“You should have seen your face, don’t worry, the ward is gone, good idea,” she giggled.
Arkin gritted his teeth, but didn’t give her the satisfaction of making a remark. He reached out, disabling the other wards and protecting the window. He reached up and opened it. The window wasn’t even locked, which when he thought about it made sense. The wards were the lock. Climbing in behind him, Stacy was all business now. They moved like ghosts in the darkness from room to room until Arkin found the records cache he was looking for.
He opened a cabinet, rummaging inside. Stacy whispered to him. “I still don’t know what to look for.”
“I told you, anything that seems off.”
She huffed. “It’s a big city Arkin, I’m sure there is a lot that is ‘off,’ I mean, after all, we are half of what is making this city non-functioning. I need more to go on here.”
Arkin’s mind rushed.
What would tip us off?
He thought. Then it came to him. “They need a workforce.”
“A what? You aren’t making sense”
Arkin moved across the room. “Salez is a hub for those going into the care. Everyone who goes from this Province has to be processed in Salez. If you are doing something, you don’t want people to know about you use slave labor.”
“Or Iumenta…” Stacy pointed out.
“When have the Iumenta done their own lifting?” He stopped. We need to find the record rooms for those who go into the care.”
Arkin walked out of the room into the hall with Stacy hot on his heels. She was babbling about something, but he wasn’t paying attention. He found a door labeled “The Care,” and opened it. The room was vast with shelves of records from those in the care. The Empire documented everything, so if something was amiss, it would show up here. He looked around for almost an hour with a nervous Stacy standing guard. Finally he found something. “Stacy look at this.”
She came in and looked at the papers he had laid out. He started pointing. “Look at how many people they are sending to the North.”
She looked. “It’s wrong I know, but I don’t see anything unusual about it.”
“But it is. Look, not only has the number of the people going into the care gone up, but the demographic is what’s odd. Look, many of these people have the same physical attributes and talents. Why are so many people with the same skills and abilities all going to one city up North?”
She looked even more uncomfortable, and Arkin thought he’d hit a nerve somehow. “Arkin,” she said in a growl “I want to leave now.”
He looked over at her. Her face was covered in sweat, her eyes wide. “Ok, we can go,” he said, not knowing what had come over her and not wanting to push it. If there was one thing he’d learned over the years, it was that everyone had a breaking point. Sometimes those breaking points didn’t make any sense. You just didn’t want to be on a mission when they were met. He cleaned up the papers, making a mental note to go back to the building later. He’d have to figure out how to get past the wards.
Once outside the building they walked at a good pace trying to keep to the shadows. Salez had a curfew in place, but he didn’t think they would run into any trouble.
Over the next few weeks Arkin spent almost every evening checking out the records. He didn’t tell Stacy where he was going and she didn’t ask. He never found out what was wrong with her, but once back to her regular duties she seemed to go back to normal. Finally, one night he caught a break. As he read on he couldn’t believe what he had stumbled upon.
* * * * *
Legon glided down the hall with Iselin and Sasha close in tow. They entered the large war room to see Sydin and Opes already waiting for them there.
“This is unusual,” Legon commented.
From the center of the room came Arkin’s amplified voice. “Yes, I’m aware of that. Please forgive me for not using the normal channels.”
“That’s ok, what is it?” Opes asked.
“I have been looking into activity from up North as I’ve reported. Well, I’ve found something,” Arkin said.
Legon listened carefully as Arkin spoke. “I found some oddities in the care records, things just didn’t make any sense to me. There were more people than ever before going into the care and an even higher number going up north. It might not have made much of a difference if the normal types of people were going up north. Normally, maid types and services go north, with military types and hard labor going south. Given, many hard labor go north, but that’s unimportant. Those going to the North have the same physical, mental, and skill profiles and they are all going to an edge town up there, which makes me think they are going into one of the Iumenta Provinces.
