The Void.
This place is the end of all things. And the beginning.
All the time is meaningless here. Neither seconds nor centuries.
Someday this place will devour all the lights in the sky.
I can feel a great age ending.
This is the place from which those who dabble in the black art draw theire power. And this place is their doom.
They are burning the whales.
The doom of Pandyssia has come to the city.
The one walks here is all things. Cradle songs of comfort and bones gnaweв by teeth.
Cecilia.
She hides her hands. They are raw and scarred from the washing.
She starves so that her children can have bread.
The common folk, simple-minded, selfish. But they can be kind.
She wears only one dress, and wears it to tatters.
Pero Joplin.
Each and every night the black-eyed Outsider visits upon Piero's dreams.
He is Piero Joplin. Even now he visualizes the next invention - astonishing. I wish you could see it too.
Poor Piero. His elixirs have cured so much for so many. But they cannot cure his brain fevers.
The youngest ever to pass the Academy of Natural Sciences. Sokolov will never forgive him that!
Samuel Beechworth.
The boatman has a good heart. And respects you.
He has many scars. Some from the phlegm of the river krusts, some from the nameless monsters of the deeper ocean.
Admiral Havelock.
The sober speak in whispers. The drunk bellow.
Admiral Havelock has seen more corpses than all the rest put together.
He has killed whales and men for profit - and pleasure.
He has a bloodlust. He tried to seize control of the military after the Empress... after she? The Empress was murdered.
There was a younger brother. An artist: sensitive, soft. Taken at nine by a fever. Havelock loved him truly.
Callista Curnow.
She is Callista Curnow. She has learned to defend herself in the treacherous city.
She and her uncle - the last of the Curnow family.
She dreams of freedom, and the decks of whaling ships fast after the beasts of sea! But alas, she is a woman. Such sadness.
Callista tried to protect her, but they pulled the child from her arms. Oh, the curses she spot on them!
Empress.
Such laughter! And they are singing the old songs, linking arms. But that was from a happier time. What have the time done to me?
My father had golden hair, my mother hair like ash.
Can you hear them too? Crying out in the dark?
How can it be that I know such things?
Listen - I can hear their every thought.
I am not alive - nor have I receieved the gift of death.
When the last leviathan is gone darkness will fall.
There is a strong drink made her. I ried it once. Distilled from River Krusts by the taste of it.
Is it the Month of Harvest? Time has lost all the meaning.
Somewhere near a man has just taken his last breath. His eyes are still open!
We have both been here before.
You are like the rivermen. They spread their nets wide, and pull up all manner of things. The sweet, the deadly, the poisonous, all together in one catch.
Your usefulness is spent. They long for new of your death!
Misery. Evrywhere.
Such corruption! Such hypocrisy. Make me look on it no more!
Once they are brought here they never leave. The Overseers always fins the guilt they seek.
Granny Rags.
In her mind's eye she is fancy trimmed in velvet, fresh and young, on her way to an evening of romance.
Careful. She treads with purpose. And not as frail as she seems.
She has given herself fully to the Outsider.
Teague Martin.
He has been a soldier, a highway robber and a man of faith.
He wonders which is more powerful - the knife or the tongue.
There are few brave enough to laugh in the Outsider's face, But Teague Martin is one.
Lord Pendleton.
He is prone to skin infections. His eyes are sensetive to the light.
Emily.
Emily banged her head in confusion. They dragged her crying into the waiting boat. She called your name.
Geoff Curnow.
The Guard Captain is Curnow. There was once a large family. Now it is only him - and a niece, Callista.
His first lover was a soldier from Tyvia. He killed to keep the secret.
Curnow's loyalty to the Lord Regent is feigned. It is a dangerous game he plays.
He is swept up in events too large for him to comprehend.
His grandfather came from Serkonos. They never let him forget it.
Campbell.
Campbell breaks all Seven Strictures each day. It's his own little joke.
Overseers.
Some Overseers sleep alongside their hounds in the kennels. Some let the beasts into their bunks.
They made him watch when they tortured his parents for worship of the Outsider.