Vanya's Journals: The Moral LineVanya's journal continues in its now-familiar flowing, elven script. She seems less comfortable with using it, you've noticed - there are many instances where her circumflexes and dipthongs are improperly used. It's almost as if she never fully learned to write her own language, and you're curious as to why she's using it in the first place... unless it's to instill a sense of privacy within her mind. It almost makes sense, in a way... Vanya was never used to living around people she didn't know, and you're quite sure she hadn't yet learned to trust Scheck Kenzon, Katie's father. "
Winteos, Deovaang Liagen!" Katie shouted, and feathery, ethereal wings sprouted from her shoulders.
"
Armok, Deovaang Liagen!" I called out after her.
Nothing happened.
Katie was standing across from me in the sitting room, trying unsuccessfully to teach me the "guiding wings" spell for the third day in a row. Mr Kenzon was at work as usual, and we were home alone. My friend had taken excellent care of me during my four bedridden weeks, helping me exercise my ankle as it healed, and supporting me as I learned to walk again. I still hadn't quite managed to regain my full mobility, and though I was finally able to walk without crutches, I knew it would still be some time before I regained the grace or agility I'd demonstrated in my tumultous battles with Mr Frog and Salaia. The "attack", as Katie and I had taken to calling it, had happened two months before, and I'd out of bed for three quiet weeks. Katie didn't want me to leave the apartment until I could safely walk around without crutches, and after hours and hours of special exercises, we were just nearing that point. It seems that no matter how advanced your technology is, there can never be an instant cure for everything.
As soon as he'd learned of the attack, Reudh had started visiting me regularly. I could count on his visit three times a week, and he proved as reliable and trustworthy as a waterwheel. At first, I wasn't too fond of the idea of him coming over, but he surprised me the first few days by simply keeping me silent company. He didn't ask anything of me, and gradually, I opened up to him. Trusting men is difficult for me to do... but he was so understanding, thoughtful, and encouraging that he became an exception. Before I was even off my crutches, I considered him a true friend.
My "new" friend, Katie, I'd known for a little over two months by that time. She was gradually getting better, but her nightmares kept coming back, refusing to leave her alone. Sometimes she would wake up screaming "Saemin!" in such a distressed, heartbroken tone that it brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to make things easier on her, but all I could do was let her know I cared. The fact that she was still helping Trebor with the memoirs only brought back buried memories.
He still came over from time to time. He and Katie disagreed on a lot of things, but they were pretty far into their book... Unlike writers on Everoc, they didn't use paper - they simply spoke it into their PEAs, editing it verbally as they went along. Somehow, Trebor managed to hook their PEAs to the viewer in the sitting room, and on occasion, I would come and watch them, sitting in the white chair in the corner while I exercised my ankle. It was interesting, but not nearly as interesting as what was happening that eighth week...
I was studying magic again. Katie wanted to teach me Guiding Wings, and I wanted to learn it, even if there was no way I'd ever use it... mainly because of how beautiful it looked. Unfortunately, it seems that how quickly I learned Vendi Scild at the beginning was just "beginner's luck." I'd been working on Guiding Wings for such a long time, and I hadn't gotten anywhere. Katie made it look so easy, and I couldn't figure out where I was making my mistakes.
"Let's take a break," Katie sighed, letting her wings dissolve into nothingness as she plopped down on one of the three green, backless sofas. "It didn't take
me too long to learn it, so I don't see how why you'd be having trouble," she told me quietly, shaking her head in thought.
Disheartened, I sat down on the sofa across from her. "Maybe I'm just not capable of learning it..."
"You
can learn it," she insisted, her brow furrowed with disappointment. "You
will learn it. It's just that while I like teaching, I'm not the best teacher."
"How do you know?" I asked softly, leaning down to massage my ankle.
She was quiet for a moment. "You learned the deflection spell, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to learn this one... especially when it's the one I'm best at."
"I don't know," I said with a discouraged sigh. "Maybe we should just forget it and do something else."
My friend crossed her arms. "No. I'm
going to teach it to you. "
"Trebor will be here soon," I reminded her, sitting up and brushing the hair out of my face. "We can't spend much longer practicing."
"No, but wouldn't you like to be able to show it to him by the time he gets here?"
I rolled my eyes, smirking. "You
know he doesn't like me."
"So? I know you won't admit to it, but
you like
him," she said, raising an eyebrow knowingly and hiding a smile. "He's 23, only two years older than you. He's handsome, smart, and funny. Who
wouldn't like him?"
