Reunion

Chapter Eleven, Summer 2037

Before they’d found Marshall and Jewel, Color and Myles were still biking following the trail in the woods. Myles stopped for the second time only twenty minutes later and gestured to the ground. Though they were on pavement, he pointed to small footprints of mud. “Cavs, just ahead of us. If we had been on the road, they would have seen us.”

“What about the trail we’re following?” Color lowered her voice.

“It keeps going toward them. Any ideas on what we do?” Myles said.

They sat on their bikes, looking forward and thinking.

“What if they were captured?” Myles said.

“If they put up a big enough fight or try to escape and fail, the cavs would have killed them. Maybe the girl knows this and let Marshall know. They usually head straight into Stablefield, right? Why did they stop?” Color said.

“I don’t know. I wonder if they’re waiting for someone to come along the road?” Myles and Color looked behind them to see if someone was there. Maybe there would be whoever the cavs were waiting for.

Myles said, “Or Marshall and the girl were ahead of them enough and made it the city. It would make sense too; the cavs would probably be much slower with all that cargo and the wagons and stuff.”

“Then lets sneak around them and head to the city through the woods. We’ll have to wait until dark to get into the city anyway. Shame that we can’t travel on a road though.”

They traveled through the forest; it was tough going, but they did it and eventually reached the edge where they could see Stablefield beyond. From the top of one of the hills, the city rose. A mighty, and seemingly makeshift, city of wooden structures, the Ledge surrounding half of it. Surrounding the city were stumps of logs; trees felled recently and turned into lumber to keep building. There were several square miles of stumps surrounding Stablefield, making the roads to the main gates easy to spot. Myles sensed that under the rock there were great beams of steels holding the stone together. The entire city was elaborately planned on a section of rock that was destined to stay together for a long time. 

“That’s Stablefield,” Color said. “It’s hard to sneak in because you can see people coming from a long way off since all the trees were cut down.”

Myles stood on his bike waiting, wondering. He still felt the glow of the recent psychedelic trip and was thinking about his brain and the flurry of connections it had made. “Mariah is in there somewhere. Maybe all of the other Astronomers too. How to get in is the dilemma.”

“Remember, it’s mostly run by Cavaliers.” Color adjusted her pack, ensuring it was tight. She checked the knives on her shins as well and straightened the spear on her back. “We need to reach the top of the city as quickly as we can and keep out of sight. I remember there being gangs of fraisers up higher as well. Some gangs sell other fraisers to the Cavaliers and since there are only two of us, we’ll have to be stealthy.”

“It’ll be easier for you,” Myles said. “I’ll seem like a clumsy ox compared to your deft movement.”

“Don’t worry.” She gave him a light punch. “We need to find a good opening since the main gates will all be watched by Cavaliers. What is it?”

Myles appeared to be sidetracked, studying the ground. “I think I found the scent again. I didn’t think Marshall would have come this way… but.” The Sage looked up toward the right of the city and started walking at a brisk pace. Then he said over his shoulder. “We’re not too far behind them!”

Color bushwacked right behind Myles as he tumbled through the woods like a bear, snapping twigs in his way, letting his feet whisk only centimeters from the ground.

Up ahead, an asphalt road came into view.

“He must have gone this way!” Myles said in a controlled whisper.

“Willis?” a familiar voice said from above their heads.

Color’s hands darted to her knives, but paused as Myles said, “Baker?”

Two fraisers began darting around the branches in a large tree next to Color and Myles. They hopped the branches as if they could stick to them, performing movements as smooth as gymnasts.

Myles was speechless, realizing part of him didn’t think their plan would work, but here he was: He found the Guru.

“Am I speaking to the Sage?” Marshall said, landing in a roll and rising a short distance from Myles.

“Why is the Guru wearing a blindfold like fuckin’… Cyclops?” Myles ran to his friend and threw a hug around Marshall’s shoulders who returned it. The two Astronomers embraced tightly; Myles felt it wasn’t right to let go, but eventually Marshall said, “Alright, you fag, let me go.”

