The following events were not as strange or embarrassing as Mariana had feared, but nonetheless she finished the session with a feeling that her own self had somehow been changed by the act. No one surprised them, and everything went reasonably well. Mariana felt an odd sense of satisfaction as Daniel was sitting beside her and petting her head.
"We should put some clothes on," she said quietly.
"The world is about to end," Daniel replied. "We should also get rid of that dead guy."
"Which dead guy - oh. I forgot."
"That is, if we want to pretend that nothing is happening," the pirate king continued, the obvious implication being that he did not want to clean up the mess that Matt had made by so rudely stepping in the way of Mariana and her sword.
"It is going to rot, it is very hot right now and the flies will come," Mariana said. Truthfully, she had not completely convinced herself that removing the body was necessary at all.