"Please, let's not start this again..." I groaned in vexation. I actually
didn't like him... at least, not in that way. I merely wished he didn't hate me. For some reason, I feel compelled to try to be likable... possibly because of how I never had any friends while I was growing up. It was painful to know that Trebor loathe me so much. He never hid his animosity towards me, he just kept it in check. Now, in a way... I even wished he would call me "Hot Lips" again.
Katie continued her teasing, leaning forwards and speaking in mischievous, conspirational tones. "At least tell him how you feel. If he knows how much you love him, there's
no way he'll deny you!"
Normally I would've laughed, but I was still too frustrated from my fruitless efforts. "Katie, maybe I could just go somewhere else while he's here..." I sighed, frowning.
She gave a laugh that ended abruptly in confusion as she considered what I'd said. "Like... go where??"
"I don't know..." I paused for a moment in thought. "I never visited Solnay like she offered."
This produced a reaction a little bigger than just a raised eyebrow. "
Solnay?? Are you kidding?"
Awkwardly, I shook my head. "Not really..."
We sat there quietly, and after a few minutes I saw her trademark impish smile creep stealthily across her lips. "You really
don't like him, do you..." At my irritated glance, it faded away just as quickly. "Sorry. Look, I'll give you my key, okay?" She jumped up from her seat, walking lightfootedly towards her room as she motioned me to follow.
"What?" I asked, confused. Somehow I thought she meant she had a key to wherever Solnay worked, but a minute later, I realized how wrong I was.
"It's so you don't have to wait for me to let you in," she explained, laying the keycard to Mr. Kenzon's apartment in my hand.
It felt wrong, and I frowned uncomfortably. "But... you trust me?? What if I gave the key to someone else, and they broke in?"
She laughed, giving me a quick one-armed, friendly hug. "You're so funny sometimes. Of course I trust you, you're..." She hesitated. "You're
you. I know you. We've spent last couple months living with each other, haven't we?"
"Won't your dad get angry?"
Katie's happiness dissipated like a snuffed candle. "If he does, that's his problem," she muttered, walking me to the door. "I trust you. Just have fun talking to Solnay, okay? And be careful with that ankle, I don't think it's completely done healing yet."
We heard a knocking at the door. Katie rushed forwards quickly, unlocking and opening it. As might be expected, it was Trebor, dressed in his usual slacks and polo shirt. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked, looking back and forth between Katie and me.
"Vanya was just leaving," Katie explained hurriedly, taking his hand and pulling him in the door.
Trebor seemed genuinely surprised. "Leaving?? If this is a bad time, I can come back some other day..." he offered. I didn't fail to catch the brief glare he sent in my direction.
"It's fine..." I said cautiously, taking a wide path around him. "I'll be back soon, Katie, okay?"
She nodded, stepping away from the dwarven med student and leaving the room with me. To the two guards positioned outside the door, she said, "This is Vanya. She's a friend, okay? Let her in when she comes back, got it?"
They seemed terribly bored. "Yeah, sure," one said, eyeing me with a suspicious glance that betrayed a sense of superiority. The other only readjusted the pistol in his holster, sighing almost inaudibuly.
"Make sure you stay safe, Vanya," Katie said with a quick hug. For a minute, she remained outside with me, asking a few worried, last-minute questions as they popped into her mind. When she was done, she went back inside, already talking to Trebor as the door closed behind me.
It took me a minute to take it in: I was in Parasol, and I could go wherever I wanted. It was a sense of freedom I'd never truly felt before... and it felt wonderful. Still, even with this newfound freedom, I had absolutely no idea where I
could go, or what I could do. Somehow, that didn't matter so much as the fact that I was
free, and not bound to anyone else's wishes or desires... it put me in a good mood, helping clear away the frustration from my mind.
I'm certain my excited heart skipped a beat as I stood in Rubywood's shuttlecar lobby, the false, setting sun casting its long, warm rays through the clear tube before me. I didn't have to wait long before a car stopped at the platform with a whirr, a blue-carpeted ramp smoothly extending towards it from where I stood. Breathlessly, I stepped aboard and placed my hands on the console, immediately hearing the phantom-like voice:
"Please relax while we make the connection." Seconds later,
"Connection established" intoned softly in my mind.
Applied Sciences, where Solnay Hylcelon works, I thought, and the car began to move.
So began the first shuttlecar trip I ever took by myself, and it was far from being the last.
