by Amy DuBoff
“We need to get a repair crew in here,” Cris said, his voice echoing slightly in the eerie stillness.
“Think we can climb over the rubble?” Raena asked.
“I’m hesitant to disrupt anything—there’s no telling how precarious this structure is,” Cris replied.
Ryan consulted the map. “Looks like we don’t have another option. The beam and rubble are blocking the entire eastern side up to the wall, and a series of older, smaller building collapses are in this area to the east.” He pointed at the image on his handheld. “With the estate here, we may as well take a direct path through this park.”
The former greenspace he identified did make for the most direct route, and the smaller number of buildings in the vicinity would likely mean debris had scattered in that area when the column fell. Cris still wasn’t crazy about the idea of using telekinesis in such an unstable environment, but they were already committed to the course.
“Okay, we’ll try it out,” he agreed.
True to the map, they reached the outer edges of the ruins four blocks ahead. Chunks of concrete were interspersed with metal supports and shattered glass.
Cris gingerly picked a path around the larger pieces. As they pressed onward, he had to negotiate a course over piles of rubble, and soon nothing of the ground below was visible. He halted atop one of the piles to survey the area.
Directly ahead, the support column lay at a low angle across their path. With a diameter of seven meters, it was too tall and awkward to easily climb over. The best way ahead was to pass underneath the column near where it was propped up on the base of a toppled building. However, there was presently no person-sized gap through to the other side.
“Looks like some excavating is in order,” Cris commented.
“And avoid getting pancaked in the process.” Raena flashed a daring smile.
Cris gave her a stern look. “You two stay back. I’ll clear the way.”
“We’ve spent plenty of time practicing telekinesis,” his granddaughter objected.
Ryan sighed.
“She always likes to take the lead, doesn’t she?” Cris said to Ryan, concealing a smile.
“You have no idea,” Ryan replied, then hastily added, “I mean, with this sort of thing. Er…” He flushed.
Cris shook his head. “Never mind.” He held up his hand to reinforce his spoken message to stay back and approached the rubble around the fallen column.
The opening was in the crack between two buildings that now braced the column at an angle. Cris reached out telekinetically toward the rubble pile between the buildings and lifted up some of the smaller pieces. Dust filled the air around the site, but the column remained in its resting place.
Next, he began dragging away some of the larger chunks. The other rubble shifted and smaller pieces cascaded down the piles as the concrete chunks came free. He moved slowly, testing the stability of the piles before removing anything completely. Soon, a tunnel was cleared beneath the column.
Cris peered through from a distance. “That should do it.”
Ryan watched some fist-sized concrete pieces roll down one of the debris piles next to the new opening. “It’s not stable.”
“It just needs to hold for a few minutes.” Cris hopped off the flat piece of concrete atop the pile where he’d been standing and approached the pathway under the column. “I’ll make sure there aren’t any barriers on the other side before you come through.”
He raised a telekinetic shield around himself as a precautionary measure and moved forward, keeping the light from his handheld cast in front of him. His chest constricted as he stepped underneath the massive column. While its mass was well within his capabilities to manipulate, he didn’t trust his reaction time to catch it before it closed the three meter gap above his head.
The tension released as soon as he emerged on the other side. “I’m through!” he called back to Raena and Jason. “It’s much clearer on this side. I can see the wall around the estate.”
“We’re coming!” Raena replied.
Cris heard footsteps and sliding rubble as the two youths descended the debris pile. Their lights were just beginning the shine through the tunnel when the sound of grating metal pierced the darkness.
The massive column shuddered and crashed toward the ground.
Dust filled the air, and Cris had only his telekinetic senses to try to catch the column.
He was too slow. By the time he had control of the column’s mass, it was nearly parallel with the ground. He ran forward with horror, trying to get a better view. “Raena! Ryan!”
No response.
Stars, no! Cris reached out telepathically. There was a presence—strained, but alive.
He was about to call out again when the column suddenly lifted out of his telekinetic grasp, moving up and backward toward where they had come.
As the dust cleared, he saw Raena rising to her feet with Ryan next to her. She waved her hand and the column came to rest on the ground on the far side of her. Her breath was ragged, and Ryan put his arm around her for support.
“Are you okay?” Cris called out as he ran toward them.
“Yeah,” Raena managed between breaths. “Wow, that was close.”
“I didn’t even see it until you’d already pushed me to the ground,” Ryan said. “How’d you know?”
“Instinct, I guess.” She brushed some dust off her hair and shoulders.
“I should have been holding onto it while you passed under,” Cris stammered, his heart still racing.
“Don’t worry about it,” Raena dismissed.
“We’re fine,” Ryan said as he dusted himself off, as well.
Cris shook his head. “It was reckless to come here—”
Raena cracked a smile. “In all fairness, we probably would have snuck out and come here without you, so…”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you two,” Cris muttered wearily.
She stepped toward him and patted his shoulder, her breathing once again normal and eyes bright. “There, there. You’ll adjust eventually.”
