Neverwhere: Author’s Preferred Text

By Neil Gaiman

Author’s Preferred Text edition, introduction has Gaiman mention the chronology of TV show was actually first, and because it wasn’t quite encompassing what his vision was, his novel started during the show and was completed afterward.

The night before Richard Mayhew went to London, he’d started the night enjoying himself and progressively continued the night not enjoying himself. His buddies were giving him a warm, pub sendoff, but now felt they were enjoying it a bit too much. As he’s sitting outside feeling nauseous, an old woman at first thinks he’s homeless, but as they talk, he reveals he’s going to London for a job in securities, and so she instead offers to read his fortune, which she’s puzzled to note he had further to go than London and it starts with doors. Before he goes back inside the pub he offers the old woman his umbrella with a map of the London tubes on the white surface, which she accepts gratefully for how much harder it was raining by this time. When he returns indoors to continue with his party, he drinks more until he’s sick, and by morning, he’s on a 6 hour ride to London, his mother having given him a walnut cake and a thermos of tea for the journey.

The 2nd Prologue is at the back of this edition, but will be added before the first chapter to get the feeling for what Gaiman was aiming for.

400 years earlier, in the middle of the 16th century, it’s raining in Tuscany, there’s black smoke rising above a little monastery on a hill in the early morning. 2 men are seated on the hill watching the building start to burn. Mr. Croup says to Mr. Vandemar how fine a fire they were watching was, but it’s doubtful the people living inside will be in a position to enjoy it. Vandemar asks if this is due to they’d be dead, which Croup agrees with as his companion eats slices cut from what looks like a puppy’s carcass.

Details of how one can tell the 2 apart are given, the main being Croup liked words whilst Vandemar was always hungry. They hear one person scream when the fire gets started, but then the roof collapses, ensuring the 2 it had handled the one they hadn’t killed. Vandemar asked what next and Croup states in about 400 years, London Below. Vandemar asks ‘Kill people?‘, and Croup assures, he guaranteed this.

Then a nameless female has been running for 4 days and each door had become more difficult to open, til she found a tiny stone burrow where he hoped she’d be safe and slept, finally. Mr. Croup had hired a man at the last Floating Market which had been in Westminster Abbey. The 2 were amused by this man called Mr. Ross saying he liked to kill things, and followed behind him, the 2 wearing black suits whilst he was in a dirty shirt and jeans. Then the 4 details of Croup and Vandemar’s appearances are repeated (Since this is the well-edited version and the 2nd prologue wasn’t meant to have been added, originally edited out).

Vandemar throws his knife and kills a rat, munching on its head before he’s discouraged from his snack by Croup, he urging them onward. 3 years later, Richard isn’t changed by London other than how he saw the city. Initially he thought it’d be gray, but it was more colorful than he’d imagined. 2 years earlier, he’d gone on an office trip to Paris and met Jessica at the Louvre, he’d failed to convince her he wasn’t an art gallery person since.

Now he was engaged and had a business meeting scheduled after his chat with Jessica and her boss, as well as meeting with a coworker he was supposed to have reserved and lied he had. Switch to Door having a dream about her family, father, mother, baby sister, and brother. Her mother then saying she’s in danger now, and she wakes as the door is opening. She’s under rags and newspapers, and unfortunately, someone pulls them back and gives an ugly smile, aiming a knife at her chest, but as she rolled, catches her upper arm.

She didn’t ever think she’d do what she did, but she puts a hand up to his chest and opens him. He falls and she staggers out to comments from Croup and Vandemar, she kneeing Croup and running with a hand on her left shoulder. Meanwhile, Richard was reminded what time it was and had to reschedule with his coworker to talk about an account as he rushed to meet Jessica.

Then back with Door, she’s running through tunnels as Croup and Vandemar idly followed. Back with Richard, he gets a cab, gets to his flat with no time at all before Jessica waits for him at the front and he goes down to meet her after changing. She’s acting very caught up with how important her boss is, and when Richard calls her Jess, she corrects him, since she didn’t like pet names. She then stops and makes sure he knew she loved him, hugging him, then asks if there were any problems making the reservation, he now unable to directly lie.

Back with Door, she was exhausted and came to a stop at an empty wall. She heard Croup and Vandemar and so as she’s passing out, she opens a door hoping for somewhere, someone safe. As Jessica is quickly walking with Richard and giving him a hard time for having paid extra to get a table and coming up with ways for him to act toward her boss which he’d approve, Door falls in front of them, seeming through a wall, Richard stopping and Jessica unfazed, but after some back and forth says he should quickly call an ambulance.

Door regains consciousness enough to say not to bring her to a hospital or they’ll find her. She says to please take her somewhere safe, then she closes her eyes and doesn’t respond when Richard asks why not the hospital. Jessica is still directing how he should go about calling the ambulance as he picks her up. Jessica gives her ultimate ultimatum when she says if he leaves now, they’re engagement is off, in response to him saying he was going to bring her to his flat and to apologize to her boss for him.

Jessica continues into the restaurant without him and wonders if she could use the excuse of her fiancé’s absence being caused by he being dead. Meanwhile Richard made it back to his flat and realizes he’s left his keys inside, he thinking how much he screwed up with Jessica he’d have to sleep on the sofa (…when they both have their own flats?…but it being caused by housing Door). Door puts her hand out toward the door and it opens. He lays her on his bed and wraps a scarf around her arm and shoulder as she again resurfaces long enough to again request he not call a doctor and she’ll be fine by morning.

Richard goes back to his living room and wonders what he’s done. Richard dreams he’s somewhere beneath the ground, in a tunnel, maybe a sewer. Lights are flickering through darkness, and he’s not alone. There are people walking, then running through the inside of the sewer, splashing through mud and other kinds of dirt.

He turns a corner and the beast is waiting for him. He raises his arm to point a spear and notices it’s not his hand, the arm furred with dark hair. The beast charges, and throws his spear, but it’s too late and the razor sharp tusks catch his side and he’s bleeding, falling face down in the mud, wanting to scream, but suffocating in bloody, mud water, and can only feel pain. Door then asks, ‘Bad dream?‘, Richard sitting up, noticing the TV still on and the curtains drawn. He replying, he sort of did.

When Door asks where she is, Richard tells her what part of the city she’s in. When she looks out his window, she states how she’s in London Above. She then asks for bandages as Richard changes clothes in his bedroom. When he goes to the bathroom to help clean Door’s wound, his doorbell rings and at first he thinks it’s Jessica, but then sees 2 oddly dressed men in black suits, it looking like someone from another time had tried to make modern suits.

When Croup says some strange things and then hands Richard a flyer with info on their ‘sis‘ Doreen and a picture of a long-haired version of who he met, the 2 claiming to be brothers, and she was nuts. Richard sees they were offering a reward to locate her. He claims not to have seen her, but Vandemar is now ignoring him, looking as if he’s smelling something bad in the air pushing past Richard as he protests, Vandemar going straight to the bathroom and opening the door, but finding nothing. When he’d left it, there was a first aid kit with a bloody sink, now it was spotless.

Richard makes another attempt at getting Vandemar to stop looking, now at his bedroom by saying if they didn’t leave he’d call the cops. He noticed Vandemar was giving him a threatening vibe. When he found nothing and reentered the living room, Croup makes an excuse for Vandemar being distraught over his sis missing, and Vandemar says he thought he had to use the bathroom, Croup saying he should apologize, so he does, the 2 then leaving and for the first time, Richard inclined to use the doors security chain, which seems quite useless. Croup and Vandemar discuss a few things outside, including Vandemar’s take away of being called stout meaning fat, and Croup listing other defining possibilities, as well as cutting a line he hoped was Richard’s phone, but technology confusing him, and Croup asking if Vandemar believed Richard not seeing Door, Vandemar replying he’d smelled her.

Meanwhile, Richard was about to check the bathroom again when he heard the phone, but when he picked up no one was there, he next realizing the phone cord was cut, and Jessica left her self-proclaimed last message wishing she could have said it to him directly, but she was only wishing he and his ‘lame duck‘ rotted in hell. Door meanwhile was behind him in the kitchen making tea for them both. He asks her if the picture on the poster was her, which she confirms, also clarifying her name is Door. He then asks what happened with her, but she tells him he wouldn’t want to know, since he’d done more than he should have already.

He then asks if the 2 weirdos were truly her brothers, which she declares they definitely weren’t. Door then says she’d have to get a message to someone for help, and they’d need breadcrumbs, since this person wouldn’t have a phone. She sprinkles crumbs outside the window and a pigeon comes, not resisting when she picks it up. She has Richard hold it as she attaches a message to its leg.

Then, after taking the pigeon from him and calling her by name, she says to give the message to its leg. Then after taking the pigeon from him and calling her by name, she says to give the message to the Marquis de Carabas. Then after the pigeon left for her mission, Door picked up a book Richard didn’t know he had and started reading while they waited. Richard made some useless conversation then turned on the TV, getting startled by a large rodent and scaring it by throwing the remote at it.

Door was annoyed and coaxes it back out, it going up her arm and resting in the crook of it, a message attached to its side. Door then has Richard apologize to the rat, which he does with bewilderment. Door assures the rat he meant it when it looks back at her, she taking the message and thanking the rat for its help before it glares at Richard before leaving. Door reads the message then hands it to Richard to read.

The message had instruction for Richard, so he left for Tottenham Court Road and was on Oxford St where shoppers and tourists were milling about. Door hadn’t wanted to continue to involve Richard, but he wanted to help her to leave so follows the directions. When turning onto Hanway St., the foot traffic was gone, and shops were mostly closed. Richard was very close to where the instructions would lead him, which was to wait near a streetlight.

He goes down the appropriate alley after turning thrice widdershins (counterclockwise), and when no one showed themselves, with relief Richard crumpled the paper and aimed for a bin, but then a pile of rags unfolded and a hand grabbed the paper from the air, the Marquis de Carabas claiming it. The Marquis bows and introduces himself as De Carabas, and confirms he’s Richard Mayhew, he asking after Door. Richard partially getting out, she being alright, but her arm a bit, the Marquis interrupting to mention how Door’s family had been good at healing quickly which is why their murders were surprising, he not taking long to get down to what Richard was offering in order to hire him, since his help wasn’t free, nor cheap.

Richard says Door offered nothing but a really big favor, this satisfying the Marquis, and next opens a manhole cover, which Richard keeps attempting to ask different question and lightly protest, which the Marquis avoids, having Richard go down the manhole, since he’d left Door alone with Vandemar and Croup looking for her. The Marquis then strides ahead of him through the darkness, remembering aloud when the next market was, which would be in 2 days, clarifying he was referring to the Floating Market when Richard asks, but states he wouldn’t want to know about it, and for no more questions. The Marquis then says some cross streets aloud puts down the sputtering flare he’d been holding and climbs the ladder with Richard following in darkness, since the flare went out on the cement below them.

The Marquis warns Richard to not look down when he sees sunlight, which of course prompts him to ask why, and then looks down when he steps out. His brain has trouble catching up with how he was seeing daylight when it was nearly dark about an hour ago and he was now on the same ladder outside a very high building and seeing London far below with tiny cars and people. Richard had quite an issue with heights and so thusly froze where he was. The Marquis amusedly berates Richard for not having listening to his warning, and eventually Richard finds the strength to continue climbing until reaching the roof and collapsing on the ground as the Marquis strides ahead.

Richard then hears a man protesting for the Marquis not being welcome and to get away. The Marquis states how wonderfully healthy Old Bailey looked. Then footsteps can be heard and Richard feels a gentle prodding in his ribs as he’s asked if he’s alright and stew was cooking nearby, being asked if he wanted some, it starling. Richard opens his eyes to respectfully decline when he sees feathers.

Old Bailey covered in a thickly feathered outer garment, the rest of his body twined with rope where there were no feathers. The man covered in a thickly feathered outer garment, the rest of his body twined with rope where there were no feathers. The man intros himself and says Richard doesn’t look familiar, and similar to Door, asks what barony he gives fealty to. When Richard sits up, he sees across the rooftop, a tent, old and brown and covered with bird crap, and was about to say his name when the Marquis tells him to shut up.

He continues how he was finally calling in the big favor Old Bailey owed him. The Marquis tells Old Bailey he’d be keeping an ornate box for him, which he pulls out of a pocket, which Old Bailey didn’t want, but takes in both hands like it could explode. Then the Marquis says they’d better be off and leads the way to a door with a badly lit staircase. Richard asks the Marquis who Old Bailey was, and he again states how much trouble Richard’s in, so everything he does, hears, and says will only make it worse, and he should hope he isn’t too far in.

Richard then asks if the Marquis is clinically insane, which the Marquis answers and Richard replies how one of them must be when the Marquis asks why, since they were now in complete darkness and the Marquis warns Richard to watch his head when he opens a door, but Richard still hitting his head and getting hit by light as well. They were in the stairwell of Richard’s apartment building, the Marquis looking at the missing poster Vandemar had left near Richard’s door by gobbing spit to the back of it and sticking it to the wall. The Marquis stating the picture they’d used of Door not too flattering of her, she having long hair.

