(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

torment. I don't know. Maybe I felt... I don't know, responsible for whatever
it is I did. What if something I did brought you to this state?"
His tone became more awkward as he for once thought before speaking,
mulling over his thoughts and words, "Thing is, I don't think me - or whoever
I was - really ever had to see the consequences of all the lying and cheating
I'd done, and when I saw you for the first time when I was trapped on the
Pillar, somehow, I knew that you were the one I'd betrayed. Once... long
ago." Morte sighed. "And that's all I know."
"I see. Thanks for coming clean, Morte."
"Nah, don't thank me..." Morte bobbed in the air; and to my surprise, his
voice seemed stronger somehow, more confident. He had shed old regrets
and hidden secrets one by one like autumn leaves, and now some of the
cracks and fractures in his skull had vanished, as if healed. "Nah, the thanks
is all to you - I feel like I just had a Plane moved off my shoulders... so to
speak."
I nodded, "Any day, Morte. Now look, uh, I've got to go do some stuff."
He nodded, but didn't object. It was as good a place as any to wrap up the
man-to-skull chat.
As for me, I spent the next fifteen minutes hacking up my last meal in an
alley.
Chapter 71
The smell of burning smoke stung my nostrils, way up and deep in there like
someone had crammed smoldering charcoal up my nose. The harsh smell of
the guttering forge-fires felt like they were eating away toward my brains,
and fat tears welled up in my eyes. The heavy clangor of steel being
hammered rang in my ears in an arrythmic pace. It threatened to drive me
mad if I stayed here too long.
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