The Key of F: a young adult fantasy romance (Freedom Fight Trilogy Book 1)

by Jennifer Haskin

  “Fale, do something.” Izzy pushed against her.

  Fale slid from the bench seat and jumped in between the men with her arms raised. She turned to Keron, watching his chest rise and fall as he glared above her head at his opponent.

  “Leave it,” she pleaded, attempting to push back Keron’s arm with his fist held high. “He’s not worth it.” Bar patrons gathered to view the spectacle, and the bouncer was shoving his way toward them holding a baton.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  Keron narrowed his eyes in a silent threat to the Rowdy but lowered his arm. The other Rowdies stood back with their leader expectantly, and Fale caught a glimpse of pointed metal slip back into more than one of their pockets. Fale exhaled in relief at the confirmation that she had just saved Keron’s life.

  Izzy took care of the bill, while their friends at the table ushered Keron outside, and Fale slipped his knife and mallet back into his toolbox. Fale made her farewells and accepted Izzy’s leftover sandwich.

  She ate as she walked toward Barton Hall by herself. As she passed the Mall, an oversized set of stairs where the University populace congregated, she walked through a glass- encased bridge and looked down at the people. Thoughts assailed her about how all day she had been tingling, like her feet had gone to sleep, but with notions, feelings? No, visions. Suddenly she had known what to do before doing it. Worry crept along her mind like parasites looking for synapses, because everything had now changed.

  These visions had been happening off and on for the last few months since she turned eighteen. Today was the first day she had acted before the vision came to pass, by taking Keron’s tools, and changing its outcome. Her vision had been of Keron grabbing his weapons, passing up the leader by himself and jumping into the group of Rowdies, then being savagely beaten and stabbed. With his weapons, Keron was a reckless and formidable foe. With his weapons, he felt invincible. He would have gladly taken on the whole gang of Rowdies by himself and been killed. But it didn’t happen; she had cheated death.

  Was there a consequence for stealing a life? She was glad she saved him. If she knew what her visions meant, could she change the future? She would have to find Nelson, her guardian, and ask him what he thought after getting her new apartment. Maybe her friend, Lisle, had some ideas, too. She would talk to them both when she had her new place. She previously had a vision of her new lease of apartment A505 today. She was confident the move would go as smoothly as it had in the vision.

  ~*~

  Fale worried her dusty pink peasant shirt with teal stitching, over teal denim wouldn’t be appropriate as she opened the door to Applegate Apartments. She wiped her brown suede boots on the mat and tried to calm her coffee colored hair to look presentable. The proprietress looked Fale up and down carefully, her lips pursed as she asked, “May I help you?”

  “I’m here to rent an apartment.” Fale regained her confidence and walked up to the desk. The woman wore a smart suit in hot pink wool with black trim. So much pink made Fale sick to her stomach; it reminded her of a chalky medicine from the apothecary.

  “One bedroom or two?” The woman clicked her hot pink lacquered nails on the walnut varnished desk next to the huge white book she scribbled in.

  “One, please.”

  “Have a seat.” She flipped steel gray hair over her shoulder, then typed for what seemed like five minutes into a computation device. Computers weren’t common where Fale lived. They were made in the Techno Sector; this had to be an upscale apartment complex for the Industrial District. As children, all citizens were taught the country of Algea had erupted into civil war hundreds of years ago, and divided into sections centered on the production of certain needs. Then, those products were shipped to wherever they were required. Engineering Design made plans for the Industrial District, who made vehicles used to ship Harvest Region’s food to each city on the continent. If you were lucky enough to live close to Harvest, you ate fresh food; otherwise, it came dehydrated or frozen. The country worked like a well-oiled machine. Each city had its own medical and law enforcement group, but the Medical University Campuses were a city to themselves, training staff to go all over the country. If the system began to break down or cities had issues with one another, that’s when the country’s Takanori warriors were called to unite and keep the peace.

  The woman, Mrs. Paramor, her nameplate said, finished her work and looked up. “I’m giving you apartment Q023.”

  Fale stared at her. Dazed, she wondered if she’d heard her right. The visions had always come to pass exactly the way she’d seen them. What was happening? Were her visions betraying her? Could it be her fault for changing the last series of events? She forced herself to focus. “Are you sure? Isn’t A505 available?”

  Mrs. Paramor turned up her contoured nose. “I booked it over the phone right before you got here. As if it was your business. Besides, Q023 has easier access to the Plaza shops and the Mall. Are you a student?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you’ll be happy with the apartment I gave you. Hold your wristband to the scanner." She looked at the screen. “Okay, Miss Fale V. Argohdian, you may move in. Your wristband is coded to your door panel and will operate as long as your rent is deducted properly from your account.”

  “Thank you.” Fale readjusted her black wristband. It was identical to the ones worn by every citizen of her city and fit permanently to her delicate wrist. The adjustable bands of youth were long gone for Fale; the one she wore now would be the one used to identify her remains one day. Fale shivered at the thought. The public used the coded bands for making purchases, checking out books, and identification, but also tracked each resident’s comings and goings for the Control Agency, the enforcers of the city’s law.