“Before you interrupt, there is more. Many are being sent to one town, like I said, some go to a few other places, but the common thread was that they are all part of something called ‘Mors’…”
Legon stopped listening. He knew that name—not just its meaning, it was the word for death—but there was more to it. Something sinister in his memory. He thought hard, thinking back until he heard a gravelly voice speaking in Elvish and the word “Mors” jumped out. The man speaking had gray skin and yellow eyes. “When have I been around an Iumenta that I wasn’t trying to kill?” he said out loud.
The room went silent. “What’s that, Legon?” Sasha asked.
“I’ve heard that word spoken by an Iumenta, but it was a long time ago and I can’t place it.”
“How can that be, I thought you had a perfect memory,” Arkin said.
“I do have a perfect memory, but it’s like it’s not mine…” Then it came to him. “Sara!”
* * * * *
Sara Leaned into Keither’s warmth. They were spending the day with his family. Brack and Margaret were rattling on about the street they lived on, what Misses so and so was doing, and so on. The couple had settled into Manton well. Brack was working at a foundry as the foreman and Margaret was enjoying herself. There was a knock at the door and Brack rose to answer it.
“So Margaret, I hear you’re becoming famous in this area for your cakes,” Sara winked.
Margaret laughed. “Flattery is always the key my dear. Would you like so—Brack, what is it?”
Brack came back into the room with a tall man.
“Tuneal?” Keither said, surprised.
The raven-haired Elf gave them a slight nod. “Sara, Keither, it is good to see you again. Keither, I take it this is your mother, Margaret.” Tuneal held out his hand and shook Margaret’s hand. Her face was turning pink.
“Please sit down, what brings you by?” Keither said.
“I am most sorry to be so rude as to decline visiting for a while, but it’s business that brings me here today.” He turned to Sara. “Sara, if you would be so kind, your presence is needed at the dome.”
Her presence was needed at the dome? What was going on? Keither looked concerned and from his thoughts she could tell he had no idea what this was about either.
“Tuneal, what is going on?” she asked.
Tuneal’s face softened. “Sara, we just need to find out some information about when you were in Salez. I am sorry, but we cannot risk an insecure connection to Seeon.”
So they were going to be talking to the capital, were they, and it needed to be secure. She huffed, resigned. “Ok, I will pack some stuff up.”
“That won’t be necessary, we will be flying. I’m sure you will be back before dinner.”
“Flying? This is important, isn’t it.”
He nodded and looked at Keither. “If you would like…”
“Don’t worry about it, I don’t need to know.” He looked at Sara. “Unless you need me there?” he asked. Her time in Salez never came up. It didn’t bother her so much. Legon had taken care of that when he freed her, but they weren’t pleasant memories. This was something that Legon and Sasha knew, therefore, if they were asking her to remember that time in her life, then they needed something badly.
She left the two-story house and walked next to Tuneal down the white paved street. Her steps were the only ones that could be heard. Tuneal walked with quiet grace. People on the street would glance in their direction as they walked, but Tuneal didn’t seem to notice. He just walked briskly to a large field where children would go to play.
Tuneal turned his green eyes to her. “I assume in Seeon you flew?” he asked.
“Yes, Ise would take us. It was scary, but fun too.”
He nodded, the blue flecks in his eyes glinting, and he stepped away from her, motioning for her to stay put. He turned back to her and his form changed in front of her eyes. People in the area gasped as the giant blue dragon grew out of the man. Sara realized that most if not all of the people in the area, while they had seen dragons, had never seen anyone Ascend. After living in Seeon, she now could see the difference in size. It was obvious that Tuneal was a class seven, and a powerful one at that.
He lowered his head to her level. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” she said as a mist of blue surrounded her, picking her up and placing her on his back, sticking her in place. She leaned against his neck as he reared up to take flight. The sun was obscured as his wings lifted into the sky. He drove upwards with a jump, driving his massive blue wings down, pushing them up in the air. Sara felt a sticking spell keep her on his back and the wind buffeted her. This was different from being on Iselin. Tuneal was larger and more powerful. If she was being honest, it was smoother with Tuneal as well. She was connected with his mind and he commented, “Sevens are larger and therefore we seem smoother. It’s just because wind currents don’t affect us as much.”
