The Urimine Effect

by Matthew Fortuna

mother."

  Yin looked toward Tren, who was watching them in silence, her eyes filled with a sad kind of hope.

  "Tren," Yin began.

  "Yes?"

  "Would you accept me as your daughter once you are released?"

  "Yin, the decision is yours, I'm just here to support you in whatever decision you want."

  "Then I choose you." Yin said, "If Jovie was tempted to love King Pen the way you did, then I want nothing more to do with her. You've learned more than Jovie has concerning what is good and what isn't good in life, and I want to spend my life with someone who knows what it takes to find where happiness lies."

  Tren smiled, "If that's your decision, then I will accept you as my daughter."

  Menny watched this all in silence.

  "Menny, can you release us now?" Yin asked.

  Menny bowed, "As you wish your ladyship."

  Yin had forgotten she was royalty after being accepts by King Pen as his daughter, and in so doing, she was made one of the few surviving leadership characters in the city, in effect of the Tower's collapse.

  Menny unlocked the cell door, and let Yin and Tren through.

  "Thanks Menny," Yin said, "I'll keep your name in mind for when I might need someone to help."

  Menny nodded her head, "I would be honored."

  Yin and Tren left, making it as far as the front door before they ran into Jovie, who was talking heatedly with the secretary behind the counter. She turned suddenly when Yin approached, glaring in Tren's direction.

  "So you've decided?"

  "Yes, I want to claim Tren as my mother, and be given my father's place in the governing of Jasper."

  Jovie looked startled, "I don't have the authority to do those things, all I was curious about is where you'll be staying."

  "Oh." Yin looked at the floor, "I'll be with Tren until things change."

  Tren nodded, "Okay. I'll arrange for you to be given rooms in one of the local highrises."

  "What gives you the right to arrange for someone else's living quarters?"

  Jovie sighed, "Yin, I'm an employee of the tower, or was, so I have the responsibility of seeing to your well being. I work through the Tower's monetary system, so everything is paid for and arranged by me, the representative, but all funds are reimbursed by the Tower."

  "Okay. Anyway, thank you for your help Jovie. I hope you haven't been affected by the tower's collapse."

  Jovie pawed the ground, "King Pen was a good friend of mine. He made things more bearable when I was in the Tower."

  "And did he ever shun you for who you were?" Tren asked, ice in her voice.

  "Tren, what King Pen did to you, I have no say in, but I know he was wrong to do it. I just hope you can forgive him for his mistakes."

  Tren shook her head, "I can forgive him, I simply am bitter to think he would move on with the idea that he can be forgiven."

  "He waited, ever since he put you in that cell, because he knew he'd done something wrong, and he wanted so much to be forgiven, but he could not forgive himself. Yin was the first person who showed him the sense that he could move on, even if she didn't know you were still alive."

  Tren hesitated, "Then I am the fool for thinking his forgiveness was mine to give. I have no right to condemn him for his foolish mistakes." She paused, "Yin, when the time comes, I want you to come find me. I have something I want to look for in the city, someone I haven't seen in a long time."

  Yin nodded her head, "I'll find you."

  Tren smiled her appreciation, and left through the front door.

  "She seems to have held up well since being locked away." Jovie said.

  "I think knowing there was something better out in the world gave her hope."

  "Do you think so?

  "Yes, I think she's been waiting for me to come back."

  "Maternal love is strong, and hope is even stronger." Jovie said, "I think you would be right to assume both, working together, would make someone sane enough to get through such an ordeal."

  "I still can't believe she was in there for nineteen years."

  Jovie nodded her head, "Nineteen years. I think it drained her of her frustrations, leaving her empty enough to move through each day in a haze. She seems as though she was just put in there yesterday."

  "Did you know her before she was locked up?"

  Jovie shook her head, "No, she wasn't very social from what I hear."

  Yin saw Menny walk back down the hall toward another set of cell's where she placed some kind of package on the ground just inside.

  "That's strange. She didn't seem very socially awkward from what I could see."

  Jovie sighed, "Well, no matter what, it seems like you chose her as your living companion, so I suggest you learn to live with her, regardless of what she turns out to be."

  "I know." Yin said, "Has the tower been cleaned up yet?"

  "No, the rubble is being left as it is. The only Meregals allowed around it are the rescue crews."

  Yin accepted her response.

  "I need to go. I have to take care of something too."

  "Alright. I'll be here until you need me."

  Something about her response ticked a chord in Yin's head.

  "I want that too."

  "You want what too?"

  "I want to know someone who will always be waiting for me until I need them."

  "You do?" Jovie looked puzzled, "Why?"

