The Exorcist Doctor

It was the next morning that Gael woke up to Winston, Marlowe, and Balthazar screaming at him from the sky.

“Wake up, dumbass!” cawed Winston.

“You’re gonna roll off the roof!” cawed Marlowe.

“I’m hungry!” cawed Balthazar.

For his part, Gael sat up groggily and scrubbed his lenses, one hand snapping instinctively around his fishing rod. Truth be told, he thought he had a bite for one heroic second—but then the line hung slack over the edge of the bridge roof, and he sighed, realizing his catching of a thousand Myrmurs was just a sweet, unattainable dream.

… What time is it?

He groaned, rubbing the side of his mask before turning his head. Maeve was still asleep beside him, hugging his leg like a pillow, so it couldn’t be that late in the morning. Sunrise, probably. Faint blue sunlight scattered through the Vile in the air, and it illuminated the world’s saddest fishing festival below him on the upper deck.

Looking down from the roof of the bridge, he immediately spotted Evelyn and Liorin still fast asleep near the front of the ship, still clutching their rods like they expected to wake up mid-battle. Jin and Vivi slept near the left railings on their portable chairs, arms crossed around their rods with solemn expressions. Cara and Fergal were nowhere to be seen, but around twenty or so Saint’s Hands were equally ruined across the rest of the upper deck, slumped in their chairs, against walls, beneath cranes, and a few even slept directly over the metal grates in the center of the deck. He was the first one awake, it seemed.

Huh.

What… were we all doing again?

It took him a moment before he scratched his head and glanced through the grates built into the upper deck. Beneath them, the holding tanks were churningwith thrashing tails, scraping fins, and angry snarls. That was when he remembered: they’d reeled up several hundred normal-sized mutated fish—in Wraithpier terms, meaning fish about the size of a grown man—but they’d also caught dozens of larger mutated fish, so they’d spent just about the entire night shoving their catches into the holding tanks.

Let’s see what we got.

Some blackfin sea bass, hooktail pikes, glassbelly crawlers, bone-jawed eels, three-eyed lake breams…

He whistled as he did a cursory headcount of their catches. It’d be a waste to not sell them after they caught them. If the Saint’s Hands could find the right buyers and unload the lot at one of the more lucrative markets around, they could probably recover a decent chunk of the money they owed in reparation fees. The Heartcord Fishing Company had a pretty bright future after all. If the clinic ever went under, at least they’d still make a killing in the fishing industry.

Then his grin faded slightly when he realized—amongst the hundreds of fish they had in captivity—they hadn’t caught a Myrmur.

Not one.

Oh well.

We can just try again tonight.

All of them needed proper beds—and proper food—so he carefully untangled himself from Maeve’s arms and rolled over, dropping through the hole in the bridge’s ceiling. He landed inside with a wet thump. The control room was quiet except for the distant churn of tank water below and the occasional groan of the ship bobbing on the waves, and Cara was asleep on the bench by the side of the bridge, Fergal’s coat draped over her shoulders like a blanket. The sight made him pause for half a second, but not for very long.

Grab the wheel! Now!

But just as he was about to dash for the helm, a hand snapped around his wrist.

He blinked.

Fergal glared back, having appeared out of nowhere to stop him.

“... Just one more spin,” Gael said, giving the man a bright grin. “Second time’s the charm, or so they say.”

“No.”

“It’s to redeem myself. Will you demand a man his right to redeem—”

“Yes.”

Fergal’s glare did the rest of the talking, so the only thing Gael could do was sigh again.

It was a week later that Vivi was finally allowed to stroll around Wraithpier with Jin, checking out the fish markets in the morning fish-scented haze.

She’d specifically asked Jin to come with her so they could spend one quiet morning away from fishing rods, bait, lakewater, and thrashing giant fish, but inadvertently, she found herself thinking about fish again as the two of them walked around the market. It was all she could notice, and quite evidently, it was all Jin could notice as well. They passed by an old woman who stood at the edge of a canal and casted a weight line in three sharp loops, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was:

“She’s using the canal current to pull the bait sideways,” she muttered. It’s clever, but if she angled her wrist slightly lower, the line wouldn’t have dragged so much on the second loop.”