Meanwhile, Richard unlocks his front door and Door comes to greet him. She’d cleaned herself up much more and attempted to wash her clothes as well. The Marquis kneels to her and she looks uncomfortable, saying for him to stand, and returns to Richard to thank him for his help, preparing to leave. Door mentions she wished there was something she could do to return the favor, she then kisses him on the cheek the way a friend would and is gone.

Richard next plugs in a back up novelty Batmobile phone he’d been gifted from an aunt and tries phoning Jessica’s apartment and cell, both turned off and he thinking she went to her parents in the country and didn’t want to phone there. Neither of her parents had been pleased by him and were equally intimidating in their own ways. Richard’s parents were dead, his pop dying of a heart attack when he was a child, and his mother dying when he left home 6 months after he moved to London. Richard reminded himself how final the breakup was by replaying her voice message over and over to see if he could hear any warmth, which he didn’t so started creating conversations between them in his head where they make up.

By Monday, his alarm hadn’t gone off. He hurriedly tries to hail a taxi and is ignored by 2 of them, so runs to the tube, attempts to buy a ticket at the machines trying different ones and they all refusing to take his change, so goes to a ticket booth only to be ignored by the representative, who was on a phone and reacted like he wasn’t there, even when Richard resorted to tapping the window with a coin. So, he jumps over the barrier and no one stops him, he going down the escalator in time for the next train. When Richard was a boy, he’d had fears of no one noticing him, like he wasn’t there regardless of what he did, and he started feeling like this as commuters came on and off the train, pushing past him.

He still doesn’t make the train, since the doors shut nearly on his arm and his sleeve gets caught, he running by the train until ripping his sleeve and rolling to the platform, he opting to pick himself up and leaving the station. He still reaches the office and apologizes to the room, but no one listening, he then realizing his desk had none of his things on or in it. When a coworker approaches with 2 men, he asks her what’s happening and she politely says, ‘I’m sorry?‘ in return as she directs the 2 men to his desk, and they lift it, her attention not staying with him as she directs the men where to go.

So Richard tries his other coworker, who was typing up an email, but it sexually explicit and not to his girlfriend, he also ignoring Richard as he seems to hear something, click on a screensaver and pick up the phone. Richard slams his desk to get his attention, saying they should just say if he’s fired rather than ignore him, which Garry finally confirms his own name and asks if he could help him. Richard coldly saying no and leaving his briefcase there, as he exits. He goes to Jessica’s office, also being ignored by security as he takes the elevator, seeing what a mess he looked with his torn trousers at one knee.

When he gets to her office, he’s also ignored by the receptionist looking at a magazine. So he goes directly to Jessica’s office and sees her standing in front of 3 posters for a marketing campaign, she turning and smiling at him as he comes in, he partially apologizing for upsetting her and telling her about his morning. She also acts similarly by saying to give her a moment and will recall who he is, he realizing he wasn’t mad and says it’s ok, leaving for the elevator, she calling his first name, but misremembering his surname as he catches the elevator. As he walked back to his flat, he halfheartedly tried to hail a taxi off and on, no one stopping.

He gets back home and draws a bath, when he’s drowsing he hears the front door open, and someone saying they were the first one’s he was showing the apartment to, but a long list of people waiting. As they’re surveying how furnished the listed unfurnished flat was, they make their way to the bathroom, Richard having left his towel on a chair nowhere near the bathroom, so he gets out and stands beside the door as they enter. Richard is able to grab his towel as he’s ignored and the couple finalize claiming the apartment. Richard then hears the phone ring and picks up, hearing the man on the other side say his full name and sounding far away.

He says how they know he hadn’t spoken the truth about knowing Door and her days were numbered, Croup then promising they’d be coming for him as well. So they hang up and Richard makes another attempt of calling for help by phoning the emergency line, but the operator not hearing him, so he hangs up and gets dressed. He packs a bag with his clothes and some fruit, then leaves. He tries withdrawing cash from an ATM, but it won’t recognize his card, he then hearing someone behind him ask for change.

Richard offers his bankcard which the man returns, and Richard then asks if he knew where the Floating Market was, but the man had backed away, Richard giving up, when the man then motions for him to follow, leading him down steps, and walking through a darkened area. Then a door is opened after the man knocks in a particular way, hundreds of eyes near fires with roasted small animals on spits. The man speaks to another, who was asking who he’d brought, the man referring to the one who approached as Lord Rat-speaker, and had brought Richard because he’d mentioned Lady Door and the Floating Market. The man in fur-trimmed rags reaches for a rag covered sliver of glass and puts it to Richard’s throat.

Croup and Vandemar meanwhile, had made their home in a Victorian hospital’s cellar, it closing a decade before, due to cutbacks. The 2 were in a sub-cellar wasting time, Vandemar playing with a poisonous centipede as Croup tries to figure out what to do with a box of rusted 50 year old razorblades. As the 2 are discussing how unimpressive Croup throwing a handful of razorblades at the wall and missing his hand is, Vandemar shows him how more intriguing it is by using his large knife and hitting his hand against the wall, the phone rings. Croup picks up and whoever is on the other end is asking about whether they located Door, Croup stating they hadn’t, but knew she’d be at the Flowing Market, so would be able to grab her as she left.

When Croup was readying to bring up something, the caller hung up, and Croup withdraws the stuck Vandemar from the wall by pulling the knife out of his hand he’d been struggling with. As Croup discusses with him how they could no longer kill Door, Vandemar spits on the back of his cut hand, and the wound immediately seals. Meanwhile, the Lord Rat-speaker states how Richard is a spy from Upworld and why he shouldn’t cut him up. Then as an older teen girl empties Richard’s bag, he sees people quickly bowing as a small dark figure scurried over, and when Lord Rat-speaker and his crew notice, they stop their shakedown and bow, as well.

Richard is pulled down to a knee by the homeless man, and they all see the small rat which approached them. The Lord Rat-speaker picks up the rat and puts him face-high to Richard saying Master Long-tail says Richard looked familiar. Richard reverts to typical ignorance and self-righteousness when he realizes it could be the same rat he’d thrown the remote at after the Marquis was mentioned, he greeting the rat as ‘Ratty‘ was nice to see him and if he knew where Door was. The rat chitters as Lord Rat-speaker says he should kill Richard, but the Long-tail gives his orders and jumps from the man’s shoulder to leave.

Rat-speaker yells at the many watching to get back to cooking the meat as he then tells the homeless man they’re to take Richard to the market. The homeless man says he won’t be able to make the journey for reason Rat-speaker knew, so they walk a little ways away and discuss something between them. Before leaving him there, Lord Rat-speaker says to Richard he didn’t know how lucky he’d gotten, Richard claiming he did, but Rat-speaker maintaining he didn’t, shaking his head and repeating, ‘Ratty‘. Meanwhile, Richard notices the teen girl polishing off his fruit, saying he’d planned to eat those, she asking if he liked cat looking at the fires.

Richard says he does like cats and she asks if he wants the thigh or breast, after introducing herself to what sounded to Richard like Anaesthesia. Back with Door walking followed by the Marquis through a court, one of many unchanged by time. Door hesitates going through a door, since behind it was where she’d found her family dead. A memory a few days old is related, Door living in the House Without Doors, calling out to see if anyone was home.

Her grandfather had constructed the house taking rooms from different areas of London, Door not knowing their actual locations, and her father having added an indoor Victorian swimming pool. She doesn’t notice her brother, Arch at first floating in the pool with 2 blood clouds, lifeless. The Marquis states how it had hurt upon reaching their destination, Door having forgotten to warn him how the memories were imprinted in the walls. The Marquis asks if Door is certain her father kept a journal, and where they should search for it first.

She states how he’d use the study, but she’d checked there, breaking down. She asks for a moment, and the Marquis steps away while she let out her emotions. Back with Richard, he was still upset about his bag, but Lord Rat-speaker unfazed. He states to Richard how Long-tail hadn’t ordered they return his things, only to get him to the market, then appointing Anaesthesia take him.

He states to Richard if he ever saw him again he’d be in terrible trouble. Richard attempts to have him at least return his wallet, but he’s ignored as he is made to go through a door and it’s locked behind them. She leads them through darkness by lamplight, soon having him go down a not too high drop, she going first to show him. When he goes down into soft mud Anaesthesia leads him through another door and says it’s safer to talk if he wanted, Richard asking a bit about being a rat-speaker, which she was as well, and how they do thing’s rats can’t do, she then quieting him by placing a dirty hand over his mouth for a moment as they hear speaking voices pass, Anaesthesia then saying they can continue her shortcut by walking through London Above for a bit.

It’s dark, possibly again, when they get outside. Richard asks about Anaesthesia’s life after they had a strange moment hearing a couple getting too intimate on a park bench between them, one cheating and the other not caring. When Anaesthesia tells Richard about her former life in London Above being an unfortunate one, she tells him how you can’t return to London Above and live both lives once you’re in London Below. Back with Door, she’s apologizing, but calmer, she then taking him to the study, since the way they’d entered the home was by her taking his hand and reality shifting.

She does this again by placing a hand on a painting of her father’s, lined with other pictures. Another violent memory follows, it prefaced by a sweetly innocent moment between young daughter and mother. The Marquis looks around the room, and focuses on the task of where to look for the journal, Door stating how it isn’t like they didn’t already know it was Croup and Vandemar, but the Marquis mentions how someone had made the order, since the 2 didn’t come cheap. So after a little time, Door senses the journal was there, the Marquis pocketing a state of some animal, and Door finally recovering the journal, which looked like a sphere of brass and wood, the Marquis asking how it worked.

Then back with Richard and Anaesthesia, who is leading Richard through a door as he asks if she knew anything about Door. She only states similar to the Marquis regarding her family being murdered, but they being quite important before. Meanwhile, Croup and Vandemar are visiting a man with many weapons and impressing upon him how he’s to audition to be the bodyguard of Door at the market. Back with Door she shows the Marquis how the journal worked and it played audio/video back, she choosing the last entry and her father’s advice to go to Islington.

The Marquis then reminds the market would start soon, so they should go. Meanwhile, Richard and Anaesthesia are heading to where a bridge must be crossed to get to the Floating Market, this time in Knightsbridge, and Anaesthesia nervous since, to her, it’s a bad neighborhood, and she’s never crossed the bridge. When they see the bridge, Richard also becomes nervously discouraged, and then is pushed down by the man who was harassed by Croup and Vandemar because Richard had been blocking his way, but Anaesthesia steps in front of Richard and hisses at the man like a rat and he spits at Richard’s feet before continuing with the people he was with. Anaesthesia helps Richard back up.

As the 2 are talking of the man who had just retreated being as scared as she was of crossing the bridge, since they were going as a group, a woman interjects and says she’ll walk with them. She had an unplaceable accent and was exceptionally beautiful. She asks if they’ve crossed the bridge before, and when hearing they hadn’t she states how fun this should be. Richard asks if there’s anything truly to fear from the crossing, the woman stating only the night.

As they start walking, Richard soon understands why, since even though they have their lamps and flashlights, it’s as if the darkness is turned up, the lights seeming to work less well, and Richard able to feel and hear different things in the darkness. The woman explains these were all the nightmares people have had since ancient times, and to be quiet so as not to attract their attention. Not long after, Richard felt hallucinations begin, seeing different, seemingly unrelated visions. Then the lamp finally seemed to become much brighter, and the woman states they made it through crossing successfully.

Then Richard notices Anaesthesia is no longer holding his hand. When they look back across the bridge, no one is there, but Anaesthesia’s quartz necklace had broken and the beads were rolling. Richard at first states they should do something, but the woman replies there isn’t anything to be done, the bridge had taken its toll, and to be grateful it hadn’t been him, she then stating where the market would be. Richard places a quartz bead in his pocket and continues following the woman, realizing he didn’t know her name.

As they reach the busy entrance, Richard asks the woman what she did for a living, the reply vague about renting her body for personal physical services, he also asking her if Anaesthesia is dead, she stating, yes or as good as, which wasn’t comforting. Then Richard notices they were heading to Herrod’s. When they’re in the market, the woman bids him farewell for having her own business to attend, Richard left to marvel at the market’s variety of buyers and sellers of all types of wares, including food, and all types of music being played on different instruments. Richard after a little while started to try and track the groups of the kinds of people he passed, which were of many different categories, then noticing how hungry he was.

There were many food stalls, so stops at one to make a trade. He chooses a short woman’s stall, who didn’t talk, and got some cottage cheese and lettuce sandwiches with a cup of lemonade for a ballpoint pen and a book of matches, she throwing in some small nutty biscuits. Then, as he’s finishing his food, a voice asks if he needs a bird, Richard declining, but turning to see the name of the shop is Old Bailey’s Birds and info, after a little time Richard recognizes him, and then Old Bailey recognizes Richard as he’d continued his sales pitch offers, he grabbing and shaking Richard’s hand. Richard tells Old Bailey he’s searching for the Marquis and Door, Old Bailey asking what he’d give for the info, Richard pulling out his remaining belongings, Old Bailey calling for his handkerchief.

