The following day began with tea.

  I stared at my small teapot, fog on ting the seds. It helped distract me from the pounding also on the inside of my head.

  I’d e here after waiting outside my b for half an hour. Making sure that the intruder didn’t just have a key to all my locks, or the tools to pick it, or even just a on to work his way through eventually had taken out a k of my night.

  They deserved their freedom if they’d been patient enough to either work at it for longer or wait that long before starting.

  That had been my sleepy reasoning as I’d tiredly trodded my way home. Woken-up Fara was currently not very happy with sleepy Fara’s deaking.

  Oh, enough time had passed! I poured the teapot’s water out, put the leaves in, and poured in more hot water.

  There were a few more minutes of waiting. I grabbed the milk while I waited, p some into my cup. I kept my movements slow and deliberate after my first attempt to get up had ended with my face smag into the floor.

  My body and miired, and I needed something, anything, to prepare me for today. A quick rinse and scrub before I’d id down to bed to erase the tannery stench had been my only path to sleep. I needed something else to serve for the m. Tea would be my salvation. Oh, it should be done boiling.

  I poured it into the cup, as close to the rim as I risked it. I o be alert today. So much would have to be done because I couldn’t afford to have anything occur during tomorrow afternoon.

  Sitting down on an uneven chair, I igs t as its shortened fourth leg made it shift underh me. I focused instead on the cup.

  A darker tea, since I couldn’t afford aer, but any tea would be a salve in a tired body and mind. Grabbing the cup in both hands, I brought it to my lips and took a sip.

  Bliss.

  Someone hammered on my door, the noise like a gunshht o my ear.

  I dropped the cup reflexively and then watched it shatter on my floor.

  “Shit,” I muttered tiredly, then immediately rebuked myself.

  Katheryn Fara did not use vulgar terms like that. I’d broken character twiow, both in and out of my head. One of these days, I’d mess up with someone around, and they would know something was wrong.

  Even small cracks in the mask could bee greater if I let it. Bee Katheryn Fara. I'd put too much effort into wanting to be here to let those cracks form now.

  The pounding tinued, and it felt like the knog was hitting me right in the side of the head. Who had just broken my cup? It wasn’t a particurly expensive cup but it was the principle of thing…the hammering on the door happened again, each blow mirr the pounding in my head.

  “Just a moment, please!” I said, trying to gather fragments of the cup off the floor. Be calm, be polite, be ruthless iiations but not in attitude. Be Kathryn Fara.

  I was thankful I’d already dressed, a long ankle-length skirt and blouse covered in a coat. Even with my windows shut, the cold still seeped in.

  The hammering happened, matched by my fling every time. I hurriedly put what fragments I’d collected on my table.

  Approag the door, I could hear arguiween two familiar voices.

  “-listen to me you vagrant, I was here first, and besides my matter is more pressing-”

  “-fuck off yhtly colored peacock, I got my own thing I o talk to the miss about, and you ain’t going to stop me-”

  My headache already intensified as I grabbed my door handle. I ope, revealing two figures behind.

  The first was well-dressed by the standards of the quarter, green skin flushed red, monocle on the verge of falling off his face. He argued with the sed, whose clothes could best be described as tatters stretched over indigo skin, a ratty beard desding from his .

  Kaysp and Zarrow were two people I knew but hadn’t expected and didn’t particurly want to see.

  I kne professionally. We both plied the same trade, the shady alchemist with everything you could want in a bottle. Just ignore anything off about us and how we source redients, and we won’t ask anything about what you use our creations for. It was a rather profitable business in a city this rge and g in the morals priests said we o keep to. Not that they were aer at it.

  They teo pay some of the highest prices away from their pulpits.

  Kaysp being here was abnormal. We rubbed elbows professionally, of course, but never privately. I’d never guessed he knew where I lived.

  Zarrow was a vagrant from the streets, and I kly why he was here.

  “Mr. Kaysp, Mr. Zarrow. I’d say it’s a good m, but so far for me it has not. What has brought both of you to my doorstep at su early hour?”

  It couldn’t be more than five in the m—six at the earliest. The rays of whichever sun had risen were barely visible.

  Kaysp spoke first. “Miss Fara, it’s a pleasure to see you, but first might I ask if we remove this vagrant as he has repeatedly offered me offense-”

  “Take your fancy words and screw yourself with them, you little shit. I’ve got just as much right to see her as you do, and I ain’t no vagraher.”

  Their voices echoed inside my head, their volume like screws to my ears. I winced and tried to cut off their arguing.

  “Gentlemen, please don’t yell. My ears only take so much.”

  “I wasn’t yelling. Was I yelling, vagrant?” Kaysp asked.

  “Fuck off. Also, no he was not.”

  Oh gods I’d probably picked up some disease off the Pure-bloods, or that jail cell, or whoever that intruder stu the closet was. No matter.

