Grim lay on the very edge of the floating island, staring at the sky through a half-lidded eye. The cursing continued somewhere beyond his field of vision.

  A curse caught his ear and he turned his head. The book on the ground before Reader was blooming in flames.

  “How many is that, dipshit?”

  “Three…” Reader said wearily, kicking the burning book across the stone courtyard to join the blacked, smouldering remains of its peers. “The weave is so small. I can’t get it to fit exactly.”

  Grim rolled onto his side, facing Reader. “Yeah, shame about the staff. Staff’s fucking rock for pulling big threads, making big weaves. A wand is better for the finer shit. And weak-ass beginners.”

  Reader picked up another book and placed it where the last one had been. “And could a wand pull enough thread for what we want?”

  “To make a fucking table float? Fuck yeah. When we say big stuff we’re talking about dropping fucking meteors on cities and raising the dead. That kind of shit. Even though that’s talking about my master and he was no weak-ass, stone-banded fairy. So maybe you do need the oomph. Eh, doesn’t fucking matter ’cause a staff’s what you got.”

  Reader started again, his eyes glowing, the end of his staff growing his golden embroidery hook. He pulled the threads, laying one over the other, trying to arrange them so that with a few more pulls he could tie them into the shape he could see in his mental connection with Grim

  Grim watched closely for a moment, almost as though he was interested. “Gotta tie your knots tighter. If you don’t the whole thing will come unravelled on the way down and… actually never mind, you’re doing great, don’t change a fucking thing.”

  Reader, focusing intently, hissed, “Remind me to take a look at your rules. I feel like there should be one in there against giving me advice that can lead to my death.”

  He looped the second-to-last loop and pushed the staff through, trying to hook the last thread, a little less than halfway along.

  Grim shrugged. “Eh. If it’s any consolation I’m not actually trying to get you fucking killed. You’re just collateral.”

  Reader pulled the last thread and quickly moved to tug the knots tight on either end of the weave. Suddenly, the book began to glow.

  “Grim! Grim! Holy shit! Grim, look!”

  Grim was indeed leaning closer, eyes wide in no small surprise. They both watched in suspense, waiting for the book to float.

  In a heartbeat a fleshy boil bloomed on the end of the book and exploded in a spray of thin mucus. More boils swelled as the mucus drained away, leaving a writhing, lizard-like leg attached to the tome. More boils burst, more vomit-stinking, slimy wetness spewed onto the floor.

  Reader backed up, face contorted in disgust. “Oh… God…”

  The book in question had bulged, grown thicker in the middle, and sprouted three lizardy legs and a chicken foot, plus a head that could only be described as that of a placental tortoise. The whole collection of pieces twitched and writhed, the head flopping up and down, slapping the ground and the face of the book with vile alternating wet whacks.

  A voice came, shrieking in high-pitched panic, “NO! KILL ME! PLEASE!”

  It couldn’t seem to breathe, a rattling, high gasp following each word, and yet it kept pleading.

  “KILL ME! PLEASE! PLEAAAASE!”

  Reader looked to Grim, face crumbling in guilt and revulsion. “Shit, I didn’t mean to…”

  Grim laughed wildly. “Look at that dipshit! You made suffering! Cool!”

  Reader glanced around, maybe seeking a rock to drop on the unfortunate magical abortion. Then it flopped limply and spoke no more.

  Reader said, “Is it…”

  Grim poked it tentatively with one foot, primed to leap back. The head just flopped slack to the side. Sounding flat and disappointed, he said, “Yeah…”

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  Reader staggered back to the edge of the courtyard. The edge of the courtyard was bordered by a low wall. The wall was far from high enough to save someone from falling over, so its purpose remained unexplained. Reader slumped to the ground leaning against this wall and let his head roll to the side so that his vision was filled with the white nothingness of the land below.

  “I need a break.”

  “Oh, yeah, fucking sure you do. Not like there’s anything pressing that should be lighting a fire under your useless ass. You know, like impending starvation.” Grim threw his head back and howled in wild laughter at his own joke.

  Reader waved limply at him. “Just a minute. That was… that was fucking awful.”

  “Fucking awesome, more like!”

  “And I’m tired and dizzy. This weaving is hard work.”

  He let his head sag against the stone wall and let his eyes drift shut. He opened them again what might have been moments or hours later. He looked around the courtyard. He didn’t think the sun had moved all that much, but couldn’t be sure. Grim was lying on his back on the wall again, snoring.

