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Chapter 71 - Not So Fresh Water

The sun came up from behind the clouds, no matter what Ted would have liked it to do – in fact, he wanted to send the wretched star into a holy place that was untouched by any light, divine or mundane, but as a gentleman and a smooth talker, he kept himself from naming that place.

Cursing too much was not nice.

The cultists who had been rescued from their delusional fears were not faring well. It was rather annoying to walk into their new, secluded sleeping quarters and always find someone dead or dying, sometimes multiple people.

Ted commented to Junior about this, since the man was nowadays much more fun to talk with. It was as if he had been turned into a machine of some kind.

"Normal people would say it is sad to see people die. Unusual people say it angers them."

Ted did not feel like arguing about the processes of the human mind with a living dead man who had never been bright in any way, shape or form. In fact, this comment displayed just how much Junior had improved ever since his own self had been taken away from him.

Then came the day when Madorn invited Ted to the revealing of the ultimate secret – Madorn had single-handedly cracked the chemistry, the physical consistency and the magical properties of the fuel. Being a dramatic man, the scientist had veiled something that would, according to him, enlighten Ted about the nature of the secret ingredient.

"This room stinks so bad," Ted commented, holding his nose, looking at the white sheets that were wrapped around a peculiar, lumpy shape on the table that had once been used for whatever artisan craft Doira had engaged in.

"You'll soon find out why. Light a cigarette, if you want, Ted, and take a sip of this ale, that'll help you with the smell."

The scientist pulled the sheets away, unveiling a corpse that had surely been bloating and rotting in water for too long.

A few cogs seemed to be rattling away in Ted's head, but he was seeking for the answer so intensely and the cogs of thought stopped abruptly, leaving him with nothing except for a few questions more.

"Is this…this is a dead man," Ted said, staring blankly over Madorn's shoulder. "Are you all right? Are you feeling sick?"

The corpse looked like it had received the forbidden traditional burial. It had freshwater plants all over its gruesome face. Funny – water burials were strictly forbidden. The lakes were filthy from the sheer amount of dead flesh and bones in them, a particularly smart man could have made some magical death juice from it…

…And then Ted understood.

The dead, it was the water that had belonged to the dead that had given the fuel its supernatural properties.

The Diamond King was running out of death water.

That was why he wanted to change the airships, that was why there was so much secrecy surrounding the industry in the east.

There was some truth in that old saying – that water belonged to the dead.

"I get you," Ted finally said and pulled the sheets back over the dead body. "But why did you have to be all dramatic about it?"

"Where would the fun be in just saying things? The next thing we need to do…find out if the eastern front has quietly drained all the magic from Sennite lakes, or if we have some more that we can rely on…"

"I agree, we do need to perform a check on every lake that we know to be a mass grave." Ted grabbed a cigarette and tried to lead Madorn out to have some refreshing ale.

The scientist got stuck with a particularly interesting pile of papers full of mathematical and logical lingo.

"Come on, Mad, we need to take a break. This stench is making me sick. You don't want to get sick? Hm?"

There was no sense in going out with the good – or evil – old trio, it would have been bothersome to haul their own behinds across the entire kingdom, so they had to employ their own spies. This was an exciting task. Ted decided to target disgruntled, retired spies, for these were the most likely ones to grab some extra drinking money with a quick easy gig.

The mental image Ted had of retired spies was such a glamorous one that he feared facing a great disappointment.

This fear was not unfounded, as the first person they found was a dusty, mousy old man. Even though he certainly seemed competent, he was not an exciting personality by any means.

The next one was a real vein of gold.

Ted and Madorn approached a lavish little sailing ship in the harbor. The style of a wind-powered vessel was impossible to replicate, and for this reason, vintage enthusiasts were all over these boats with that old-fashioned flair.

A woman hauled herself onto the docks, and the gold on her chest and around her arms jingled as she walked towards her visitors. She had black goggles and a scarf, despite the sunny and hot weather. Perhaps the winds on the high seas had taken a bite out of her health.

"Cor Tobias, Professor Madorn," she greeted them. "I heard you were coming."

"Ida Blake," Ted said with an approving nod.

This woman was everything that he had imagined a retired spy to be. More like a pirate woman than a noble, gray-haired lady, Blake had even colored her unruly mane all dark to cover the first signs of aging.

She exuded the air of someone who knew a lot about bodily balance, never losing her legs to the sea, let alone the land, walking with that careless swagger of great combatants. Then Ted saw her biceps bulging under her shirt, and he momentarily thought he had been mistaken about her gender.

"Care for a cigarette, Blake?" Ted asked, handing out a cigarette that he thought would be strong enough to knock Eknie out cold.

"These are good, but not enough tar," the spy said with her hoarse, dark voice.