  “Gentlemen, I’m dealing with a few things, and I had a rather busy day yesterday, but I will take some time out of it to deal with whatever has brought you here. As long as you speak softly. Noas here first, and what do both of you want?”

  “A business proposition. It should take only a few minutes of your time,” Kaysp said.

  Zarrow coughed, a wet hag ohat made Kaysp put some room between them.

  “I need some medie again, miss. And I’m not waiting for this fancy-horn blowhard to talk with you while I’m here wasting away.”

  “You mean you want drugs to sell to someone for three times their normal cost,” Kaysp sneered.

  Unfortunate as it may be, that was detly close to the truth. “Your st dose was not that long ago, Mr. Zarrow, but if you’ll wait just a moment?”

  His expression screamed an argument ing, so I kept talking.

  “It takes time to prepare. You’d have to wait, so please hold on for a few minutes. Mr. Kaysp, please e inside?”

  My apartment was a tight little affair: two rooms, a bathroom, and a closet. This first room was my kit, table, reading nook, and everything the bedroom could not serve. There was enough room for two people to sit down fortably, which was the way I preferred it.

  If things ever got too dangerous, I would just kick dowable, blog off access to half the room for long enough for me to escape out the window without needing to jump through it. Cheap gss was not the safest surface to leap through.

  The furniture might be sed-hand and falling apart, the ey might get clogged at times, and the walls might be made of chipped wood and be a bit too thin for winter, but it was enough for me. I did not want to receive guests, so I usually did my dealings at Hell’s Own.

  “Well, this is my home. A little modest but fortable enough.”

  Kasyp didn’t reply. He had instead spotted my teapot, I realized to mounting horror.

  “Oh, you brewed some tea?”

  “I…yes.” Please don’t ask for a cup

  “Do you mind if I have a cup? I had a long day yesterday.”

  He’d had a long day? Had he been in the Coffin for hours on end? Had he fought a pack of human racist gang members? Been interrogated by the o be suffitly damned Voltar? Fought an intruder in his own b? Beeorted by that leech ly? Has his m tea been interrupted and his cup shattered by someone pounding incessantly on his door?

  Kaysp seemed focused on a particur part of my face. Was my eye twitg? My eye robably twitg.

  “Of course, you have a cup. Give me one sed, a me get some new cups and up my other one. Please sit down.”

  “Should we see if that vagrant outside wants some?”

  You know, indulging in my diabolism-induced urges to e se flesh was beginning to sound somewhat rational at this moment.

  “Please don’t insult Mr. Zarrow. He’s not a vagrant.” He probably has some building he’s currently squatting in. “Mr. Zarrow, do you want a cup of tea?”

  From my still-open door, Zarrow poked his head in. “Tea? ’t stand the stuff. Got some coffee?”

  I beamed at the joy of keeping at least one cup of the precious drink. “None brewed at this time. I have some ready by the time I’m doh Mr. Kaysp?”

  “That sounds alright. I wait.” Zarrow said.

  “You could try some. It’s a rather excellent drink with the right brand. I assume Fara is using a good brand. You are, aren’t you?” Kaysp said.

  “We should respect Mr. Zarrow’s wishes,” I said, maintaining a polite tone. “You wao discuss something, Mr. Kasyp?”

  “There’s no reason he ’t try both drinks.”

  There is a reason, my teapot only has three servings, and you two already ruined one!

  “Not ied,” Zarrow said. “Tried the stuff a few times. Disagrees with me. Coffee’s got more kick to it anyway.”

  Huzzah! I poured both cups, thearted the process they so rudely interrupted.

  “Hrrm. Bck tea. Fvors are a bit strong. Admiral Givens I think? Not the worst, I suppose,” Kaysp said.

  I ignored him, focused on my cup as the pounding in my head lesseo a low, distant ache.

  Perhaps an exaggeration, but by the time I finished my cup, the world was infinitely more bearable than it had been a few moments ago.

  “Is the business proposition you wao discuss something you want to be kept private?” I asked.

  “Yes, but don’t bother with the door. I imagine he’ll just listen in through it.”

  Zarrow gave Kasyp a pointed look, then reached in and pulled my door close.

  These two must have had their paths crossed at some point before. Kalsyp knew Zarrow too well. Either that or Kasyp held prejudices against the lower css I had never entered before.

  That is probably not the case. He would despise y pert of the district if he hated the poor.

  I grabbed a three-tiered drip pot from my cupboard. Battered, it still funed well enough. I put in a few cups of beans, poured water itom, and hung it above the fire.

  Kasyp seemed relut to speak, the words seemingly stu his throat till he forced them out. “I have a t, several actually, whom I want you to care for for a few days. You’ll be paid fairly for the work.”

  I frowhis was new. “Perhaps employ Meloment to do it? I’m rather busy with ts at this time.”

