The Legend of William Oh

Chapter 92: Cracked Immortal

A wet cough erupted from Will as he limped along the pier, followed by a sharp pain through his chest that froze him in place until he remembered how to breathe.

Will gingerly poked his ribs, trying not to aggravate the shallow cuts covering the majority of his body. They had just finished scabbing up.

With that in mind, Will ran his tongue along a couple teeth that were wiggling a bit more than they should, spitting the coppery blood welling up into his sleeve.

Rule #1: don’t bleed into the ocean.

“You gonna live?” A reedy voice asked, prompting Will to glance up, Phantom Hand poised to take the man’s head off with a cannonball. A bar brawl is one thing, but following him into the dark of night…

Will relaxed when he recognized the emaciated, homeless fellow from before, rather than a Party leader with a grudge.

The men at The Bridge had actually all seemed in pretty good spirits when Will had left, lots of drinks and back-slaps and un-requested shots of liquor dumped over his wounds to ‘sanitize’ them.

Aside from that, and the horrible pain he was currently in, it really had been a great time. The single lesson he’d received from Bakton had opened his eyes to a flow that he hadn’t been able to perceive before and prepared him to deal with the vast majority of Climbers without too much trouble.

“Yeah, I’ll live.”

Will wobbled in place for a moment before using Phantom Hand as a cane, pressing back against his hand to stabilize himself.

“Here, let me,” the emaciate man said, putting Will’s truncated arm over his shoulder and tottering forward in lockstep.

“Thanks,” Will said as they resumed walking through the pre-dawn light. “…What do you want?”

“What?” The man scoffed. “Me? Want something? I’m just a humble- all right, fine. I do want something.”

“What’s that? Drinking money?”

“I wouldn’t say no to that, but I’m after something a little…harder to acquire.”

“And what’s that?”

The grey-eyed man glanced over at him,

“No. I honestly don’t know.” Will whispered. “I’m waffling between him being Cracked, and him being some kind of immortal. Some of the things he says…”

“What if it’s both?” Loth asked.

“Could be. He’s offered to give us critical insider information on each floor in exchange for taking him up with us until he finds a way to kill himself.”

“How do we know he’s not just lying?” Loth asked.

“Well, we could just kill him. If he dies… then it’s the former. Just doesn’t feel right, though. Reese mentioned something about a secret society of fish people pulling the strings of The Flotilla from the shadows. Sounds pretty crazy, but if it checks out…”

“Verify that, and he stays.” Loth surmised.

“For this floor anyway,” Will whispered back.

“You know…we haven’t gone out for a nighttime walk together since the Church of Granesh.” Loth said.

“Loth the Luminary. Are you asking me out on a date?” Will whispered in mock shock.

“If by ‘date’, you mean ‘reconnaissance mission’, then yes.”