Getting there!
But he only truly spoke of it once. Or at least, only once to me. We were taking a prisoner to the Yards, and such work is dull, if done properly. I never minded it, but Jak was more frenetic than I, and silences oppressed him.
I suppose that is why Jak returned to the bones of our earlier discussion. “Say, Ward: do you remember that Butcher Osco fellow? The one who sold the stolen offerings?”
It took me a moment. “I did. That case is solved, though.” I had picked out a dead Kee during the riots, and had him formally charged with the crime. He was hardly able to object, and Goody Blem would be compensated by the sale of the corpse. And… I saw no reason to pursue the case further. It was too late to use the offerings for Festival, so why not make everything tidy? Besides, no-one truly cared, either way. Or so I thought.
Jak snorted. “The case is solved, Jak. The punishment is yet to be meted out.” He grinned. “Osco is ready to take a slap at the Kee over his humiliation, especially that high-and-mighty Jefsin-Fankin. He’s gotten a mort of men from his neighborhood to go in with fire and iron, and make the gallows-trees bloom on the first night of the month of the Emperor. Good fun — and good pay, too, if you’re interested in a little gloomlighting. Osco wants as many professionals as he can get.”
This place is… diseased.
Oh, good, that’s coming across properly.