“Shit,” was Zarrow’s only remark. His eyes flitted towards the doorway, trying to find a way out without toug Voltar.

  The detective watched in mild amusement as my patient tried to move as far away as the chair would allow. I had no idea where these two had crossed paths, but Zarrow clearly better appreciated the danger Voltar presehan most did. The detective’s thin frame resembled a scarecrow, only padded out by the thiess of his greatcoat, and his face wasn’t particurly intimidating. His eyes, though…

  You learned quickly oreets from people’s eyes. Some were steel all the time, stantly projeg it outward. But there were those who, even if you saw not a single gre from them, not a harsh word or threatening notion, but you knew what lurked underh.

  “Hold still, and rex,” I told Zarrow, and I stuck the syrio his elbow. I lodged it right into the vein and held it steady. It was aract from a fire lizard in the underground, not that I’d ever let Zarrow know. It could clear out the lungs if it had time to work and you kept up the doses.

  Not rexed, Zarrow sputtered while Voltar politely cleared his throat.

  “I hear you, Mr. Voltar. I’m handling a patient right now.”

  Petty on my part, but he’d barged into my home, currently standing in my doorway. Yes, the door en, but that was hardly an invitation to enter.

  “I e back ter if that is a better time?” Voltar asked.

  “No, this will only take a few moments,” I said, wrangling Zarrow. I kept the needle's feed slow. “ you please wait outside or somewhere beside my doorway?”

  Voltar took a few steps back, clearing my doorway. I turned my attention back to Zarrow.

  “Please hold still. Also, I have a message for you to take to Mr. Tolman. I’ll be around his house in say, a half hour? I’d appreciate it if he could be ready for a job by then. Double rates. It’s uandable if he ’t make it. Did you get all that?”

  Zarrow gave me a nervous nod in reply.

  I reached for a bandage on my table, mao grab it, and put it over where the needle pierced the skin. I took it out, keeping pressure on the bandage as I tied it up.

  “It should take a few mio heal. In about half an hour take it out. Could you repeat back the message for Mr. Tolman?”

  He repeated it bae, adding his own rambling vernacur as I fihe bahen, I went to get a bottle of the elixir from my closet. It was close enough to the inal message, so I handed him the bottle.

  “Swallow it all at once, Mr. Zarrow,” I told him. He didn’t pay attention, eyes still locked on Voltar.

  “Do anything for at least an hour from now. If you must, make it something dry. Crackers would suffice. Mr. Zarrow?”

  He gave me a shaky nod, heading for the door. As soon as he ast Voltar he started running, boots rog the cheap wooden floorboards.

  “And remember to deliver that message to Mr. Tolman!”

  Voltar stepped in, closing the door behind him. Immediately, the room felt much smaller than it had with Kasyp or Zarrow. I wiped my hands on a bit of cloth and walked over to where the fire was.

  “I ot even begin to guess where you crossed paths with him, Mr. Voltar, but you’ve put the fear of both deity and devil in his heart. Coffee or tea?”

  “Coffee, if it would be possible?”

  Zarrow had only had one cup. My battered drip pot had enough for one more.

  “It is possible. I must say I’m surprised to see you here, Mr. Voltar. I’m not about to be led outside and find a squad of wat waiting to lead me to the Coffin in s, am I? My heart might not be able to survive the sdal.”

  The polite smile didn’t ge. “No, nothing like that. I wanted your opinion on a substance as a professional.”

  “There are plenty of alchemists you must be able to sult, some of whom I imagine are much closer to your dwelling than I am,” I said.

  “Yes, but there is another reason for me to e here. I have some follow-up questions from the interview yesterday. I figured I might as well get two pieces of business solved at the same time.”

  Sure. The only reasons. I was well aware of the absence of Dawes. Or maybe he had one of those lowlife kids he worked with trying to break into my bedroom while we talked. There was aname afoot.

  “It saves me a trip to the Coffin,” I said. “I hardly pin. Pass me the sample?”

  He produced a small vial from his coat, which I took. A clear liquid y inside, half-filling the vial. At first g seemed to be water, but something seemed off.

  “I’ll take it to my b ter, although I try a few things before you leave. The questions?”

  “The infernal you were with had a box with him. I’d like to know what became of it.”

  I shrugged and uncapped the vial. I took a few hesitant sniffs. Nothing reizable. A slight whiff of pine, maybe? He hadn’t slipped me a vial of water just as an excuse to talk, had he? I started dividing the sample between the inal vial and some of my own.