Myles pulled his head away and put his hands on the sides of Marshall’s head. “What happened to…” But he could feel, just by the touch, how the Guru’s eyes had been gouged like a prisoner. The pain he must have felt. All of the life he would never know; his eyes were gone.

Myles said, “They took your eyes.”

“Fuckers took my eyes, Myles. Barbarian Cavs took ‘em out.”

“You’re a hush and you’ve adapted, I see.”

“Would have been harder without her,” Marshall stepped aside and gestured to the girl.

Jewel, Myles knew her name; the girl from Mariah’s dream. Prophetic information flowed naturally to him. “Jewel,” he said, waving to her.

“Marshall said you were a prophet.” Jewel waved back, acknowledging Myles knowing her name. 

“As of yesterday, yeah,” Myles said.

“How do you like my ninja gear?” Marshall said.

“It’s awesome! Swords and everything!” Myles said and remembered Color. “This is Color, Marshall.”

Marshall cocked his head and faced Color. “Hello. Seems we both picked up chicks on our way here, huh, Myles?”

Jewel pulled her left foot from the ground and gave a satisfyingly smooth kick to Marshall’s shoulder which he could only partially dodge. Myles’s back was to Color, but he knew she was looking directly at him, waiting for an excuse to do the same.

“You don’t even know what yours looks like,” Myles said, assuming the risk of the comment.

Color slapped the back of Myles’s head as he laughed. “She’s an Astronomer. I initiated her already. We found bikes too, as you can see. And I’m glad to see you’re armed because we only have Color’s spear and knives and I can’t fight worth a damn. We prophets sure are a vulnerable lot; no wonder we’re so rare.”

Marshall laughed. “Different planet altogether and you still had an initiation? Well, I guess it’s easier with a bike, hm?”

Myles said, “Yeah.””

“Any sign of the others?” Marshall asked.

“No. Pretty sure you two were here before us. You were in Mariah’s dream, right? You heard what she said about dreamscoping and everything?”

“Yeah. You hear what I said about facelights?”

“I did, but I don’t understand what you were saying.”

“I still don’t know what the hell I was talking about either. I thought it was gibberish.”

“Maybe Atlas will know,” Myles said.

“Mariah said she and Langley and Atlas would be here,” Color intervened.

Marshall turned in a few directions, swords clacking against themselves. “I don’t know if he’s out here. Jewel and I have been camping in that tree for a few hours now, having knife-throwing competitions and talking about how hard it would be to chop down a whole forest with only these swords and what you could build with the felled trees.”

“He said he would make a treehouse,” Jewel said. 

“I’ve always wanted one,” Marshall said without looking at Jewel.

“If you’re a prophet, can you read minds?” Marshall said.

Myles shrugged. “In a sense, yes. I can hear what’s at the front of your mind, but I don’t know any of your memories unless you bring them up.”

Marshall nodded slowly. 

“Also, I would have to focus on listening to your mind if I wanted to hear it,” Myles added. “Right now I can’t hear anything because I’m not trying. Do you have any ideas on how to find Atlas, Mariah, or Langley?”

“What about Pretty and Blink?” Marshall said.

“We haven’t been able to contact them at all.”

“What if Cavs caught them?”

“No,” Myles said firmly. “I don’t want to think that. And I don’t believe it either.”

“So… how did you contact them at first?” Marshall said.

“They contacted us,” Myles said. “They used dreams.”

“Can you?”

Myles was staring into space, thinking. Then he nodded. “I’d have to be asleep to contact them, but I think I know how they did it. Those mushrooms bridged all of the gaps, Marshall; it’s like I know all kinds of parts of my mind now, and I know where some holes are, but I don’t know what fills them.”

“Marshall, what about the caravan?” Jewel said.

“Oh, shit. Myles, Color, there’s a caravan of like a ton of Cavaliers with a bunch of fraisers that are heading to Stablefield for some kind of big exchange. There’s this one fraiser with them that I can literally sense emitting that fraiser-juice that’s inside of us. They’re staying the night somewhere else because they know that the guy buying from them is still a while off.”

