by Eden Wolfe
Lower Earth Rising Books 1-3
Eden Wolfe
ESN Ink
Contents
From the Author
FREE: The story that came before…
Sketched Map of Lower Earth
Selfsame
Lower Earth Direction, Year 402
YEAR 402
1. Aria
2. Aria
3. Aria
4. Maeva
5. Uma
6. Adam
7. Lucy
8. Maeva
9. Archer
10. Aria
11. Uma
12. Adam
13. Uma
14. Trudith
15. Rose
16. Rhonda
17. Irene
18. Maeva
19. Lucius
20. Aria
21. Rhonda
22. Isaac
23. Adam
24. Lucius
25. Adam
26. Sara
27. Maeva
28. Rita
29. Lucy
30. Irene
31. Maeva
32. Aria
33. Archer
34. Aria
35. Archer
36. Maeva
37. Archer
38. Maeva
39. Rose
40. Lucius
41. Maeva
42. Archer
43. Maeva
44. Aria
45. Aria
46. Aria
47. The huntress
48. Aria
49. Aria
50. Roman
51. Lucy
52. Aria
53. Maeva
54. Adam
55. Maeva
56. Lucius
57. Aria
58. Maeva
59. Ariane
60. Aria
61. Rose
62. Maeva
63. Rose
Culling
Lower Earth Direction, Year 407
YEAR 407
1. Leadon
2. Leadon
3. Irene
4. Maeva
5. Roman
6. Leadon
7. Carole
8. Uma
9. Roman
10. Irene
11. Leadon
12. Sara
13. Trudith
14. Lucius
15. Roman
16. Lucius
17. Trudith
18. Leadon
19. Irene
20. Rose
21. Maeva
22. Leadon
23. Maeva
24. Sara
25. Uma
26. Maeva
27. Irene
28. Leadon
29. Uma
30. Roman
31. Trudith
32. Lucius
33. Maeva
34. Irene
35. Leadon
36. Rose
37. Roman
38. Lucius
39. Trudith
40. Roman
41. Irene
42. Lucius
43. Leadon
44. Rose
Subversive
Lower Earth Direction, Year 408
YEAR 408
1. Ariane
LATER THAT YEAR
2. Gillian
3. Daphna
4. Uma
5. Roman
6. Irene
7. Ariane
8. Gillian
9. Leadon
10. Trudith
11. Roman
12. Trudith
13. Daphna
14. Ariane
15. Irene
16. Uma
17. Roman
18. Trudith
19. Daphna
20. Uma
21. Ariane
22. Gillian
23. Leadon
24. Daphna
25. Uma
26. Ariane
27. Uma
28. Ariane
29. Leadon
30. Irene
31. Roman
32. Trudith
33. Uma
34. Irene
35. Roman
36. Daphna
37. Ariane
38. Leadon
39. Daphna
40. Uma
41. Ariane
42. Irene
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Also by Eden Wolfe
About Eden
Download DEVIANTS for free
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From the Author
Welcome to Lower Earth.
I began this series when I felt a mortal fear for the existence of our world. Talk of nuclear bombs with presidents trying to one-up each other got me asking…
What if they actually do it? What will become of us then?
Snap forward a few years and we’re in a global pandemic lockdown.
That was not in my plans.
I needed an outlet. Fear was once again taking hold in me.
So I wrote. And this series is the result of many hours of anxiety, doubt, existential questioning, and my own bout of illness.
Welcome to Lower Earth. May we never live there.
~Eden
FREE: The story that came before…
Before Selfsame, the world of Deviants in Cork Town lived freely but under constant fear.
Read the prequel, Deviants, for free, just by joining the Selfsame Readers Club.
