by N E Riggs
Seth leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. “There’s only a few of us. We’re all travelers, come to Bantong in the last few years. Our Lost Priests betrayed us, didn’t help us get home. We all ended up here in Jigok.” He looked around his apartment. “It isn’t as pretty here as Pardis or even Tandi, but we can speak our minds, we can say that priests are liars. There are a lot of unhappy people here in Jigok. Some of us stage protests. Some going looking for other travelers to help. Some of us just stay in our houses and long for our real homes. And some of us chose to be a bit more active.”
“What exactly are you planning?”
“We want to make the Lost Priests pay. We know they weren’t the ones to bring us here, but they’re the ones keeping us here.” Seth scowled. “Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do. Any action against priests is firmly suppressed by the Sword Priests, though if you’re lucky it’ll just be the watch. Once you get caught, the Law Priests dole out terrible punishments. They exiled Met.” His face turned dark.
David spoke carefully. “Maybe all Met did was steal and then sell gateway information, but people ended up dead because of him. Including innocent people.”
“We don’t kill civilians,” Seth said quickly. “It was Eternists who killed those rioters. And it was rioters who killed the Sword Priest. Anyway, we needed money. Most of us don’t have good jobs. There are groups that are far more extreme than us. They offered us a million dollars for gateway information. Met decided it was worth the risk, and we went along with him.”
“No need to justify yourself,” David said. “As far as I’m concerned, Met Prous was a hero.” The priesthood was sour, and Bantong itself full of corruption. Anyone who stood against that couldn’t be bad in David’s eyes. He thought of Met’s unjust fate – exile to Jahan, just for selling information on gateways. The Law Priests had sentenced him to that, as they had Kemi and Keri. He remembered Diket speaking about mercy, and he sneered. Law Priests clearly knew nothing of mercy. “If you need information about priests to help you out, then I can help with that. Until two days ago, I was a Sword Priest.”
Seth looked surprised at that then he narrowed his eyes. “Was? What happened?”
David looked away and swallowed. “I’m a traveler too. I don’t know much about Bantong yet. According to the priests, not knowing things is a major crime. So maybe I did make mistakes, but I didn’t know any better. I was stripped of my priesthood and banished from Pardis.” He shook his head. “I nearly got home to Earth a few days ago, but my Lost Priest dragged me back. If she’d have let me stay, Alosh – my best friend – would still be alive.” Tears threatened the corners of his eyes, and he quickly dashed them away.
“You hold no loyalty to the Sword Priests?” Seth asked after a minute.
David thought about Anur, who barely spoke to him since Niam left. He thought of Bellon, who blamed him for Alosh’s death. He thought of Scatha, who only was interested in him while she thought he might be some legendary hero. He thought also of Rolan, who had come to his trial and had spoken in his defense and had offered to help him in the future. Some of his anger melted away. “Even if I wanted to be a Sword Priest again, I’d find no welcome in Valal. They hate me.” He shook his head. “But for a few months at least, they were my friends and comrades. I won’t attack them. I won’t do anything to hurt them.”
Snorting, Seth said, “You think we’re stupid enough to attack Sword Priests? We don’t want to get killed, you know.” He ran a finger up and down the agitator, not quite touching any of the controls. “Even with these, we’d have no chance of winning. You won’t need to worry about that.” He sighed. “I’ll have to speak to the others, see what they think. You can stay here until I get back. Help yourself to something to eat, maybe take a nap. I’ll be back in a few hours.” He stood and picked up a com pad, slipping the agitator into his belt beneath his jacket.
David nodded and watched Seth leave. For a moment, he wanted to call the boy back, offer to escort him. Jigok wasn’t safe for a kid alone. But Seth knew Jigok better than he did, and he had an agitator now. He should be fine.