  Fale left the office to find the large locker she had rented in the mall. The orange metal tomb held Fale’s every belonging, shoved into its relatively small space. She took the bags to Q023, dropped them on the entryway floor, then set off to find Nelson. Having visions always rattled Fale, but she had an uneasy feeling about Keron’s near escape and not getting the apartment from her earlier vision. She would explore her new home and unpack later; it felt more important to find some stability at this moment, and Nelson’s support was just what she needed. It would be a shorter walk from her new apartment.

  Nelson, a college instructor, was an old friend of her father’s. Her mother had been gone since she was a baby and she had lived with her father in a small apartment. When Fale was eight, she came in from playing to find her father lying on the floor. She had seen the welting bruises on his face and the way his left leg was bent grossly to the side. He was covered in blood, and it pooled beneath him on the floor. Whoever had done this terrible thing to her gentle father had left him to die. Her heart thudded inside her, heavy, and she clutched her chest. Her throat seemed to ache and buckle, as bile forced its way into her mouth. Darkness covered her vision as she felt reality fading in her surprise and anguish. Luckily, fear had coated her tongue and kept her from screaming, or she may not have heard his whisper. She knelt by his side and listened to his last ramblings until his spirit flew to the stars.

  “No,” she moaned and laid her head on his chest. She squeezed his hand, but for the first time, he didn’t squeeze back. She had no one then. No one to feed her or help her with the washing. She was a little girl; she couldn’t do anything, who would pay her rent? Would they come back for her, too?

  Devastated, she had hidden on the streets of Algea’s Industrial district, fondly called Alloy City, for two weeks, mostly in crates packed with straw from the Harvest District. She had been in the back of the grocery, choosing the tiniest bunch of green grapes she could find, when the grocer’s wife came after her with a broom made of sticks. Fale had a plan to pay back all she had stolen, except to that vile woman. She was running from the store when the door scanner of the market caught her wrist band, not carefully hidden as usual, and reported her whereabouts to the Control Agency. The agents pick
ed her up in the alley next to the grocer where she was hiding in a packing crate. The sound of their boots clomping down the alley had echoed against the tin walls. She had kicked and fought like they taught at the Takanori Core Training Center, but they dragged her out by her hair. Stinging tears tracked clean paths down her face as she struggled, and Fale stared at the evil grocer’s wife who was waiting by the shop door, clutching her broom. Fale glared her hatred at the woman who must have shown Control the alley, and the grocer’s wife smiled imperceptibly.

  The city had no orphanage. If you had no parents, you became the ward of a manual labor house. First, you were an apprentice, then a merchant-in-training, and one day you would have a real job and live like the other adults. Everyone in Alloy City worked. A hearing had been underway to add Fale to the domestic force as an apprentice; a fancy way to say maid-in-training.

  Nelson Wickarsham barged through the mahogany court doors and boomed, “From now on, I will keep her.”

  The court quibbled over paperwork but was more than happy to sign Fale over to him. She remembered placing her tiny hand in his large one, and they went to live in his apartment over the Takanori Core Training Center, also called the TacTrac, near the molten river.

  From the industrial plant, the hub of the entire district, the molten river flowed with mixed metals too imperfect for forging. Fale didn’t know exactly what they made in the plant; there were so many things being produced all the time. She felt like “the plant life” didn’t affect her since she was just a student. She knew Techno Sector made things with wires, and the Engineering Design District made all the country’s instrumental designs, but the Industrial District made pretty much anything metal. People like Keron, with stainless valezsan alloy appendages, had gotten their lost limbs from the Industrial plant, too. Those people had lost parts due to health reasons or on the job. Metal people, called fantocci, were owned by the Control Agency as bondsmen to repay society for the cost of their surgeries and upkeep. Taxpayers kept the fantocci alive, and many were not happy about it. In fact, fantocci were seen as sub-human by the general population who distrusted their strength and abilities.

  She took a deep breath and entered Nelson’s office with a smile, but he wasn’t there. Shiny dark wood paneled Nelson’s office from the floor to her hip, and navy blue painted the walls from there to the ceiling. A picture window on the wall adjacent to the door looked out on the city. Built into both side walls were full sized bookcases overflowing with a myriad of colors and spines of all thicknesses. Fale gazed at his bookcase lovingly and selected her favorite tome. The spine was cracked in so many places it was marred with white lines like a striped animal.

  “What brings you here?” Nelson took long strides into the office and met her at the bookcase. He ushered her to a chair, then smoothed her hair and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. He smiled and took a seat in the leather chair behind his desk, which made him appear intimidating, as college professors prefer. “Do you need credits?" He began to type into a keypad on his enormous desk. It was a dark wood, like most furniture found in Alloy City, from the forests existing before the city was born.

  “No, no, nothing like that. Actually, I need some advice. Maybe I shouldn’t have come,” Fale stammered. She replaced the book and sat down on the navy pin-striped chair with her hands in her lap.

  His gaze was stern from across the expanse of wood. “You can tell me anything. You know this.”

  “I know. This is just… it’s unbelievable. Maybe I should go talk to Lisle.” She rose.

  “What do you need with a wizard kid?” he scoffed.