Then he points him to where the 2 were conducting their bodyguard interviews. Richard heads for the Food Halls, not knowing what the 2 were auditioning. Currently, the bodyguards, 2 of which were facing off to show their talent as others cleared a circle as everyone watched the 2 merely staring at each other currently. The 2 were differently physically built, and the Marquis tapped Door on the shoulder, since something was about to happen.

The 2 were doing combat so underhandedly it seemed it was purely with mind-power, one finally showing triumph over the other. Then it was Croup and Vandemar’s plant up against the victor he introducing himself as Varney. The man gives the current champ a run for the title. Meanwhile, Richard hears the clapping from the spectators and heads in this direction.

As he gets to the crowd, they part and he sees the Marquis and Door sitting on the glass counter on the other side. He’s about to shout her name, when the reason for the crowd parting is shown with a large man’s body flying in his direction and landing on top of him. When he returns to consciousness, Door is saying his name, and when he responds, she looks angry, asking what he’s doing there. Richard replied it was nice to see her, as well and proceeds to tell how he’d gotten in touch with the rat-speakers and they’d gotten him most of the way there, another lady helping him the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, Varney is battling a dwarf, which upon success, the Marquis is dismissing everyone, since it seemed Varney would be the victor. Then the woman Richard had met asked if they’d been looking for a bodyguard. The Marquis allows the final audition, and the woman makes the first connecting kick to Varney’s body. It ended with Varney bleeding from his ears on the ground and his own knife to his neck.

The trial is called and the woman keeps Varney’s knife, then introducing herself, when the Marquis asks. When she calls herself Hunter, Door recognizes her, and as the Marquis again dismisses the audience, Varney picks up the crowbar he’d used earlier, with his mind, and the Marquis, watching as Hunter catches it. She returns it to Varney and states she wouldn’t break the Market Truce unless he tried again, then she’d break both his arms for him to carry in his disgusting teeth. She bends his wrist behind his back and requests he apologize, nicely.

He does begrudgingly and choking it out, then shouts of her being dead, sounding on the verge of tears as he ran out of the room. The loud bell of the market ending is sounding and they head back the way Richard had arrived. The breaking down of the market stalls was as impressive as the market, everyone taking all their wares and dismantling their stalls. When they get outside, Hunter asks if Door can take orders, she replying if she must.

So, Hunter gets a sewer cover up as Richard announces being tired and knew they were all busy, but what about him. Door apologizes to him when he asks how he can get his life back. The Marquis states he wouldn’t be, and he’d have to survive in London Below. They all go down the sewer, Richard following, and when he catches up to them, the Marquis tells him to go away, Door again apologizing and following Hunter down the only dry passage, the Marquis blocking Richard’s way, saying he’d have to make his way on his own now and if he’s lucky, he may survive a month, he then following after Hunter and Door.

Richard stands there, abandoned, and starts to cry, the first time since his father died. Meanwhile, Varney was walking over rooftops looking quickly around him to be sure he wasn’t being followed and planned to hideout and not return to his main quarters until the heat died down, since he had back up places with weapons and food. When he stops for a moment, thinking he was alone, he next hears a voice materialize beside him, Croup repeating Varney’s words of being the best guard in the Underside, Vandemar stating it not nice to lie. Varney running down a dark spiral staircase, and Croup stating they could look upon this as a mercy killing.

A Varney ran down the stairs knocking his shoulders into walls as he went, he pauses at the bottom, he seeing a sign about an elevator, the doors slowly opening and he grabbing for his machete, which was not longer strapped in his shoulder sheath, a polite cough being heard and seeing Vandemar sitting on the bottom steps holding his machete, and cleaning his fingernails with it as Croup falls on Varney and blood lets Varney, Vandemar saying g’bye impassively. While Croup released a lot of the man’s blood not much remained when he finished, and the next time the floors would be washed, no sign at all would remain. Back with Hunter leading with Door in the middle, and the Marquis at the end, no one having spoken, since leaving Richard about a half hour earlier. Door stops suddenly getting a conscience about not being able to do this, they couldn’t just leave Richard behind.

The Marquis reminds of course they could and have. The Marquis is getting angry, which Door couldn’t afford, since she still needed him, but she knew she owed Richard more than what she’d left him with. The 3 of them couldn’t guarantee their own safety and they couldn’t afford a tagalong. The Marquis bluntly states he isn’t coming with them and he was probably dead by now.

Back with Richard, who isn’t dead, currently sitting in the dark, on a ledge of a storm drain, wondering what to do. His previous life not preparing him for his new, harsher surroundings. Then, a light is seen, and footsteps headed toward him, thinking if it was murderers, cannibals or monsters, he would’t resist them. He stared below him, and the steps got closer, he then hearing Door call his name. He doesn’t look up as he replies, what.

She then says much the same of Richard being in this mess because of her and while it wouldn’t be much safer with them, is he coming along. Richard accepts, since he didn’t have any place else to be, currently. She then hugs him and says she’ll try to get him home again once she found what she’s looking for. Richard pushes away the thought of what she offered may be impossible and they walk down the tunnel where Hunter and the Marquis waited near the mouth of the tunnel. The Marquis looking like he swallowed a lemon, as Richard asks what she’s looking for.

Door says it’s a long story, but currently they were looking for an angel called Islington. Richard lets out a hysterical laugh, since he was having to accept many previous impossible things the last 24 hours and without a proper breakfast. A moment with showing Islington entering the Great Hall, candles standing everywhere, and lighting without touching them as it passed, drinking cold, pure water in a rock pool before leaving again, the candles going out as it passed by as they’d done for 10s of thousands of years. Back with Richard, he writes a diary entry in his mind.

He states how he had a job, a home, a fiencee, and life made sense as much as it could, on Friday. Now he hasn’t got any of those and after being a Good Samaritan, is walking hundreds of feet below London with the life expectancy of a suicidal mayfly. The Marquis then points down a tunnel for them to go down next. Richard continues his mental diary entry stating having stopped in a section of Regency sewer, Hunter seemingly not sleeping and the Marquis sharing fruitcake for breakfast from his pocket, his shoes mostly drying by the time they’d woken him up.

He ends with wanting to go home, underlining it 3x and in huge letters in red, circled with many (!)’s. When a crack of light can be seen, the Marquis states it’s Bank station and a good place to begin looking. They head for an area with more foot traffic so they could catch a particular train. When the Marquis gets a train schedule from a saxophone player, who could see them, they make a trade and Richard is looking at the track, watching a mouse below, Hunter then saving him, 1st warning him to mind the gap once the overhead recording started saying, when an unknown large creature passes and a tentacle wraps his ankle, Hunter whacking it with her staff as it passed, she getting him away from the edge and having him wait near the wall, being safer.

When he checks where the creature had grabbed his ankle, his jeans had lost their color where it touched, and purple marks were showing on his skin. Meanwhile Croup and Vandemar are walking around their premises, Croup having a tantrum as they walked, kicking the walls, and beating them with his fist, perfectly incensed with their employer, who then calls on the phone, which Vandemar hands to Croup. He updates their boss of killing Varney for he failing at his role, and how he was having conceptual issues with the role of he and his partner in these ‘shenanigans‘. Croup next hears something which sends his fist into a brick wall as he says without any change of voice how Vandemar and himself had burned down the city of Troy and brought the Black Plague to Flanders, they’ve assassinated a dozen kings, 5 popes, half hundred heroes and 2 accredited gods.

There last contract had been torturing to death a whole monastery in 16th century Tuscany, and they epitomized professional. Vandemar was currently stuffing live frogs into his mouth from an ornamental fountain turned frog breeding ground, and seeing how many he could get in his mouth before he was forced to chew, saying with mouth full, he liked doing that. Croup next hears they aren’t to kill the Upworlder and are apparently meant only to scare Door, this angering Croup all the more for being an assassin. When the boss hangs up Croup proceeds to smash the phone handle.

Meanwhile, Richard was waiting against the wall, Door next to him. Hunter stood beside Door looking at both ends of the platform. The Marquis had left temporarily, then came back through an exit only door chewing a piece of candy. The Earl’s Court train would be next to arrive, the Marquis then mentioning to Door the Earl may not be happy to see him.

When the train stops, the Marquis knocks at the still closed doors in a certain rhythm, someone inside opening the doors and asking who knocked. The Marquis identifies the Lady Door and companions, and they’re allowed to enter the train, which had burning flames and people with smoke, but through the window looked empty. Richard looks around the car as people either looked back at them or ignored them. A large man stepping into the car correctly identified by Richard only by eyeballing him to being the Earl.

He was in a fur-lined robe and pajama bottoms, bits of food in his red-gray beard. He sits in a throne-like carved wooden seat. After Door announces to the man-at-arms, who she is upon the Earl asking, she comes forward as asked and he gives condolences regarding her family, then sends his jester to go to her companions and make jokes, Richard the first, then the Marquis, which the Earl overheard, and then Hunter, everyone getting a jokey aside except Hunter, she prompting the jester and he replying his hound hath no nose. Then the Earl gets up, purely mad and has the Marquis come forward.

The Earl states how he’d promised to kill the Marquis the next time he came to his territory, a deal they’d made leaving him with a dozen dead men and the Earl losing an eye. This leads to the Marquis being allowed to leave on the next stop and saying they’d meet again at the next market, the Earl again promising the Marquis would be dead next time. The train continues on and then the Earl states they were probably hungry and thirsty, Door confirming, so the train is stopped and a man at arms goes onto the platform to a vending machine and knocks on it saying it’s for the Earl, choklits, then Cadbury fruit and nut chocolate coming out, the man returning with a helmetful with cans of Coke. The train continues and Door states she wanted to find info about what happened to her family, since they had no enemies.

The Marquis returned to where the sax player was nearly getting trampled by people wanting to give him there money. 20 people were jostling as he got cut by coins and nearly trampled. The Marquis plays the opposite tune to make them disperse and was seemingly there to call in his favor. The sax player thinks he set him up, but resigns himself to what the Marquis needed him for this time being theft.

Back with Richard, who gets handed a chocolate bar and what looked to Richard to be a sapphire-studded goblet filled with Coke, the jester proposes a toast to the guests. Then Door states the Earl would help them and they followed her to his library through a connecting door behind his throne. When they get inside, there are all kinds of old objects, from LPs to tennis rackets. The Earl was seated on the floor scratching his dog’s chin, but rising when he noticed them.

Door reminds the Earl he said he could tell them how to get to the angel Islington, the Earl’s mind wandering and forgetful, who he was talking to, but finally says they’d get to Islington by using the Angelus and would drop them off. They return to the main car as the train stopped and a sign for British Museum station, and yet this is where they get off. The Marquis, meanwhile had gone to ask Old Bailey for info as he camped on a different roof, this time St. Paul’s Cathedral. They make a deal and the Marquis pulls out the black statue figure he’d stolen from Door’s father, Portico’s study, wanting to know what Old Bailey knew about it.

Old Bailey identifies it as the Great Beast of London, the story fairly simple about a butcher living during King Charles reign had a creature, the type unknown for certain, some say a piglet, was being prepped by being fattened for Xmas, but it ran off into the sewers where it fed on sewage getting bigger and meaner, hunting parties sent for it every once in awhile. The Marquis posits, it must’ve died 300 years ago, but Old Bailey states it was too vicious to die. Old Bailey then goes into his tent to retrieve the box the Marquis left him, asking if he wanted it back yet, it creeping him out. The Marquis declines as he’s leaving, saying he hoped Old Bailey wouldn’t have to use it, but he’d come collect it when this was all finished, and when asked how Old Bailey would know if he had to use it, the Marquis states he’d know, and the rats would tell him what to do with it.

Old Bailey calls after the Marquis to remind him to bring him the shoes and gloves he agreed to get him as their trade for the info. Meanwhile Richard is still getting mind blown by having to accept their truly is a British Museum station despite it not being there before. Door states it’d been closed in 1933 and sealed off. Hunter answers Richard’s next question of if there are many stations like this one: there being 50, but not all being accessible even to them.

Door replies Miss Whiskers says he can tell her directly, so Richard regards Miss Whiskers with a proper greeting and tells of Anaesthesia, the rat replying the rats don’t blame him, she being taken as tribute by the night. Sometimes they come back, the rat then retreating. Door states she was a nice rat and her disposition had improved now she had ‘the scroll‘. Next, Door opens a sealed door, steps leading up to darkness.

Hunter speaks up before Door has started climbing the stairs, saying she couldn’t go to London Above with her, she was her bodyguard in London Below. She doesn’t mention specifically why, but it’s alluded she’d been cursed ‘or something‘. So Hunter waits at the bottom of the stairs as Door continues to the British Museum above, Richard following her after trying to persuade her to wait for the Marquis to return first. Door checks the scroll the Earl had given her on how to get to the Angelus and states they’d be fine, go to Islington and then return to London Below where Hunter will resume her duties.