“So we don’t want to be near here by tomorrow?”

“Nope.”

“Should we sneak into the city before then? Sometime tonight?”

Myles considered this. He noticed everyone here was looking for him to call the shots. Usually, Pretty was in this position and Myles kept thinking Pretty would answer these questions, but Marshall, Color, and Jewel all looked up to him right now. “From the dream, it sounded like they were already at Stablefield,” Myles said, looking toward the city. “So yeah.”

“Think we missed them?”

“I don’t know, but if they’re in there now…” Myles was eying the smoke that was puttering from the top of the city in several and many thin wisps. “They’re there.” He pointed to a column of smoke.

The three others looked or faced the city.

“Okay, what is he pointing to?” Marshall asked.

“Just the city,” Jewel said. “Myles what do you mean?”

“The smoke. It’s a beacon.” He looked at the rest of the Astronomers’ faces. “One of those smokes was made by Mariah, Langley, and Atlas, who is watching them right now.”

“There are so many pillars of smoke; how can you be sure?” Jewel said.

“I’ve just learned to go along with whatever he says,” Color said. “He has trouble lying about things.”

“Trouble lying?” Marshall let a smile grow onto his face. “So he would answer honestly to any question I asked him?”

Color’s insides seemed to heat up and she smiled as well. “I’m not sure.”

“Don’t ask me anything until we find Langley and Pretty,” Myles said. “I’m not ready for the hot seat.”

“So we take the city once night falls?” Marshall asked.

Myles looked at the three. It felt strange being the one in charge when you didn’t ask for it, but in this moment he realized that those granted the most wisdom and insight usually find themselves calling the shots when nobody else wants to. It’s a great opportunity to endanger everyone and to rescue them. What a lonesome job, he thought as he nodded to the question. “We sneak in at nighttime. Have any of you been inside of the city before?”

Color and Jewel raised their hands.

But Jewel interrupted, “But don’t you think it’s a little strange how fast everything is moving and how easily everything fell into place?”

Myles shook his head. “I think Atlas has been pulling more strings than we realize, the dreamscoping brought us here, and we’re all safe. Now, what’s the best way to get inside Stablefield?”

“I’ve only entered through the main gates,” Color admitted.

“I know the one spot Ripley and I took a couple of times. Which column of smoke are we aiming for?” she asked.

“The one more in the middle… back a bit.” Myles pointed.

Jewel stood alongside him and looked down his arm. “The grayish one?”

“They’re kind of all gray,” Myles said. “It’s in that general direction. And from what Color told me, it sounds like the city is three levels and if we’re on the third level, we should be able to follow the smoke that way.”

“The third level has gangs, so we’ll have to pass quietly, but we could do it. I wish I had a knife.”

Color reached down and unstrapped one of her shin-sheaths. There was a red impression on the soft, white exposed skin where the velcro had dug into her. She flipped her white hair out of her face as her head came level with Jewel’s and she handed the knife, sheath and all, to her.

Jewel’s face brightened with a touch of concern. “Are you sure?”

“Yes; it’s nice to meet you, Jewel. I’m Color.”

“Your boy isn’t as cute as mine,” Jewel said.

Both girls laughed at this, Marshall grinned, and Myles shook his head. “Dummies.”

“Aww,” Color said, mimicking rubbing tears from her eyes. “Is Myles gonna cry?”

“My girl…” Myles started and then trailed off.

The silence that followed nearly knocked him over. Marshall broke it with: “Care to finish that sentence?”

“Yeah,” Color said, “What were you going to say?”

Myles considered his answer and then said: “I wouldn’t want her any different, that’s all.”

That same heavy silence filled with meaning followed. Myles looked up to see all three of them smiling back at him.

Myles took a deep breath and changed the subject by saying, “What are we doing in the meantime?”

It turned out that they were doing nothing and decided to simply banter, hunt, refill their water bottles.

