The Spade Brand

[Part 1: Bonds]

"Open your hand. Let me see what's inside."

"Why are you so afraid, Jack?"

"I can smell your fear. It's stronger than ever."

Sullivan's eyes widened.

"Could it be that the thing in your palm is a token between you and that Chinese man? Are you still bound by some agreement? Did he give you a reward? Or is it... proof that you ate Dolly, like the grease you can't even wipe from your mouth?!"

"You don't love your horse at all!? You're nothing but lies! You could gut it for a Chinese man and feed it to your dying enemy?"

Jack's legs went weak, and his palm opened of its own accord. "I didn't lie to you, Mr. Sullivan! Please, let me explain! I never meant to eat Dolly!"

"Then... what is this?"

Sullivan crouched in front of Jack and carefully examined the object in his hand.

It should have been a button from Wen Bucai's clothes, an inconspicuous button from his pocket watch pocket, and proof of the friendship between Jack and Wen Bucai.

But now it had become something else. The button was gone.

Sullivan couldn't make sense of it.

In Jack's palm lay a large, yellow tooth, seemingly the canine of some kind of beast.

Sullivan was baffled. He still couldn't understand, still couldn't work it out—

[—What exactly was the thing in Jack's hand?]

[Why was he protecting that yellow beast's tooth as if it were the illicit lover of some low-down whore?]

[It didn't look at all like a horse's tooth. Horses were herbivores, and rarely grew canines for tearing meat.]

[It was a canine, wasn't it?]

[When the Great Dane lunged at Jack just now, Jack had snapped off one of the stupid dog's teeth.]

[That had to be it...]