Loris of New Castle

Chapter 5

Other information you learn in New Castle citizenship classes: nobody knows exactly why the earth went to sleep. They are not even sure it had to do with the sterilization of the human species. All the RCFers, the retrochronofanters, archivists and historical reconstructionists are able to tell is that probably 100 to 150 years ago, that’s what they call suns, the human species stopped reproducing. Obviously, it wasn’t noticeable at first. A few small continental countries began dropping in numbers. Since it was all the most technologically advanced countries, everyone just thought it was a choice. By the time scientists realized that even the most virile and prolific of peoples were no longer conceiving, it was too late.

All the modern medicine and conventional wisdom was to no avail. When epidemic after epidemic took the old and whatever young were left, panic swept the world. As a people, humanity entered the stages of grieving. Already in denial long enough, accusations began to fly against governments, science, conspiracies. Governance that had stood for centuries crumbled. Country raged against country. Scientific labs were burned and corporations dismantled and charged, accused of poisoning the soil and the populace that depended on it. It was a dark time for technology.

Humanity never had a chance to reach acceptance and healing. In the midst of all the war, sickness, and disease, the earth gave up as well. Volcanoes across the globe did what so many men feared devices of war would do first: they blackened the sky. The earth cooled and winter wrapped the earth for a generation. Yet, humanity somehow persevered.

The price, however, was a global dark age. Mistrustful of the faces that had lied to them and betrayed them, government, religion, science, and business, those who survived formed smaller roaming tribes. A few tried, with limited success, to rebuild cities and defend themselves from migrating marauders. The technology and medicine they might have been able to rely upon, abandoned them. The earth had changed.

Principles that had long stood in place to help man rise from existence among the beasts were no longer dependable or downright dangerous. Fire, the ever constant companion of man in his ascent to master over the wild, now became a traitor and an enemy. Chemical compounds more complicated than basic cookery became poison. Electricity was death. The Gift of the Arcadians, as it came to be called, stripped us of everything that had made us the dominant species in the first place, reducing humanity to terrified savages.

For three generations the earth slept. I can understand that. Mankind had done so much hurt and wrong to what they felt entitled to, I understand that she just rolled over and took a long sleep. While she slept, however, one man dreamed.

Jonathan Halvman dreamed of a city of lights and a woman named Glorianna who would mother a new civilization.

“Glorianna is Halvman’s life mate?” I asked.

Beka was half asleep, her face smooshing into the heel of her hand, elbow propped on her desk. With a jerk her head slid off her hand and snapped upwards at my question.

“Wha-what?”

I gestured to where the Professor droned on and repeated myself.

“Glorianna is Halvman’s life mate?”

Beka made an odd face and shook her head.

“No, uh Glorianna isn’t real, she’s-“

“What do you mean she’s not real?!” Moron butted in indignantly. “There’s been a Glorianna in New Castle ever since its founding.”

“Not as a person though,” Beka huffed, “Don’t confuse her, Moron. It’s complicated enough that-“

“Miss Beka! Master Finnias! Is there something you would like to share with the classroom?” Professor barked from the front of the room. I think he intended to embarrass and quiet my companions. Poor man.

“Beka said that Glorianna doesn’t exist!” Moron declared indignantly.

“I did not! I said she wasn’t real, “Beka retorted. “I was trying to answer Lorus’s question-“

“Not existing and not real are the same thing, “Moron interrupted. “You’re splitting hairs.”

“They are not, “Beka snapped. “You’re splitting hairs.”

“Ah um, Lorus!” Professor shouted over their bickering. “You had a question about Glorianna?”

It did effectively halt the argument, but now the attention was on me. I glared back at Moron and Beka. Both stared back innocently. They had put me on the spot.

“L-Lorus wants to know if Glorianna is Halvman’s life mate.”

Professor pondered for a moment, pinching his bottom lip and looking up. I glanced at the ceiling just to see if there was anything there. There was not.

“Hmm, I see. Interesting question of semantics,” he nodded. “My best answer is that Glorianna was not Halvman’s so to speak; Glorianna is New Castle’s life mate.”

Satisfied with his answer, Professor gave an affirmative nod then turned his back on us so he could go back to lecturing.

I should have known Gimlet would not give up so easily. As we exited the school house, he was there, this time waiting and talking with the Captain. She was still as stiff and starched as ever, but this time I noticed something different as she strode over to address us. Her ears were red.