Ryan offered a compassionate smile as he passed by Cris after Raena.
Still in the haze of shock, Cris followed them to the main street leading toward the estate. One block up, they passed by one of the few skyscrapers in their immediate surroundings, which reached all the way to the ceiling.
“That must be the Mandelay Street exit,” Raena pointed to the building’s lobby entry.
The doorway was clear and tracks through the dust indicated that others had traversed it in recent years. Once they had been through the manor, it should be a straight shot to the surface where they could summon the car to meet them.
“I have half a mind to get out now before there’s another collapse,” Cris said.
Ryan’s brow furrowed. “We can’t give up now.”
He’s right. The Priesthood will know we came here and might do another sweep. This is our only chance to see if they missed anything the first time around. “Okay,” he yielded. “But take it slow and easy.”
A five-meter-tall wall of veined, gray stone surrounded the Dainetris estate, topped with wrought ironwork. The main iron gate through the wall adjacent to the main road was ajar, and the three of them easily passed into the courtyard beyond. A driveway wide enough for two cars led straight through what looked to be former gardens with raised flowerbeds. After more than a century underground, only exposed soil and stone edging remained amid gaps where wood and vegetation had rotted away.
The driveway terminated in a loop around a dry fountain three meters tall with delicate terraces stacked to give the illusion of a blooming flower. Beyond the fountain, the manor, surfaced in the same veined stone as the surrounding wall, stood three stories and looked to be surprisingly intact despite the fate of its residents. Broad windows and doorways with accompanying terraces patterned the upper level of the manor, and the roof appeared to sport a deck along its length.
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�It doesn’t even look like there was a fight,” Ryan said. “Where did everyone go?”
“Maybe we’ll find answers inside,” suggested Cris.
They traversed the driveway and ascended a set of three broad steps leading to the entryway.
Cris tried the handles on the double doors and found them locked. There was a biometric scanner next to the door, which he’d normally be able to use his handheld to crack, but there was no power to the building. “I guess we’re breaking in.”
“Mind if I do the honors?” Ryan asked.
Cris stepped aside. “It’s only fitting.”
Ryan stood a pace back from the lock and outstretched his hand like a claw, telekinetically gripping the door handle. He pulled his arm back and the handle broke free, allowing the door to swing inward.
With a deep breath, Ryan stepped inside.
The light from his handheld illuminated a double staircase with steps curving around either side of the foyer before meeting on the second floor. An ornate chandelier made of dazzling crystal was suspended level with the second story from a domed ceiling painted in a sky mural above the third story.
Beneath the dust gathered on the floor, through footprints from visitors left by Elren or his comrades, Cris could see the emblem of a red flower inlaid in the white marble at the center of the oval entryway.
Raena brushed the dust aside with the toe of her shoe. “It’s the same symbol as on the map.”
“That confirms it was the Dainetris crest,” Ryan said. “Wow… this is so surreal.”
“This must have been gorgeous,” Raena commented. “I bet some of this can still be salvaged.”
“Maybe,” Ryan murmured.
Cris strode across the entryway toward a passage through an inner set of double doors. “I’d love to take in the artistry, but we should get out of here as soon as possible. You can come back after all the structures have been cleared by engineers.”
“Right.” Raena followed Cris into the passageway, which opened into a reception room consisting of several couches loosely arranged in an arc facing a broad viewscreen on the side wall. “From the outside, this place looks like it’s almost as big as the Sietinen manor. Where do we start looking?”
“And I imagine any obvious incriminating information regarding the Priesthood was taken during the purge,” Ryan said. “What may be useful?”
I wish I knew. Cris looked around. “Library, maybe?”
“Seems like a good place to start. There’s something here,” Raena insisted. “I know it seems ridiculous to trust some random vision, but the Aesir take it very seriously. I don’t understand where those insights come from, but I think we need to believe.”
“Wil certainly does. Endorsements from both of you are all I need,” Cris told her. “But to answer your question, Ryan, I don’t know what to look for.”
“Actually, something just occurred to me.” Ryan walked up to the wall and felt around the frame of a landscape painting. He wedged his fingertips behind the frame and awkwardly lowered the large canvas to the ground. “This is just a hunch, but it seems like the Priesthood overlooked art during the purge, right? Dainetris didn’t know those things would make it through the search, but if they did hide something somewhere that wasn’t destroyed or taken, it might be with a painting or sculpture.”
Ryan inspected the back side of the painting frame, then shook his head. “But there are probably hundreds of art installations around here. It’ll take days to go through everything.”
“If there’s even anything to find in one of them,” Cris said. “There may be a faster way.”
“Please do share,” Ryan encouraged.
“Well, any data archive of consequence will be digital, and this entire area is effectively dead, electrically speaking,” Cris said.
Raena’s face lit it. “So all we have to do is search for an electromagnetic signature.”
