Konrad calls out to them. His voice is hoarse from exhaustion and under-use.

'I'm lost! I was dumped in the river . . . some people tried to drown me . . . I,' Ingmann felt foolish trying to explain himself, and got right to the point, 'I'm a doctor. I need help getting back to the city'.

Seeing the boat, Ingmann was on his feet. His hunger was temporarily forgotten. An almost euphoric rush made his knees feel weak, and he had to stand his posture so as to not fall into the river. Ingmann began to wave his hands in the air and shout for rescue. There was little chance the boat would ...

With his back leant against the crumbling stone rocks and cobbles of the fence, Doktor Ingmann made as low a profile as he could. He watched the hovel with nervous interest. With a grumbling stomach, and the agonies of wet saliva taunting his appetite, Ingmann knew he could not travel more than anot...

Strange fears can beset even the most rational men, when their senses have been taxed and unnaturally distorted, and when their needs are at their utmost. For Doktor Ingmann, alone in the dank and dilapidated shack, with his stomach groaning from hunger, and his body feeling an acute craving, his ne...

A sharp crack peeled across the open plain and resounded like a roar of thunder. Ingmann blew the residue powder from his pistol. He had merely tested the flash charge with a miniscule amount of dry powder and was relieved to find his only weapon still worked. Sitting upon a dilapidated stone fence,...

Ingmann had barely settled into sleep before the light of the sun had set upon his back. His boots still trailed in the river, cooling him, yet the warmth of the sun was enough to rouse the doctor. Sleep had been brief - at least since Ingmann had ended his nightmare. For minutes, confusion reigned....

He fell. The sweet intoxication took him into its black embrace. Seething in through every pore, through his throat; lapping and softly tugging at the senses until all was swathed in the cloak of opium, the mistress of love and comfort, the terrible queen. The old man’s face cackled until it crumbl...

With a pub full of impoverished men with more lusts than their purses could obtain, and with the pressing need to always appear professional, Doktor Ingmann took pipe and tea cautiously. Naturally he would recline backwards, even lie on the floor beside the pipe. This time, he decided to remain seat...

Konrad shakes his head firmly, and maintains a stern expression. He takes four silver from his purse and places it on the floor before the old man. 'Not a silver more,' the doctor declares, knowing that even if the old man couldn't understand the words themselves, he'd surely get their meaning. This...

Extortionist. His crime is written in his face as much as in his deeds. Too bad I left my tools at the warehouse, his skull would make prime research material. Doktor Ingmann shook his head, trying to appear firm, without displaying any of his contempt for the old man. He reached in to his purse an...

'I shant be long. Have another drink or two on me'. Ingmann places enough money on the counter for Louis to drink twice as much as what he is now. Mentally calculating the time it will take for Louis to finish another two drinks, the anatomist strode into the back room, making sure he sat in a corne...

" Herr Doktor , I don't think you'll find what you're looking for, back there. All of those men seem to be well to do. Their heads would probably be just like yours or mine." Moments that might have been minutes passed in the time after Louis talked, and before Ingmann responded. The pung...

" Herr Doktor , do you also not speak the local tongue? I wonder what the barmaid wishes to know? Do you think they speak Gustaspeil?" 'I don't need to be able to talk to them. Their faces tell me more than their tongues could. I've heard that people in this town can speak with outsiders'...

The odour of a city is as much a part of the impression she leaves as her sights, and this one smells rotten. The wet reek of rotting ropes and weed encrusted wood wafted from the docks, intermingling with unwashed filth and heaped compost. Pipe weed, thick and acrid, clotted and clogged the air of...

'No need. We'll see what we may, where we can. I'm more interested in the lower orders at first, the foundation of a community; the walls may come later'. The doctor beckoned for Louis to follow him, and he set off at a brisk pace towards the gloom of the riverside. [ Ingmann will try his best to ma...

" Louis de la Forêt , at your service, monsieur ." 'Doktor Ingmann, indebeted to your service'. Konrad put the coin away, privately glad to retain the money. There was no telling whether or not he would be having to make a third exodus, and how soon. Wealth was not his object, but travel ...

In the dim light of the warehouse, Konrad Ingmann watched the party with impatience. He did not mind bedding down in quarters beneath his station – a life in exodus had necessitated the abandonment of traditional comforts from time to time. Certainly, he missed the trappings of university life, but ...

Tiresome , Ingmann thought. Why do educated men still cling to facile notions? Forsaken by Solarias indeed. How can we be forsaken by that which has no existence except in the minds of imbeciles? The anatomist consumed his meal with little relish for anything but its taste - the company bored him a...

As the men ushered themselves in, as much to assauge their hungers, as to escape the cold, Ingmann cast a keen eye over the tower's interior. The history of the Nissian empire had never interested him overly much. It was his habit to disparage histories or, at least, those with an esteem for the pas...

Doktor Ingmann felt a rush of excitement as the soldier talked about the Svalsings. Pale skin, short statures, bushy brows. I can almost see the knitted brows, the sloping foreheads, the stolid and heavy jaw-sets. To get my hands on some of their burial sites . . . "Tell me Doktor. What brings ...