World's End

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said, "Well, maybe tomorrow. Or maybe not." He laughed, showing yellow teeth.

I stood out of reach of his meathook hands. A few

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WORLD S END

days back I saw two guards casually break all the fingers of a prospector they claimed was cheating at five-and twenty. The Company is its own law when you reach World's End, and the law changes on a whim or with a mood. The uniform law of the Hegemony is only a memory here.

The guard moved on, and I went to the bar. I ordered a drink too loudly, and had to endure C'uarr's smirking, slow-motion response. C'uarr, the one-eyed, is as bitter and corrosive as his poisonous liquor. He's not a local-- from Samathe, probably, by the name. I used to wonder what kept him here, when he plainly hates this town and what he's doing, just like he hates everyone who comes

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into this place. As the days passed and stagnation began to eat at me I started to think he was a parasite who lived on the misery of the Wait more than on any money it brought him. Today it occurred to me that he stays simply out of inertia.

C'uarr slammed the squat glass down on the filthy bar;

droplets of red liquor bloodied his hand. His hand reached out, palm up as always. I flipped him a marker.

"Any word?" I asked as I took my drink. I'd paid him to ask around about my brothers. But the question was rhetorical by now; I turned away even before I heard the answer. It was always no. I felt C'uarr's stare follow me, full of mockery and dark speculation. He's like an animal

--he senses that I'm not really the same as the others.

I can tell when he looks at me.

The low-ceilinged room stinks of mildew and fesh sticks. No one else bothers to glance up as I make my way to a bench at an empty corner table. I've faded into the background, just like they have. Pilgrims, the Company workers call them, and laugh. They make their pilgrimage to this place from all over the planet, from all over the Hegemony--seekers after legendary wealth, hidden treasure--all believers in the same religion, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter,

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