“Evening all. Right, so this chap, Jacki here, says all he wants is some time to connect with his little sister-“

“Lorus is not Jack’s sister!” I interjected.

The Captain glanced at me and shrugged, “Whatever. He filled out the right paperwork, and he gets at least fifteen minutes.” At this point the pink crept into the tops of her cheeks, and she couldn’t help a look over her shoulder. Gimlet smiled back. “Although, considering his patience during the process and he did have sort of a rough time at the start, you could see him for a little longer, say twenty or so if you like.”

I sighed. It had already begun.

“Lorus is tired. Long day,” I murmured. “We do this tomorrow?”

Moron, Beka, and Raikan had been standing by in different postures of scowling, frowning in concern, and cool observation. Of course Moron was the first to speak.

“I say, Captain! This all rather turned about for you, isn’t it,” he complained, “Just last week you were saying how put off you were all these immigrants were always leaning on you for favors and special treatment. Surely you’re not letting this one get to you.”

Moron’s face was a little too smug.

“Certainly not!” the Captain snapped. “This man waited the duration, filled out the paperwork, and now he has legitimate quarter to seek a meeting with this charge! As far as special treatment, Scionsan Wiglaf, if you think those belching, fuming, polluting contraptions you’ve got tucked in the thicket around Arsenal have gone unnoticed, you are sorely mistaken! In fact I think it’s about time for another routine inspection of your shoal’s labs and workshops, including the one built in the clock tower shell that you think no one knows about.”

“Hold on!” Beka protested. “That’s my shop, and you can’t go mucking about in there it’s, it’s-“

“Non-regulation?” the Captain asked, one eyebrow raised.

Beka’s fists stiffened at her side.

“It’s not finished! And it’s not like you perimeter Regulars can keep your mouths shut whenever someone’s working on a new idea! It’s like you don’t even know the meaning of the word ‘discreet’!”

The Captain tossed her head, “Oh really? Because secret inventions and designs are such important stuff, are they? Well, let me tell you, girly, we-“

Suddenly, everyone was talking at once. It gave me a headache. The whole time Gimlet just smirked in the background. My move.

“Enough!” I shouted a bit too loudly.

Everyone’s head snapped towards me. I won’t lie. I didn’t mind the expressions of surprise and attention they wore. With all the long suffering dignity I could muster, I pushed myself up out of the wheeled chair.

“Lorus will go talk with Jack. Lorus doesn’t know if she can make it fifteen minutes yet, so Lorus would like to take a- a companion.”

Moron nodded and stepped to my side offering his arm.

“Don’t worry Lorus, I’ll keep you safe from that ruffian,” he stared pointedly at the Captain. “No matter what!”

I shook my head and smiled gently.

“No. Lorus will take Raikan.”

He wilted but moved so Raikan could take his place. I knocked on the top of my head and stuck my tongue out a little.

“It’s just so if Lorus falls over, Raikan is the one who knows how to put Lorus’s brain back in her head, right?”

Moron and Beka both considered until grudgingly Moron nodded, “I suppose you do need more medical assistance than muscle right now.”

Beka snorted. What neither of them realized was that out of the three and judging from her background, Raikan was probably the best out of all of them in a pinch fight.

“I must interject here,” Raikan chose her moment to speak up, quietly but firmly. “As you can see Lorus’s condition has improved greatly. However, Captain, are we to put her continued recovery at risk because of someone’s paperwork? He may have sued for 15 minutes, Captain, but as you can see her stamina is still not what it should be for a fully healthy individual. If this exertion were to cause a relapse, sending her back into seclusion in the hospital, don’t you think this would be cause for a re-evaluation of the process, an audit even?”

The Captain nodded, “A reasonable concern, I suppose. Very well. Lorus does not have to stay the whole fifteen minutes. Just until she’s too tired. That’s settled, I have more important matters to see to.”

Beka and Moron said they would meet me back in the hospital tent even though they were no longer living there. The Captain strode off, said something to Gimlet which made him smile and give a small, acquiescent bow of his head before she marched up to another woman with steely gray hair.

I hadn’t noticed this new onlooker before. She stood at the edge of the yard and gestured in my direction once the Captain caught up with her. I squinted at the gray-haired woman, wracking my brain. Did she seem familiar? Had I seen her before here? Someplace else? Where was else? But Gimlet’s presence was non-ignorable. The gray-haired woman left, so I saved that puzzle for another day. Raikan took my arm to help steady me, and together we walked over to see Gimlet.

