Author: Sean Nittner

What are rogue spirit essences, anyway?

Inspired by the painfully delightful piece by Andrew Shields  https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/the-trouble-with-rogues/

Kember, you know that old fuck who runs the Devil’s Tooth, he told me what they were. Threatened to let one of the crazy ones ride me if I ever told another soul, but fuck it, that man’s only got three teeth and a bad hip. He couldn’t catch me if he tried.

Kember says whispers and adepts make them from boiled down ghosts. The do some ritual to break the spirit down, tear it apart or some shit, and pull out the pieces they want. The pieces that know how to lie, how to count cards, how to kill.

So you sniff or snort or drink one on of these things, and for a time, you can do what they could do. Larose, that shit-breathing arse in Blue can’t get it up, so he comes to Kember for a ghost that can fuck. You heard about that Keel woman who won six matches back to back in Grist’s ring by the docks? I heard she doped up before each match with a spirit of blood and mayham. She dislocated her shoulder in the third match and didn’t even notice.

Side effects? Well fuck it, what doesn’t leave you strung out and wishing you were dead in the morning? Yeah, sometimes the ghost goes wrong I guess. You get more than you bargained for and next thing you know you’re possessed. You spend some time being poked and prodded by the spirit wardens, then a little more time in Ironhook, but shit, you could get that for anything, and from what I heard, there is nothing like being ridden for a night.

– Lott, street urchin and propagandist, on Kember’s payroll.