solstice
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gopherhole


			
				
					
						
						
							
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  <p><b>04: solstice's pie</b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>“So, Sol. I heard what you did yesterday. I’m not proud.”</p>
<p>“Well, I am. I’m <em>damn</em> proud of what I’ve done. You weren’t there, so your opinion is unfortunately kinda irrelevant.”</p>
<p>A sigh. “Sol, you can’t just <em>allow</em> people into Rennica. That’s the job of the guards. They have to screen everyone-”</p>
<p>“And what would have happened if the otherworld had done that to <em>you</em>? If they’d turned you away and forced you back into the underworld? I think you’d be singing a different tune right now-”</p>
<p>“Sol-”</p>
<p>“They were refugees from the firstworld. You’d rather they be pushed back to the firstworld? Under Chronos’ domain?” Chair squeaking. Hands on the table. “Weren’t you trying to <em>kill</em> the guy?”</p>
<p>“<em>Sol-</em>”</p>
<p>“<em>Can’t you be consistent for once in your life?</em>”</p>
<p>Chair suddenly flying backwards. Faster hands on the table, slamming, palms to surface. “<em>Solstice Avaroe Talos!</em>”</p>
<p>A blue wisp ran around his wrist. The older man took a deep breath and pulled his chair back to the table and resettled himself.</p>
<p>“Sol. My one and only daughter. You know that I love you-”</p>
<p>“Well, it certainly doesn’t <em>feel</em> like it sometimes,” she cut in.</p>
<p>“<em>Sol.</em>” He closed his eyes. “I know it seems like I have a lot of sway over what happens here. But I’m not in charge of Rennica, and neither are you. You have a lot of freedom down here.” He winced. “I just ask that you follow the <em>few</em> rules we have in place. Just so you don’t <em>get us all killed.</em>”</p>
<p>“If anyone was going to kill us all while we’re trapped down here, it would be <em>you</em>, son of Chronos.”</p>
<p>Lukas’ eyes flew wide open. “<em>Sol-</em>”</p>
<p>Solstice sprung up from the chair and left the room, letting the door slam shut behind her. Her room was a few doors down the barely-lit hallway from her father’s, given to her on her thirteenth birthday like every other child born in Rennica. The little red lights embedded in the floor faded in and out with her steps. She pulled off her necklace, a key on a ragged blue ribbon, and let herself in.</p>
<p>Solstice kicked off her shoes. Something rustled in the unlit space before her, pitch-black to her unadjusted eyes. She ran her hand along the wall beside her until her fingers stumbled on the light switch and flicked it up.</p>
<p>“Gods,” the girl sprawled out on her couch squeaked, her hands flying to her face, “warn me next time.”</p>
<p>“Oh. Salmonella. You’re back.”</p>
<p>“<em>Selmina</em>,” she corrected Solstice, rubbing her eyes and bringing herself upright. “No, I don’t have the damn pie yet. They were all out.”</p>
<p>“All out? What a load of bull. And so close to my birthday, too.” Solstice put her hands on her hips. “Well, I guess I’ll be right back out again. Get some sleep, you big useless dumb.”</p>
<p>Solstice backtraced her steps out, re-locking the door behind her. She slipped the ribbon back around her neck and then took off at a full run down the hallway and to the spiral stairs beyond.</p>
<hr />
<p>The caverns stretched out in front of her for what seemed like forever. Jagged reddish spikes rose from the ground here and there- the remnants of the old underworld, she’d been told. There had been walls stretching up to the far-off ceiling, but they had long since been overtaken by vegetation and then worn down by generations of climbers into only a remnant of their former glory. Still, the trees remained, their branches forming a canopy overhead, ceiling barely visible through the leaves, providing the air the people of Rennica so desperately needed.</p>
<p>No help from the firstworld, only blankets of sand covering the earth and waiting to be scooped into the ocean, and the otherworld thought they were the stuff of fairytales and folk fiction.</p>
<p>Solstice rolled her shoulders and dipped her head as she crawled into the low-ceilinged room near the staircase. Several rows of computer terminals greeted her, spooky in the low light.</p>
<p>A dark-skinned man turned to face her as she crossed her arms. The ties of his bandanna flopped in his eyes- he brushed them out of the way, and they flopped down behind him like a caedat’s ears.</p>
<p>“Oh- Solstice! What brings the mighty daughter of mankind here?”</p>
<p>She rolled her eyes. “Markov. Any news on the outside?”</p>
<p>Markov sighed and shook his head, shrugging, hands open wide. “Sorry, lass. Our only outproxy in the otherworld moved IP addresses, and it’s looking like they abandoned their domain, so I can’t mail them. It’s local-only again.”</p>
