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Chapter 6: Abominable Ranks

Chapter 6: Abominable Ranks

The city gate stood open ahead of them, its massive doors pulled back against walls scarred by claws, fire and impacts large enough to have cracked the stone. Beyond the archway stretched the same black grass Mara had awakened upon, though the road leading east had been beaten into a pale grey trail by countless travelers.

Rook passed beneath the gate without slowing.

One of the guards stationed beneath the arch lowered his hooked polearm and stared at the collection of explosives, powders and tools now hanging from the coffin.

"Rook, you’re heading out?"

"Against my will," Rook replied. "But I’ll be back soon."

"No, he won’t," Mara said as she walked beside him. "We’ll make it to Yama."

The guard looked from her to the pale chain connecting their wrists. Whatever response first entered his mind was replaced by pity.

Rook continued through the gate. "Sure. Sure."

Mara glared at the side of his face. She was beginning to hate those two words. Somehow, he could fit more doubt into them than most people managed through an entire argument.

They had only taken a few steps beyond the wall when the guard called after them.

"Hold on, Rook."

Rook stopped with the weary stiffness of a man expecting one final inconvenience before being allowed to approach all the larger ones waiting outside.

The guard leaned forward. "I heard there’s a roaming Third Rank around the eastern pass. Dave came back with the news. Bastard looked like a zombie when he returned."

Mara glanced toward the crowded city behind them. "Is that unusual here?"

The guard ignored her. "Be careful out there."

"Thanks. I’ll take note," Rook said.

The moment the guard turned away, Mara looked at him. "What’s a Third Rank?"

Rook kept walking.

She followed. "Rook."

Nothing.

"What’s a Third Rank?"

His shoulders rose and fell beneath the coffin.

"Is it a kind of Reaper?"

"No."

"A type of storm?"

"No."

"Some kind of road?"

Rook looked at her. "How would a road roam?"

"I don’t know. I died recently . Perhaps roads behave differently here."

He faced forward again. "I suppose you won’t shut up unless I tell you."

"Wow. You’re getting smarter."

"Cut the sarcasm."

"You started it."

"I regret teaching you how."

Mara waited expectantly.

Rook adjusted the lanterns and sealed cases hanging from the coffin before continuing. "Abominations are separated into nine known ranks. The classification measures how far they have degraded, how dangerous they’ve become and how difficult they are to Cull."

"Nine?"

"Nine that are known."

"That sounded deliberately ominous."

"It sounded accurate."

He stepped off the main road and followed a narrower path bending around a field of low stone ruins. Mara stayed close, carefully placing her feet where he did.

"First Ranks are newly transformed souls," Rook continued. "Dead who lost every memory they had. Names, faces, attachments, everything. Once there’s nothing left holding a soul together, it becomes a husk."

"So they immediately turn into one of those creatures?"

"Not immediately. Most spend some time wandering around confused. Then hunger starts. They feel empty, see memories inside someone else and decide those memories should belong to them."

Mara remembered the hands pushing through her body and tearing fragments of her life free. Her fingers curled against her palms.

"Can they be saved?"

"Sometimes. First Ranks aren’t completely gone. A skilled Reaper can liberate them and return them to human form, either through persuasion or a good beating."

Mara frowned. "Those are very different methods."

"Results are what matter."

"You beat confused dead people until they become human again?"

"We prefer persuasion."

"And when that fails?"

"We persuade them with heavier objects."

Mara looked at the coffin. "You must be exceptionally persuasive."

"One of the best."

She walked in silence for several paces, studying the dark shapes of the ruined buildings around them. "I suppose that thing we fought was around Rank Five."

Rook stopped.

Mara nearly walked into the coffin.

He turned his head slowly. "Five?"

"It had hundreds of arms, several faces and kept pulling itself back together. Five seems reasonable."

Rook snorted and resumed walking. "That was a Second Rank."

She waited for the correction.

None came.

"That was a Second Rank?"

"A young one."

"It tore memories out of my body!"

"Yes."

"It rebuilt itself every time you cut it apart."

"Yes."

"It bit through your shoulder."

"Poorly."

Mara hurried after him. "If that was only a Second Rank, why were you struggling against it?"

"I wasn’t struggling."

"You used every weapon inside your coffin."

"Not every weapon."

"You hit it with a piece of wall."

"The wall was available."

"And it still didn’t die."

Rook gave her a flat look. "Cull. It didn’t Cull. I killed it several times."

"That distinction seems rather favorable to you."

"It’s also accurate."

She glanced back toward the city walls. They had not travelled far enough to lose sight of the gate, but already the guards stationed beneath it appeared much smaller.

"Anyone with a brain in their head knows to run when they see a Second Rank," Rook continued. "Well, except one."

"I did run. Did you miss how many arms it had?"

"You should have run faster."

"It threw itself out of the ground in front of me."

"Then you should have chosen a better direction before it appeared."

"I’ll remember to predict the future next time."

"That would make protecting you considerably easier."

Mara stepped over a length of bone half buried in the path. She could not tell what it had belonged to and decided against asking.

"What makes a Third Rank worse?"

"Everything."

"That tells me nothing."

"It tells you enough to run."

She stared at him until he sighed.

"A Third Rank is stronger and faster. More malicious. Second Ranks are usually driven by hunger. They want memories because they’re empty, but most of them behave like animals. Third Ranks begin to understand what memories are."

"And?"

"They learn that fear makes memories easier to tear loose."