  “I need him because he practices wizardry, and he’s not a kid. He’s six months older than me.”

  Nelson raised one black eyebrow. It matched the thick mass of black hair curled the tiniest bit over his collar, with the exception of some gray at his temples.

  “You need a haircut,” she said.

  “Fale. Don’t change the subject. What would you need with a wizard?” His ocean blue eyes narrowed. “What are you mixed up with?”

  Fale sighed and paced in front of the desk like a caged tiger. Her palms were sweating, and she rubbed them down her legs. How can I explain this without sounding crazy? “It feels like I’ve been here before, in this situation. I don’t know. I’ve been having these visions-”

  “Visions? What kind of visions?”

  “Just… things happening. The weird part is…” She looked around the room before meeting his eyes. “Then the things really do happen.”

  “We need to talk, Fale. Shut the door,” he ordered.

  Fale closed the door and leaned against it.

  “No. Oh no,” He paused and looked at his hands. “I didn’t know if this would actually become an issue. I’ve been in denial all these years.”

  “What? Now you’re the one not making sense.” Fale squinted her eyes.

  Nelson suddenly looked pale against his dark suit and tie. “Sit,” he said, then more gently, “please.”

  She obeyed and clutched her hands in her lap, waiting anxiously for an explanation.

  “Fale- your father knew about this.”

  “What? How could he know? I was only eight when he- I don’t understand.” She shook her head in confusion.

  “He had knowledge of things. Your father once asked me to protect you if anything happened to him.”

  “Why would he do that? Why did he think you would need to?” She closed her wet eyes, thinking of her father, dying in her arms. Her heart clenched. Had he known he was in danger? Why had he never warned her? In an instant, she was a child again; not knowing who to trust, where to go. Her grief clawed out of her chest. She wanted to run and hide even though she knew she had to deal with the pain. Nelson would never see her as a warrior if she ceased to master this emotion, and she needed the support of her guardian and mentor. She let herself feel a pinprick of grief and smothered the rest in a sigh and a tentative smile.

  “He was involved with people I didn’t know, Fale. People who met in secret. He told me you were not just any girl, but you are an extraordinary secret.”

  Fale snorted a laugh. “Now you’re really talking crazy.” Of course, her father would think she was special to him, but to tell Nelson she was extraordinary? That was pushing it, in Fale’s mind. She was as “regular” as a girl could get. The secret part, she was starting to believe.

  “I’m being serious. I didn’t know if there would be a trigger or an age, but he said you would have a gift of sight.”

  The blood rushed to Fale’s stomach. This wasn’t funny anymore. “What did he say about it?”

  “Not much, he was very guarded. He said there was a purpose for you, and you would know it when the time was right to fight.” Nelson grimaced.

  Puzzle pieces snapped into place. Things she never thought related, now fit neatly together. Daddy taking her to Nelson’s training center, the TacTrac, to train with the female Takanori warriors. The ancient stamped key, threaded around his neck, protected with his life, now lying warm next to her heart. It was said to have great power. Something political? Why hadn’t she cared to listen? What eight-year-old can remember all the old legends anyway? But a time to fight? Her? Fale had followed the ‘The Way of the Warrior,’ for ten years, but she was simply a girl in University. She didn’t know what she wanted from life, and her future was something she had pushed to the back of her thoughts. She had buried herself in training, learning the history of Algean Takanori, and practicing being mindful of the present. She worked to move beyond her past and not worry about what was to come. Fale had always thought she had time to figure things out later. She was barely able to control her emotions; it was a daily struggle. She hadn’t mastered her craft yet. She wouldn’t even be considered a Takanori warrior for four more years.

  “Nelson, I can’t fight,” Fale lamented. “I don’t even know who I would be fighting against.”

  “I’ve been preparing you all these years, just in case, but nob
ody said you had to. I don’t see anyone threatening you.”

  “Yet.”

  “Yet.”

  They looked at each other somberly. Fale looked down at her shoulder bag laying on the floor. She fought to control the warring emotions inside her, aching to be unleashed as she imagined cutting each one down like bamboo mannequins during sword training.

  “Do you have any plans for tonight? Have you been hanging out with the girl I introduced to you at the TacTrac?” Nelson clasped his hands on his desk.

  “Oh, Izzy? Yes, we’ve become quite close recently. I knew her from the social club, but I hadn’t spent much time with her until she joined the TacTrac. And no, I don’t have any plans tonight.”

  “Do you want to come home with me?” Nelson managed a smile. “We can cook dinner and play a few games of Bezique. You love beating me at cards.”

  “Thanks, but I want to get my things settled. I prevented my vision from happening today at lunch, and the next one came out wrong. I wanted your opinion. Do you think there could be a connection? Do you think I started something?” A shiver of foreboding traced down her spine. Could changing one vision alter her future? What were the ramifications for cheating death? What had she done?

  “Every action does cause an equal and opposite reaction. You may have set an undesirable chain of events into motion. We can’t be sure. Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

  As Fale relayed the story of lunch time at the pub, Nelson gazed thoughtfully at her, as though he could see right through her to his office door. When she was finished, her brow was raised in anticipation. “Well, what do you think?”