<p>“Of <em>course</em>.” Solstice sat down in front of the terminals. She stretched her legs out, letting out a groan, and then let her fingers start typing up a storm on the keyboard. “What a shame, really.”</p>
<p>“What’s got you down, lass?”</p>
<p>“It’s my birthday Thursday. And I want a pie. And they’re all out in the Set.” She paused typing, letting the last of the packages cached before the outproxy went down update. “And now I can’t order one from the otherworld, because the <em>damn outproxy’s down!</em>”</p>
<p>“I have a blueberry pie in my fridge. Half-eaten, though.”</p>
<p>Solstice shook her head. “I’ll pass. Thanks for the offer, though.” She squinted at the screen. “Damn, you weren’t lying. I can’t fetch my mail.”</p>
<p>“Since when are <em>you</em> using remote mail for anything important?” Markov laughed and mussed Solstice’s hair. “I gotta go, lass. If you want the last of my pie, you know where to go. Or maybe you’ll get lucky in Cyb.”</p>
<p>Markov stooped over, slipping through the shrunken doorway, and left. Solstice let out a deep breath, emptying her chest before letting herself breathe again.</p>
<p>She opened another window in the multiplexer. The packages continued to update in the background as she opened the community bulletin board. The words <b>Cyberia Station</b> stared down at her from the top of the screen as the long list of boards filled the remaining space.</p>
<p>A cursory scan. No new threads or replies since she’d last logged on.</p>
<p>The package update finished. She signed out and stood up-</p>
<p>Something fell out of her pocket and clinked on the ground.</p>
<p><em>Gods above…</em></p>
<p>Solstice stooped down reached under the desk, feeling around the tangled wires until her fingers found what she was searching for- a small glass sphere, about the size of a peach’s pit. She climbed back out from under the desk, studying the pink swirls within in what little light the terminal monitors reflected off the surface.</p>
<p><em>You know you could snap a pie into existence yourself, right? All beings can manipulate. But only gods can create and destroy-</em></p>
<p>Her fist clenched around the sphere. <em>I won’t! I’ll do it like any other human.</em> She slipped the sphere into her pocket and climbed out of the room. <em>I’ll go harrass Mori about it. Least she could do for being let in…</em></p>
<hr />
<p>Mori clapped her hands together, setting the flickers of flames bouncing in the wide pan like two passionate dancers. They always just barely missed the strips of meat, close enough to warm without scorching-</p>
<p>The door suddenly flew open. A startled Mori jumped back, almost kicking the pan over.</p>
<p>Solstice strolled into Mori’s room. A fifteen-by-fifteen foot square with a few power outlets, hooked into Rennica’s thermodynamic grid. A single lamp hung overhead, little more than one of Mori’s flames locked into a glass tube.</p>
<p>Not comfortable by any means, but it was certainly better than one of the dingy and dank jail cells far below.</p>
<p>Solstice crouched down to the floor, sitting on the opposite side of the pan. Mori winced.</p>
<p>“Y-yes?”</p>
<p>“Mori. Thursday’s my birthday. Think you can make me an apple pie?”</p>
<p>“I-I, um…” Mori clasped her hands together. Her cheeks flushed red. “I have the stuff for the dough. But I’m kinda bad at climbing trees…”</p>
<p>Solstice snorted. “And I’m no good at cooking. I’ll get the apples. You just have to put it all together. Sound like a deal?”</p>
<p>Mori’s face hardened, face still blushing, still demure under the frown. “W-what do I get out of it?”</p>
<p><em>That’s always the critical question here in Rennica, isn’t it?</em></p>
<p>“You’ll get…” Solstice sighed. Her eyes wandered over the bare walls, thinking. “You’ll get… a get-out-of-jail-free card.”</p>
<p>Mori shook her head.</p>
<p>“A good word put in by me to the Council?”</p>
<p>Mori crossed her arms.</p>
<p>“Well, what <em>do</em> you want?”</p>
<p>“Some of your power, so I can do better spells.”</p>
<p>“Oh, this?” Solstice took the sphere out of her pocket. It almost looked like the lights dancing in the pan were in the glass instead, trapped in the inch of space. “I don’t give a damn for this. It wouldn’t be a fair trade.”</p>
<p>“You don’t like being divine?”</p>
<p>Solstice shook her head, turning the orb over and over in her hands. “This place is too cramped for big beefy dragons and all that shit. Plus beasts can’t type, or speak, or squeeze into all the tight places here. And I’m not even fully divine, so anything I’d be able to do would just be a shadow of my dopey father.” She tightened her lips and put the stone away. “I like me as myself.”</p>
<p>Mori nodded her head. “Sometimes, though… I wish I could…”</p>
<p>Solstice’s eyebrows furrowed. “Are you divine, too?”</p>
<p>Mori shrunk back. “I-I’ve said too much. Is it a deal?”</p>
<p>“Yeah…” Solstice rose to her feet, suddenly wary. “I’ll bring the apples later this cycle.”</p>
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