Once alone, memories from Tandi and Alosh’s death filled his mind again. “God,” David groaned, rubbing at his eyes. He wondered if he’d ever be able to forget about Malmis’s attack. He walked into Seth’s kitchen and had the cooker make him sweet, chilled pudding, which was the closest he could get to ice cream. Feeling closer to normal after eating it, he threw himself down on the sofa, staring at Seth’s bookshelf. Thinking about Malmis had reminded him. Just before the Nephil disappeared, he’d promised to hunt David down and kill him. David wasn’t in Pardis anymore and wasn’t surrounded by Sword Priests. Malmis could attack him whenever he wished, and David wouldn’t be able to defeat him a second time. He no longer had Bramira.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, getting killed by Malmis. What did he have to show for his life? Hundreds of lost opportunities and broken dreams. Would anyone even mourn him if he died? He had no friends on Bantong. He thought of John, and his chest ached. He’d promised John that he’d be back soon. He couldn’t break that promise.
He shuddered and lay down on the couch. It was lumpy but comfortable. David closed his eyes and tried not to think about the mess he was in. Eventually exhaustion caught up with him, and he fell asleep.
2
A Record of Visions
A door slamming woke David up. He stumbled to his feet, groping for Bramira, trying to remember where he was. The events of the last few days came pouring in, and he sat heavily on Seth’s couch. He looked around and saw Seth standing nearby, arms crossed over his chest and looking down at David with a peculiar expression. “What?” David said, running a hand through dirty and oily hair. He couldn’t remember when he’d last had a shower.
“You didn’t try to leave.” Seth shook his head.
“Why would I leave? I have nowhere else to go.”
Seth nodded. “Yeah, seems that way. Well, I trust you, but my associates are somewhat more reluctant. They think you might be a spy, sent here to track down anyone who doesn’t love Eternism.” David blinked at that, and Seth chuckled. “They don’t trust Sword Priests, even ex-Sword Priests. I told them you’d have to be pretty stupid to be spy and admit to being a former Sword Priest. We have to be cautious, though.” He sat down in the chair across from David. “The Law Priests would love to get a hold of the rest of us, and send us to Jahan like they did Met.”
David folded his hands and stared at Seth. “What can I do to prove myself? I assume you and your friends already came up with something.”
“We did.” Seth smiled, but there was nothing kind about the expression. What a life the kid must have had, to look like that so easily. “The gift of agitators was appreciated, but what we really need right now is money. We have jobs, but work in Jigok pays poorly. Information about gateways fetches a very high price though.”
“You want me to sneak into Shamla and steal information about gateways, just like Met Prous did,” David said. Seth nodded. He closed his eyes and took a long breath. “I’ve never been to Shamla, you know, at least not inside. I wouldn’t know where to go, where to look.”
Seth leaned back. “And yet you aren’t entirely without resources. How did you find me? I live in Jigok – your Lost Priest would have never told you about me. Even my Lost Priest tries to pretend I never existed.”
“Brigid mentioned you briefly then tried to make me forget about it,” David said. “After I lost my priesthood, I sneaked into her office and looked you up on her com pad.” Seth grinned, and David shook his head. “That doesn’t mean I’m good at sneaking around. There are no guards in Kumarkan, and the door was unlocked. I walked right in. I won’t be able to do that in Shamla, I’m sure.”
“Then you need to find a way. I’m happy to let you stay a few days in my apartment, and I’m happy to help you find a job and a home in Jigok if that’s all you want, but you must prove yourself before you can join the Core.�
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David stared down at the carpet. He could have a simple life. He could find a job and a home in Jigok. If he stayed here long enough, he might even find friends and a job he loved. Brigid was surely furious at him. Without her, he would never get back to Earth. An ordinary life in Jigok wasn’t what he’d dreamed of, but he was used to falling short of achieving his dreams. He could live here, maybe even happily.
Until a few days ago, happiness would have been enough to content him. He no longer wished for happiness. He wanted revenge for every injustice heaped upon him since coming to Bantong. “It might take me a few days,” he said.
