guesses on his part, he could ferret it out somehow, especially if he saw my tinkering with the trag magic.

  “You might not be approag it from the right perspective,” I said. “For Versalicci, the usefulness is a few things. First, whether good or ill, people know when his people do something. Sed, he gets to keep track of where of all his little minions are at any time he wants. That reason probably trumps any other.”

  “He doesn’t trust any of you?” Malstein asked.

  “You don’t trust me either,” I said. “But that’s to be expected. Groups….once you get outside of what you sider yroup, trust es a lot harder than for those inside. Bck Fme, most members, I’d say, generally trust each other to a greater extent than they ders. Versalicci trusts people ihe Bck Fme more than he does those outside it. But it’s a brittle trust that breaks easily, and mostly fed out of making sure they only think what he tells them.”

  “ly breaking new ground with that,” Malstein told me. “Bit of philosophy swell your head a little?”

  “It o be defted now and then,” I replied. “I’ve do a few times in the past few days with the beatings I’ve beeing. But the tattoo is ultimately about trol. There are members without the tattoo, although of course only Versalicows. This means there could be a sed Bck Fme whose numbers match or surpass the tattooed members. Or none, and it’s all a bluff.”

  Malstein nodded.

  “As iing as this is, I think we are drifting off track. You asked where I wanted you to start from? Let me expihis started from for me. This started with being asked by a rather important family to look into a retly deceased member of their being robbed in their grave.”

  I blinked. Grave-robbing?

  “Oh Hells, you got involved in this because of the Drake?”

  “Initially. Imagine my surprise when my iigation into Katheryn Fara ended up involving the Bck Fme and poisoned nobles. And noarently Shape-gers.”

  “This feels like a thirty-carriage pile-up on an interse,” I said. “It feels like half of everyone involved in this got here by random ce.”

  “I know you’re Katheryn Fara as well,” he said, while tapping the letter on his desk. “Go ahead and read it.”

  I grabbed it and started. Addressed to him, from Imperial Intelligence, and it didn’t take long to tell it was about my identity and association with Voltar. And my history.

  “So, ihan a week, you’ve caused two major diabolits. Three if we t the warehouse, which at least wasn’t in front of witnesses, or ended up leaking that muto this world.” Malstein leaned ba his chair, sidering me like one would a rat that they couldn’t tell was going to bite or not. “Imperial Intelligence has diabolists, but they usually uand the meaning of restraint. Do you?”

  I grimaced. He had a definite point. I’d gone five years keeping myself from using Diabolism, and then the moment I started using it again.

  “Let me have a few weeks where I’m not being ambushed by forces beyond my power, and I’ll answer you. Truth be told…”

  My tinuing answer died in my throat as I tinued reading. There was more in this letter than I expected. My retion to the Xangs. The details of my time in the Bck Fme. The damn imp lodged in my body.

  “They don’t uand the meaning of privacy, do they?” I muttered as I put the letter back down.

  “They aren’t called Imperial Intelligence for nothing,” Malstein replied. “Normally, I’d be upset over having one of my iigations interfered with, but in the spirit of cooperation, I think a little inter-departmental colboration might be everyone involved.”

  “I don’t even know what my position in all of this is,” I fessed. “Just a vague sehat if I crossed the wrong line, I’d be on the wrong side of whoever Dawes worked for. Do you?”

  His smile grew even rger, whily made me more wary.

  “No, and the letter doesn’t make that clear. If I had to wager a guess, you’re in one of those grey areas that Intelligence loves to operate in. Which happens to be to my be.”

  “Ominous,” I said. “Am I to spy on Voltar for you?”

  “Not quite. I have no squabble with the good detective, unlike many of my superiors. Who are currently w to get me as far away from this as possible?”

  “Politics? Or do you think maybe the gers going after the nobility are just their test target after the Watch?”

  Malstein snorted derisively. “It’s politics. My superiors want the credit themselves or think that we should crack down on the Infernal Quarter, because you always find culprits in the Quarter. Things have bee out of the public eye, but the i at Lady Karsie and the pier will put Diabolism in the minds of everyone iy.”

  My mind was struck by a very unpleasant thought.

  “Are you alright? You just looked like someoabbed you i.”

  “Just having a very unfortable idea strike me. At the same time as there are massive marches being anized into the Quarter, shape-gers associated with a pro-Human gang have provoked is of Diabolism twice.”

  Malstein mused on that for a few seds. “Not likely to be relevant. I don’t see that being a goal in all of this.”

  “True.”

  “How would we tell if they were shape-gers?”

  “Pardon?” The sudden ge in topic caught me off-guard.

  “If my superiors were gers. How would you tell?”

  “I wouldn’t. Last I checked, Voltar and Dawes were pnning to look into any histories of shape-gers they could find, and see if there’s any knowhod. The best I have is if any of them have shown any sudden shifts in personality. The current theory is that they have a base personality they ’t avoid expressing, even when disguised. One of them certainly seems ined towards the fmboyant.”

  “You have nothing else?” Malstein asked.

  I gave him an ashamed little smile. “Captain, most of the st couple of days I’ve been running around running errands for Voltar, then before that, trying to figure out what was going on.”

  “The’s start with that. And after that is done, we discuss what I really want.”

  Not much of a choie. I went into the story starting from the beginning. I didorialize too much. As much as I could around what the letter had already told him. That wasn’t very much.

  ***

  It was te evening by the time I made it back to Voltar’s house. I’d had a watch carriage most of the way, dropped off only a street away before making my way to the tunnel.

  When I emerged, both were still up, looking rather pleased with themselves and sharing some cups of tea. Their evening es must have gone well.

  “Miss Harrow!” Vreeted me, raising a cup iing.

  “It’s been a long time. We were just beginning to worry about you,” Dawes said.

  “He was worried about you,” Voltar added. “I had the utmost fiden you. So what happened?”

  Oh, this was sure to go well.

  “Well, firstly Captain Malstein of the Watch is now involved, or he arrests me for turning a pier into a demonically mutated monstrosity,” I said. “The Shape-gers have beeending to be Lord Montague to tact the Pure Bloods. I fought both of them, hehe demonically mutated pier. Oh, and we have a member of the Pure Bloods in custody who I think knows where their underground hideaway is. You’ll o talk to Captain Malstein first, though.”

  Voltar looked like I’d just stabbed him i. Dawes started ughing.