Song of Sundering

by A. R. Clinton

  Ayna waved her hand to silence a few more objections that were about to bubble up from others at the table. “Without the means to enforce strict policy, we have to rely on consent and imposing simple regulations for handling and mandatory reporting. I don’t want to see any more children with coughs healed with gills.” Or any more dead children, either.

  She smiled down at the center of the table, rubbing her palm with her fingers. Two days before her jails would start filling up. It wasn’t enough time to solve the problem, but it could be enough to give some of them a chance. The jails would fill more slowly, but they would fill just the same.

  Arrests were limited to those who had been idiotic or unlucky enough to have proof of their use of the crystals posted on the SatNet. Still, standing in the Power Lab run by Tani, Ayna felt the caution radiating from the girl.

  Tani’s eyes betrayed her. As soon as Ayna saw her, she knew that Tani had thought that her new lab was still a secret. If she had been more integrated in the normal Underground life, she would have known that most children were not as clever at surviving as Tani had been and starving children didn’t keep secrets. The girl leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms across her chest as she glared at Ayna. “Have you come to take away my work?”

  Ayna smiled, a struggle for her. “No. Of all the ‘work’ thats been done, yours is the only one I would consider to be real work. You have kept it controlled, documented and have been responsible, which has made you productive and invaluable.” Ayna’s smile came easier as she watched Tani’s guarded expression turn to surprise. She continued to speak to the girl, “No, I did not come to take anything from you. I came to ask you to be the first member of the expanded research team.”

  Tani didn’t move or speak. She continued to stare, her arms still crossed, but her eyebrows raised as she sized up Ayna. She no longer assumed Ayna was an immediate threat, but was trying to determine if she would be. “How long have you known about our re-location?”

  “A month.”

  “Why didn’t you shut us down?”

  “Why would I? Until a few weeks ago, I had no idea that you were working with the Blight. When the autopsy revealed that you were, it also revealed that you were responsible with it. We need you, Tani. Not just to encourage others to agree to the new terms, but to figure this thing out. I allowed others into the project who proved far less trustworthy than I thought they’d be. That was my mistake. If I knew then what I know now, I would have asked you months ago, before any of this was an issue.”

  Tani stood silently again. Minutes passed as the girl said nothing. Finally, she pulled a small glass tube out of her coat. She wrote her name on it with a paint pen. “If you see this at your drop when it closes in four hours, send your men here. I have a lot of shit that I’ll need help moving to the U—if I I’m still here.”

  Ayna smiled, despite convincing herself that the girl wouldn’t join her side. When she spoke she could hear the exhaustion in her own voice, “I hope I see it.”

  The closing time for the drop came quickly, and Ayna had kept a close eye on it during the last two hours. The wire fencing with a small opening was out in a field, a short walk past the makeshift prison. Once anyone made it outside the walls of Prin, it was impossible to turn back without being seen. She watched as the Guards spoke with several hesitant citizens, who eventually handed over the amulets or plain crystals they had in their possession.

  She was surprised when midnight struck to see only a small handful of amulets and loose crystals. Two days had been more than enough to get all the pieces that reasonable citizens had. Any remaining Blight amulets out there were only a threat.

  The pieces in the drop were shoddily made, likely not even real Artificer pieces, but some imitation someone had put together to make a quick buck. As her guards picked up the small pile of amulets, a glass tube rolled away along the ground. Ayna bolted through the doorway into the empty plot of land to pick it up.

  “Tani,” it read.

  She grinned and waved her men over. “How many of you are on shift tonight?”

  “A dozen, ma’am.”

  “Ten of you need to help our first researcher relocate the U labs. The other two can take the items to the lockup at the U. I’ll ping you the Underground waypoint for her lab. She has a lot of supplies and patients to be moved. Follow all of her instruments to the letter. And once she is satisfied with the move, bring her to me.”

  The Guard snapped to attention and gave her a salute, “Yes, ma’am.”

  By the time Tani came to see her the next morning, Ayna had already drawn up some basic plans for the lab and new program structure, including people from both factions that Tani may approve. Ayna hoped working together on a project run by Tani would and help them acquire a mutual professional respect for each other.

  As the small girl walked into the Stateshouse office, squinting at the wall-to-wall windows, Ayna gave her a large smile and invited her to sit while offering a variety of beverages.

  “Coffee.” The girl interrupted her list of options with a yawn, leaning forward onto the table to rest her head in her hands. Ayna fondly thought of all the times that Shara had made a similar motion after long practice sessions with Hafi and found herself wishing her daughter’s gift had been more academic rather than source and combat focused.

  “I know it’s been a long night, but I’d like to review some basic plans for expanding the lab with you, as well as some recruitment targets.” She slid over her LightTab. Ayna watched the girl’s posture change as she reviewed the plans. Her head remained in her hands as she looked over the floor plan. When she got to the expanded rooms, the flow from animal trials to Terran patients and the organization of staff, her back straightened and she pulled her legs up into a crossed pattern on the chair. As she reviewed the list of names, she picked up the LightTab, holding it close as she ran the fingers of her other hand close to the surface. She mouthed each name to herself, tilted her head to the side for a moment, then gave herself a nod or a shake before announcing to Ayna if the person was good or if they needed to be replaced. By the time she was through the list, she’d built Ayna’s initial list of eight up to fifteen names, even after removing three.