When Door gets them to what looked like a storage space at the British Museum, Richard muses how he wished they’d stayed with Hunter, Door asking what Richard needed protecting from, at first admitting nothing and then stating maybe them, when Door sees, stating ‘shit‘, looking at Croup and Vandemar standing on base for statues to be placed, on either side of the aisle Door and Richard were walking on. Croup then started asking where Door’s protective detailed be, sounding like self-esteem issues still plagued him, but the 2 continue with their chapter, per their boss’ orders to just ‘worry‘ them. Croup mentions how they’d been to Earl’s Ct today, Door replying, ‘So?‘. Croup smiles and asks, how would he know, and how did they know where to find them now?

They had a mole, and this is when Door stops listening and runs toward a door, it opening at her touch. Croup tells Vandemar to bid the 2 farewell, and Vandemar says ‘bye-bye‘ as they watch them go. The door had taken them outside and the 2 ran down the sidewalk toward the British Museum entrance. Door tries opening a Door and nothing happens, she stating she’s tired, needing time to recover, and something to eat.

Richard points to the main entrance where it was open for an event with people in fancy dress and invitations. The 2 go through this way, getting in without trouble. Meanwhile with Vandemar and Croup, the former got hungry so walked through Trafalgar Square, Croup still annoyed about his completed task of scaring Door. He’d wanted to scare her by killing Richard, taking his head off and then put his hand up through his throat and wiggling his fingers, it never failing to illicit a scream.

Vandemar was luring pigeons with a leftover prawn and lettuce sandwich found in a bin. Vandemar makes his move and catches a pigeon, crunching its head not long after. Back with Door and Richard, she ignores the security corralling the guests to a holding room and goes into the museum halls. They go up some back stairs to another exhibit area, then back the way they’d gone as Door tried to locate the Angelus.

Soon Richard asks what it looked like, Door replying the scroll said it has a picture of an angel on it, so it shouldn’t be hard to find. Meanwhile, Jessica was at the museum as well, having helped organize it, put up exhibition artwork, and place the invitations. To further her distasteful character, she was irritated by her assistant, wanting to believe he was a diversity hire for being openly gay and black, not because he was genuinely competent, efficient, and the best assistant she’s ever had. She was impatiently waiting for her boss to arrive, since he’d wanted a walkthrough before opening the party, but her assistant said he’d be a few more minutes late, the driver saying they were on the way.

They had celebs and personalities in the more than 100 people waiting in the holding area. Soon they could hear the restless guests through the door and over the string quartet, and since the boss was over 20 minutes late, the assistant makes a judgement call against Jessica’s wishes and lets the horde inside, she putting on a fake smile. Back with Door and Richard, they’re in a room being patrolled by 2 guards who don’t see them. Then Door states the Angelus would be where the music was coming from, the 2 heading directly into the party.

As everyone in fancy dress ate and drank the offered snacks, the room is filled with angels. As Richard’s surveying how many angels there were, he spots Jessica. Meanwhile, Door’s response to his pausing is to say she looked clean, and then noticed the copious food and fills her pockets and mouth, walking around more comfortably. Richard follows her lead a bit more gracefully, taking one sandwich and an orange juice.

Jessica though, having spotted the 2 and knew she knew Richard from somewhere, but again couldn’t place him. She goes to him and he tells her again, who he is and intimate details about herself, she making an excuse and leaving him again, she telling her assistant she wanted security, but then she lets it leave her head again as her boss finally shows up. Jessica gets onto the small stage with a podium to intro the man who put the money into the party and he made a speech as Jessica’s assistant tries to get the guards to see Richard, who is standing and watching as Jessica’s fat boss talks of seeing this statue when he was a boy and it seeming like it knew what he was thinking, and how he’d become driven to become a business owner in many areas, so he had it restored, he revealing the Angelus behind a curtain. Richard is then caught by the guards, so Door distracts everyone by screaming in the mic onstage.

This was enough for Richard to wrench free and join Door, she opening the Angelus and unbelievable light, like fireworks sparkled through. When the 2 had gone through and the door closed, the room pretends like it hadn’t happened and things proceeded normally. Door and Richard are in darkness with running water, slowly candles are lighting themselves as a tall figure in a white robe approached them. When the Angel Islington identified Lady Door and introed themselves, being neither man nor woman, Richard noticed the robe was more made of light than being white.

After identifying Richard by his full name and saying they were welcome, they led them out of the room as the candles extinguished themselves. Meanwhile, the Marquis was in the abandoned hospital and just sat down, making himself comfortable, when Croup and Vandemar came in, he greeting the 2 and saying it was time they spoke in person. Back with Islington, he offered Richard wine from an oddly lit bottle. After they taste it, Islington says it’d be the last they’d ever taste it since it came from Atlantis, it given to it 30 or 40 thousand years ago.

Then Islington mentions Door’s father, which leads to why she’d come, who gave the order to have her family killed, Islington asking what Richard wanted, he stating wanting his life back when Islington said was possible, but it not being easy. Islington retrieves a statue of black volcanic glasses and says it will help them through the final stage back to them and they would need to visit the Black Friars to retrieve a key they were to bring back upon returning to Islington. They next found themselves sitting in front of the Angelus, the room dark, since the party had ended hours ago and the sky was lightening outside. Door recognizes the statue resembling one her father had as she puts it in her jacket pocket.

They then make their way back toward the British Museum station. Back with Croup, Vandemar, and the Marquis, the latter is being coy as to what brought him there, then asks Croup if he still collected T’ang Dynasty figurines. Croup started to say even if he was, and the Marquis finished, if he was he’d be interested in the figurine he’d pulled from his pocket. Next, the proceedings get more serious as Croup, upon seeing it hisses and tries to grab it, the Marquis having the 2 stand beside each other in order to conduct their exchange, since blood was on their minds.

So Croup makes a deal with the Marquis where each of them gets to ask 3 questions to be answered and then allow the Marquis’ safety to leave and an hour’s head start. The 3 each ask their questions, only one answer seeming useful from Vandemar, who wanted to answer one and said they needed Door to open a door, which is why they kept her alive. The Marquis reminds them he has an hour, then tosses the figurine to Croup, who catches it like an addict. He proceeds to chew and gnaw the figure into dust and upon consulting Vandemar of how many minutes it’d been, he has him follow the Marquis, since he wished to savor the statue he devoured for a few moments longer.

Back with Door and Richard, they returned down the stairs to where Hunter waited, Door giggling as Richard hummed loudly, the 2 feeling the effects of the small amount of wine they’d tasted. They didn’t notice Hunter when getting to the bottom, standing in shadows. Hunter comes out and informs them they’d been gone 8 hours, which Door replied it hadn’t felt like it. Hunter also noted they were quite drunk, Door not admitting it until she was hiccuping and sat down, where she then admitted being a bit smashed and snoring.

The Marquis meanwhile was running like he was being nipped at the heels, but Vandemar chased at a stroll, sniffing the air, following easily in the sewers. Hunter had carried both Richard and Door to a pile of straw, placing them beside each other and staying on guard. The Marquis had stopped and leaned against a tunnel wall, checking his watch, Vandemar asking if it was an hour yet. The Marquis replying, not even close, 35 minutes having passed.

Vandemar says, it felt like an hour, Croup appearing behind the Marquis, of who starts laughing, Croup still with statue dust on his mouth. Mr. Vandemar throws the blunt side of his knife accurately at the Marquis’ temple and picks him, one-armed by the waistband, his head hitting the stairs as he walked up them. Meanwhile, Hunter is sleeping standing up and dreaming of being in Bangkok, an extinct animal in London Above being seen coming through underbrush. When the Great Weasel lunges at her, she remembers when it happened before, how she succeeded in killing it and giving the pelt to a grateful girl.

This time she takes the forepaw and they dance, she waking fluidly when hearing a sleeping Door whimper, Hunter forgetting her dream and staying alert once more. Door’s dreaming of her father, he’s showing her how to open things. He gives her a padlock to open, which she is unable to unlock at first, crying, but then realizes what she must do, and it unlocks for her after her father reassures her and puts the lock back in her hands after she throws it down. When her father praises her, she remembers to ask who had put his journal away, but he receded and she couldn’t hear him clearly, which is when she whimpered, but then goes into sleep again without dreaming.

Richard is also dreaming, he knowing it’s waiting for them, he going down tunnels and every step he takes feeling it’s leading to impending catastrophe. He finally sees it and only feels dread, it’s the size of the world and the only thing left is the Beast. It' charges and Richard raises a hand not his own, and throws a spear, other broken weapons sticking out of its hide. Richard is woken by a bucket of water to the face, Hunter at the other side of it, she doing similar to Door, but only flicking water at her face.

Richard asks where they are, and she states they’re in the stables of a friend. Richard wondered what type of animals were stabled there underground, he noticing a device painted on the wall with a letter S or a snake circled by 7 stars. When Door came to, her head also was sore, then she noticed the symbol Richard had seen and it sobered her completely, saying it was Serpentine’s crest and they needed to leave immediately, but Serpentine spoke saying, did she really think she wouldn’t know when someone entered her house, Door looking perfectly frightened. Door identifies her as Serpentine of the 7 sisters after Hunter told her to calm herself, Serpentine replying Hunter had worked for her and any friends of hers are her friends as well.

She also offered them food to breakfast and as the smaller woman behind her started rattling off a fair menu, Richard was sick, washing his face and mouth before following the women out of the room to breakfast. Hunter is making full use of the invite and chowing down and as Serpentine idly chatted and had the woman who served them get Richard a restorative, she asked Hunter if she was Beast-hunting, which she confirms, so Serpentine states she’ll need the spear then. When Richard is served a drink, it actually makes him feel better, and so now regains his appetite. Meanwhile, Old Bailey is telling his birds jokes, which aren’t too funny, and after finishing one and thinking of another upon request by the birds, he hears from inside his tent a pulsing noise.

He discovers it’s the box the Marquis had given him, and it had a pulsing red light glowing from it, Old Bailey stating the Marquis is must be in big trouble. Then back with Serpentine, she’s ready to leave them to the remainder of their breakfasts, and saying to Hunter, she’s always welcome. After she exits, Hunter also gets up, followed by Door and more reluctantly Richard, who was halfway done with a 2nd serving. Hunter asks Door which way to the Black Friars, Door deciding the river way.

Back with Croup and Vandemar, the former asks if the Marquis was waking yet. Vandemar saying no, thinking he broke him, and Croup replying he needed to be more careful with his toys. As Door, Richard, and Hunter walked along the underground river bank, seeing it was a treacherous one you wouldn’t get out once going in, Richard asked Hunter what she was after, he providing examples of he wanting to go home, and Door wanting answers about her family’s murders. Hunter states how she’d killed the alligator king in NY, the bear under Berlin, and the black tiger under Calcutta, she needing to kill the London or die trying.

Then a London fog of which doesn’t occur in London Above anymore rolls in, making Richard cough. Meanwhile, the Abbot knew today would bring pilgrims, since his dreams showed as much. He was blind and knew it was a sin to wait, but he did, waiting to hear the bells as he went through his rituals of the day. A monk waited for them on a bridge as they trudged through disgusting mud, the 3 introducing themselves, when asked.

The monk pushes Richard down with his staff, Hunter giving him the fight he was after, and bloodying his lip in the process before another monk calls it as being enough. They let them in, another monk says a riddle, and Door answers with ‘key’. The older monk, Abbot then saying the 3rd would have the Ordeal of the Key, Hunter volunteering, but this not being allowed, Richard having to complete the ordeal successfully in order to get the key, since there were 3 tasks and 3 people. They take a polaroid of Richard for the wall of memorial in case he failed, the variety of pictures showing how long they’d been doing this.

The Marquis was currently being crucified on a variety of items, Frankenstein monstering together. Vandemar was hanging it up with the Marquis already attached, Croup having gathered sharp items and directing Vandemar below. Croup suggests he see if the Marquis was up yet and Vandemar starts prodding him with the hammer he held, the Marquis no longer feigning being passed out and spits blood at Vandemar, he knowing they’ll probably torture him for it, but perhaps would die quicker. Meanwhile, Richard is watching as water is boiled and thinking the worst.

The first part of the trial had begun, the Abbot asking if Richard takes sugar in his tea, which he declines with suspicion. After a sip, Richard is told this bit is more for the monks than the seekers, so Richard asks if he could just get on with it, which the Abbot acquiesces. Richard asks if he could be told anything about the ordeal, which the Abbot shakes his head, nothing being added. He’d lead the seekers to the door, wait a couple hours in the corridor outside, then go in, remove the remains from the shrine and inter them in the vaults or would sometimes, which was worse, have to care for the barely surviving ones, the Black Friars doing the best they could with their care.