Once night fell a couple of hours later, they navigated the brush-heavy expanse before the city. Jewel led the pack, Myles right behind her. Color followed Myles and Marshall brought the rear, hands on his weapons. With every few steps, each fraiser glanced at the rim of the city, waiting to see the glint of a cavalier’s helmet or feel their predatory eyes, but their anxious looks revealed nothing.

The walls hovered higher and bigger as their patient, dark walk continued until they were close enough to touch. Jewel turned left just before hitting the wall and continued. Myles began to notice just how deft even the hushes’ footsteps were as they made their way along the wooden shell of the city.

Now that Myles was close to the city, he could sense what was going on through the walls on his right. Most of these places were empty of people and housed either tools or equipment. One floor up, about fifteen feet, he could sense movement and speaking every now and again.

‘-Please don’t. I’d rather you didn’t. Shit.’ Someone was saying, though they were out of earshot. They were speaking to their cat who had woken them from a nap by lying on their neck.

Cats still exist! Myles thought to himself. He felt closer to home and less of a stranger with that small fact.

‘-Nineninenine shiddd… I’m in town. Partys goin’ down, yuh.’

Someone was loosely singing something. Another song from the future probably, Myles thought.

‘I’m affected by it! You doing this affects me! I can’t sleep unless you’re here, understand?’

‘Brilliant. Brilliant. Wonderful move.’ Myles couldn’t tell what these words were referencing.

Another thing he heard was snoring.

“I can hear someone snoring from here,” Marshall whispered.

“Me too,” Myles said back.

“Shhh,” Jewel instructed. “Almost there, unless I passed it.” She stopped walking and asked herself: “Did I pass it?”

She turned around and passed all three of them. Myles followed and the line of fraisers backtracked.

‘Sure you want to do that? I’ll take your rook in two moves.’ Myles heard that earlier voice above. They must be playing chess.

‘Shut the fuck up in there!’ Myles heard faintly along with rhythmic thumping as the fraisers stopped at another part of the wall. “Jeepers,” the Sage said.

“What?” Jewel looked at him.

“Nothing. I’m just able to hear a lot more with my prophesying through these walls.”

Jewel nodded and seemed to step directly into the darkness of the wall, like the city absorbed her.

Myles stepped into the darkness and could now see a sliver of light partially blocked by Jewel’s body. The alley she was leading them through would be barely too narrow for wheelchair and felt partially frightening to walk down.

“Kinda tight, huh?” Myles said, before Color nudged him. “What’re you waiting for?”

Myles filled his lungs like he was about to blow up a balloon and he held the breath like the balloon was waiting for him on the other side of the alley. He shuffled, footsteps scuffling around his ankles, trying to head through the passage as fast as he could.

Jewel held her hand out as he made it to the end and pulled him through before the alleyway could swallow him. Color and Marshall popped out seconds after him. Their whole environment changed from forest and foliage to a rutty dirty road and several layers of balcony overhead.

Myles noticed Jewel hesitate and then look at him. “Now what?”

“I need to get another look at that smoke.”

“Third level,” Jewel said with a nod. “How well can you climb?”

Myles shrugged. He could have climbed the tree they were waiting in.

“The rest of us could probably climb any of these buildings. Would you like a staircase?”

“A ladder or staircase would be nice,” Myles said.

“I think there’s a bar that leads to the top.” Jewel started leading them down the street.

As they walked, Myles could hear the voices everywhere when he opened his mental ears even slightly. He was having trouble closing them.

They reached an establishment with shuttered windows. Myles wondered about them for a second and realized there was no glass in the frame. He looked at the surrounding buildings. None of them had glass.

“Follow me quickly. It’s better if we move fast,” Jewel said as she opened the door which took some weight to open. The bottom scraped the floor and inside all of the faces at the tables looked up slowly like a herd of cows and most returned to their original position. Some didn’t, like the bartender and two men in a boothlike table. On their table were helmets with white feathers and at their hips were swords.

Cutlasses, Myles thought.