  "It sounds really nice. And I know who it is that I need."

  Jovie shook her head, "Yin, one day I'll understand you, but until then, I guess I'll just have to let you go."

  Jovie turned around and left.

  Yin watched her go, rubbing her forehead. A headache started in Yin's head dropping her to the floor. It was a repercussions of her desire to forget, and she knew she wasn't right in fighting in. She wanted to know how to over come the things that scared her so much but she wasn't sure how. She knew Menny was the law, Jovie was friendship, Tren was love, Jerrem was friendship, King Pen was renown, and Flynn was loss. She knew Flynn was dangerous. He wanted her to become something inhuman, just as she felt the need inside of herself to become such a thing. She wanted everyone to see her as an object, and nothing more than an unequal partner. She was too used to being left in the dark, and too used to being seen as something more than what she was. She was different, even if no one knew it. She just needed to learn to become who she was on the inside so that everyone would notice the changes on the outside. All else would come in time.

  At that moment, Yin realized she didn't belong. No one within the city was worthy of her, and no one outside of the city was respected by those within. She'd heard Meregals on the street talking about it, how those living in the grasslands weren't worthy of the Meregal race. they spoke of cutting them off from their own world, leaving them behind in a blaze of light. Yin did not think it was wise to see such things as this. But she realized, if there were those who would not accept anyone outside of their own world, then there was a reason why human and Meregal integration was failing, and why it was best to live with those humble enough to see that everyone has a place, even if they are different and shunned by those around.

  Yin had asked to be given a place with in the city, but now she knew the truth. Her place was with those who cared about who she was, not what she was. Jerrem had made his decisions based on himself, but he was honest with her, and she did not fear him like those who taught her to show respect, rather than friendship. It was important, she realized, to belong with those who knew her for who she was.

  Yin left the city, with Marcus in tow, and made her way back to the dome sitting in the grasslands. Jerrem was outside playing with his brothers and sisters. He stopped when he saw her, confused at her sudden return.

  "I didn't think you would come back after you learned who you were." He said, "Does this mean you didn't want to remember after all?"

  "No," Yin said, "I met someone I knew. And seeing her made me remember."

  "Who w
as it?"

  "Menny."

  "Menny?" Jerrem's eyes opened up wide, "She's like the coolest Meregal in the city! How do you know her?"

  "We met when I made my way here from Mentas. She was the one who first identified that I wasn't a part of the city's records."

  "The city's records? How could you not be a part of them?"

  "I was born in Mentas, and taken care of for some time by a human orphanage who'd promised King Pen to take me off the records."

  "King Pen?" Jerrem exclaimed, "Is he your father?"

  "He was before the tower collapsed."

  "This means you're royalty though!"

  "No, it means I'm honorary royalty. Royalty doesn't really exist in this city."

  "Yeah, I know, but that still means you're the next in line to take King Pen's place."

  Yin shook her head, "No, it means I'm giving it to my mother, Tren."

  "Tren?"

  "She didn't die like King Pen said, He'd locked her up until he died. I met her today, in a cell. She's been there for nineteen years, Jerrem. I want her to take my place."

  "Have you considered what all this means though? You can have anything you want! You can practically change the city from the inside out, and make the world a different place! Don't you want that?"

  "No." Yin sighed, "I don't want those things. Even if I could have them, there will always be someone who knows how to rule better than I do. I can't live with the weight of knowing I'm standing in the way of someone who can do more than I can."

  Jerrem looked at the ground, "It sounds like you've made a decision then."

  "Yeah."

  "Where are you going to go then?"

  Yin looked at Jerrem shyly, "Jerrem you once offered to lick my nose when I was first here in Jasper. Do you remember that?"

  Jerrem caughed, "Yeah."

  "Jerrem. I want you to marry me."

  Jerrem blushed, "Yin you can't just ask someone to marry you, that's totally weird."

  Yin laughed, "Not as weird as nudging up to someone when they're already asleep!"

  Jerrem laughed too, "Yeah, I think that was kind of funny on retrospect."

  "Yeah." Yin smiled, "I think it would be nice to get used to it." She sat down on the ground in a huff.

  "Well then," Jerrem said, suddenly business like, "Yin, may I lick your nose."

  Yin smiled, letting out a small giggle, "Finishing as you began are you?"

  "It seems appropriate, considering this is your choice this time."

  "As it began, it will end." Yin said, "Jerrem, you may lick my nose."

  And with that, Jerrem performed the marriage ritual of the Merregal race, ending one life, and beginning another.

  Not knowing quite what to expect, Yin had decided that as long as there were friends around her, she would always be able to do what she needed to do, even when the world was falling apart around her.