A Single Word Found Written in Blood on Tannery Wall
By our correspondent in the eastern quarter, who did not touch the wall
Lamplighters passing the old tannery on the canal found one word written across its north wall, in letters the height of a man, in what the Watch describes as red paint and what the Watch’s own dog refused to go near. The word is MEROVECH. It is not a word in Reikspiel. Nothing else was written. No symbol, no signature, no demand. Residents report that the letters were dry by morning and wet again by dusk, which the Watch attributes to the damp off the canal and the residents attribute to nothing they care to say aloud. Four armoured horsemen under a black pennant were seen at the eastern gate the same week. The Watch has ordered the wall whitewashed. The whitewash has not taken.
Green Light Seen Again at Warehouse 4; Baron’s Men Say Lantern, Bargemen Say Nothing
By a bargeman who wishes it known he saw nothing
Persons abroad after curfew, of whom this publication naturally knows none, report a faint green light beneath the floorboards of Warehouse 4 at low tide, together with a smell the more educated among them compare to sulphur and the rest to eggs. The Baron’s mercenaries, who now guard the wharf in numbers the wharf has never needed, describe it as a lantern. It is a lantern that burns underwater, then. This publication also notes that two bargemen who raised the matter at the Flagon last month have since taken work upriver, according to the Baron’s men, without collecting their pay, according to everyone else.
Black-Grist Mill Wheel Jams Third Time This Month; Miller Blames Large Fish
From our correspondent on the mill bridge, who did not look down
The great wheel of the Black-Grist Mill stood still for the best part of a night after fouling on what the miller describes as a very large fish and what his apprentice, before he was sent indoors, described as having too many arms for a fish and a face. The carcass was cleared with boat-hooks and returned to the river, where it sank more slowly than the apprentice liked. The miller reminds the village that flour will be late, that the river has always had big fish in it, and that anyone repeating the word the apprentice used will find their grain at the back of the queue.