I didn't think about it at the time... it only occurs to me as I think back on it now, a few months later: The girl that hid in the alleyway outside the hospital, so many years ago... the girl who'd called out that Talvi was awake, standing on tiptoe to peer in through a crack in the wall... the girl that used to be me... She would never have been so bold as to take a shuttlecar by herself, not even if her life depended on it. I've changed so much over the past four years... A lot of it is for the better, but still I wonder... Should I miss my old self?
~~~
Humming as it slowed, the car turned off the main rails and down a side path on the right. It was dark outside the tube, and I was so far underwater that I couldn't even see the sun above the ocean surface. The car was well-lit, at least, the ringed lights illuminating the vehicle evenly as we passed through them. Farther to my right, I could make out the shape of a huge, metallic building, shaped like a cube. Hardly a minute passed before my vehicle came to a gentle stop outside a poorly-lit station that resembled Rubywood Apartments's. A metallic ramp of thin, overlapping plates slid outwards towards me with a series of clicks, and I heard in my head:
"Applied Sciences, Division 3, Unit 403. You may exit when ready." Taking my hands from the panel, I walked across the ramp, feeling a tingling sensation as I passed through the airshield. As soon as I'd set foot inside the building, the ramp clicked quickly back into place, and the shuttlecar accelerated away. Somehow, with it gone, I felt even more alone.
Lights flickered on around me, revealing a small, silver-walled room. The floor was a little scuffed, as if it'd seen moderate traffic, and been around for a long time.
"Welcome to Applied Sciences' Liquied-Cooled Unit 3-403-F96BTS, codename Cephalopod," a female's smoothly-modulated voice intoned, seemingly coming from speakers all around. It startled me so badly I almost tripped. "Identifying employee. Please remain still." I'm surprised I still remember the serial code, but I may have it wrong.
I swallowed nervously and complied, but my unspoken misgivings proved ill-founded.
"Vanya Carena, military grade classification," the voice spoke again. "Invitation granted by tier-three researcher, 'Solnay Hylcelon'. You may proceed."
To my right, I heard a sound like metal scraping against stone. Turning my head quickly, I saw a heavy door smoothly slide open, less than ten feet away.
"Would you like a tour?" the artificial speaker asked.
"No, thank you..." Without thinking, I gave a prompt response, despite my hesitant state as I peered through the doorway and down a long, white hallway.
There was a pause. "Would you like directions?"
I took a few timid steps towards the open door. "I'd like to visit Solnay Hylcelon, please," I requested, my voice small in comparison to the mighty structure I stood within.
A ten-foot blue line of laser light appeared on the floor in front of me, its brightness pulsing forwards within itself in little bursts. Something about the rhythmic pulsing seemed to draw me instinctively forwards... It was a signal that could be understood in any language: "Come this way."
So I began to walk. As I did, the line altered itself, projected from little motor-driven turrets on the ceiling that constantly adjusted themselves to where I stood, gracefully curving the line to follow the path I was to take.
Down the main hallway, through a door that opened for me, down another hallway and in through a door at one side, I followed the pulsing guide, watching the ground as I walked. Around and above me, I could hear the hum of machinery, the rat-a-tat of muffled machine guns, occasional bursts of electricity and tiny explosions. It was a giant collection of laboratories, cooled by the water surrounding it. It was science... It was elegance... It was Parasol.
And it was wrong.
On the way there, I stopped as I heard a voice just within one of the rooms I was passing. Curious, I pulled my hair back and put my ear against the white-painted door.
"- don't think that, do you? Come on, you'll be fine. Just climb aboard and we'll start the experiment." It was a male's voice, and though a little high-pitched, it was definitely dwarven. I guessed it was a scientist.
There was silence for a moment, and I thought I could hear the voice of a teenage girl, whimpering in fear.
"Oh, quit whining," the researcher ordered crossly. "The last test subject only lost a few fingers. We put 'em back on and he was fine."
The "test subject" started crying audibly. "I want to go back home," I heard her sob. "Please, just let me go! I don't want to do this! I was in my house just a few seconds ago - I shouldn't even
be here!!"
"Shut up and stand on the red 'X' like you're supposed to!" said the reasearcher. "Up the steps.
UP... the steps. Good girl. Good girl..."
"
Please! You can't hurt me!" the girl begged desperately, and the frightened tone in her voice made me bite my lip in empathy. "I haven't done anything wrong!! I don't even know where I am, why did you take me here??"
I heard a container slam shut violently, just inside the door. "Damn it, human, just do as you're told!" a third, exasperated voice spat. "You'll be in a lot less danger if you just calm down, and more importantly, we'll have a greater chance of getting accurate results. We'll let you go after we're done."