The 2nd monk opens the door for him and Richard walks through, the Abbot returning to his seat and being handed his tea. Richard walks down the Underground platform at the District Line station, a sign with ‘BLACKFRIARS‘, and the platform deserted, in the distance a train roars and rattles, driving a ghost wind along the platform scattering a tabloid paper and it going down onto the rails. Richard walks the length of the platform, then sits on the bench and waited for something to occur. Nothing does, and he rubs his head, feeling sick.

Then footsteps on the platform are heard near him and he sees a little girl walking by him, holding hands with a woman looking like a bigger, older version of herself. They looked at him and quickly look away, the woman telling the little girl to not go near him in an audible whisper. The little girl looks back curiously and asks bluntly why people like this stay alive, her mother answering they didn’t have enough guts to end it. Richard then tries to remember why he was there, thinking he could be dreaming, then sees he has muddy shoes for some reason.

Next, his coworker Garry sits down next to him and Richard starts chatting with him, wanting to explain why he looked disheveled by realized he couldn’t. Garry says it’s alright, since he wasn’t really there and Richard was talking to himself, proving this by remolding his face, to look like Richard’s own, the voice becoming his as well. He states to himself how he’s sitting on Black Friars station at rush hour, and he’s talking to himself, but he’s edging closer to sanity now, the Richard he looked at saying he was what’s left of his sanity. The other Richard encourages him to see the platform properly, which still looked deserted to him as how busy it actually was, which takes a few moments, but then he sees the train in front of him and the bustling station around him, and he looked worse for wear, being quite dirty with a black eye and a red boil on the side of his nose, his hair matted.

He covers his eyes and the platform is empty again, sitting back down, someone holding his hand and it turning out being Jessica with a look he’d never seen on her before of compassion. When she says something similar to the other Richard of being the closest to reality he’s been, and she also saying she’s him, he recalls what he was doing, being in the ordeal and looking for the key for Islington. Jessica telling him tearfully a different version as to why she’d broken off their engagement, and the other Richard saying how he’d lost his mind and had been eating from bins and sleeping under bridges. As he sees Jessica break down into tears more, not having ever seen her so hurt, he tries to comfort her by hugging her, but the reality shifted and he was lying on the platform in what he hoped was his own vomit as someone stumbles nearby and curses, trying to avoid him.

Others would look at him with revulsion or glance and look away. Richard still struggles, the platform looking deserted again, and Garry back to tell him to try touching him, Richard’s hand going through his face, mushing it like putty, but not feeling anything there at all. Garry then stating how Richard was only pacing the platform trying to gain courage to jump onto the rails. Garry then saying he never liked Richard and the office thought he was a joke with all his trolls on his desk.

Garry tosses him a troll, which he misses and tries to pick up off the platform, feeling like it could give him his old life back. The reality shifts again though, and people are stepping all around him as he’s crawling toward the troll an old woman kicking it off the platform. He considers ending it when it’s gone back to being deserted, he then feeling the beading from Anaesthesia’s necklace. He hears her say, hold on, so waits and a train comes in, when the doors open, it’s filled with all kinds of corpses sitting and standing, Richard entering the train, and the lights going out.

Next, bolts are drawn and the doors to the shrine is pushed open, the lights from the hall shining in. The Abbot and the monk who lead him walking in, the Abbot thinking the worst as the monk checks Richard, noting he hadn’t died, and the Abbot thinking he’d lost his mind, so to take him to the infirmary, but next he hears Richard stand and say he thinks he got through it, unless this also was apart of the ordeal, the Abbot verifying it wasn’t, and so Richard says he would like the tea now, which the Abbot agrees, the other monk reminding him to take his key, which had been hanging above him in the middle of the room. They exit and outside Hunter is still considering escape methods where she only gets minor injuries. Next, Hunter notes the movement on the bridge, preparing Door to run, but then they see Richard, who looked different, Hunter suspecting he was less boyish and had started to grow up.

When he gets to them, he tosses the key to Door and she hugs him, thanking the Abbot, who says as they leave, how they’d lost the key, and God help them all. Meanwhile, the Angel Islington was dreaming a dark, rushing dream, huge waves rising and crashing over the city, lightning flashing across the horizon, rain falling in sheets, a fire starting near the great amphitheater, and spreading through the city, despite the storm. Islington is looking down on this from high above, the way dreams has one hover, it hearing people screaming in Atlantis, the waves swallowing the city as the 4 million people died slowly, the storm then subsiding. When dawn comes, it’s as if no city twice the size of Greece had ever been there at all. Only bodies floating in the water signs of what had been, Islington then waking.

It goes through the halls touching the walls and items as if to be sure they’re real. Walking toward the pool of water and letting its fingers touch the water. Soon Islington could see a cellar and the phone was ringing, Croup walking to it and picking it up. When he answers, it’s the usual laundry list of different violences they commit.

This time mentioning eyes gauged, noses twisted, tongues pierced and more. The angel answers, informing him the trio had the key and he wanted Door kept safe on her way back to them. Croup says ‘safe‘ whatever care, saying how the angel was original by hiring cutthroats to ensure someone remains unharmed instead of dead. Croup asks if these rules extend to the Marquis, and Islington allowed it no longer did, only protect Door.

It removes its hand from the water and and only its reflection and candle flames reflected, it returning to the other room to await its returning guests. Croup meanwhile shares the news with Vandemar of the Marquis’ updated fate possibilities. Vandemar was glad, since it seemed they’d jumped the gun in dispatching the Marquis and Vandemar only required to dispose of the body, now. Next Vandemar is pushing a squeaky grocery cart, which pulled to the left as Croup talked beside him.

He didn’t see it fitting to merely dump the Marquis’ body in a drain, but strappng him high up in London Below. Alas, dump him they do, along with grocery car Vandemar began to loathe. Back with Door, she’s tying the key around her neck. Richard says it won’t be safe on the string she used, so she says she’ll get a chain at the market.

None of them knew where the next market would be held yet, Hunter grabbing a boy running past them, who was chasing a girl, who stole his paintbrush, paintings of different animals and airplanes, etc along the wall they’d been walking near. When the boy hears it’s Hunter, who had grabbed him when Door states to release him, the boy tries for a stabby stab, losing his knife, but Hunter tossing it back to him as he continued his chase to get his paintbrush. Meanwhile, the Marquis’ body floated facedown through the sewer to the sea. As his body passed a few rats nearby, the female jumps onto the Marquis to see the quality and decipher who it was before returning to her companions.

Richard meanwhile, is trying to learn more about what the market would be like in Belfast, wondering if the boy would lie, Door believing it wouldn’t be something anyone lies about, since it was special. Richard wanted to understand how the location was chosen, but was trying to ask in a way which didn’t sound ignorant. When he does ask, neither lady had an answer, they letting a woman know when and where the next market was, after she left being labelled one of the Velvets. When they turn a corner, there’s a painting of the 3 of them, not flattering.

The Black rat entered the lair of the Golden with respect, the Golden making their lair in a pile of bones once being a wooly mammoth. The Golden are alluded to having killed the mammoth, the black rat rolled onto his back with throat bared, a chittering above him indicating he could roll back over. A Golden rat the size of a large house cat comes out and chitters an order before the black rat leaves. The chief of the Sewer Folk was fishing for odd bits for the market tonight, but wasn’t pulling much.

As Old Bailey was hanging laundry the large black rat climbed up his tent and urgently squeaked at him. When Old Bailey understood what was said, he retrieved weapons and the Marquis box. Apparently he was meant to retrieve the Marquis body, so puts the rat in his pocket and climbs over the side of the building. Back with the Sewer Folk, the chief knew he was about to get a good one, these people not speaking, but using hand signs, he clapping his hands to indicate to his people to get ready, everyone waiting along the edge of the sewer in silence and then they reel in the Marquis, taking his possessions, among them Door’s father’s watch, the chief now pleased they’d be ready for the market.

HMS Belfast is a warship from 1939, which serves a museum across from the tower of London and between London Bridge. Door, Richard, and Hunter get to the market as folk are still settling up when Door recognizes one of the sellers as the Hammersmith. Door then gives Richard the task of getting them food and Hunter to accompany him she placing her order and the 2 leaving. Meanwhile, as the 2 veer away from the stinky Sewer People’s stall toward the food stalls, Old Bailey aimed for them following his nose to locate them, and then bartering with the chief to buy the Marquis’ corpse.

Back with Richard as he’s ordering the vegetable curries, the woman they’d told where the market was, coming to him and saying hello. She introduces herself and says she’s a Velvet, and then Hunter appearing at her other side and saying, he’s not hers. This doesn’t phase Richard and says maybe she could help guide them, since she knew the Underside so well. Meanwhile, Old Bailey was dragging the Marquis body a distance away from the market toward Tower Hill station before stopping.

He stopped at the London Wall and dragged him to the top with effort. He takes out the black sleeping rat and starts the proceedings for what he must do. He gets the toasting fork places the Marquis’ box on the corpse’s chest, opens the box and smashes the large duck egg inside. Stillness, and then a great wind coming from every direction, which was felt on the Belfast ship.

When the wind stopped after becoming quite violent, stillness returned, and the Marquis wetly coughs, then was terribly sick. He wraps his neck with an offered cloth once asked, as well as a drink, the Marquis now knowing most of what he couldn’t guess before. Back with Door, Hammersmith had made her a chain, she hanging the key on it, she asking what he’d like in trade, he showing her a puzzle box, which he couldn’t get open, Door saying it was due to the mechanism being jammed and completely fused. She of course getting it open, but the contents not what Hammersmith had hoped, it being a toad with copper eyes.

Door says he should keep it for luck. Meanwhile, the Marquis asked Old Bailey where the market was, he pointing behind them to the ship and the Marquis climbing down the wall, saying with a bit of sadness he owed Old Bailey. Back with Richard, who delivers the desired curries to a happy Door, who hugs and pats his bum before digging in, he introducing the Velvet, who is asked if she knew how to get to the Angel Islington, she saying Down St, but Door saying they couldn’t afford a guide and would be fine on their own. Richard returns to his neediness of wanting to feel useful though, and does maintain the Velvets requirement.

So, by the time the Marquis reaches the market, they’ve left. They’re led off the ship down steps through a long underpass and up again, then down an alley with a sign on the 3rd door, a doormen opening it, who had been wakened. They’re led down many differently carpeted flights of stairs, the last flight without carpet. At the bottom was an elevator with an out of order sign on it, the footman ignoring it and everyone going in while the footman returned upstairs.

They go to the bottom most floor and when the doors open Richard had discovered inconveniently a new fear of claustrophobia.They step out and there’s a stone spiral staircase with flames placed along the walls going down. The Velvet 1st shows how safe the wooden platform was to cross, followed by Hunter, then Door. Richard found he couldn’t move yet, the elevator pulls back up and Door commands Richard to move, which he does, since the platform was shaking, but found once on the board he ended up gripping it, down on all fours.

Door at first tries to talk him over and then Hunter, slowly coaxes him to inch forward until he’s close enough to get her hands under his arms and hoist him to the opposite side, everyone then descending the stone steps with Hunter at the lead and Richard walking with the Velvet, who had told them earlier Richard would be the one to pay her, which she hadn’t disclosed what it would be. As Door and Hunter go around a corner out of view, the Velvet asks it Richard would give her some of his warmth he unsure what she meant, but he lets her kiss him of course, but then he’s frosty and she’s looking crimson with heat and his sight is darkening. She goes in for another kiss, but someone had been watching, and grabs her around the neck when she goes in for the 2nd kiss. The Marquis says to her to give it back, she doing so after he threatens to break her neck.

He then threatens to come after her and her group if they bother Richard again. Richard then notices how scrappily the Marquis was dressed, barefoot and he learns how he’d been killed, the Marquis stating they should catch up with the others. They look below, Richard calling to Door and Hunter and then the Marquis pointing below them, Croup and Vandemar waiting, this being a trap. The Marquis has Richard run ahead, which he does telling Door and Hunter of Croup and Vandemar as they’re stepping forward.

Vandemar binds Door’s hands behind her back and Hunter kicks Richard in the stomach. Croup states to Door they should be seen as only guards who will get her where she’s going, since Vandemar mistook what Croup meant by escort service. When Door attempts to ask Hunter what’s going on and receiving no answer Croup fills in to say Hunter had agreed to join them before signing on with Door. Vandemar gives Richard a good beating when he tries to pretend he had the key and gives them the key to his former flat.

Hunter requests her payment before the 2 walk off with Door between them. Hunter’s payment had been a spear, which she checks. Richard asks who she was working for, and the Marquis encourages her to answer, a crossbow pointing at her. She obliges the Marquis and answers Islington.

The Marquis next directs Richard to pick up the spear he had Hunter put on the ground and then has her walk in front of them with Richard carrying the spear. They walked for hours down the stone road downward. Richard was in pain and limping after getting kicked in the knee and the shoulder. They eventually reach a gate which could’ve been built by giants.

This marked the start of the labyrinth, where the Beast waited and Islington built by giants. This marked the start of the labyrinth, where the Beast waited and Islington beyond, in his citadel, which was also its prison. As Richard wondered aloud why Hunter was still with them, they hear a bellow, which Richard recognized from his dreams. He states this to the Marquis upon hearing, states Richard isn’t obligated to continue on, since he intended to take Hunter through the labyrinth where the Beast waited.