He smiled when we got there and held out his arm, but Raikan shook her head firmly, her smile never slipping. Gimlet shrugged then turned his back on us and strolled off.

“Come on," he said over his shoulder.” There’s a better view of the city from over here”.

I was a bit curious. He’d heard the Captain say I only had to stay until I tired of it. I could sit down on the grass right now and say I was too tired to go any further. All he wanted to do the first few minutes was ramble slowly across the lawn. I peeked at Raikan, but her expression was completely neutral. So we walked on.

Finally, we did come to a place where a bench was set up between units facing in the direction of the city. He gestured. I thought about it, but then I saw his scheme. If I was sitting down, then there was no way I could get tired. He could talk as long as he wanted. I shook my head and turned back towards the way we had come, leaning a little more on Raikan as though the walk had taken a great effort.

“Have it your way, Lorus.” He stood silently for a few more moments. This was so strange. Usually, by now the threats or the shaking or the slapping, if not myself, then some object for demonstration or emphasis, had started. Instead we just stood there.

“Have you had a chance to really look at the city, Lorus?”

“Lorus has been sick in bed because someone nearly froze her to death,” I said flatly.

“Lorus has been sick in bed because she chose to sleep outside in freezing weather,” he retorted softly.

I firmly shut my mouth. I should know better than to argue with Gimlet. That’s how he gets you. So instead I turned and looked at the city or rather its walls, which were the only thing you could really see. It was massive.

I tried to look from one end to the other, but I realized the tall gray wall, taller than three men standing on each other’s shoulders and speckled with green, climbing ivy, stretched as far as I could see to my right and as far as I could see to my left. Just above it I could see rises of red, brown, and green rooftops, the different shingling of the houses built along the wall. It was as thick as a carpet of pebbles on the bottom of a stream. Here and there a tall, white tower popped up like a candle. Those had to be the furnace towers of the Thaumaturges that Moron had mentioned. Sure enough, every once in a while, one would give a great belch, and white plume of smoke would shoot out of it then drift away into the pink and purple evening sky.

Suddenly, over the city rolled a low, warm bell chime, six times. All of one accord tiny lights appeared between the shingles like a chorus of fireflies rising from the field. I realized the city must be built on a hill, all the houses and buildings rising towards the epicenter. Even though I couldn’t see it from here, I was sure it would be a magnificent place, the heart of New Castle, like a glistening pearl at the center of an oyster. Someday, I would go there.

“We should go there someday, Lorus.”

I looked up at Gimlet. He was gazing at me with a look I’d never seen before.

“I am glad to see you’re getting better. Today I just, well-“ he turned back to look at the city. “Today I just wanted to see how you were really doing and find out if you might want to go to New Castle.”

I blinked, puzzled, but tried to keep my face neutral. Did I want to go to New Castle? What kind of a question was that?

“It’s a big city, Lorus, bigger than even the ones I’ve been in, “he smiled. “I had only ever heard about New Castle, of course, from the men in the tribe. They don’t think too much of Castelians and their obsession with civilization, as you can imagine. For a while, I too honestly thought they were a bunch of soft-headed sops, just waiting for a good push to topple their precious society. But then I got a closer look.”

Gimlet paused then sat down on the bench, scooting to its end so he could be next to me. I stiffened at his sudden close proximity. It should have made me feel better to be taller than him, if only by an inch, but my legs really were getting tired, and I didn’t want him to see me shake. Now that he’d taken the bench, I couldn’t sit down if I wanted to, not without asking him to move over. I cursed myself for the oversight.

“It’s funny how you notice more when you take time to really look at something, isn’t it Lorus?” Gimlet leaned over and pulled a blade of grass up from the bottom of the bench. “You think you have the world figured out then one day you get a chance to really look close,” he pinched the top of the leaf and pulled back. A white flower popped out. It turned out it was actually a closed snow drop. “Suddenly, there is more than you ever imagined in something you used to tread under foot.”

He sighed and turned back to looking at the city, “I would like to see what else New Castle holds, Lorus. I think I would like to become a Castelian.”

“What?” the word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it, but Gimlet just nodded.