Seth smiled. “Take your time. I have blueprints of Delpi Tower in Shamla if that will help.” He stood and walked into the bedroom. He came out a few minutes later with a stack of papers. David wondered why he didn’t just use a com pad – they weren’t cheap, but everyone else had one. Maybe he was afraid of being hacked by the Eternists. David and Seth pushed the sofa and chair back and spread the papers out on the floor. “The Passion Priests make a record of every gateway they see,” Seth said. “There are rooms and rooms of files on these levels.” He pointed to floors 13 to 21. “Most of those are old records, though. The newest visions go to sorting, so they can be sent to Lost Priests and Sword Priests.”
The sorting room was clearly labeled and took up the entirety of floor 29. “Are there paper records or just on the com pads?” David asked. “I’m still figuring out Bantonan systems.”
“They have both in duplicate. The paper records should be in the sorting office – that’s where Met found them.”
David rubbed his chin, considering. Rough stubble covered his jaw, and he wondered how long it had been since he’d last shaved. A nap and some food had helped tremendously, but he still wasn’t feeling fully himself. “The hard part will be getting in and out,” he said. “There are a few doors on the street level, but they’ll either be locked or watched, I’m sure. The gateways from the rest of Pardis too.” The gateway room in Valal and Kumarkan always had a few people standing watch, though David had paid them little mind. Of course, he hadn’t been sneaking around either.
“Met sneaked in as part of a tour group,” Seth said. “They went through the sorting office, and he grabbed a stack of papers. He told me all about it.”
“Yeah, and he got caught and exiled.” David made a face. “Clearly, someone saw him, or they had video cameras. And now that Met stole records, I bet the room will be watched even more closely. No, I need another way in.” He stared at the blueprint of the ground level, hunting for side doors. There were a few – probably for janitors or some such – but those doors might also be watched or locked. “Janitor,” he said, sitting up and snapping his fingers. “That’s perfect. I’ll become a janitor and walk right in.”
Seth gave him an are-you-that-stupid look, of a degree than only a teenager could. “What, you want to apply for a job? Weren’t you banished from Pardis? Even if you use a fake identity, they do background checks.”
“I never said anything about applying for a job. I’ll just take over for one of the janitors on the night shift.” He smirked as a plan coalesced in his mind. “First I’ll need to find a janitor who looks like me, which means I’ll need to return to Pardis. Can you help me with a disguise?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Seth smiled too, probably guessing some of what David had in mind. While he went searching through his drawers and closets, David took a long, hot shower. After he was clean and shaved, he felt a bit more like himself. Something still felt off, though. He stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, trying to spot the different. He still had dark circles under his eyes, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t seem to smile. His belt felt light and empty without Bramira hanging from it. David ran a hand over his face, groaning softly.
When he came out of the bathroom, Seth had a large, blue jacket and a baseball cap for him, along with blue contact lenses and red hair dye. David took the hair dye back into the bathroom. He looked strange with red hair and stranger still with blue eyes, but he supposed that was the point. Even John wouldn’t recognize him like this, he thought as he tilted his head from side to side.
Seth had the cooker make some sort of casserole around three in the afternoon and gave David his com number – even after David told him he didn’t have his com pad anymore. As they ate, they talked about Earth. David told him everything that had happened since Seth had last been home. They talked about sports and movies and television shows – Seth liked Buffy too. Seth didn’t ask about his family; David wondered if he knew David wouldn’t be able to answer or whether he’d already given up on them.
Around six, David left Seth’s apartment. This time, he took the gateway to Shamla – Seth gave excellent directions. His banishment from Pardis didn’t go into effect till tomorrow morning; better to see now if his disguise worked. He pulled the cap low over his eyes anyway. He didn’t see many other people on his way to Shamla, though a small group of protesters stood outside Delpi Center for the Future, the main administration building. The protesters looked tired, sitting around and waving their posters dispiritedly. There were usually protesters around Valal too, though David hadn’t paid them much attention before. Most protesters demonstrated in Jod or Castle Eternal or Jigok. He just hoped there weren’t any riots over the next few days; he needed things quiet and normal.