Meanwhile, Croup walked ahead with the obsidian talisman held high as Vandemar kept a hand on Door shoulder as they followed. The talisman tugged in the direction they were meant to go. Door starts making a nuisance of herself when she sees how Croup reacts when they all hear the Beast’s snorts, so shouts to it to come, Vandemar giving her 2 chances before shoving an old, dirty dead man’s handkerchief into her mouth. Meanwhile, Islington had started singing, which it hadn’t done in many thousands of years, dancing slowly.

It was singing, I’m in Heaven, as it presses its cheek against the black door of its chamber. Back with Richard, he makes another entry in his mental diary, going over what he’d survived, since his last entry, covering walking the plank, kiss of death, and a lecture on kicking. Now he’s following a mad bastard, who came back from the dead and a bodyguard being whatever’s opposite of this is, and being so far out of his depth he can’t even come up with a metaphor. The trip had changed order of walking, Richard far ahead of Hunter, and the Marquis at least 10 feet behind her, he being royally attacked by mosquitoes.

As he trudged, through the marsh, he wasn’t pleased to also be walking among all manner of dead bodies. Richard thinks they’re lost, but the Marquis assures they weren’t, mentioning the talisman doing the tugging, but then not long after he stumbles when stepping on a half buried corpse, puncturing his heel as he shatter its ribcage, he dropping the talisman, it making a plop. The Marquis had Richard return and search for it, Richard still on his giving up quickly way of being, not locating it and saying how hopeless it was. Then Richard sees it after the Marquis states to continue looking.

When he’s nearby it though, a large gas bubble bloated up through the mud and popped next to the talisman and it vanished underwater. Then as the Marquis calls him to come back, Richard sees the Beast charging at them, looking how it had in his dreams. The large boar-but-much larger Beast stops for what seems like a lifetime, Hunter bending down to pick up the spear from the mud of Fleet Marsh, she completely taken with her quest she desired to fulfill, forgetting the Marquis and Richard completely. She waits patiently as it charged toward her, but lunges a fraction of a second too late, the spear tumbling, and a tusk opening her side.

It also crushes her arm, hip, and ribs when she fell before it returns into the darkness, their dance complete. Meanwhile, Croup was relieved more than he would admit to have gotten through the labyrinth, but they’d gotten through without injury. A rock face with an oaken double door set in it, and an oval mirror set in the righthand door. Croup touched the mirror and the surface clouded, the Angel Islington looking out at them.

Croup states they’d all arrived, and the angel asks about the key, Croup replying Door had it, so the Angel tells them to enter, with his words, the door opening and the 3 going in. Back with Richard, who had seen the quick battle and conclusion, he couldn’t hear the Beast, but whispers to Hunter of whether she could hear him, she barely perceptibly saying yes. The Marquis calling to Richard som yards away standing frozen near a wall to state Richard stay where he was, the Beast taking its time and will return. Richard asks despite it being a bit obvious, if Hunter was alright, making her laugh, blood-flecking her lips, he then asking the Marquis if there were medical people down there.

The Marquis replies, it’s more of the healer types, leaches, and chirurgeons. She asks Richard if he’s ever used a spear, and he replies he hadn’t, she stating to take it, insisting he pick it up, and then Hunter gets up somehow and tells Richard she’d done a very bad thing because she wanted to kill the Beast, and needed the spear, putting her other knife in her own hand, and must make amends. She started humming, finding the note which made the room reverberate, she then with effort shouting for the Beast. Finally they hear it charging again, the dance not yet over.

She then tells Richard when to stab the Beast as it hit her. He does, and somehow kills it, the Beast on top of Hunter, Richard somehow moving it half off her. Somehow she’s still alive and responds to him, sounding detached. She asks if the Beast’s dead, and he responded he thought so, it not moving, which makes her laugh.

She then asks if her knife is still in her hand, he confirming and she telling him to take it, he having killed the Beast and now being the greatest hunter in London Below, and to touch the Beast’s blood to his eyes and tongue, which he isn’t sure he heard right, but the Marquis confirming, since he’d approached, saying it’d get him through the labyrinth. Richard acquiesces to the request, and Hunter says that’s good, before saying no more. Richard cleans the knife she gave him in order to save himself from thinking, and the Marquis urges they continue to Door, Richard asking about what they’d do with Hunter’s body, he saying they’d have to return for it, the Marquis having Richard lead and he’d follow as fast as he could, so hesitating for a moment, Richard starting to run. He had no explanation for now, knowing exactly where he was going through the labyrinth other than Hunter and the Marquis were right about the Beast’s blood.

When he comes to the large doors in the cliff, he touches the closed wooden door, and it opens, so he steps inside. Richard follows the path of burning candles, recognizing having drank the wine in the room he was in. Door was spread-eagle chained up between 2 pillars beside the flint and silver door. Door stared at him scared, Islington standing beside her and smiling at Richard, which came off as chilling.

Islington invites him in with concern which sounded honest, he then stating he must already know everyone, introducing Door, Croup, and Vandemar, the 2 appearing on either side of him. Islington then asks after Hunter, Richard replying she’d died, Door gasping, and Islington sounding regretful of the senseless loss. Richard asks Door if she’s alright, which she replies with mostly, for now. Islington states how Door was being stubborn, and pauses after saying they’d been discussing with Croup and Vandemar, pausing finding the words distasteful, so Vandemar fills in, torture her.

Then Islington states how she may change her mind if she saw a friend in pain, this prompting Croup to punch him in the stomach and Vandemar placing his hand around his neck to keep him standing. Door states it’s wrong to do this, Islington sounding amused and puzzled by her statement. Croup responds by encouraging Vandemar, so he breaks Richard’s pinkie. Then the angel senses someone else outside, they calling to Croup, who quickly vanishes.

Meanwhile, the Marquis was pressed against the side of the red granite cliff, staring at the oak doors. He flashed through plans and schemes, they all fizzling, disgusted with how he had no clue how to proceed, when he thought he’d have known by now. He didn’t know if the doors were guarded, or if the angel would know when they opened, slightly comforted by knowing he had surprise on his side. Until he felt the cold point of the sharp knife placed on the side of his throat, and hearing Croup whisper in his ear of already killing him once today, and what does it take to teach some people.

When the Marquis enters the room with Croup prodding him with a knife, Richard is chained between 2 iron pillars. Islington states with disappointment how they’d told them he was dead, and they wouldn’t be lied to, which Croup said they don’t lie, Vandemar saying they do, so Croup with exasperation amends they do, but not this time. When Richard states how could Islington act this way when they were an angel, the Marquis reminds him of what he’d told him before, Richard saying Lucifer had been an angel. Islington scoffs about Lucifer being an idiot and lord over nothing, which the Marquis states how Islington was a master of 2 thugs and a roomful of candles.

Islington responds it was punishment for Atlantis, it telling them nothing more could’ve been done, all of it unfortunate. Door says how millions were killed, the angel responding reasonably how these things happen. The Marquis replies in agreement and adds how cities sink everyday, then asks, and Islington had nothing to do with it. This sets the Angel off, a deranged fury and viciousness showing through their serene beauty, it screaming with uncontrolled self righteousness of they deserving it.

Then in a quiet regretful voice adding, it’s just one of those things. They next point to the Marquis and state to chain him up. Then the angel goes to Door and takes the key from her neck, snapping the chain as he revealed why he had most of her family killed was because her father had turned the angel down when it had offered to help her father join London Below together, instead of having fiefdoms, etc, and hopefully even London Above, but wanted her father’s help on being set free. The angel specifically finding impossible her father’s reaction was to laugh at it.

Door mentions how his journal had said to trust the angel, and it admit the message had been there’s, Croup imitating her father’s voice accurately and saying his real message had been to fear Islington, they’ve got to be behind all of this, and to stay away from them. Richard asks where the door led, and Islington replies, home. The Marquis asks if the angel thought it would go unnoticed, and Islington states it had its own agenda, and requested Door to use the key, since it would be useless otherwise. Richard pipes in saying it killed her family, and had her hunted through London Below, and now wants her to open a door so it can invade Heaven.

It must not be a great judge of character, she won’t do it, he concludes. The angel responds, ah, me and turns away, so it wouldn’t have to watch the unpleasantness, Croup giving Vandemar the okay to hurt him more, suggesting to cut his ear off. Vandemar states as he makes a knife appear in his hand before none had been before, how he’d told Ricard one day he’d find out what his own liver tasted like, and today was his lucky day, pulling the knife under his ear. Richard doesn’t feel pain until Vandemar puts pressure on the knife a little bit, before this happening, he sending mental messages to Door to hold out, but now he’s screaming.

Door says for the angel to stop them, she’ll open the door, Islington gesturing with curtness and Vandemar putting his knife with a sigh of pity. Croup unlocked one of Door’s manacles, she takes the key when handed to her. Richard calls to her not to do it, the Marquis echoing his sentiment, but Door still walking up to the door and places her hand on it, when removing her hand a keyhole appearing, with a laser white light shining through the keyhole. Door proceeds to unlock and open the door, but is having trouble pulling it open, the angel quietly saying to Croup to kill them all when it was gone.

The Marquis states to Croup he hoped they’d both been paid in full, since it didn’t seem likely they’d see it again. Croup takes this suggestion seriously, so says to the angel perhaps it’d like to settle up on their fee before it left. Islington replies to him like he’s less than a speck of dirt, stating it didn’t matter now, they’d receive all the rewards they could conceive when it had its throne. Croup didn’t appreciate this answer, but the door was now open a crack and Islington looked like it was dreaming with eyes open wide as it states to not have fear, since when creation belonged to it, it’d reward the worthy and cast down those who are hateful in its sight.

Door wrenches the door wider open, and a swirling whirlpool of color brightly shines through, then a wind felt, candle starting to whip through the air toward the light. Richard felt like he weighted twice as much, realizing the door was being viewed downward. Islington grabbed a pillar and shouted at Door of this not Heaven and what had the mad little witch done. Door smugly stating it had been a copy of the real key Hammersmith had made in the market.

The angel screamed, but she replying she’d opened the door, as far and hard away as she could. Now pure hatred is seen on Islington as it states it’ll kill her. Door responds it won’t kill anyone anymore, and before the angel is sucked through the door, it says if she closed the door it’ll tell her where her sister is, Door flinching, but the angel getting sucked through. Croup and Vandemar next to get close, the table Vandemar had grabbed the leg of, getting blocked by the door, Croup hanging onto his coattails and climbing over Vandemar to state to Door, he’d killed her family and planned to finish the - when he gets sucked through, as Vandemar watches the screaming Croup drop, he looking back at Door without menace, shrugs his shoulder while still holding on and saying mildly, ‘buh-bye‘, letting go.

It looked as if Vandemar had caught up to Croup, the 2 merging into one blob and disappearing into the light. One manacle breaks, Richard now clinging to the one still attached with his broken finger, but the chain weakening and the air going out of the room. Then the door is shut and they’re in the darkened room of the Great Hall. The Marquis was first to talk asking where Door had sent them, she not knowing, but stating she’s very tired, which the Marquis replies she snap out of it, sounds of a manacle opening and a candle being lit, she unlocks the Marquis, then Richard.

Door is first to sleep, being held by Richard, who drops off next, the Marquis scared to sleep, but follows soon after. Back with the Lady Serpentine, other than Olympia, being the oldest of the 7 sisters, walked through the labyrinth passed Down st. This had been the furthest she’d been from her house in over a century. She had servant ladies with her, one ahead and the others following behind her at a respectful distance.

They soon find Hunter’s body, and Serpentine orders they take the spear after they remove her body the remainder of the way from under the Beast. One servant takes Hunter’s body whilst another grabs the spear. The 4 turn back the way they’d come, no emotion on Serpentine’s face. Next, Richard is waking, not knowing who he is at first, then feels linen pressed on his face, and someone breathing , trying to be discreet.

He hurt all over, esp his left hand, and when he lifted his head, more places hurt. In the far distance he heard deep melodious chant singing. In the room with his back turned is a black robed figure dusting the room. Richard asks where he is, this startles him, but in reply asks if Richard wants water, he a Black Friar, Richard realizing he was thirsty, and accepting with a thank you very much.

After sipping a bit, he sees he’s in a gray robe similar to the friars habits, and his finger was splinted, they tending to his bruises and ear. When he gets up, he sees the Abbot down the hall being led to him. He updates Richard of Door and the Marquis and himself having been brought there by the friars. They stop at a door with Door in an overly large habit and reading Mansfield Park.

The Marquis being wheeled by antique wheelchair and still looking ‘romantic and swashbuckling‘, he greeting them with a large smile and a good evening, friends. The Abbot then states they must all talk. The Abbot first asks, when they’re seated in a large room with a scrap woodfire roaring, where Islington was. Door answers having sent him half way across space and time.