Jewel walked quickly to the back of the bar, the men at the table and the bartender watching their steps. Myles looked at the bartender’s face and sensed the man was feeling familiarity. His mouth was partially open as if he were going to say something, but nothing came out as the four fraisers took the wooden, handrail-less set of stairs up. The staircase was dark; Myles wondered where the lightbulbs were before he remembered just where he was. In two minutes Myles was out of breath and was three stories high.

“That many stairs will wind me any day,” he said to Color who nodded with a smile.

They were still inside, but the windows, also shuttered, led to rooftops, which Jewel pushed open and began crawling through, one foot first, her legs almost doing a split as the initial foot reached through to the other side and found a step on the rooftop. She left the building behind and Marshall was next to follow her.

Myles looked down the staircase as Color went through and he saw the two men from the table. They were now wearing their helmets and were looking at him curiously. Then they began climbing the steps quickly and Myles scrambled through the window as fast as he could.

“Which column of smoke, Myles?” Jewel asked.

“I think those two cavaliers are heading up the steps and are chasing us right now,” Myles said.

All three hushes tensed and looked back at the window. Marshall put his hand on his daisho’s hilt and Color and Jewel each reached for their knives.

“Find the smoke; we’ll make sure they don’t bother us,” Marshall said, loosening his daito and shoto in their scabbards.

Myles looked across the city and saw the thick and thin, billowy or transparent, gray or white. None of them were ringing bells at first.

Then, like seeing an old friend’s silhouette from a distance, he recognized the smokestack and pointed out a mostly-white stack a quarter-mile away.

The cavaliers opened the shutters, their helmeted faces giving a half-hearted glance through the portal.

Marshall, Jewel, and Color gave them some distance and started following Myles toward the smoke. Myles could hear the cavaliers muttering, “Shoulda moved faster.”

“They were ready to capture us? Just like that?” Myles said.

“It was good we moved fast, wasn’t it?” Jewel said.

“I would have killed them if they tried anything stupid,” Marshall said. Myles could sense the dedication to those words. Marshall was hardly the cop’s son anymore.

They traveled to the smoke and Mariah is watching the fire while Atlas and Langley are asleep.

Myles pointed to a small window nearby that led into the room just across from the one Mariah, Myles, and Atlas were in.

Myles walked up to the shutter and knocked. Mariah had partially anticipated this and was not startled by the sudden sound. Langley woke up, but Atlas stayed asleep.

“Whassthat?” Langley started stretching.

“Myles and Marshall and a couple of others, just outside of the window,” Mariah said, rising as the shutter opened to reveal Myles, travel-worn in his reddish jacket, a white-haired girl with a spear on her back and a backpack strapped close to her, another girl in a jean-jacket with an even shorter haircut, and Marshall wearing a blindfold.

“Willis!” Langley shouted and sprang forward, tackling Myles with both arms (OOF) and carrying him up in his small flight. Color and Marshall, directly behind the Sage, were able to dodge out of the way with two small yelps.

“Jeepers, you… knocked… the wind outta me,” gasped Myles, his eyes bugging out. “There isn’t much air to go around up here, …you know.”

“Who gives a shit, dickhead? I can fly!” Langley flew them both back to the building. The rest of the fraisers were watching Langley and Myles return and once they had all made their way into the room with much shuffling, muttering, and giggling, Langley, Marshall, Myles, and Mariah exchanged hugs and Mariah and Langley were introduced to Color and Jewel.

As this was going on, Atlas woke up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He looked around the room and his eyes stopped on the Sage.

“Myles Willis?”

“So they tell me,” Myles said. This was something his dad used to say.

Atlas nodded with a small smile. “You saw the smoke?”

“Yeah.”

“Glad that worked.” Atlas rose to his feet and walked over the Myles. Atlas was a head taller than everyone in the room aside from Langley. Atlas extended his hand. “Atlas Black. Pleased to meet you at last.”

Myles extended his own hand and shook Atlas’s, looking him right in the eye. Usually, Myles looked at the hand of the person he was shaking because it was usually an adult and adults were far above him in social status. But with Atlas, it was as if he were the same: some kind of explorer.