  “Yes, he did have a box with him. I remember him dropping it when we reached the cathedral. He got rather cross with some urs wheried to nab it, and then the humans arrived, and I lost track of where it was. Why, was there something illegal inside?”

  Voltar stood, watg as I divided the sample between six vials. “A good question. We don’t know because no one has found it yet. Why did you not mention the box to the Watch?”

  I shrugged as I took one of the vials and put a stopper in it. Using a pair of tongs, I held it above my fire. “I thought they had picked it up themselves. I didn’t know much about it, my questions to the gang member, uhm, Golmar?”

  “Golvar.”

  The liquid in the vial had begun to boil, but there was no other rea from the liquid. “Well, Golvar made it very clear that he would not tell me anything of what was in the box. And since he seemed violently predisposed to me prying further, I left it at that.”

  “You didn’t bother to look for it st night at the ruins of Halspus Cathedral?”

  Was he fishing for something off in my response? A stupid question. That question was too specific to ask if he didn’t know the answer already.

  “I did visit there st night, and I won’t deny it. How did you know, though?”

  “You smell faintly of a tannery. The night wind only went to the south, so you must have gone south of the only nearby tannery, Jasper Leatherworks. But your apartment, your b, and ly’s all are north of that establishment.”

  I did my best not to drop my cup. I let wide-eyed amazement take over my face as if in awe of Voltar’s discovery. Inwardly? I wao kick him. Hard. He knew where my b was? I thought I’d have a day or more before he or the Watch went there, but now I might be down to hours. This was being increasingly bad.

  “You have a perfect sense of smell, Mr. Voltar.”

  “Yes, although in addition, I have ao you revisiting the crime se and doing some peculiar things. Stig your arm up to its elbow in the rubble of Halspus Cathedral. A bit odd for you to be doing, one would think?”

  Of course, I’d been found out anyway. The question would be whether a tracker had been pnted on my possessions I couldn’t part with or had someoimately tailed me.

  “I certainly see why you would think that odd. Truth be told, I lost a brooch of seal value and was just trying to find it. I figured if I brought it to the Watch’s attention, it would simply be pawned off by whichever officer did find it.”

  “You mentioned having Sculpts done on you. I hadn’t asked at the time, but who exactly did your Sculpts?”

  He hadn’t bought the lie about the brooch. I could tell even if his expression didn’t ge in the slightest between sips of coffee. He’d just moved past it to this new line of attastead.

  “Verinith Scaligi, a year and a half ago. I think he’s died sihen, ba the Bze. At the minimum, I haven’t heard or seen him sihen.”

  The Bze was the test in a series of grand fgrations that threateo eat the entire district. Fires were a regur occurren the still mostly wooden stru of the Infernal District, helped by the war with the dwarves, which had left brid tile in short supply for the loime. Great bzes that ate entire blocks were rare, they’d threatehe district three times in my life.

  At least these days brid tile buildings were slowly entering the Infernal District.

  “A costly series of ges to have made to yourself, perma etic alterations. And a smuggling pouch as well. I do wonder how you afforded it?”

  Mostly through a lot of self-finang, some stolen funds from Versalicci’s coffers, and the fact that I made the modifiyself. Scaligi had never worked on me, not that I would have trusted him to. The only reason I shared his name was he was both dead, and with his body missing, no neancer would get answers out of his spirit.

  “I got very lucky with a t early on, and for why I spent so mu them,” I hesitated, and gave Voltar a downcast grin that didn’t reach my eyes. “Mr. Voltar, I don’t think I o speak on the prejudices so many in this city have. So I did my best to aodate them and reduced my demonic features to cater to them.”

  If those words had any effe him, they did not show. He finished his coffee, put the drained cup ba the table, and said nothing else.

  This was not going to take the heat off of me. If anything, it only indicated that the detective had taken an i, which was worse. Should I take a risk, or just suffer his i in sileill hopefully this died down?

  Maybe a small of the truth would help a little.

  "I was lying about the brooch" I offered. "I was looking for the box, although I didn't find it. You probably know that already from your eyewitness."

  "It was reported that you left empty-handed. Not the most important part, which is that you searched for it in the first pce. And if you know what's inside."

  "I do not," I replied quickly. "I'd never seen it before that day, nor did I find out was i, nor do I care to find out what was i. I only hid it and tried to retrieve it because I have to live here Mr. Voltar. There's a few rules to live by to live here, and one is do not cross the Bck Fme."