Click to join now and get your free book download…
Sketched Map of Lower Earth
Click for a full resolution map online
Lower Earth Direction, Year 402
FOURTEENTH GENERATION
SINCE THE DUST
UNDER THE REIGN OF QUEEN MAEVA II
GEB COUNTY DIRECTION
Commandante - Irene (Irilena), warrior priestess of Gana
Great Geneticist - Lucius of the first line
Primary Overseer - Roman of the first line
Senior Overseer - Uma of the nineteenth line
Experimental Sequencing - Adam of the first line
Male Bioinformatics Unit - Isaac of the first line
GANA PROTECTORATE
Chief Priestess - Habana, warrior priestess
Keeper of the Chief - Batrasa, warrior priestess
OUTER COUNTIES MANAGEMENT
Prefect on Three-Year Cycle
DARK COUNTIES PROTECTORATE
Prefect on One-Year Cycle
CENTRAL MASS PROTECTORATE
Under Command of the Queen’s Guard
STRANGELANDS SECT
Head Sister - Sahna, former warrior priestess of Gana
YEAR 402
1
Aria
Aria dropped her spear on the grass and stepped into the water’s edge. The pond water lapped at the base of her leather boots. She let the muscles down her back relax and her shoulders lower. Even though the leather cloak sat heavily on her, she never dared to leave it behind. She watched a water spider skid across the pond surface. The combat pitch behind her was still empty.
The next attacker would come soon.
Aria took in the wet air, letting the smell of moss and algae fill her nostrils. But only for a moment. She relished the seconds between fights.
She rested her hand on the lava rock pendant and uttered a blessing to the settlers, to those who had come first, those who had fought and won and rebuilt life on Lower Earth when the world was dying. She prayed for strength beyond her cu
rrent state, despite all she had already invested in her training. She had to be more, had to be better. She had to be ready for the day when the men of Upper Earth arrived on their shores. She prayed it to the Queens of Before.
Her prayer didn’t last long. A scent wove its way to her.
Woman approaching. 170 degrees. Southwest. Heavy steps. Rushing. Breaking branches and slashing brush. Clumsy. Run scenarios: easy to subdue.
Aria sighed. The farce of "physical challenges" was tiresome. Batrasa’s creativity was waning with age and the prisoner women were motivated out of a selfish desire for favor more than providing a real fight. Ariane needed threats that were closer to the eventual reality of Upper Earth’s men. The disappeared women on the Forgotten Islands were hardly sufficient.
A hundred feet away now. Assess capabilities: limited. She is at full run. Insufficient lung capacity.
She rolled her eyes. The woman was panting from the effort, already mostly spent in the excitement of the attack. Aria let her reach within two arms lengths.
Aria spun, stomach grazing the ground, spider stance, and safely out of the trajectory of a rusty knife the woman swung in Aria's general direction.
"What the - " the woman paused for a half-second, and Aria was upon her.
The woman didn’t stand a chance. She was on the ground, on her back, arms spread and wind knocked out of her. Aria didn’t let her move.
“Get off me!”
Aria pressed her knee further into the woman’s throat. She assessed her attacker from her vantage point on the woman’s chest. The woman was more feminine than others, long dark hair while most on the island had it cropped short. She had high cheekbones and dark eyes that matched her dark skin. Broad hips and long legs that kicked left and right in an effort to free herself. Clearly a former priestess from Gana. Her face pulled into a frustrated grimace.
“I said, get off me!” The woman tried to lift her arms, but Aria had her pinned on each side. The knife fell from the woman’s left hand.
Her heartbeat accelerates. She is defeated. Maintain pressure on left side of neck, induce unconsciousness on any struggle. Signs of another weapon in her right pocket.
“I am not getting off you until you surrender.”
“I am going to rip your head off, the instant you let me free.”
“You won’t.”
“I will.”
“No, you won’t.”
“And why wouldn’t I?”
Aria bent her head down to speak in the woman’s ear. “Because you know I’d have a dagger in your heart before you could even raise a fist.”
The woman exhaled, exasperated. “Fine. Then I give up.”
Aria stood, letting the blood flow again into the woman’s arms. The woman brushed off the dirt and massaged her forearms.
“This is getting too easy,” Aria shouted into the air, knowing Batrasa wasn’t far.