“I know, I know. I’ve been a Roadie all my life, a hunter, a tribe enforcer, and there’s no engine I can’t salvage or get restarted with the right parts. But I’m beginning to wonder if there’s more I could be than just a roving savage. I wonder if I could be a part of something better.”

I didn’t even bother to stop my bottom jaw from hanging open.

“Don’t get me wrong, Lorus, I’m not going into this idea, eyes shut, “ Gimlet twiddled the snow drop between his fingers, whirling it back and forth. “Even the small cities I’ve been in have been strange and at times dangerous places. It’s just a different sort of wilderness, Lorus, and as wonderful as its citizens or soon-to-be citizens may think it is, I know there are elements of humanity’s darker side that even New Castle can’t white wash.” He nodded in Raikan’s direction, “There are reasons some immigrants choose never to enter nor become citizens of New Castle.”

I tried not to stare at Raikan who, except for my arm on her arm, I had almost completely forgotten about. She smiled but said nothing.

Gimlet nodded knowingly, “It would be an alien environment. They pretty much assign you a ward if you don’t have any obvious talents. Life is stable but predictable. However, you integrate into an entire network of people, none of whom you know. You would be completely alone and isolated, lost in a sea of faces. However, that’s a risk I think I’m willing to take.”

This was all getting too weird. Jack Gimlet wasn’t trying to intimidate me. He wasn’t even trying to cajole or persuade me to leave and go with him back to the Roadies. What was his game? Then he turned to me, and I suddenly got it.

“It would be a big, scary place to be alone in, Lorus. I’m sure you could find companions eventually, but wouldn’t it be better if you knew someone had your back?”

Gimlet was going to follow me in to New Castle. No matter where I went, into the wilds or in to the streets of New Castle. There was no place he could not reach me.

Gimlet stood up and pretended to dust himself off.

“Wellp, that’s about all I had to say. Thank you for listening to me, Lorus,” he held out his hand. I had already placed mine in his before I realized it was too late. His hand tightened around mine as he suddenly pulled.

There was a second where I considered screaming, hitting, biting even as he got closer, but then he whispered quietly, “I will always find you, Bright Eyes.”

Then it was over, and he let me go. I froze, a knot of nausea churning in my stomach.

“Have a good night, you two!” Gimlet waved as he strolled off down the path.

I waited until he was around a corner and out of sight before collapsing onto the bench. For a few seconds I just laid there, quivering. I tried to fight off tears, but they always came too readily. My stomach was knotted almost as tightly as my fists as warring emotions clashed inside of me. Once I had myself back together, I gave one last shake then sat up.

Raikan was there, staring out at nothing, pretending she hadn’t seen my melt down. Slowly, I pushed myself back to my feet and tried to take a few steps down the path on my own. It was no good. I got a few steps then my knees gave out. Raikan was right there though, slipping an arm under my shoulders then scooping me off my feet in one smooth gesture. She was barely bigger than I was, but she carried me like I weighed nothing as we headed back to the hospital.

“Raikan-I-you can put Lorus down. I’ll walk.”

Raikan smiled, “You would walk slowly, Lorus, and we need to get you back inside before you catch a chill. You’ve already pushed yourself enough for one day.”

At that I fell silent for a little while longer, studying my aid, who was so quiet and so helpful, yet there was obviously much more about here that I didn’t know or understand. It was all hidden behind serene almond eyes and a face as calm as an untouched reflecting pool. It showed only what the world wanted to see and nothing of its depths.

“Raikan,” I asked softly, “Why don’t you want to move into New Castle?”

Raikan’s eyes slid side-ways to meet mine. For a second I could see past her eponymous smile.

“I have lived in cities nearly all my life, Lorus. In cities it is very difficult to find someone to be loyal to, let alone find someone loyal to you. Out here where I care for people, they care back, even if they leave me to go beyond the walls and start a new life.”

I thought about what she said all the way back to my bed. Nurse Jane fussed a bit, but she was also proud that I was making progress. That night as I lay wrapped in my blankets I pondered what both Jack and Raikan said. It kept me awake much later than I would have liked to be.

Early in the morning, however, I finally came to my answer. Neither one of their words mattered. Lorus did not have family. Lorus did not have friends. Faces and companions would come and go, and as much as they claimed to care, they really wouldn’t. Loyalty was just another word for bondage, much like friendship. I would be fine in the streets of New Castle as long as I could get away from Jack Gimlet.