  Kalsyp shook his head. “Meloment is also busy. Terminally so. He apparently tried to cheat some people in the docks who didn’t appreciate it. Drasseck is underground, Lit is out of town. Everyone else is also busy.”

  I wihat was unfortunate. I’d have to send my doleo the widow. “Gallows, perhaps? He’s never busy.”

  His face sched up like I’d suggested chopping his limb off. “He’s never busy because his quality is terrible, and his mixtures are trash. I try to get Gallows to cover these ts, they’ll leave. These are good ts, Fara. They actually pay in money and not favors.”

  “If they’re good ts, you’d do more to keep them. Instead, you’re trying to pass them off on to me while pursuing where you think the real money is.”

  He ursuing the same strategy as me, except in a worse fashion. I’d be slowly trading off existing ts for new ones and making sure all my dues were paid and no ill feeli behind. He meanwhile was trying to switch the e.

  All in all, it sounded like a quick scheme to get money with a lot of risk. Kasyp and Zarrow had more in on thaher would appreciate me saying.

  Kasyp frowned. “I could let you in on this opportunity if it helps?”

  “It doesn’t. But I’ll help you out anyway. Iurn for the pay and the story of what you’re doing once you’ve finished. And within reason. What are the names and the orders?”

  He had a list ready, handing it over before I’d finished asking. “I ’t say anything about the offer. I was told that if I did, I would lose the opportunity, along with the usual threats to my well-being that are part and parcel of these deals. I’m allowed t new people in for them to sider, but that is all.”

  “Of course,” I said.

  I was more focused on the list. Half of these names were outside the district, probably people who wanted alchemy i, much like Lord Montague. I reized two of these hough. I put the list down and flipped over the drip pot.

  “You have two associates of Versalic this list?”

  “Yes. Is that a problem?”

  It wouldn’t usually be one for Katheryn Fara. It would always be oh Malvia Davies. But I’d have an excuse for why Katheryn Fara would want to avoid them.

  “I have a particur reason for wanting to avoid these people in public. It is workable but requires a bit of extra effort on my part.”

  “Are you entangled with the Bck Fme gangs? I wouldn’t have guessed such a thing.”

  Oh, I was entangled. More than even some of Versalicci’s closest lieutenants may have guessed.

  “I was involved in an i yesterday involving a member of the gang, some human gang members, the Watch, and others. The member of the gang died, although not by me, and I tried to keep him alive, but there might be misuandings.”

  “It would only be the oime. I’ll pay extra for both of them,” Kaysp said.

  “How much would the pay be?” I asked. His main be would be keeping steady ers, so he could afford to be generous.

  “Half of what they pay me, three-quarters for the Bck Fme ts.”

  “Make it the full payment for the Bck Fme ts and you have a deal. I am putting myself at greater risk there, and you don’t want to miss a delivery to Bck Fme.”

  He looked like he’d eaten a prune, but he nodded. “A deal then. I’ll hahe payments when I return.”

  That sounded like a good reason to ask each t how much they usually paid for his services when I met them. Having him be the source for how much seemed the perfect way to be cheated.

  “I do hese all pleted by tomorrow.”

  Ah, a new issue. “I couldn’t get to all of these till the day after,” I said.

  He frowned. “These ts expect punctuality. All of them. Tomorrow is necessary.”

  “How about any I don’t get to till the day after tomorrow you only pay me half on then? So, a quarter per t?” I asked.

  “Not what I would prefer, but fine.”

  We said oodbyes, and he gave me a spare key to his b. Soon, Kaysp departed from my apartment.

  With Kaysp handled, now I could deal with the sed problem that had nded on my doorstep.

  Zarrow had already e iaking Kasyp’s leaving as an implicit invitation to e in.

  “Lungs ag up again, Mr. Zarrow?”

  He coughed, hlegmy, the single sputter quickly turning into a fit as I kept a wary distahe disease he had wasn’t iious, but he could have picked something new off the streets.

  “Ain’t it always them, Miss Fara?”

  “And as always, you don’t have the moo pay me right now?”

  He had the decy to look ashamed for once. “I’ll have it soon. I have something new lined up that will move some real cash. Just need some time to put it all together.”

  “I don’t suppose I get aails befiving you another elixir for free?”

  “Sorry, miss. You know how it is. If you tell ahe details of anything, you’re begging for a one-way trip to the hells.”

  Figured. I went for the closet I kept for remedies and potions here at home while Zarrow enjoyed a cup of coffee.

  I opehe door to rack upon rack of not just my small home stockpile of foodstuffs but a small variety of preserved goods. I had enough to st a week, no more, maybe a little less depending on when I st had picked up food.

  Zarrow was another part of my past, although he was unaware of that. I preferred to keep it that way, too. When I’d first run into him, I’d been shocked to see him alive. He should be dead, if not from his lung’s disease then from someone finally getting tired of his btant s and knifing him.

