An Architeuthis beak. “Diamond of the sea,” Hewey called it. Harder than metal, unscratchable and unbreakable, Mitt once rhapsodized. Severs prey’s spinal cords as easy as a knife through noodles. Squid beaks were the base ingredient of ambergris, the waxy lumps shat by sperm whales and used in luxury perfumes, every poor fisherman’s dream, selling for roughly twenty-five grand per pound. People used to carry ambergris to ward off the Black Death.