  Tani left her coffee half-full and began to excitedly chatter about a few modifications to Ayna’s initial plans, seemingly content that she had made the right call to trust her.

  Ayna motioned for Tani to let her speak. Tani fell quiet but Ayna didn’t miss the resentful look of anger that flashed across her face for a moment, “Sorry—before we get too far in planning—I just want to make sure you are fully comfortable with the situation around the project... Despite putting together the initial team and project... Some—uh—situations have arose that require my focus to be elsewhere. Kingston Cross, the leader of Century who brought them all to Prin, will be taking over as the lead for the project. I’ll still be keeping up to date with what’s going on, so if you have any issues, you can come to me. But, for day-to-day matters, Kingston will be your point of contact.”

  Tani squirmed in her seat. Her voice was accusatory, “Why didn’t you tell me this when you came to my lab?”

  “Getting you on the project was the most important thing to me. If you have a big issue with Kingston, I can take the project over again—I would rather keep your cooperation than delegate the work if that’s the only choice you give me.”

  Tani looked at her, eyes sullen but attentive as they flitted around Ayna’s face. After a few too many silent moments, Tani sighed, “Fine. As long as I can go over him to speak to you if anything isn’t working out, then I can give working with him a try.”

  Ayna smiled, “Great! All of Prin is behind you, now.”

  77

  Tani

  Tani had work to do, but no one else was in the lab today, not even Vin. She had tried bribing him to stay and help her work. A month ago a few credits would have been enough for him to cancel plans he’d made a year in advance. Today they w
ere all too well funded to be bribed: the unforeseen consequence of success. It was odd to her that the freedom she’d worked for was the very thing keeping her from working.

  She begrudgingly checked all the minor work, glared at Rat-livier before taking notes and updating logs and locking everything up and leaving the lab. The patient quarters were unlocked, staffed by a bare bones crew, who were all sitting around LightTabs with their patients, watching the festivities. Small troops had begun to stream into Prin the day before, reaffirming the city’s joy with each interview. The Xenai had fully retreated. All the trade routes were reopening, including a fresh shipment from Ceafield, and the rest of the troops would be home by evening. Candle kites were made for the night’s festival. Rationing was disregarded and resources pooled as all the major restaurants began to prepare food for a city. The market stalls, empty of trade goods for weeks, reopened to offer their space as needed for the celebrations.

  Tani expected to see the market as she’d last seen it: filled with the well-dressed and well-fed, white-knuckling their valuables at the sight of the dirty Underground faces. She found a throng of bodies so thick it was impossible to distinguish who didn’t belong. Everyone was just a little dirty and a little underfed and everyone was smiling. The former jewelry stall now housed a brick oven with a manually turned stone plate. Four kids alternated between throwing and flipping flattened dough and turning the mechanism above the fire. She recognized one from the Underground and was nearly certain the other was Ayna’s assistant. Each stall held similar juxtapositions that Tani could only pick out from posture or designs beneath the layers of dirt that covered all of their clothes.

  Tani finally found Delilah and Vin, along with her own contributions, near the center of the market. She hid her frown when Delilah finally noticed her, waving her down with a bit too much vigor. “Want a viiiiiiiiiiial, Tani?”

  “No, I don’t drink. I take it the recipe works?”

  Vin downed a vial himself while handing another off to a passerby. Delilah was nodding for several seconds before she added any words. “I espeshhhhhhally like the orange part. Itsss very gooood.”

  Tani suppressed a smile and forgave them both for refilling used vials and apparently paying little attention to the age of their drinkers. Their booth was the busiest in the market. Tani was glad she didn’t have to worry about mold cultivation for antibiotics anymore, and that no one but Vin and Delilah realized what the orange alcohol really was. A few Undergrounders would likely recognize the hangover in the morning. Tani shrugged to herself and smiled at her assistants. “I’m going to go find some food.” She walked off, dodging a couple who were spinning a dance, vials in hand.

  Tani decided to leave the food to the Underground kids. She saw them everywhere, skipping games and dances, but appearing at every food booth, even the ones without sweets. She gave a smile of conspiracy to one group as she headed toward the dais, just outside the open market. The amphitheater of seats around the dais were specked with strays from the festival, like Tani, as well as groups of children running through the stands playing their own games.

  Tani picked a row near the back, leaning against the row behind her. She pulled out her LightTab, picking up where she’d left off with a recent report from Praha. The Blight, originally an anomaly around Prin, was now being found in other survivor regions. Thanks to the Prin research, they were immediately containing it and implementing cautious protocols. She was disappointed to find no information at all on how it could have spread there in their report.

