Mare Testimonii
Mare Testimonii is a story written and illustrated by Iron Eater. It ran in Issue 86 at https://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/mare-testimonii/.
Summary
A trip to the sea can result in the most memorable of encounters.
The beach, it turned out, was a rather miserable place to be that time of year, especially alone, which Hugh was, and particularly if one possessed a temperament easily coaxed into melancholy, which Hugh most certainly did. He huddled beneath his parasol. The rain made his sunshade not quite as conspicuous, he reasoned, and it did block some of the spray from the waves, but those waves themselves were terrors. How on earth had anyone managed to settle here when it seemed like the waters longed to swallow up everything before them? More disappointing than the weather was how Hugh had not seen a single sea-star despite trudging up and down the sand for hours. He couldn’t help but feel personally offended.
Those boats out on the pier strained at their tethers; only the most ferocious of fishermen would risk fighting against such a squall, Hugh supposed, assuming they were not already at sea when the storm roared down. This had seen the Siren’s Head far busier than it had been the night before, which had brought many a curious look cast at Hugh ever since he’d stepped downstairs for breakfast. He could feel them study the embroidery of his coat and his fashionable hat. Rationally he had nothing to fear from the townsfolk, as his subtler senses had detected nothing but dedicated humanity in their midst, and Hugh, even unarmed, was a creature of sublime skill and ferocity. Irrationally, he’d felt very much like a peafowl strutting before a gaggle of hungry cats.
Judging eyes still found Hugh out on the sand. He’d thought at first that he’d simply been imagining things, or perhaps making the error of assuming one gentleman in simple-colored clothes was the same as another, but the longer he patrolled the shore the clearer it became that the same man kept meandering down the waterfront. The portly fellow wore an oilskin coat pulled over his thick gray sweater, his face so weathered beneath his broad-brimmed hat that Hugh couldn’t imagine him as any other profession than fisherman. He was also clearly watching Hugh in such a manner that implied he didn’t care if he was seen. Did he know what Hugh was? Was he displeased at having a man of the society about? To whom did he report? There were no answers for any of these queries, but at least Hugh had something of note to share with Mr. Ward when next they spoke.
Connections
This story is a sequel to Cruorem Veritas and In Ossa Venenum, though neither story is required to make sense of the text.
This story is roughly based on FromSoftware's Bloodborne for the PS4, though not on any particular characters. The city mentioned is not Yharnam, nor is this meant to be the DLC's fishing hamlet.
Related Links
It’s technically named after a Queen song. Part of Mr. Ward's discussion in the bookshop is also a direct quote of Avantasia's Let the Storm Descend Upon You, which is extremely on-brand for him in general.
Author's Notes
I actually sat down and plotted out an entire outline for this one, since a mystery story requires a certain amount of tightness with its story to work, and even with that framework I found I had to aggressively cut down details, drop entire scenes, and similar acts of chainsaw editing; my original draft was around 28,650 words, and unlike last issue where I was able to just move the starting point up to save myself a few K, this one required lots of agonizing decisions. Learning how to kill your darlings is rough! Maybe one year I’ll actually write a Rhoanish story under 25K and have a Ward and Wainwright tale in the December slot, but that would probably end up book-length. Then again, maybe that’s not so bad.
Getting a chance to show Mr. Ward interacting with people other than Hugh was a delight, since he is an unrepentant turbo-asshole if he chooses to be, and when the upper classes are involved he regularly makes this choice. In a modern setting it’s safe to assume he’d be a big Bong Joon-ho fan. Showing his parents–and establishing that he has a background as a child laborer, as “mudlarks” were a very real thing–was quite satisfying, as this also gave me a chance to show him having positive interactions with people other than Hugh, ranging from the affection given to Primrose and Ezekiel to the manipulative but genuine kindness shown to Mrs. Wimbly. He’s very much a behind-the-scenes guy and I figured it couldn’t hurt expanding a little on the knack for social skills hinted at in In Ossa Venenum from October 2019. For the record, “Ori” is short for “Orion” (his middle name), not a mangling of “Aubrey.”
In case it wasn’t obvious, Ezekiel is fully aware of Primrose’s professions (she practiced both before they started courting, much less were married), and it doesn’t bother him much since she clearly knows what she’s doing. This isn’t an exact historical setting (those studying Hugh’s outfit in particular will note its separate elements are playing Calvinball across a century or two) so she’s got significantly better, safer access to contraceptives than an actual working Victorian woman. Might be silphium-based, since for all we know people didn’t drive it to extinction in this setting? Either way, Mr. Ward is an only child by design, and his parents planned him well in advance.
This one’s a bit more about the injustices of class systems than queerness this time around, though I’d like to think there’s still a modest dose of the need for self-love and understanding of one’s nature and finding healthy ways to engage in such (and maybe a bit about appropriation w.r.t. Lord Cadfael? he’s a dick and also probably not even a little gay so it’s not a perfect metaphor).
I really wish I’d been able to do more with the “Mr. Cutty thinks Hugh is a vampire” angle but there are only so many words to go around in one of these. Maybe next time!
The large white symbol in the background of the illustration is based on a goetic seal of the Archangels, though with more emphasis placed on alchemical metals than the original (though the glyphs on the inner row are, indeed, also sourced from said seal). I've alluded to both our leads being ritualists previously and wanted to further reflect that! It's safe to assume that, while the local faith's trappings are aesthetically similar to Catholic/Anglican high church motifs, it is not Christianity. What it is is up for debate.
A hand of glory, being folklore, has a few different descriptions, though I've always been fond of the version detailed in XXX due to its production being narrated by Vincent Price in an audio collection I had as a child. Its construction I leave as an exercise to the reader, save that Mr. Ward did indeed get a hanged man's left hand from somewhere, did indeed make a candle out of human fat, and did indeed have to tame it by means unspecified. Hugh's lock of hair would not have worked if he was of a more sedate profession.