"But I want to go
now!!" she shouted, her voice raising in pitch.
"Gods
damn it!" the third voice cursed. "Jeb, see if you can calm her down. Actually, no, screw this. Let's just start the damned test already."
There was a loud crack, like a branch being broken, and then silence as the girl's terrified screams came abruptly to an end. I caught my breath, tears springing to my eyes as it slowly sank in. I listened in horror, not willing to believe what I'd just heard.
After a long pause, the first voice spoke. "I'd say that was a failure, Mack, what do you think?" There wasn't an ounce of emotion in his voice. "All right, drain the chamber of the mess and let's see what went wrong
this time."
Whoever the test subject had been, she was dead... and it sounded like it'd been a very gruesome way to die. I could almost picture it in my mind: a teenage girl lying lifeless on the floor, a pool of blood spilling from her chest... It reminded me of the way Salaia died. I snapped. "You monsters!!" I screamed, pounding on the door. "She wanted you to
let her go!! You had
no right to keep her here!"
Without warning, a large hand clapped roughly over my mouth and an arm wrapped itself around my stomach, lifting me off my feet and hauling me away. Though I struggled uselessly to escape my assailant, I wasn't nearly strong enough.
My little adventure was over within half a minute; my captor dragged me across the hall, rudely forcing me into a chair as I got my first glimpse of him: an old, muscled dwarf with a beard streaked brown and gray. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked incredulously, straightening his whiskers. "Are you
trying to get yourself taken?"
Too bewildered to respond, my eyes slowly scanned my surroundings. I was sitting in a chair, in a laboratory that looked remarkably liked Mr Frogs, except the equipment didn't look hobbled-together, and there was a greater variety of heavy machinery. My chair was turned backwards from a table and facing towards the door, fifteen feet away.
In the hallway outside, I heard a muffled, "Damn it! Where'd she go?" followed by silence.
My kidnapper regained my attention by snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Hey. You. What's wrong with you? Are you daft?"
"Not
another one, Golchek?" groned a woman's voice from behind me. Even without looking, I could detect a roll of the eyes. "You're no white knight, so you should stop acting like one."
Golchek's attention wandered for a moment. "Hush up, now, Daneerah. Of course another one. I don't usually find 'em in the hallways, though." He turned back to me, squinching his wrinkled eyes. "You're new here, obviously. You shouldn't go around poking your nose in places it oughtn't be."
"What? I... You..." I stammered, trying to figure out what was going on. "Why do you think I'm new?"
Golchek stepped back and gestured dramatically towards the blue laser-line of light on the floor, which was pulsing towards the doorway. "Doesn't take a genius," he muttered.
"They were
killing someone," I protested, growing angry as I tried to stand. "They'll
keep killing people if we don't stop them!"
Two hairy hands forced me back into the chair. "Don't I know it. There's nothing you or I could do, girl, so there's no sense in trying."
Slowly shaking my head in amazement, I whispered, "You don't even care..."
"Of course we do, honey," Daneerah corrected me from the other side of the room. Glancing over, I and saw a middle-aged, dark-haired dwarf in a labcoat and safety goggles. She was crouched next to a countertop, measuring a dark liquid in a vial before she poured it into a machine. "It's not that we don't care, it's just that we can't
do anything. It's how Parasol does things, and the government turns a blind eye - they don't even keep security cameras in laboratory buildings like this. They claim it's all for the sake of science. You didn't think we're so advanced because we sit around playing marbles all day, do you?"
I drew my eyebrows together, almost fuming. "But it's
wrong!" The dead girl's screaming still echoed in my head.
"They don't see it that way," Golchek said gently. I turned back to him. "They just have a different idea of morality. The most me and Daneerah can do is try to save however many folks we can."
"It's more him than me," Daneerah interrupted. "
I keep saying he's going to get us into trouble."
The dwarf mumbled something under his breath about probability. "Where are you going, anyway?" he asked, gesturing at the blue line again.
Closing my eyes, I mentally counted to ten, trying to calm myself. Finally, I answered, "To visit Solnay Hylcelon. Do you know where she is?"
Golchek shook his head. "Never heard of her. I suggest you follow... the..." his voice trailed off, and my eyes followed his to the ground. "Well, that's... different..."
The guiding line wasn't a line anymore... the lasers were flashing around on the floor faster than my eye could follow, forming a very clear, if faded, image. It was a face, bearing an empathetic, sorrowful expression, and I recognized it immediately.
It was Joseph.
☆
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2278214 times)