  "Not wanting to cross them is not the only reason to try arieve their property," he remarked.

  "I am not a member. If you must be vinced, I will go to the Coffin again, and female members of the Watch try searg me for the tattoo. I already assure you they won't find it. Besides, if I was a member or even an associate, I'd just send word to the Bck Fme, and someo under suspi by the Watch would have gohere to look for it. Assuming they didn't already find it."

  There was no reply from Voltar.

  I did my best not to look at Voltar, afraid of giving away my thoughts through my expression. Instead, I focused on the mystery substahe identity of which I had a good guess. The details fit, for what better poison was there thahat had no odor, no color, ions with many on substances, and seemingly no distinguishiures?

  Lucky for me, I hadn’t tried taste-testing it.

  I pricked my earlobe with a needle, colleg the blood as it fell out. Once I had enough for a drop, I let it slide into one of my vials.

  The mixture turo gold, bursting into light as it mixed with my blood, instantly turning it into vapor. The gss at the bottom began to melt, but the violeion stopped as soon as my blood finished evaporating.

  I gingerly put the vial down and started colleg the other ones I’d been using. If the suddeion had startled Voltar, he showed no signs of it.

  “Angel’s Sorrow,” I cluded. “An unon poison. You ran across this retly?”

  Whie of my ts had hired Voltar? Or was there a third case?

  He ined his head. “Very retly. My current case, in faot everyone would think of mixing their blood with it, Miss Fara. You’ve ha before?”

  Cim I regurly mixed my blood in as a test or the truth?

  “I’ve handled cases of it before. Two, in fact, ret ones. Possibly the same ones you might be iigating yourself, although I doubt we are free to say who our ts are.”

  “My t made no statements on such things.”

  “That does not mean it wasn’t implied. Are you going to state who it was?”

  “Lady Kersin. She did mention hiring an alchemist to help obtain a cure. You, I presume?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” I said.

  Let him dig that answer out with his own two hands. He seemed eoo calm dropping that name, but he traveled in circles much higher than my own. To him Lady Kersin would be minor nobility, whereas traveling down to where I was, nobility was nobility. There are fewer resources at their disposal, yes, but they are still iratosphere.

  He didn’t seem ined to pry further into that.

  “If you were to prepare it, would there be any differeo your methods? “

  I have him a coy grin. “Mr. Voltar! I hope you are not implying what I think you are?”

  There was still no ge to the somewhat amused look on his face. I’d seen it before, iors pying with their food. “And what would that be, Ms. Fara?”

  I gave him the most sdalized look I could muster. No nerve manipution this time; simply ag.

  “I think you are trying to ferret out if I’m the one who poisohose two souls,” I said

  “And what would you say if I did accuse you of the crime?”

  I tapped his cup, and he nodded. I picked it up, taking it over to the sink. I didn’t wash them, not yet. I his saliva. It’d be a nasty business I had pnned with it, but it's necessary.

  “The first is that I ck the resources for it. To begin with, I’d o employ someoo travel in those circles to poison them. Sedly, I’d have to know there aren’t any other alchemists better pced in the social circles they could trust. The moo fund it and pull it off, the fact I’d o obtain very rare ingredients for both, would make it a very expensive scam. There are other reasons, but I think the third and most important is you’ll find no evidene preparing them, as I have not made a single dose.”

  “It seems rather well-reasoned. Did you prepare that little spee advaer our meetierday, Ms. Fara?”

  That was an iing little . Why would I prepare a speech about not being responsible for poisonings and have no clue he was iigating?

  I grinned. “Oh no. I’ve just read so many of Mr. Dawes ats of your adventures, you might say I have something of an insight into how your mind operates. Where is the good Mr. Dawes, anyway?”

  “Handling another matter reted to this case. One I must attend to soon myself. Thank you for firming the sample’s identity Miss. Fara.”

  Mr. Vrabbed his coat and hat, preparing to leave. I already moved to the door, opening it with a genuine smile. The sooner he was out my door, the better

  “Thank you for your time, Ms. Fara. It’s been a very illuminating visit. Before I go, my inal question, Ms. Fara? On the preparation?”

  “Hrrm. Oh. There couldn’t be a differehe process of extrag the poiso really produce a variation, no matter how you do it. The key one was thought to ge depending ohod, but I holy think that’s just silly superstition.”

  “And that key ingredient is?”

  He khe answer, I was fident. But there was no reason not to humor him.

  “The tears of a divine creature, of course.”