48 - Case One Closed [Cherno]

“Tell me, Lady Blackhand."

Krahe groaned at him, but he continued.

"What is it that you seek? Besides the obvious answers of accruing riches and power, of striking down evildoers, those self-evident pursuits of any righteous soul; does a transcendent image tug at your soul? I would tell you first, should you wish.”

Finding himself unopposed, the Pilgrim Banisher spoke.

“I would see the name of Mamon Knight Silberblut restored to glory. He, forgotten among the first of the Mamon Knights, whose belt I inherited, deserves to be remembered. That is why I carry this arm, why I seek to become a Graft Saint; so that the shining symbol of justice that is Silberblut may once more walk the land and strike hope into the hearts of whose who need it.”

Krahe wanted to call him out for breaking his own rules, since that desire of his was functionally just a combination of accruing power and striking down evil-doers. And yet, Casus spoke it with such purehearted conviction that she couldn’t bring herself to it.

With a smirk of contemplation she summoned an Arrha cigarette, lit it, and took a drag.

“I want to see this planet from the top of the Banishment Wheel; this world without dead earth, without poisoned seas, with no smog to choke the air or acid rain to wash away anything good. I would see this world without a curtain of dead iron above the clouds in its entirety, from atop that great work of mankind which surpasses the greatest works of my own world.”

Krahe hated that cloying feeling. The banisher’s naive idealism was infectious.

“Then you shall be gladdened to hear that your wish is possible, for it is known that the Banishment Wheel indeed has observation decks at its very apex. As for how one might scale one of the Spokes without the Wheel’s assistance, however…” he trailed off.

“A matter of money, power, or both,” she said.

“As it so often is, indeed. No matter how righteous our doctrine, even the Twin Churches are bound by the need for resources.”

They left the apartment a short time later. On the way to Garvesh’s pawnshop, which was around half an hour of walking, Krahe asked one question: “I’ve heard of Graft Apostles and Graft Saints. What is the difference?”

“Ranks for those who practice sacred grafting arts and cultivate bodily perfection in Zavesh’s image, specifically those officially recognized by the Grafting Church. We use sacred grafting relics which possess special properties. By the time of his ordination, a Graft Saint may have replaced more than half his body with holy grafts, be they ones of his own making or relics inherited from past Graft Saints. Fullgrafts… They are living reliquaries, avatars of Zavesh, beings created entirely from the most sacred parts left behind by the greatest of Graft Saints.”

“Then what? Does a senior member of the clergy then have his brain and soul transplanted into the Fullgraft as some sort of reward for long years of service?” Krahe asked. She was half assuming this out of cynicism, and half because that practice was not uncommon in her world of origin. Most corporate leaders had incredibly powerful cyborg bodies as a deterrent against would-be assassins. The Blackhand Radiation Blasters had been outlawed for the same reason Krahe had gone after them; it was one of the few weapons able to kill the most advanced cyborgs in one clean hit. She wondered whether she could recreate that effect with Thaumaturgy.

Casus’ response entirely contradicted her assumption: “A Fullgraft’s personality is determined by all of his or her constituent parts, with the head holding dominant sway, but the identity created when a Fullgraft is brought into the world is indeed a Thinking Soul wrought by the hands of Man. One Fullgraft can destroy a country or stop a calamity, they do not age, they do not die.”

“Living weapons of mass destruction… How lovely.”

“I shall not disagree with you on that matter. The very danger of their existence is why only a handful of Fullgrafts can exist in the world at any given moment. No Fullgraft has ever gone rogue, but one’s mere presence can cause unrest… And in turn, one’s mere presence can secure the existence of a country. New Calbium only exists because it is ruled by a Fullgraft king. When he founded the country, some feared that he would be the first of his kind to go rogue, but he has since taken no actions in contravention of the Grafting Church’s tenets.”

“An immortal monarch is certainly one way to solve the issue of succession.”

Soon enough they reached Garvesh’s pawnshop, emerging from a storm drain. The only evidence of Krahe’s earlier scuffle with that bane-evoy was some crusted hemolymph on the cobbles.

“Up. He lives on the first floor,” Casus said as they entered the building.

Garvesh, much to Krahe’s amusement, was in a state of confusion and panic when they entered his garishly-decorated home. He opened the door wearing an elaborately-patterned satin robe. Both his nighttime dress and the decorations of his home embodied exactly the level of tasteless kitsch she expected from a pawnbroker, stuffed animal heads on the walls included. However, these were alien monstrosities, and Krahe wagered them to be real rather than manufactured replicas. A wide variety of relics could be seen just through the open door and past Garvesh’s body as he stood in the doorway, slack-jawed, glancing from Casus to Krahe.

“Come- Come in, come in,” he said hurriedly, stepping out of the way. Wild-eyed and just dripping with nerves, the saurian glanced out the door before slamming it shut and locking it. It had several latches on the inside, it was heavy, and it moved a great deal more like a vault door than a residential one. The keyway was shaped like a torture implement. Garvesh shot off a rapid-fire deluge of questions right then and there.

“Were you followed? Where was he?” he asked Krahe before turning his gaze to Casus.

“Casus, did you just get lost in the underhalls again? Did I hire a mad anathemist to pull you out of the fucking sewer? Wait, you don’t stink like sewage… Where’s your belt? Why are you wearing a Dregsteamer?”