“The weight of the line’s a bit off, too,” Jin agreed with a murmur, stealing glances at the woman. “It should be lighter if she can’t handle it.”

Then they both paused, realized what they were doing, and shook their heads simultaneously again. For her part, Vivi had a splitting headache. Fishing had swallowed their lives whole for the past week. They’d sail out at the crack of every dawn, throw their lines into Gravesend Deep, wrangle with mutated monsters until their arms gave out, and then return to the warehouse every night with enough seafood to feed half a ward—and all of that without a single Myrmur to show for it. At that point, even Gael had to admit it was more than just a statistical anomaly. Their ship was enormous, metal-plated, and equipped with so many hooks, winches, cranes, cages, and strange fishing machines that even local men paused to gawk whenever iit passed. They should’ve caught at least one Myrmur by now.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

So, this morning, Gael finally declared they wouldn’t sail out today. No point brute-forcing the lake for the eighth day in a row. Now he’d locked himself in the warehouse with Maeve and several crates of medicinal supplies, no doubt devising some sort of brilliant new method for catching Myrmurs, which meant the rest of them had the day off to do whatever they desired. Cara and Fergal, obviously, stayed back to handle the Saint’s Hands’ finances, while Evelyn and Liorin had vanished into the Drowned Parish under the excuse of ‘scouting’—though everyone knew they were probably just going to goof off—so what else was Vivi supposed to do? Not take Jin out for a rare one-on-one date?

If only I can just… stop… thinking… about fish for a moment!

Then I might be able to think about how to make this date charming!

She shook her head lightly and stuffed her hands in her dress pocket, clutching the little guidebook of Wraithpier she’d bought from Gael last night. He’d filled it with tons of interesting facts about the ward, because if there was one thing she knew about Jin, it was that he enjoyed the arts of craft. He liked architecture, and he liked practical constructions. He’d been a potter, for the Saintess’ sake, so a scrapyard-turned-flourishing-city like Wraithpier must be incredibly fascinating to him. If she could just explain some of it properly to him—like how Gael could speak in that tour guide voice—he was sure to be impressed with her.

… Probably.

Just as they crossed a crowded bridge and she was about to recite her first interesting Wraithpier fact of the day, though, Jin let out a heavy sigh and looked around half-heartedly.

“I’m not so sure we’ll ever get anywhere doing what we’ve been doing,” he mumbled.

Vivi glanced at him, skipping to catch up. “You mean our fishing?”

“Yeah. That Fisherman in the Drowned Parish reeled up a Myrmur so easily, while we couldn’t pull up a single one after an entire week trying. Either the Myrmurs are actively avoiding us somehow, or… the Fishermen know some hidden tricks we don’t.” He scowled as his eyes moved towards the giant cathedral, towering over the rest of the ward in the near distance. “Maybe we ought to just break the Fishermen’s heads in and make them work for us.”

“Well, let’s not resort to violence so quickly,” she said, giving him a confident smile. “I’m sure Gael has something in mind. He always does. We just… have to trust him a little.”

“Can we afford to wait?”

“Can we afford to get in a fight with the Fishermen? And most likely cause tons of collateral damage in the process, which the Saint’s Hands would have to pay reparation fees for?”

Jin grumbled, looking away again. “I guess… not.”

Vivi could barely hide her smile as they crossed the bridge, stepping foot into a new fish market. The old Jin would’ve ignored her and went straight to the Drowned Parish for a proper brawl, but now he was listening to her. Listening. What would her parents think of her now?

But once again, just as she was about to launch into her first interesting Wraithpier fact of the day, she was interrupted by a cluster of children slamming into her. They came out of nowhere, all rags, patched coats, and oversized fish hats. If she were more alert, she wouldn’t even have stumbled, but instead the two of them were shoved aside as the children blitzed past, not even bothering to apologize as they sprinted towards a nearby alley between two stores.