Richard asks why they hadn’t warned them about Islington, the Abbot replying it wasn’t their responsibility, Richard snorting in response, then asking what happens now. Richard saying Door had avenged her family now, and is the Marquis satisfied, he replying to the affirmative, since he’d paid his debt to Door’s father and was now owed a significant favor. Richard then asking what about him, Door stating they couldn’t have done this without him, which prompts him to ask what about getting him back home, the Marquis replying, who does he think Door is, the Wizard of Oz, this is his home. Door says she tried to tell him before, Richard saying there has to be a way.

The Abbot asking where the key is, Door stating Richard had it. The Abbot sends for Richard’s trousers, referring to him as the Warrior, Richard denying this, but the Abbot stating he’d killed the Beast. When the Abbot retrieves the key, he states how they all are very stupid people and didn’t know anything. Richard passed the Ordeal of the Key, being its master until he returned it to the Black Friars, the key having power.

Richard replying it being the key to Heaven, unsure what the Abbot meant. The Abbot replies if Richard wanted to return to London Above, the key will take him back. Richard asks when they can do this, and the Abbot says, when he’s ready. The friars washed and repaired his clothes, and then he follows a brother to a dusty Underground station platform.

Nightingale Lane on old signs on the wall. The brother told him to wait there and he’d be collected, wishing him well before returning the way they’d come. The Marquis hadn’t said g’bye, Door saying it’s like comforting people, the Marquis not good at it, she then giving him a paper with instructions, saying she had something in her eye before she went away. Then Richard sees a waving coming from the darkness of the tunnel, Richard calling out a hello, questioningly, seeing his handkerchief, Old Bailey stepping out self-consciously and ill at ease, stating it’s his little flag.

Richard replied he’s glad it’s come to use. Old Bailey then states he’d gotten something for him, handing him a long black feather with a blue-purple-green sheen, red thread wound around the quill end from his pocket. Richard gives an unsure thanks. Old Bailey states it’s meant as a memento, souvenir, keepsake, as a thank you.

A warm wind then is felt, Old Bailey saying this would be his train, shaking his hand, and running off. When the train stops, no door opens, and no one’s driving, Richard knocks, and the door opens. 2 elderly gentlemen from the Earl’s Court step out and blow their bugles, Richard getting in, the 2 following. The Earl was sitting at the end of the carriage petting his giant Irish wolfhound.

The Earl doesn’t indicate he knew Richard, so he allows the Earl to recite his alliterative address, and then requests for Richard’s sword, he taking out the knife Hunter gave him. He’s made to kneel, the Earl tapping him on both shoulders and bequeathing him Sir Richard of Maybury, at first calling him Mayflowre when he’d been introduced as Mayhew. The Earl states with this knife, he gave him freedom of the Underside, and be allowed to walk without hindrance, Richard giving his thanks and letting the Earl know his name was Mayhew, but the train comes to a stop and the Earl states this is where he gets off, returning Richard’s knife, patting him on the back and pointing toward the door. The place Richard steps out was aboveground, but it had a gray light about it like he was still in London Below, he approaching a man seated on a wooden bench, he soon recognizing as Lord Rat-speaker, who states how there weren’t any hard feelings about Anaesthesia and if he goes to them, they’ll do him ‘all right‘.

The Lord Rat-speaker presents Richard’s bag with all his belongings, even his wallet, Richard taking it without a word and walking off without a backward glance. When he reaches an underpass he sees a group of woman in velvet, they scaring him, but Lamia edging to the front of them and smiling, merely blowing him a kiss and the group vanishing. He walks on until he gets a view of the outdoor scenery, realizing he was in London, but what it’d been perhaps 3000 years ago, Door greeting him, she stating they were on the awesome and terrible island of Westminster when he asked. Door mentions how there was going to be a lot to sort out in London Below now and she was going to try and finish what her father started, she also mentioning how she now possible had her sister to find and didn’t want Richard to go.

Richard states how he liked Door a lot, but he had to return home, she then hugging him tightly and he in return. He says it was very nice knowing her, since she mentioned they wouldn’t ever see each other again. She asks if he’s got the key, which he takes out of his back pocket where she’d stashed it and she holds out in front of her, motioning like she was inserting it into a door in the air, he seeing nothing. She then tells him, okay walk, and don’t look back.

When he gets to the bottom of the small hill he looks as Door turns the key decisively. The world next goes dark and a low roar fills Richard’s head. This phrase repeated for the start of the last chapter for some reason. Richard starts away from the people brushing by him, he blinking away the darkness, he going up some steps and the world started to resolve, taking shape and reforming.

The growling had been the roar of traffic, coming out of an underpass in Trafargar Square. It was midmorning in Oct. and he sees tourists feeding pigeons, Richard attempting to talk to someone to make sure he was real. He tries first with a woman who doesn’t speak English, so then tries asking a child, which only annoys their mother, saying they had for places like him when the child runs and says he’d been bothering them, but Richard pleased by her telling him off. He smiles Cheshire Cat wide, and apologizes, running like a loon, scaring pigeons.

Next he tries his bank card, which now works, he punching the air with success, but gets embarrassed, so pretends to hail a cab, which actually works. He has the cabbie drop him off at his office, which would almost be quicker walking according to the driver, but Richard doesn’t mind, even encouraging chat, but the driver thinking he was having a laugh, Richard tipping him grandly. When he enters the office, he becomes a bit apprehensive, since they may not know him and he wouldn’t have a job. The security guard greeted him with recognition and indifference.

Richard gives the man an enthusiastic reply before taking the elevator and going into the office, not seeing his desk and about to leave when Garry hands him a tea and asks him how Majorca was, Richard replying he hadn’t gone there this time, leading him to his office where his name is on the door, declaring he’s a junior partner, Garry congratulating him. The PA greets him and says he wasn’t expected back until tomorrow, so he checks his apartment, taking another taxi. He asks the woman currently living there about who had approved her lease and went off to find him, again by taxi. The man doesn’t offer Richard anything, but Richard doesn’t crumble like he used to, instead he states he’d take the penthouse, since it was all which was left and now they’d discuss compensation for his lost personal items.

He had the flat furnished as well, he then ordering takeaway curry. As he’s eating, the doorbell rings and the man had found a lot of his possessions in storage, Richard only unpacking his clothes, and as time passed, feeling guilty he hadn’t unpacked the rest; for days. A day when he’s in his office, he’s staring out the window before a meeting with the boss, he starting to play with 2 trolls. He gets a knock at the door and he says, come in, Jessica nervously doing so, and standing in the doorway.

She said she was happy to see he got promoted, didn’t remember why she’d broken it off with him and returns his engagement ring with the hope he’d give it back to her if things worked out. Richard gives it back to her and apologizes, stating he’d changed. His intercom buzzes to remind him of the meeting, Jessica silently leaving, he telling them he’d be right there. After this he started taking the tube to and from work, but instead of buying a paper to read on his trip, he’d look at the faces and wonder if they were all from London Above.

A few days after Jessica’s visit, he thought he saw Lamia, but was mistaken, it was only a goth. Then on a Sat. afternoon he sees a large brown rat on top of some bins in the back of his building, and he bends down to say hello asking if it knew Door, when he’s interrupted by his neighbors, who merely see the rat and his seeming to be talking with it, the husband stating he’d be complaining to the council, but this being London, so also expected. He still hadn’t unpacked the cases, and whilst he used to watch TV, now he’d eat and look over the city from his window before going to sleep. One day at work, the PA, Sylvia asks if he’s like to join a group of them going out, if he’d like to break his streak of not going out lately.

Richard agree, but doesn’t have a good time. It was Garry, who had gotten broken up with for sleeping with his wife’s bestie, Sylvia and her boyfriend, and several pleasant people and their friends, along with a new chick from Computer Services. They all saw a film first, then got a meal at a restaurant with exotic cuisine, and chatted at a pub after Sylvia liked, having a few drinks. The chick from Computer Services had been smiling at Richard a lot as the evening progressed, at the pub, helping him carry a round of drinks back to the table when he bought them for their group.

When Garry got up to use the Men’s room, the chick from C.S. sat in his chair. Richard had been attempting to follow the chatter over the loud music, but found he wasn’t interested from the pieces he could hear. He then had a flash of what his life would hold: he’d end up marrying the girl from C.S. and they’d have a typical life with 2 kids, he continuing to fall upwards into another promotion and live in a better neighborhood. By the time Garry returned, he noticed ‘Dick‘ wasn’t there, and the chick from C.S. shrugged her shoulders when asked if anyone had see him.

Garry walks outside, still calling for Richard, who answers, leaning against a wall, Garry offering to listen if he needs to talk, but would laugh at him either way, like a friend, so the 2 walk and Richard goes for confiding in Garry of truly not having been holidaying in Majorca. He starts with helping a bleeding girl on the sidewalk, and talks as they walk around, ending up at a cafe, and having breakfast, and finishing, finally Richard catching him up. Garry starts with whether Richard was playing a joke and being on Candid Camera (before Punk’d, both dated.), Richard states he hoped not, and asks if he believed him. Garry replies something had happened to him, and whether Richard believed it, the 2 ending with London Below may not be real and life isn’t actually exciting, and Garry stating, give him boredom and his job, right? Confirming with Richard, who agrees.

Garry realizes it’s 2 a.m., and they should hope some taxis were still running, he rambling about taxis as Richard started to tune him out as they walked. Richard sticks his hands into his pockets, and pulls out a feather, Garry asking what it was, Richard replying it only a feather, and Garry’s right, it’s rubbish, and drops it in the gutter, not looking back. When Garry asks if Richard considered seeing somebody, Richard answers he wasn’t crazy, but wasn’t sure, he stating Garry could take the first taxi, which stops near them, he thanking him and hailing the taxi, reminding Richard before it drove off this was reality and to get used to it, it all there is, and would see him Monday. Richard waves, then walks back to where he dropped the feather, and it not being there now, seeing an old woman asleep near a shop doorway, she being the woman he’d given his umbrella to, she still got it, tying it to her wrist with her other belongings, so no one stole them, Richard placing a $10 note in her hand, waking her and she asking what he wanted sleepy and suspiciously, he replying nothing and meaning it.

Then he goes a bit wonky when bringing out the knife Hunter gave him, the old woman scared at first, but then Richard lunging at the wall beside the doorway, and scratching a door shape into it, when the old woman asks. He next starts banging at the wall and asking if anyone was there, calling for Door, or anyone, hurting his hands, and he apologizing to the old woman, who was either pretending to be asleep or actually was as light snoring is heard, Richard sitting. Next, a door-shaped hold appears in the wall where he’d scratched the outline, the Marquis standing in it with arms folded, and covering a yawn with the back of his hand. He raises an eyebrow and irritably asks, well, is he coming, and Richard first staring, then nodding, not trusting himself to respond, next standing and the 2 walking together into the darkness leaving nothing behind, not event he door.

(This marks the end with exception of the bonus short story of how the Marquis gets his coat back.) Gaiman prefaces the story by stating it was started in 2002 and never finished. 2013 a radio Broadcast of Neverwhere is made and he loved it, so finished this short story which takes place shortly after he loses his coat and his life.

Description of the coat is first given, having 30 pockets, 7 noticeable, 19 hidden, and 4 nearly impossible to locate, even on occasion for the Marquis, and it being the reason he was currently chained to a pole with water slowly rising deep underground. He had once been given a magnifying glass Victoria, gilt design with tiny cherubs and gargoyles and the lens had the ability to render transparency to whatever was viewed through it. He doesn’t know where Victoria had gotten it, since he’d stolen it to make up the difference for a job he felt was underpaid, having obtained the Elephant’s diary, which had proven difficult, especially when attempting to escape from the Elephant and Castle once swiping it. After secreting in one of the hidden pockets, he’d since not been able to recover it.

The jacket itself was made of some type of leather, the color of wet street at midnight and had style, most importantly. When he was a boy and had 1st put the coat on, it changed his posture, since it created a vibe where he felt it was similar to a cat who walked onto legs and proud boots, naming himself the Marquis de Carabas, which he didn’t know how to pronounce, so would say it different ways. The level of water had reached his knees and he thought how if he still had his coat, this wouldn’t have occurred. The day of market after the worst week of his life, things didn’t seem to be getting better, despite no longer being dead, and his throat was healing quickly.

The rasp to his voice he didn’t mind, but missing his coat was a major downside. The Sewer Folk hadn’t been helpful, the leader stating it wasn’t good business to getting back things once sold. The Marquis gave up when offering perfumes to know who they’d sold his coat to and being ignored other than a gesture of drawing a finger across his throat. He heads next for the food court, this market being held in the Tate Gallery.

