Episode 6 will go live tomorrow. Sorry I’ve been out of touch, but with deadlines and travel and sick family, I’ve not written much. But here is the text for episode 9 for Inside Story members!
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Kate opened her eyes, awake immediately at the sound of screaming.
Daniel grunted under her. “What is that?”
“Prosper,” she said, sliding out of the huge bed the priestesses had provided them in her temple and pulling on her robe.
“He sounds like a bear,” Daniel said, sitting up.
“More like a very angry tree,” she said, cinching her belt. She tossed him a fresh robe and filled him in on the more gruesome details of Prosper’s existence.
“Dude. That’s harsh,” he said, shuddering.
“I know. And I don’t know if he is naturally like that or just has been like that because of what these people have done to him over the years. He wasn’t really up for a discussion on the subject.”
“What are his people like? Pious like yours? Rebellious like mine?”
Kate thought about the people who ran Prosper’s temple. “They’re farmers. They didn’t say much, and they’re not surprised by much. They just kinda took him in and nodded to me. They said they knew how to take care of him.”
“Well it was farmers who caught him to begin with, right?”
Kate groaned. “Farmers and tinkers, yeah. Shit. Let’s go.”
The scream resonated through the temple again, causing the walls to shudder. Kate and Daniel burst from the room to find her priestesses gathered together, whispering, their eyes wide.
“Anyone know what Prosper’s going on about?” Kate asked. They shook their heads quickly. She sighed. Her backpack lay on a chair next to her bedroom; she rummaged through till she found a dagger with a white hilt. “Gamma, I need you.”
The thin muscled warrior goddess appeared in front of her, bowing.
“Gamma, Daniel and I are going to go to see Prosper now. I need you to find Barris and Fabrique. Get one of the priestesses to make sure that the Sheridan, the airship we arrived in, is ready to go today. Alicia is the captain. And, uh,” she looked at the slightly rocking urn in the corner, then at Daniel. “Have I forgotten anything?”
He sighed. “Have that loaded on the ship. If the guy inside manages to break out, kill him.”
Gamma smiled, her teeth glittering. “My pleasure, Daniel.”
Kate and Daniel headed for the door and to the stairs that wound around the temple exterior. “You sure that’s the best plan?”
“I’d rather have him nearby than out of sight. And if we’re going to put all the gods on one airship, wouldn’t we want him near the people who can handle him or not?”
“Point,” Kate said, squinting at the sunrise. She’d been to LA once and saw the sun rise through smog, beautiful and smudged, and decided this morning was reminiscent of that. “Does the sunrise look weird to you today?”
“Huh. Do we have smog here now?”
“That’s what I thought,” she said. “I hope this doesn’t mean-” Kate’s thought was interrupted by a tall, top-hatted man on the stairs below them.
“My Lord, my Lady!” he bowed in front of them, mustache twitching. “I have a matter to discuss with you, of some great importance.”
“Well, it’s not the best time,” Kate began.
“Oh but it is very important,” he repeated.
“Hey, you’re that Professor Burns guy, aren’t you?” Daniel asked. “The Idea Emporium.”
Professor Burns smiled and bowed again. “I am honored to be remembered, sir.”
“Oh, right!” Kate said. “What’s wrong, professor?”
Burns grimaced. “It’s about the sun god, Barris. I fear he is in real trouble.”
#
Kate paced around the high priestess’ office, arms crossed. Daniel still stood behind the desk, his eye wide.
“Wait, wait. Barris is a junkie?”
Professor Burns sat in a chair facing the desk, his top hat in his lap. “Ideas can be addictive, especially if you don’t use them.”
“And Barris doesn’t do a goddamn thing,” Daniel said, rubbing his chin.
“I have only a few clients who have problems with this, and I do not usually interfere, but I realized this client’s addiction could harm others.”
“Yeah, like everyone else in the world. And the world,” Kate said. “Goddamn, Barris, can you fuck up any more? Really?”
Gamma stepped through the open door. “Apparently he can,” she said through clenched teeth.
#
“I looked in all the usual places I see him. On the temple roof, in Lathe, on the airship deck. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I attuned myself to every weapon I could touch, then, and found a place I’ve never visited. Leviathan City.”
Kate stopped her pacing. “How in the hell did he get there?”
“I don’t know. I saw him imprisoned by seven guards. He looks, well, weaker than usual.”
Kate felt her grip on reality slipping. “So he’s a junkie and he’s imprisoned under the ocean by a race of people who pretty much hate any god who’s not Ishmael or the moon. Anything else? Did he knock up a nobleman’s daughter while he was at it?”
“Not that I know of,” Gamma replied.
“There’s one more thing,” Professor Burns said.
Kate groaned.
“At his level of addiction, there’s going to be a nasty withdrawal coming soon,” Professor Burns said.
Prosper howled again, and the walls shook. Kate held her head in her hands. Wasn’t there something else to worry about? Like all of Heaven and Hell under seige? A big scary entity that killed her?
But she needed these gods on her side.
“Gamma. Get Fabrique and get The Sheridan ready. Daniel, go with Professor Burns back to his Emporium and try to figure out how to deal with this addiction and withdrawal and stuff. See if they have a clean needle program or something. And everyone-” she included Burns with a look, “Meet on The Sheridan by noon.”
Daniel smiled slightly. “What will you be doing?”
She sighed and stood up, smoothing her robes. “I have to deal with Prosper. He’s coming too.”
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