“How rude,” Vivi said, frowning.

“Because they’re pickpockets,” Jin said calmly, looking down at himself, then at her dress pocket. His expression barely changed. “They took our wallets. Guess it doesn’t matter much, though. We barely had anything to begin with, so—”

Vivi’s eyes flared, and before Jin could finish her sentence, she’d already leapt all the way onto the roof beside the alley in a single burst. Her boots slammed onto the wet shingles as she swung her rifle from her back, and then she aimed down at the children below, her hands steady.

“Give it back!” she snapped.

The boy at the front of the group screeched to a halt, tripped over a coil of ropes, and caused the rest of them to collapse behind him in a scrambling pile of hats and startled yelps. Vivi kept her rifle steady while the rest of the crowd moved around the children naturally, not at all bothered by the situation.

“... The money,” she said coldly. “Give it back.”

The boy staring up at her barrel couldn’t be older than twelve, maybe thirteen, so he immediately threw his hands up with his eyes going wide. “Okay, okay! Don’t shoot, miss! W-We’ll give it all back!” Then he fumbled inside his patched coat, pulled out two wallets, and tossed them up towards her.

She caught them, then checked the contents quickly. After confirming the money was still there, she nodded to herself and hopped off the roof, landing before the children with as much dignity as she could manage.

Obviously, she hadn’t intended on ever pulling the trigger. She wasn’t a monster. But Gael had taught her that acting strong was the first step to being strong, and in Bharncair, nobody could afford to show any weakness without getting something in return, so she’d thought… well, maybe showing off her ‘strength’ would impress Jin a little.

And when she glanced at Jin heading towards her calmly in the back, she noticed he did have a faintly amused look in his eyes.

Yes!

Definitely scored some points with him with that!

Her heart fluttered so sharply she had to look away. Still, she did feel a little bad pulling her rifle on a bunch of kids, so she knelt and opened her wallet before the children again, counting out a few gold coins.

“Next time, try not to rob people who look like they have money to spare,” she said. “Rich people often have symbiotic systems, weapons, guards, or powerful friends. Most of them could probably catch and kill you without even thinking about it. If you want money from them, begging is safer. It’s low-reward, but low-risk as well.” Then she pressed ten gold coins—a thousand Marks—into the boy’s hands. “Here. Take it and go.”

The boy stared at her, dumbfounded. She was just about to stand and rejoin Jin on their relaxing stroll around the ward, though, when one of the young girls at the back of the pile raised her hand as well.

Vivi sighed.

“Alright. You can have a thousand Marks too.”

But then another child held out his hand. Then another. And then another. There were nine of them in total, so by the time she finished handing out a thousand Marks to each of them, her wallet was completely empty.

Oh, whatever.

Money’s not exactly hard to come by these days.

Once she was absolutely sure none of the children would ask for more, she stood and rejoined Jin. Together they continued back towards the fish markets, and she was just, just, just about to launch into her first interesting Wraithpier fact of the day—when the children suddenly shouted after them.

“Wait, Miss!”

Both of them glanced back, and probably for the first time in her life, Vivi found herself wanting to strangle some kids.

The children who’d all stood up, however, were staring at her rifle, and then at Jin’s briefcase. Naturally, they looked anxious as all hell, but the oldest boy of the group—the one who’d tossed their wallets up at Vivi—was able to swallow his fear and speak up.

“Are you two… mercenaries or somethin’?” he asked.

Vivi looked at Jin. Jin didn’t look at her when he answered stiffly.

“Yeah. What about it?”

The children brightened at once, and all of them surged forward, pressing their money back into Vivi's chest. The oldest boy held his share out the hardest, fingers trembling around the coins.

“We… we wanna hire you for a job!” he said firmly. “We need help findin’ someone who went missin’!”

Vivi glanced back at Jin again.

This time, Jin glanced knowingly back at Vivi as well.

… A new lead, maybe?