David walked around Shamla with an old com pad Seth had lent him, pretending to take pictures. Delpi Tower looked much like the Hagen in Kumarkan: white sides with many windows, few frills, very wide and tall, but with cups drawn on corners and over windows. Unlike the other administration buildings, Delpi Tower stood alone – there were few Passion Priests, so they only needed one building. A few Sword Priests stood outside the main doors to Delpi Tower, and they glanced at him briefly, looking bored. He made his way slowly around the building, paying close attention to every door – the windows didn’t start till the third story. As he’d thought, he wouldn’t be able to just sneak in. Some doors stood unguarded, but he’d bet anything they were locked.
After he made it to the back of the building, he found the employee’s entrance, which was clearly marked as such. Not wanting to be obvious, David continued around the building, pretending to take more pictures. Other tourists wandered around too, though only a few since it was now dark out. David finally completed his circuit of the building and continued towards the back again. This time he studied the buildings surrounding it. A large apartment building rose just to the east; most of the Passion Priests with families probably lived there. He saw other apartment buildings, businesses, shops, restaurants, and an opera house. He ignored most of that till he reached the back of Delpi Tower again. Finding a small twenty-four hour coffee shop not too far from the employee’s entrance, David bought dinner and sat down next to the window.
He flipped the com pad to full size and pretended to read a book, flipping along the screen every few minutes. In reality, he watched the employees going in and out. He saw a number of Passion Priests pass by, their long robes fluttering about them as they walked. There were other people too, but David couldn’t tell what jobs they might hold. He still thought a janitor would be his best bet, but he might have to grab someone else. A large dumpster stood not far from the door – someone had to check on it eventually. He studied the building too, looking for cameras and other surveillance equipment. He spotted one camera, pointed at the door.
Finally, hours later when David was close to falling asleep despite his third cup of coffee, he saw a man step out and walk over to the dumpster with a large bag. He wore a plain brown jacket, stamped on the back with the Passion emblem: a cup. David stood and flipped his com pad into its compact size, trying not to look like he was in a hurry. He stepped outside and plastered a giant smile on his face. The expression felt strained, but hopefully the man wouldn’t be able to tell.
“Hello!” he called, waving his com pad. “Do you work here?”
The man looked up. Now that he was closer, David could see he was about the same age as himself, with dark brown skin and hair. He was about the same height as David too, if skinnier. David would have looked more similar to him if he hadn’t dyed his hair, but the man would do. “Can I help you?” the man asked, dusting off his hands.
“You’re a Passion Priest! Can I take your picture?” He waved his com pad again.
The man laughed. “Just because I work here doesn’t mean I’m a Passion Priest. I’m the night janitor for the cafeteria.”
Perfect, David thought. “That’s still exciting,” he said, playing his guise as a tourist as best he could. “I’d love your picture. Please?”
“Alright, how about I pose over here?” the janitor asked, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with the administration building behind him. More importantly, he stood far enough away that he shouldn’t show up on the camera above the door.
“That’s great, thanks,” David said. The janitor posed jauntily as David snapped a picture. He stuffed the com pad in his back pocket and pulled out his agitator, holding it behind his back. He felt the controls, making sure it was turned to stun. “Thanks again.” He walked over, holding out his other hand. The janitor stared at him, bemused by the gesture, but he didn’t move away. David shook his hand and let the fake smile slip from his face. “Sorry about this,” he said softly, whipped out his agitator, and shot the man.
The janitor’s eyes crossed, and he slumped over. David caught him before he hit the ground and slung the man’s arm over his shoulder. There was no one else on the sidewalk, and David couldn’t see anyone watching from the shops nearby. He slipped the agitator away beneath his loose jacket and carried the janitor down the sidewalk. A woman wandered out of a bar but didn’t give them a second glance. He found an alleyway he’d spotted earlier and turned down it, lowering the janitor to the ground.