Carabas

There's this man who's gotten himself into some trouble, and I've offered my help in solving that problem. Alternatively, I've told him to speak with a woman who works for me, and she'll help him disappear for a while. When he doesn't come to meet me, I check in with that woman, still in the alley where I'd told the man to meet her, behind the building where she works as a maid, still in her uniform. She tells me the man didn't show. She looks worried. I'm annoyed. I think the man's making a poor decision.

It reminds me of another time. I see a building on top of a lake, a massive black arch. I'd made a deal with a woman that had led to the creation of this structure. She sees it as an architectural wonder and a symbol of her power, influence, capability, something along those lines; I see it as something impermanent. Like Ozymandias. I think of it as foolish. And I thought she would have realized that now that her deal's played out; I'd expected she'd want to make a new deal, to change course, I was looking forward to it. But when she does come to me for something else, it just compounds her original mistake. I'm disgusted but give her what she asks for.

I'm looking over the meat at a butcher's stall in an outdoor market, examining it very closely. The butcher's explaining something to me, but I'm not really listening - I've come to the conclusion that this isn't what I'm looking for. I duck underneath where some of his larger cuts are hanging and into the alley on the other side. I can hear him shouting at me, and Dieter saying something to him, but I'm not paying attention. The trail of what I'm looking for is much clearer now.

I walk into a house. On the floor beside the bed there's the dead body of a very large man, with rats swarming over him. The rats' behavior is unusual but familiar to me. They scatter when I come closer. Behind me Dieter asks, "Is it plague?" Plague wouldn't affect either of us directly, but it's still something to be concerned about. He came in too late to see the unusual way the rats were swarming. I don't answer him - I'm focused on something I can feel hidden in this room, somewhere in the chest of drawers. I make some comment about how the dead man had had a family, and "Three charms. One for each."