07: la luna verde

Goosebumps flickered on and off her skin like an indecisive child. A heavy weight tugged behind her eyes, blinds in a window being pulled down by the old crony woman looking over said child.

"Solstice?"

She shook her head, waking her up just a little bit, murmuring, "Yeah?"

Selmina patted her shoulder. "I've almost completed the preparations. We should be ready to go by the end of the week."

Solstice grunted and adjusted herself. Her arm was out of the cast, as was her chest, but the skin still blushed blue and purple where it was still healing. "Gods, I sure hope so. I'm so..." Her eyelids drooped. "...restless..."

Solstice leaned back on the couch, a pillow under her head. Several weapons were scattered on the floor, including the black fountain pen. A half-eaten pie sat in the corner of the room, still in its pan.

Selmina slipped on her drawstring bag, bottom of the bag bulging with the leftover apples. "I'm going to the dehydrators now." She patted Solstice's head. "It shouldn't take more than a few hours. Try to sleep."

"I'm not a baby," Solstice murmured, sleep lapping at her shores, but Selmina took no notice and left.

The machine whirred on her left as she dug her knife into yet another apple. Removing the core, dividing the flesh into equal slices, all the scraps going into the compost bucket on her right. Several more sat on the countertop, paper tents hastily folded and names scrawled to show whose load they held. Selmina's own handwriting stared at her beside her pile, waiting for her to finish and leave the machine to its eight-hour work.

Something scaly brushed past her right shoulder. She turned-

"Gods above!" She whirled around and pointed the knife at the woman. "You have a minute to state your business."

"Be calm," she intoned. "I mean you no harm. I only wished to inform you that your patrol regiment has been ordered to arrest you when you report for duty tomorrow."

"Arrest me?" Selmina tightened her lips. "And what reason do I have to believe you?"

"None at all." The woman shrugged- her claws glistened in the lone lightbulb's light above. "I bring with me no proof, save the arrest of Mori for the note your friend sent her. She is safe. Her arrest was to keep her here while the Echelons decide what to do with you and Solstice."

"Mori's been arrested?" Selmina lowered the knife. She glanced at the dehydrator, already blowing hot air through the slices stacked on the trays within, compressing the fruits down to the barely nothing that might have a chance of fitting in her pack. "Are you absolutely sure about this?"

"It may mean little, but I swear on my life."

"Hmmm... Damn. That really throws a wrench in things." Selmina began to pace. "And all the routes out of Rennica I know of are patrolled daily. And, come to think of it, I've never been outside of the underworld in whole. And Solstice isn't in tip-top condition, either..." She stopped and turned to the woman. "Thank you for the warning...?"

"Mediuth."

Selmina nodded. "Thank you, Mediuth."

"I know a way out," Mediuth whispered. "You are armed, correct?"

"Yes."

"There's a stairway Below that leads to a tower in the firstworld, from whence Mori and I came. There is a wicked woman who imprisoned me for hundreds of years. I will grant you safe passage out of Rennica tonight in exchange for your help in vanquishing her."

"It's a deal." The corner of Selmina's mouth quirked up in what might have been a smile. "Do you mind staying here while I finish the last of these? I could use someone to watch my back."

How did you know where to find me?

I felt something in my... heart.

Like what?

Like... we were part of a greater whole. Like we'd known each other our whole lives. Like how I can tell it's Selmina coming instead of my father, or one of the guards, or some doting suitor who wants to bang me only because I'm half-divine.

I... I don't...

The only difference between divine and human blood is that the former tastes slightly better. At least, that's what the caedats say. I don't know how true that is, though, or how they know that, since I'm certainly not going to let myself get taste-tested.

...

Sorry. You probably don't care about my very sad sex life. I don't know why I shared that with you.

Um... I don't mean to be a bother, but you promised me-

-some of my power. Yeah. I'm working on it. You getting arrested wasn't a very smart move, though. Why in the hell were you in my father's room in the first place?

He wanted to tell me a story.

About?

Not you.

Her heart threw a tantrum in her chest as she pushed her legs to keep working. Keep running, keep climbing up and up the endless stairs like she were running toward an apartment fire instead of escaping it like the system of metal steps and platforms were designed for. A blatant example of otherworld influence.

That's what it's called here, right? The otherworld?

Bunch of egotistical fools, thinking they're the center of the universe. Technically, we came first. We conquered the stars and the depths of the sea and gave them our knowledge. But no, we've got to be other. We've got to be the weirdos with the technology and the actually functioning deistic system.

Doesn't matter to me. Our gods abandoned us forever ago. Not our loss that we can manage to survive without them!

She reached the floor she wanted and stumbled onto the balcony, bent over, out of breath. Her two ponytails swung at her side, almost sweeping the floor. A few feet away, the screen door slid open, revealing a boy no older than she was.

The scar down the right side of his face, the long sandy hair.

"Victory," she wheezed. "Stars above, am I ever happy to see you."

"My Sulls? Expressing genuine affection?" He laughed. "Come inside. You and I have a lot to catch up on."

He retreated inside. Sully shook her head and pulled herself up and slid through the doors, collapsing over the nearest couch arm.

For Rennica standards, it was absolutely luxurious. Like the first floor of a standard otherworld suburban home, a kitchen stood to her left, sectioned off by countertops and overhead drawers. Bleeding to her right was the living room, where two couches, one being the one she was bent over, sat at a right angle to each other. Both faced a TV stand, complete with massive black rectangle and a stack of video game boxes.

"How...?" Sully wheezed, brushing the sweat off her forehead.

Victory closed the screen door behind him. "You know I could ask you the same question." He stepped over to Sully and brushed his hand through one of her ponytails. "You're wilting, mi rosa roja." He snorted. "Shall I fetch you some water?"

"Oh, shut up." She pushed his hand away.

"There's the Sulls I remember." He retreated into the kitchen and came back with a full cup, setting it on the coffee table between the couches. "So-"

Sully grunted and somersaulted onto the couch, stretching her limbs out. "I came here to deliver a message. I mean, seeing you's a bonus, but it's kinda stupid to evade arrest and capture and learn how to hotwire cars and drive all the way across the country and then-" she paused to catch her breath- "almost get eaten alive by rabbits or something just for one person."

Victory's eyes widened. "Um..." A nervous laugh escaped his throat. "So what's the message?"

"Basically... We're all in danger." She took the glass and gulped down half of the water in one swallow. "Remember when we helped Eponine wreck the memory server? It's all backfired. Miralay's gone to hell in a handbasket. It's a new revolution every week. Alegria's lost control of the whole damn place. There's going to be a hell of a lot more people seeking refuge here in this... dumpster."

Victory gestured all around him. "Does this place look like a dumpster?"

"Your place looks like the pristine cardboard box from a donut place that got thrown into the dumpster on accident." She grimaced. "I don't know who runs this place, or even why, and I don't care. But pretty soon, everyone's gonna have to agree on some kind of criteria for who gets in and who gets kicked out. Or else everyone's gonna get crowded, and everything's going to run out, and you all are going to suffocate and starve and die."

"Pretty harsh..."

"Yeah? You think?" She put her feet up on the table. "So what Providences do I need to waste my time with this time?"

"They're called 'Echelons' here. I don't know how many there are. The only one I know of is Lukas." Victory winced. "And he's not... human. He's divine. And he turns into a dragon sometimes. You'll probably have the most luck with him, though."

Sully groaned. "Great. So now, not only do I have to deal with Alegria's downfall and having to find another job, I have to somehow not offend literal gods." Sully gulped down the rest of the water and slammed the cup back on the table. "I don't have high hopes, but do you have anything stronger?"