“Assuming the battery backups aren’t dead, it’d stand out,” Cris replied. “Except, there may still be interference from other devices on backup power.”
“There’s one way to find out.” Raena dropped to the floor and crossed her legs. “Give me a minute.”
“I can—” Cris began, but his granddaughter held up her finger to stop him.
Cris and Ryan stepped back a dozen paces from her and waited.
Raena’s eyes were closed, but her other senses were heightened. Cris detected her consciousness brush past him as she searched through the halls, spanning out in every direction to sweep the manor more quickly than a team of four dozen individuals could accomplish.
I didn’t realize she was already this advanced, Cris thought to himself as she worked. No wonder Wil was okay bringing her to the Aesir.
The ability to separate consciousness from physical self was a more common skill than the act of spatial dislocation known as “stopping time”, but it was still a rare feat. For her to be able to perform both acts without training and so soon after Awakening suggested a level of aptitude that defied expectations—especially when considering her handling of the fallen column. If Jason was anywhere near as gifted, Wil would have his hands full in the coming years.
After three minutes, Raena’s eyes opened and she smiled. “All right, I have four candidate locations.” She gracefully rose to her feet.
“Should I verify?” Cris offered.
“It’s not like the locations are miles apart,” she countered. “Let’s just check them out.”
Cris nodded. “Fine, we can investigate and if we don’t find anything I’ll try my hand at a search.”
“Sounds good,” Ryan agreed.
Raena led them down a hall to the left toward a wing containing offices and conference rooms. The hall terminated in an airy, two-story room that reminded Cris of the main administrative center in the Sietinen estate. Raena’s target was a desk in the center of the room.
“Something in here…” she said while crouching down to view the underside of the desk. She slid her hand along the back recesses with a frown. “This all feels like a factory finish.”
Cris inspected the desktop, noticing the VComm logo and model information. “Ah, that’s what’s going on.”
His granddaughter looked at him expectantly.
“This was the communications hub for the office,” he explained. “They’re set up for insensitive data processing and transfer, even during a power outage, so the battery backup and capacitors can hold a charge for a lot longer than any other standard equipment—apparently for well over a century. There’s nothing hidden around the desk, it’s just the equipment itself you sensed.”
Raena wilted. “Oh.”
“There aren’t many setups like this, though. Hopefully one of the other three leads pans out,” Cris said.
With a resolute nod, Raena led them back down the hall.
The next location was also a bust—what turned out to be another communications console with backup batteries for emergencies. Its charge was almost depleted, but there was just enough life left to have caught Raena’s attention.
“I’m growing more concerned that the power reserves in a hidden data archive may also have run out,” Cris said with a frown. “The theory was a long shot to begin with.”
“I have a good feeling about the next one,” Raena replied.
“Lead the way.” Ryan extended his hand with a flourish.
Raena backtracked to the main foyer and took the staircase on the right.
Their footsteps echoed off the stone lining the room, dust swirling around their ankles. It’s like we’ve traveled back in time.
“I really need a shower after this,” Raena commented as she looked down at the layer of dust on herself.
“That’s what you get for rolling around on the floor,” Ryan jested.
She grinned. “You might want to look at yourself in the mirror.”
Cris tuned out their banter as they walked, instead focusing on the artistic details in their surroundings. Rather t
han the ostentatious carvings and gold-leafing in the Sietinen estate, the Dainetris aesthetic was more streamlined and elegant. Motifs of sea waves and stars were worked into crown moldings, but in a subtle way that flowed seamlessly with the architectural features. Paintings along the walls depicted a combination of seascapes from dramatic vistas and nebulae. The way the art depicting home and distant worlds played off one another spoke to a balanced perspective about the Dynasty’s role.
I think I would have liked them, Cris thought with a twinge of sadness. I hope I can help guide Ryan to recapture that spirit.
The hall eventually turned into a residential wing with lounge areas in between closed doors to quarters. Along the walls were several family portraits—Ryan did bear a striking resemblance to many of his ancestors, aside from his darker hair. After having some time in the TSS to move past his youth as a Ward, he was even beginning to carry himself in a manner suited for his birthright. A few more years of coaching and he’d fit the part.
“We’re close,” Raena said. She broke into a jog toward a door three down on the right.
The room appeared to be an office. Antique paper books had been carelessly strew around the floor and the desk was overturned. Someone had definitely been looking for something.
Cris followed Raena and Ryan inside, and then he saw that the desk’s hard drive had been extracted. A safe inset in the wall was also opened and emptied.
“Looks like they got what they came for,” he said.
“That’s what they thought.” Raena dropped to her knees next to the overturned desk and smoothed some dust from the floor tiles with her hands. “Except there was something hidden in a place they’d never think to look.”
She hovered her hands over the tile, telekinetically raising the twenty centimeter stone square from its place in the floor. After setting the tile down next to the opening, she shined the light on her handheld inside a recess.
“Whoa—” Her jaw slack, she reached inside with one hand.