  Reader took the moment to just be alone. He hadn’t been alone since he arrived in this place. Grim was… well, he was probably grateful for Grim’s company. As unpleasant and foul-mouthed as the imp-like book creature might have been, he had helped, and he staved off true solitude. Not for the first time, far from the first time, he wondered if everyone with an adept pass got shacked up with a deranged, nihilistic, disrespectful aid. He had to doubt it. He had a feeling he’d got the shit end of the stick on that account.

  He turned his head back to stare at the whiteness below. On top of all the other depressions, the nothingness that was the land below was yet another. As he watched, he thought he could make out structures on the horizon. And then, raking his gaze, he realized the expanse wasn’t exactly that barren. There was what looked like an island in the white sea. There another one. And there! Was that a walled town?

  “Grim! Hey Grim! Come here!”

  “Fuck, what’s at? Fucking shit on my ass. I’m a-fucking-sleep.”

  “No, just come here a sec.”

  “If I wasn’t compelled to follow your fucking whims I’d climb inside your fucking asshole and chew my way out your stomach for waking me up, you little sack of shit.”

  Reader grimaced, “Really need to take a look at those rules…”

  Grim slouched over to join him and stood on the edge of the wall. He did so precariously, with his toes jutting out over the edge, as if daring the world to make him fall.

  “So what the fuck is it?”

  “What’s that? Way over there on the horizon?”

  “What? That? Looks like the gates to one of the realms. Don’t fucking ask me which one, I don’t know which way we’re pointed and I don’t want to fucking figure it out.”

  Reader made a note to investigate these “Realms” later. He pointed to the walled town. “And that?”

  Grim squinted. “Oh that? That’s fucking Medley. Backwater shitheap.”

  Reader watched the town. “You know it’s not that far off. I mean, it is a long way off, ’cause we’re all the way up here. But you know, sideways.”

  Grim waved a hand dismissively, dismounting the wall to return to his sleeping spot. “Nah, it’s not that fucking far. If you’re trying to figure out where to get food if, and I say if, you find a way down without going fucking splat, then Medley’s your best bet I guess.”

  Then Reader saw something else. Far from Medley, but not all that far.

  “Hey Grim?”

  Grim threw his arms in the air. “For the love of fuck! What the fuck is it now! Sleeping’s the closest I get to death you know. You know what you’re fucking keeping me from.”

  Reader pointed, motioning, “Just one more. What the hell is that?”

  Grim joined him on the wall again and followed his finger. The expression on the little imp’s face faded slightly. Something burgeoned there for a moment. Something softer. Reader couldn’t say if it was sadness, fear, or some related emotion. As fast as it was there it was gone.

  Grim said, “You mean that strange billowing black cloud that looks like smoke but is literally too fucking black to exist in nature? Yeah.”

  Reader nodded. The cloud was billowing from a point in the blackness, far from everything, even the sporadic islands. It was like a forest fire, no, a volcano.

  Grim said, “That’ll be the fucking Finality I guess.”

  “The Finality? Sounds like a metal band trying too hard.”

  “Huh? Well, these dipshits are the worst. Or the best if you want nothing more than to see the world come to an abrupt and final end. Depends on your point of view I guess.”

  “What? Like a doomsday cult?”

  “Like a Doomsday Empire! They do their work at the edge normally. Big boss is a piece of shit called Eater. Lord Eater or King Eater, some shit like that. Whatever method they’re using only works at the edge. Every now and then one of the cunts will pick up shop and try to start the deletion somewhere that isn’t the edge. Like they’re trying to open a new front. Probably trying to please Eater. Impress the self-righteous cunt. Anyway, someone will be along to do something about it sooner or later.”

  Reader felt like this explanation opened more questions than it answered. Of all the things he could have said, he said, “Someone will be along?”

  Grim nodded, leaning further over the wall now, suddenly interested in something for a change. Reader had to resist the urge to reach out and grab him. Grim said, “Yeah, yeah. If they’re setting up shop like this then they have a crew with them. Means they fucking rank. And that means they’re captains or some shit in Finality. And that means maybe a high-ass fucking silver rank. Hooh hooh. And you know what that means?”

  Reader just stared blankly.

  Grim said, “It means a fucking fight, sonny-boy! Silvers fucking fighting! Shit, where’s that telescope. I’m fucking certain there was a fucking telescope around here…”

  Grim slid off the wall and started shambling toward the door to the library tower. Reader watched him. He had never seen the imp so enthused about anything.

  He turned to look back at the blackness, to imagine this fight, and feel the hunger chewing at his insides.