  Instead, he stayed alive and tio be in defiance of all the world thrown at him. The ultimate survivor. I’d let myself fall for some of his s during my first year as Fara. It added to her realness. The District acked with hundreds of Zarrows, and falling for at least one of their wiles was a rite of passage.

  Even after I allowed myself as Fara to wise up, he’d attached himself to me ever since. He wasn’t a particurly egregious one in terms of limpets, so I just went along with it.

  He spoke up while I went through the closet shelves, finding the oh disease remedies.

  “If you’re having problems with Versalicci, maybe I could put a good word in with him. Him and I, we go way back. He holds me in high regard.”

  “And how do you know I am having problems with Versalicci?”

  “I was listening in. Peacock bugger was right. Don’t tell him that, though.”

  “Perish the thought, Mr. Zarrow. But do tell me how you have the ear of the crime boss of the Bck Fme?”

  “I used to run with them, the Bck Fme,” Zarrow said. “Member of the gang, tattoo, the whole package.”

  “I rather doubt that. I’ve heard you don’t have an option to retire from that gang.” I know for a fact you were never a member. “If you were part of it, where is the tattoo?”

  “It faded away after all the years I’ve piled on. All this wear and tear, it gets to you, makes you look battered, takes away all your features.”

  “I’ve seetoo Zarrow. It’s carved in, aher was ented or someone worked some form of perma dye into it.” Actually, it was Devil’s blood, but Fara wouldn’t know or suspect that.

  “Alright, maybe I exaggerate my standing a little. But I did help teach members of their gang. Before they became members, back when they river the street, used to have my own little gang I was the head of.”

  I smiled “You as the head of anything I have great trouble picturing.”

  He grinned back at me. “Hey. That was uncalled for. I did for a while. We were a merry little band, living charmed lifestyles.”

  We scrabbled, ate boots, and scammed folks in the District for what little anyone here had back then. In a way, I suppose you could call that charming. “I don’t think having taught some of his foot soldiers will endear you too mu.”

  “I did more than that; I trained some of his best people! Malvia Harrow, Sardasat Stavlor Vertain, Mitu Stricker, all learhe art of crime under my tutege!”

  Half of those names were lies. Gavlor had never worked under him, and Mitu was an immigrant from airely different try. Also, everyone was dead except me.

  “Dead names, Zarrow. I used Malvia Harrow myself yesterday off the list at ly’s.”

  He frowned. “Didn’t know you knew old man ly.”

  “Tolman told me about the pce. I heir services. An unfortunate y of yesterday’s events.”

  “Wat your tail?”

  “Oh, them definitely. Maybe others. But that is my problem, Mr. Zarrow, not yours. How about instead to vince Versalicci I’m on his side, you instead do some work for me when you’re free? With my usual rates applying.”

  That meant fifty pert to paying off his tab, and fifty pert to stay in his pocket.

  Zarrow looked like I’d just put a vial full of piss in his hands. “I’ll sider it.”

  He despised making an ho living in any shape or form. Desperation would lead to his askier this week, but only after his test came crashing around his horns.

  “Well, don’t sider it too long. This work might not be offered ter, depending on how things are going.”

  Where had I put that syri e quite a pretty penny to purchase, so I had better not have lost it or left it in the b. Ah, there.

  As soon as he saw it, Zarrow went pale as a sheet. It was an impressive feat with skin that was a deep purple.

  “What is that? It’s usually a vial.”

  “You’ll get the vial as well. This is an…for ck of a better term, it’s an experiment.”

  “I ain’t going to grow a sed head or something like that, am I? I ain’t going to have to murder a copy of myself or bee some kind of fleshbeast trying to e people or something like that? Because I’d been reading those thriller novels, and they’ve been real instructive.”

  I’d ask where he’d gotten his hands on those, but it would be wasted effort. Trashy novels on the dangers of are adva were everywhere these days. “Of course not, Mr. Zarrow. Firstly, most of what you’ve described is biosculpting, not alchemy. Sedly, I would never inflict that on you. Besides, I don’t think the world would be ready for two of you. This will go into your upper arm. Let me just get some alcohol so we sterilize it, and then I’ll just poke you with a needle.

  Zarrow grew even paler. That holy was rather impressive. Maybe I could pay him for a skin sample and see if there was something different about his pigmentation from other Infernals.

  “It’s just a tiny little needle, Zarrow. It won’t hurt a bit.”

  His mouth opened and closed several times until finally, a noise resembling a high-pitched warble came out, driving a spike of pain through my ear.

  “I believe he’s reag to me, Ms. Fara,” a familiar voice said behind me.

  Internally sighing, I turned around to face its owner.

  “Mr. Voltar, what a pleasure to see you this m. Would you please step inside?”