Only 2 stall left and the Marquis had tried the sad looking man’s sausages before, so he heads for the Mushroom People’s stall, they selling raw the Mushroom on toast, so the Marquis orders one, but requests it be cooked, since he’d already had dealings with the Mushroom when the woman says to be brave and eat raw, join them. So she puts the slice she cut on a portable grill, as it cooks, one of the young men pours him a mushroom tea. The man leans over and asks if he’s the Marquis, once confirming, he mentions how he’d heard he was looking for his coat and had seen who bought it. The Marquis asks what he wanted for the info, he mentioning how a girl from Raven’s Court came by and talked with him, eating there once in awhile, but wouldn’t give him the time of day, which the Marquis asks what he’s meant to do, the men pulling out an envelope in a plastic bag, having written her a poem, he thinking if the Marquis handed it to her with some flourishing words and made sure she read it, and not leaving until he had an answer to bring back, this would be the deal.

The Marquis gauges the young man may have mushrooms sprouting on his neck and cheeks, but he wasn’t unattractive, and if he cleaned up, could be suitable. The Marquis accepts the task, he now having to locate Drusilla with a big, red star birthmark on the back of her hand. He then tells the Marquis the man he was looking for carried a stick with a crook on the end, looking like a frog, short, a bit fat and dark gray hair, like gravel. After the Marquis takes the letter and walks off thinking about the man with a crook.

As a substitute for his coat, the Marquis was using a blanket, wearing it like a poncho. The Marquis enjoyed being who he was, taking calculated risks after triple checking his calculations, then checking a fourth time. He didn’t trust anyone but himself, he currently calculating who carried crooks, bishops and shepherds, and bishops had no use for coats, wearing robes, and no one was scared of them. The inhabitants of Shepherd’s Bush though, were different, not wanting to encounter them even in his coat, at the best of times, peak of health, a with a small army at his whim, he figuring if he should still go to Bishopsgate to spend a pleasant handful of days confirming his coat wasn’t there.

He dramatically sighs and goes to the Guides Pen to see if a bonded guide was willing to be persuaded to take him to Shepherd’s Bush. He settles on a guide called Knibbs, who he thinks at first is a teen, but then thinks 20s after traveling with her for half a day. She asks which he wanted to go to first, he uncertain, thinking he’d know if he had his coat, so Knibbs states they’ll get the task of Raven’s Court out of the way first, since they didn’t know what condition the Marquis would be in after Shepherd’s Bush. As they walk she notes recognizing who he is and how he used to wear a posh coat asking what’d happened to it, this prompting the Marquis to change their task to heading for Shepherd’s Bush first, they guid adjusting their course to accommodate.

As they reach the Lake of the Dead they must cross by ferry, they wait on shore looking out for the ferryman when Knibbs reveals where she’s from being a place he wasn’t welcome, the Elephant and the Castle, something hitting him on the back of the head, like a hammer, and he fell knocked out. When he came to, he couldn’t move his arms and soon realized they’d been tried behind him as he laid on his side, opening his eyes only as wide as slits to allow the people who bound him to still think he was passed out, but it doesn’t work, he being called out for being a weasel and they could hear his heartbeat and knew he was conscious. The Marquis recognized the voice, but hoped he was wrong, but he wasn’t. He saw human legs with an elephant head, the trunk pushing him onto his back.

The Marquis had been hired to gain the Elephant’s diary by Victoria when the Marquis was young, he thinking the Elephant was stupid and wouldn’t know his role in the diary missing, turns out the Marquis he’d been stupid. Esp now he knew the Elephant had waited until his life had come out of the box before putting out the command to retrieve him, since now, he planned on drowning him. When the Elephant turned on the water, he stepped out of the circular room to wait. The Marquis was now trying different ways of getting through the ropes tied to his wrists, not worrying about the chain his ankle was attached to by a metal pole in the middle of the room.

As he sits against the pole thinking this was it, he hears a voice near his ear whisper, quiet, his hands released, and when he faced who had helped him, seeing his smile, he indicates his ankle, the man next releasing his ankle chain with a wire. His elder brother says he’d started following him when he’d gone with the Elephant’s plant. His brother next opens the drain as their escape, the Marquis getting dropped in 1st. The Marquis was going down what was similarly described as a waterslide, except with the hope he’d survive going through.

He does though, falling onto a grate which seemed to weakly hold him. When his brother landed behind him on his feet, the Marquis asks if he’d been going ‘whee!’ and if he still went by the name of Peregrine, conceding to both. Before leaving the Marquis to his own devices, he suggests to him after he heard about his coat in Shepherd’s Bush to gorget it and get a new one. The Marquis thanks him, feeling backed into it, since his brother had genuinely meant when he said no need to thank him, and left.

Without a plan, which pained the Marquis to admit to himself, since he was usually a man with many back up plans along with a main plan, he only had the desire and want of his coat back. As he started walking, he wasn’t happy about being rescued by his brother, always having wanted to be unique, like his brother. A former shepherd he’d aided had told him how shepherds didn’t make people do things, they let people follow their impulses and desires, pushing them and reinforcing it to naturally act the way they desired. The Marquis forgot he was scared to be alone, so was happy when seeing people walking the same direction, 2 calling out about being glad he was there, the Marquis replying being glad he was there as well, safety in numbers.

A woman next to him with a sigh says it’s good to be together, he repeating her words, and a man on his other side agreeing, he seeming to look familiar, but couldn’t recall with huge ears and a nose like a gray-green snake. The man states they never want to fall out of step, do they, the Marquis speeding up as reply, back in step. The man commends this by stating this is good, being out of step is out of mind, once the Marquis repeats this, he wonders how he could miss knowing something so obvious, but somewhere distant within, wondering what it really meant. They got to where they were going and it was nice to be among friends.

Time passed strangely there though, soon the Marquis and the man with the gray-green face and long nose were given jobs, disposing members of the flock who couldn’t move or serve, once anything which could be of use had been removed or reused. They removed the last of what was left from hair to tallow fat, then dragging them to the pit and dropping what was left in. The shifts were long and tiring, the work messy, but they did it together and stayed in step. They had worked several days proudly when the Marquis noticed someone seeming to try and get his attention irritatingly.

A stranger whispers how they’d followed him, which the Marquis hadn’t wanted, but when needs must, the Marquis not knowing what they were talking about. They state they had an escape plan as soon as they could wake him, so please wake up. The Marquis was awake, and didn’t respond, since he had to work, pondering this as he dismembered the next former member of the flock, until deciding there was something to reply and explain to the stranger irritating him, saying it’s good to work. The man with the long flexible nose nods in agreement.

The 2 continue to work, his friend disposing of the remains into the deep pit. The Marquis attempted to ignore the stranger as they stood behind him, the Marquis quite put out when he felt something slapped over his mouth, and his hand bound behind his back. This made him feel out of step with the flock, but he couldn’t do anything. The voice whispers it’s his brother, Peregrine, and he’d been captured by the Shepherds.

They needed to get out, but then he says, uh-oh as high yip-yipping came closer and a triumphant howl, matching howls around them. A voice barked, where’s their flockmate, and the elephantine voice states low, he’d gone ‘over there with the other one‘. Then they were surrounded by the shapes of people, but not quite, being sharp-faced and dressed in furs, speaking excitedly among themselves. They untied the Marquis’ hands, but left the tape on his face, which he didn’t mind, for having nothing to say.

Then to his slight bewilderment, he, his kidnapper, and flockmate are led away from the pit and through a honeycomb of rooms filled with people working, up some stairs and one of their escorts scratching the door, a voice calling to come in, which the voice struck the Marquis of wanting to please his whole life of a week or 2, a thrill almost sexual. The escort states of a stray lamb, his predator, and a flockmate, which the man sitting at a desk asks why did they bother him with this nonsense. The answer comes from Peregrine, who states, it was due to the man giving orders of if he was ever caught again within Shepherd’s Bush, he was to be brought to him to be disposed of personally by him. The man stands and walks toward them into the light, a wooden crook propped against the wall, he picking it up as he passed it, looking at them for several long moments.

He confirms Peregrine’s identity and thought he’d never return, having become a monk or something and retired, as something large fills the Marquis mind. The Shepherd tears the tape from his mouth, the man stating he’d been looking forward to tearing out Peregrine’s tongue, and more, but how much more fun to have his brother be the instrument. As whatever filled the Marquis head became larger, the man’s plump features are given, he wearing a coat the color of a wet street at midnight a bit tight on him. The gigantic thing filling his mind was rage, while he was so close to the coat, he could touch it and it was without a doubt, his.

The Marquis made no indication he’d woken, he though quickly, one advantage being he knew he was awake and in control of himself and they didn’t. So he states with suaveness, if they could excuse him, he needed to be getting on, having a letter to deliver. The shepherd puts the tape over Peregrine’s mouth instead, when he stated he could handle this, when the Marquis states they only wanted Peregrine anyways. The man demands to know more about the letter which the Marquis denies being able to divulge unless threatened with death, so the shepherd obliges.

He threatens to kill all 3 of them, Elephant only for his looks, despite staying in step. The Marquis states where he had the letter, but advised not to open it for his safety. When the man tears his shirt to get the letter, the Marquis states where he had the letter, the Marquis states, he hoped he read it aloud, but even if not, he and his brother would hold their breaths. As he tore the letter open from the sandwich bag, dust filled the room, the shepherd reading the 1st line of the love note aloud.

He then asked what it was, the Marquis still holding his breath for over 40 seconds, steps backward, the guard-dog men dong nothing and Elephant remaining as his brother steps back with him. When they’d backed against the farthest wall, they took breaths. The Marquis asks his brother to unbind his wrists after Peregrine had gotten the tape off his mouth by opening it wide, asking what that was, the Marquis mentioning his task regarding the letter and the young man’s plan to get a young lady high on the Mushroom and fall for him, also stating, their way out of Shepherd’s Bush. Next they hear the Elephant state he was going to kill someone as soon as he figured out who, when the Marquis corrects his grammar, he replying, he was definitely killing him, which the Maquis states he wouldn’t if he wanted to return to the Castle safely.

The Marquis also states the 3 of them hadn’t breathed in the spores, Elephant most likely because his trunk was low to the ground or he had a thick skin. So if the Elephant worked with them, they could get out all together. They walked out, the Marquis wearing his coat, and followed by the sheepdog-guards, who once had been human. They led the shepherd and sheepdogs to the banks of the Kilburn where they waded in to return to the Mushroom.

As they watch them wade, the Elephant asks who the Marquis had stolen his diary for, he admitting Victoria, then locating the mirror as the Elephant withdraws something as well, the Marquis giving the mirror as part of his debt, but the Elephant pocketing both items and saying they were square. His brother had slipped away unnoticed, which annoyed the Marquis, but he bows to the Elephant and leaves as well, the Elephant not welcoming him back to the Castle, but the Marquis life his own again. The next market was in Derry at Tom’s Roof Garden, which neither have been there since 1973, and the Marquis strode to the food court, like he owned the place, reaching the Mushroom people’s stall. He has his order taken by the former shepherd, who now had spores growing on his neck, and told what had become of the young man who had sent the letter.

He states she’d found out and hadn’t taken kindly to the letter, waiting for the young man on the way to market, and the former shepherd had been expecting him to work today, but now thinks he won’t show. For the 2nd time, the man looks at the Marquis coat stating what a find coat it was and must’ve had one like it in a previous life, the Marquis replying he hadn’t a doubt, but this one his. He walks off and Drusilla is walking in petting the head of a large owl glaring uncomfortably with pale blue eyes, she a Pre-Raphaelite beauty. He nods to her and she glances awkwardly before looking away, she owing the Marquis a favor. She hurried after him, but he reaches the foot of the stairs ahead of her and vanishes into the shadows.

The story, of course is what is expected of Gaiman in quality, after hearing about some of the disturbing allegations more specifically, some of the moments in this novel regarding women, specifically antagonists or those who treat the hero with disrespect, definitely take on a different quality, similar to how Sherman Alexie’s short stories started to reflect his grooming mindset. Also in the final short story, the Shepherd’s powers remind me of what allegations Gaiman has been accused of, but the main difference being, he was manipulating women into performing acts he desired. Another odd moment between this novel and American Gods, since I’ve started it directly after, is the repetition of his heroes having something put over their mouths, and their hands bound behind them. The Marquis reaction in the short story seeming to be how he wants women to act toward him, with this ‘Master‘ and ‘slave‘ fantasy he relives. His response leaves something, like actual detail, to be desired.

I believe I’ll learn more this could potentially be connected to with, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the article I linked, mentioning how his 2nd ex-wife had attempted to have him share what had happened in his childhood, which he’d been a part of Scientology with his parents, may show what he’s willing to divulge in regards to his distant past, which by no means excuses his current behavior and reactions to any trauma driving sadistic (not quite BDSM, since there weren’t safe words or consent) manipulative coupling.

Despite this, my feel of certain characters in this novel remains the same with how annoying they can be, like our hero Richard or his ex-fiancee over the top shallow and after breaking up with him, dropping her bag and tampons falling out, like this is somehow a worth ah-ha to a shallow museum shill. Meh. The story though, is what drives this, which is also why it was so easy to reread and find interest in the bonus content of the author’s preferred text, if not a little repetitive, which I’ve listen. To the next!