“She was doubly armed,” Batrasa emerged from the shadows of the brush, “She had both knives and a razor-edged chain.”
“Not that it made any difference.”
“I see your point.” Batrasa rubbed her forehead.
Aria walked to the old woman, a warrior priestess herself, noting how her former jet-black hair had changed within a matter of months. It was almost completely white now. “You have to make this more challenging, Batrasa. Your silly games are hardly enough to prepare me anymore. What’s the point of bringing me out to this island if you aren’t going to throw your best at me?”
Batrasa inhaled. “My responsibility is the quality of your training. Just because you cheat doesn’t mean-”
“Cheat? How am I cheating? She came at me, I neutralized her within seconds, done.”
Calm. She is provoking.
Batrasa coughed. Aria had to turn away from the stench of it. Acrid, the smell of decay.
She’s degenerating. It won’t be long now.
Batrasa composed herself, standing tall again. “And you think your reaction time was good enough? You think you’ve got this all figured out? No wonder the Queen won’t let you in the capital. You’re cocky and careless in your response.”
Control blood rush. Reduce stimulation, reduce blood pressure. She's seeking a reaction.
Aria returned her heartbeat to normal. “You don’t give me enough valid opportunities.” Batrasa coughed. Aria recoiled as another waft of Batrasa’s breath reached her. “How many times have I complained about the quality of your simulations? It’s unacceptable. If you’re going to bring me all the way out here, get me on a boat for a day, just to give me the same old exercises-”
Scent of sweat, 120 degrees.
Aria spun around but it was a moment too late. The attacker had a rope around her neck and tightened it.
“Hello, Queen Ariane,” hissed a masked woman, thick in the shoulders and with breath that smelled like sulfur.
“I am no Queen.” Aria resisted the pull of the rope.
Maintain oxygen, prevent swelling. Run scenarios: She is former Queen’s Guard. Only they are designed with such strength. Limited ability to assess consequences; weakness in predicting outcomes.
“Oh, but you will be. If you can get out of this, that is.”
Aria managed to speak, “You underestimate me.”
Another voice approached behind her, “You underestimate us.”
Aria heard a knife unsheathe.
Focus on sound. Determine the number of attackers.
She listened for a period that was no more than a split second.
Four. At least two knives. Rope tightening. Run scenarios: method of escape: whip crack.
Aria crouched as quickly as she could with the rope still around her neck, and then snapped upwards. They had no time to react. The woman’s hands loosened on the rope and Aria rammed her head into the second woman’s face, breaking her nose. Aria ran before the third and fourth could lift their arms toward her.
She was across the combat pitch within moments. It wasn’t only that Aria had the greatest speed on the pitch – she had greater speed than anyone. She’d known it her whole life; it was part of her design. No one in Lower Earth could match her.
“And now,” Aria calmed her breath again, “Now I would run. So you can come at me again if you’d like, but I’ll cross the island before you can tie your shoelaces.” Aria looked at their feet. “They don’t give you shoes?”
Batrasa approached Aria from the left, “Too many used the laces to hang themselves.”
Aria kept her eyes on the women, each breathing heavily, something between defeat and despair across their faces. Aria closed her eyes and listened to the sound of each of them breathing.
Woman to the right, nearly in tears. Disappointment. What were they promised in exchange for winning the attack? Run scenarios: most likely their freedom. A valuable prize.
Aria walked to the woman to the right, the smallest of the four. Dark hair and green eyes.
Green eyes. She comes from Geb. Her betrayal was great. They are rare here.
All the women of the capital had green eyes, though the outer counties still had some variance. Aria’s were chestnut brown, cracked with green around the far edges.
No one had eyes like Aria’s eyes.
As she approached, the woman lowered her head.
“You. How is your confinement on this forgotten island?”
The woman’s eyes remained on her feet.
“Do they treat you poorly here?”
“No, ma’am.”
Her heartbeat accelerates.
“Do you fear me?”
The woman shrugged.
Aria stepped closer to her and lowered her voice. “Look at me.”