“An ethernaut is the word you’re looking for; an explorer of the void,” Atlas said.

Myles remembered listening to peoples’ frontal thoughts and tried to hear Atlas’s, but there was nothing to hear.

“He knows how to block it,” Mariah said, listening to Myles’s confusion.

“Maybe I’ll teach you that trick sometime,” Atlas said. “Did you see a caravan nearing the city on your way in?”

Marshall raised his hand. “I did. We did.” He gestured slowly to Jewel.

“Did…?” he trailed off as his eyes found Jewel in the semi-darkness. “You said your name was Jewel?”

“Does my name mean something to you?”

“Not particularly, which is what amazes me.” Atlas shifted from facing Myles to face Jewel. “The jacket,” Atlas touched it lightly and pinched the collar. “Where did you get this?”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” Jewel said.

“Cristler’s Curiosity Shoppe?”

Jewel’s eyebrows jumped at that name. “Yeah.”

“Which means you spoke with Lazaro.”

“Yeah.” Jewel dropped her gaze at that sentence as if it brought about a bad memory. “I’m guessing you had a conversation with him too?”

“I did. At the time I had the highest legacy bond he had ever seen. Then I heard about Coh.”

“Who’s Coh?”

“The whole reason I’m on this planet. He’s most likely under copper restraints so his fraise is being stifled, but he could lift this whole city if he wanted to.”

“What… the hell are you guys talking about? Do you know each other?” Langley said. “Atlas, who is this? And how do you know so much about her?”

“I don’t. But we had similar experiences in the past,” Atlas said and then looked at Jewel. “I hope that jacket serves you well. The dragon-patch reminds me of the one jacket from Akira.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Jewel said.

“Akira. The anime? Langley, we saw that one at Pretty’s house… probably like a month ago if we’re honest.”

“You know Akira? The one kid with the pill on the back of his jacket?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. We replayed that one scene like a million-”

“Okay, okay, Langley,” Myles cut in, starting to blush. The scene where the girls shirt gets ripped off and her tits fall out? That scene?

“Myles!” Mariah said, slapping him on the arm.

“Don’t listen to my head, you snitch,” Myles said.

“Wait, what scene?” Color asked the Sage who shook his head and started smiling. “It’s stupid.”

“Coh must be in the caravan then?” Atlas said.

“Something was with a fraiser-smell that I could actually detect from far away. Is that who you’re talking about?” Marshall said.

“That’s good,” Atlas said. “It means he’s still alive and they haven’t killed him like idiots. I’ve heard they have a deal with one of the staffbearers, the Shepherd. He owns a boat called the Stone Compass. They’re planning on making a trade once the Compass docks in Stablefield. The docks are about a mile away from here, but it takes almost thirty minutes to get there if you’re traveling by roof. The hushes I’m not worried about, or you Langley, but Mariah, Myles, and myself can’t travel as quickly.”

Marshall didn’t know why they were discussing this like this was the only thing to do. “We’re still missing Astronomers.”

“We gotta find them first, Atlas,” Langley said.

“Finding the remaining Astronomers can wait, but if we miss our window to rescue Coh, we’ll have to chase the Stone Compass and take Coh forcefully.”

“Why can’t Coh just escape on his own?”

“He probably could, but the Shepherd will have him traded before he has that opportunity. I doubt the Shepherd wants to keep Coh; he just wants to trade for a much better price.” Atlas shook his head. “’How much money does a rich man need to be content? The answer is “more”.’ He’ll use Auric to protect Coh until Coh is traded again.”

“What’s Auric?” Myles asked.

“The Amber Staff, called Auric, one of the Axiom Staffs. Have any of you heard of them? Jewel?”

“Ripley spoke briefly of them, but didn’t go into detail,” Jewel said.

“So what’s the deal with them?” Myles said.

“Quorux!” Atlas said.

Langley and Mariah groaned while the rest of the group exchanged glances of pure confusion.