  She immersed herself in one research topic after another. A man tripped over her before she noticed the amphitheater had filled up around her and the field behind it was full as well. She looked around, unable to see over people to determine why her escape had become a gathering. It took her a minute to realize the man who tripped was trying to make sure she was unharmed. She nodded, mouthing, “I’m fine,” at him. He wouldn’t hear her over the crowd, anyway. He smiled at her and walked away, while keeping a hand on her shoulder as if he thought she’d jump in front of him.

  When the man released her and vanished into the crowd, she turned, climbing into the open sliver on the step behind her, allowing her to look out above the crowd. The sky was tinted with the colors of approaching night. She could see the candle kites floating in every direction above the amphitheater, and their tiny points of light dotting other spots in the sky over Prin as well. Lines of people moved from the west wall toward the center, and it clicked in her mind. The Army of The Pact had made it home.

  They walked in past the amphitheater to the now-emptied market, greeted by the resupplied goods and alcohol from home as their families found them there. Tani considered sitting back down to read. It occurred to her that someone could report the callousness of her response to the troops returning home, and she wondered how true it would be.

  Maybe she was uncaring. The troops returning would not give her any new data. She glanced back at the movement of shadows in the market. Mothers hugging sons they’d given up for dead. Fathers meeting children they’d been willing to die for and kissing their wives. Tani felt the emotions wave over her as she pictured each scene individually. She felt it and longed for it.

  She shoved her LightTab into her bag, preparing to push her way out of the crowd. It felt too close, a reminder of all the lives she’d never experience; all the people she could never be, no matter how successful she became.

  The crowd stood still, and a silence fell over them as the dais lit up. Ayna Shae stood before the crowd. Tani watched as Ayna looked from one side of the amphitheatre to the other. The people next to her began to stir again. She could hear whispers without words before Ayna’s voice was carried to her.

  “Tonight we celebrate.”

  She paused, and the crowd immediately cheered.

  “We celebrate our soldiers returning home. We celebrate our families. And we celebrate that we have made it through these impossible days together.”

  The crowd cheered again, but Tani’s mind turned to systems. People behaved in systemic ways when in a group. Ayna was not addressing members of her own system. Tani sifted through each word like a piece of a puzzle, looking for the one that would fit the system that Ayna was a member of.

  “And these are impossible days. We stumbled on to something unknown to the worlds that came before us; and we are here, making sense of it. We faced an army intent on wiping out all Terran, Inari, and Illara survivors on Earth, and here we are. Alive.”

  Tani saw the piece of the puzzle. The crowd assumed a natural oratory pause. Tani felt the system beneath the pause. Whatever came next was the truth exposed to hide the truth no one could know.

  “But every battle has a cost. In the last skirmish before the Xenai began to retreat, Shara Shae, my daughter, and the troop with her were ambushed. The bodies of all the troop were found except for Shara’s. It’s assumed that they found a way to subdue and sedate her, and this is the reason for their retreat. The Xenai have been interested in the unique Inari powers since the hybrid children first appeared. Shara’s abilities were of special interest. We suspect they intend to use her to enhance themselves or make weaponry, or both. Because of this, we will be working even harder over the next days to solidify the structure of the Blight weapons program and begin quickly developing stronger fortifications to protect Prin.”

  Tani could feel the silence hanging above her, and in a short instant the dam erupted and the voices swept her away. She saw Ayna continuing to speak, but the words were lost in the noise. The speculation rose and spun in every conversation around her as she pushed her way out of the crowd. The theories poured out from everywhere on her way back to the lab, in the lab, and on the SatNet. Their theories were incorrect systems.The system behind Ayna’s words, the truth no one could know, had been obvious, although Tani couldn’t prove it, yet.

  Shara would become the Xenai weapon — and if that happened, there was no one in the Pact brilliant enough to stop her.
>
  Despite the improved laboratory and resources, Olivier still insisted on meeting Tani at the hut, alone. Vin walked out with her, but she was comfortable enough with Olivier that he would stop farther out and Tani would walk the last hundred meters to the hut alone. Tonight, she watched the hum of light from inside the hut move between the boards from one side to the other. Olivier was pacing inside the small space. Tani stepped more quickly. He had sent her a message that morning, reporting more improvements to his cough and malaise.

  Has something changed?

  She stepped into the hut, meeting Olivier’s eyes. She returned his brilliant smile with an exhale she felt through her whole body. “Your pacing had me worried.”

  His laughter filled the hut. “I feel great, Tani! I haven’t had this much energy in decades. I’ve been awake for nearly a day, helping Kingston with a few matters, and I haven’t even felt the need to sit or pause.”

  Tani looked him over carefully, her mind wondering about the dramatic shift. He had been improving at a steady rate, back to a state consistent with the age his body appeared to be. This was an improvement beyond that. Could it be a true improvement, or a side effect that would have consequences? She continued to smile, even though she felt a dampening. “Well, I do need to sit after that walk. Let me start with the usual questions and then I’ll do the exam.”

  She took Olivier’s normal chair and pulled out her LightTab. He began to answer her string of questions before she even asked and she wrote down his responses, noting an improved recall of not only the questions, but the order in which she asked them.