Homesick
I’m quiet as we enter the scout pod and rise toward Keesha’s ship.
I smell the Fiklow pilot’s fear, and I can’t help but touch his thoughts.
He wonders what I am.
A Jiku wearing a Fiklow body?
The shadow to the queen?
Or a spirit from the world of the dead, come to consume the living?
Geyfal’s Children
“Identical twins, born thousands of years apart?!”
“I asked Sindar the same question,” he says.
“He answered me with a gift of memories, taken from his father, and himself.”
“It’s the story of how the brothers were born, in a universe that you and I have never seen.”
“I don’t have Sindar’s ability to transfer memories to your mind, but I can summarize it for you.”
“If you let me,” I tell him, “I can view the memory, and even share it with Makish and B’tzel.”
Botzar turns to Makish.
“Do you trust him?” he asks her.… Read more
The Threat
The roof of the city, a thousand feet above us, is invisible at night, hidden behind an endless sea of bright stars.
By day, the crystal roof lets daylight pour through, to provide the city with a strong, even, light.
At night, the crystal strengthens the natural starlight, until the roof is covered with stars, and our eyes and the streets are filled with a gentle light.
The starlight takes hold of every path, and follows us as we walk through the city.
Even on this night of a dark moon.
The enhanced starlight has a … Read more
Council Hall
The guild council meets in a tall white building, with a flat, radiant black roof, that shines like a dark star in the center of Kirol city.
Once, before the energy war, there were buildings like this in many lands, but this is the last of the council halls.
They were shaped by the Bizra, fifty stories high – six hundred feet long, wide, and tall.
Few of the lands had any use for such an immense building, but no one argues with the Bizra.
The council hall is mostly empty, a quiet monument to ancient times.… Read more
Fountain
My awareness spins as I leave the seven towers and my life as a Gen.
Soon after, I awake in the small, cramped vat.
My body has grown again, leaving my sisters, the old ones, behind.
The world is different after my time with the Gen.
The future calls my name, and promises joy and possibility.
Still, my heart is unsettled.
I’m filled with sadness, and a strange feeling of urgency.
Something is wrong.
Not here, but somewhere far away.
I start down the ladder, and stop.
The liquid in the vat is a beautiful, sparkling green.… Read more
First Tournament
Vala and I hover, waiting, five hundred feet above the stadium, as the gates open.
Another newborn Gen and her master hover near us.
We watch the first rush of walkers, as they pass through the gates to get the best of the unreserved seats.
The arena where the Gen perform is round, a hundred feet across.
An empty space, five feet wide surrounds the arena.
Each row of seats forms its own circle around the performance area, rising, higher and higher, toward the outer walls of the stadium.
The first circle of seats is reserved for … Read more