They soared through the azure sky, looking down on the white-capped Cornis Mountains. The air was cold this high up, but Tuneal placed a spell around Sara, heating the air. As the time passed, she found the rhythmic thudding of his wings to be relaxing. Soon enough, she could see the Dragon Dome on the horizon.
They descended, seeming to almost hit the mountains. As they approached the opening to the dome she felt a little nervous. Logically, she knew the opening was more than big enough for even a class eight, but from a distance it was just a small hole in the top of a hill. They glided close and Sara was tempted to shut her eyes. The small hole didn’t appear to be growing, but right as they got to it the opening seemed to expand to let them in. They came down to the hanger floor and touched down lightly.
“The opening always looks like that, it’s the angle we come in at—it’s deceiving.”
She chuckled. “I’d say!”
They made their way to a conference room that had a large crystal table in the center of it. Upon entering, Tuneal shut the door behind them. “We are here,” he said.
Legon’s voice came over the crystal. “Hello Sara, I hope all is well, and that we didn’t pull you from anything important.”
“We are good. What is going on Legon?” she asked, getting right down to business.
“When you were in Salez, your owner spoke about something called ‘Mors.’ Do you remember that?”
She blanched, and her voice caught a bit. “Ummm, yes, I do sadly, don’t you? You have my memories, don’t you?”
“I have the memories of your pain, yes, and you connect this word with pain, but the word itself never hurt you, so I can’t place it.”
She took a moment. “The owner would talk in Elvish to other Iumenta and sometimes he sent us to the regular barracks, but other times,” she paused so that she could stay in control of her shaking voice, “they sent us to the others.” Her voice caught and she went on. “We knew when it was going to happen, because he would say something about Mors. It always seemed to bother him, like he was having to make a sacrifice.”
“Sara, I’m sorry, but can you tell us more? I know this is hard for you. If you would prefer, I can ask everyone else to leave us alone,” Legon said. “Please, just a little more, just enough for my memory to connect the dots, then I promise we won’t talk of this again.”
She nodded. “Ok, they did stuff to us. They had no feeling whatsoever. A few of the girls died…” she choked. “They would—”
Legon stopped. “I am so sorry Sara, are you talking about where Peg and Jean were killed?” He said, and she could tell from the tone of his voice that he was remembering it now.
“Yes, that’s the place.”
“Ok Sara, you’re done now. I am sorry.”
“Do you need more?” She asked, torn between not wanting to remember, and a need to help.
“No, now that I know what place you’re talking about, when you say Mors I will be able to remember back from the memories I took from you. With your permission, I will show some of your memories to my advisors so that they fully understand what happened.”
“Ok, that’s fine, are they going to play on the crystal?” She asked, not sure if she wanted to know.
“Yes, but you don’t hav—“
“I’ll do it,” she said, cutting off Legon. She didn’t want those memories, but they were hers. If Legon’s staff needed to understand what took place, then they were to fully understand. “They are my memories, I should do it.”
“Are you sure?” Legon asked.
In response, her mind reached out to the crystal as images and sounds flashed across it for everyone in to see. She couldn’t show them everything, but she was able to fill almost an hour of time, including how Peg and Jean were killed. When the images and sounds stopped, no one spoke. Legon thanked her in a shaky voice, and the connection with Seeon was cut off. An ashen-faced Tuneal walked Sara to his apartment and made her some hot chocolate.
“This will help,” he said soothingly. “Sara, I don’t know everything that happened to you, but now I know enough, and what you went through must have been horrific. How do you live after that?” he asked.
She took a moment. “What you saw today was by far the worst of it, not to say that my time in the care was pleasant by any stretch, but… every time I thought I was going to break and lose it, my owner would have me do something else. Not at first. He broke us at first, but once we would do what we were told, he tried to keep us from going mad. Not out of some sense of caring, but rather I think he figured that if we lost our minds we wouldn’t make him as much money,” she explained.