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- <title>06: apples to eyes</title>
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- <p><b>06: apples to eyes</b></p>
- <p> </p>
- <p>Mori crossed her arms. The sleeves of her cloak rumpled under her touch, rough canvassy fabric all she'd been allowed to use back during her days in the tower. Misshapen stitches ran all over the seams, blue thread against yellow collars and red mainlines and the two mismatched blue clasps of different sizes keeping the whole thing from slipping off.</p>
- <p>A knife sat in front of her. Sitting in the inert pan was the bottom half of the crust, filled with little baby apple slices glistening with sugar glaze and filling. Beside the pan was a pile of peels.</p>
- <p>"Ready?" Mori whispered.</p>
- <p>"Ready," Selmina whispered back, voice hoarser.</p>
- <p>Mori reached to her left and took the top crust in her hands, eyes focused, arms almost trembling as she brought it over to the pan. She let out a deep breath as she set it on top without so much as a stray flake chipping off.</p>
- <p>She took the pan in her hands and held it out for Selmina. "T-tell Solstice happy birthday for me. Oh- a-and I want my pan back after."</p>
- <p>"I'l return it as soon as I'm able." Selmina took the pan and set it beside her, trading it for a crumpled piece of paper from her sack. "You haven't registered with Rennica's mainframe yet. You should talk to Markov on the ground level as soon as possible. That's how we communicate down here when we feel conversations won't be sufficient." She placed the paper in Mori's outstretched hands. "This message can't wait. Please read it when you have the time."</p>
- <p>"I... I will. Thank you."</p>
- <p>Selmina took the pan and rose to leave-</p>
- <p>"Wait!" Mori shot up to her feet. "Solstice promised me some of her power as payment. When am I going to get <em>paid?</em>"</p>
- <p>Selmina bit her lip. A curse slipped under her breath. "I don't know the details of your business arrangement. I'm sorry. That's something you'll have to bring up with <em>her</em>."</p>
- <p>And with that, Selmina left, leaving Mori alone in the pitiful light.</p>
- <p>"Wait!"</p>
- <p>Mori took off after her- but she stumbled into the hallway, and Selmina was already gone.</p>
- <p>"Dammit..." Mori kicked the wall, earning only an ache in her toes as a response.</p>
- <p>The paper crinkled in her hand. She pulled at it, undoing the misshapen folds and squashes.</p>
- <p>"I wonder what's so important-"</p>
- <p>A thump in her head.</p>
- <p>An endless blue sky stretching out before her, endless, forever. A few flocks of birds swooped and rose together as one unit, hundreds of wings, one shared mind.</p>
- <p>"Hey! Are you alright?"</p>
- <p>Fingers wrapped around her shoulders. Her skin burned, <em>blazed</em> under the fabric, so hot that she feared she'd go up in flames at the slightest spark.</p>
- <p>A cry escaped her raspy throat.</p>
- <p>"Okay, so you're not <em>dead</em>. That doesn't answer my question."</p>
- <p>The fingers retracted, ice replacing the embers where they'd pressed down on her, and then they rolled her over onto her back.</p>
- <p>It was hard to see his face against the halo of light that framed his forehead. But from what Mori could see, a blonde-haired man a few years older than her crouched over her, eyebrows drawn together in worry.</p>
- <p>"L-Lukas Talos!" Mori grunted and pulled herself to her feet. He rose in response. She brushed out the wrinkles in her cloak. "Sorry. I'm not sure what came over me."</p>
- <p>He shook his head. "It's alright. I'm glad you-"</p>
- <p>Lukas suddenly fell silent. He stepped toward Mori. She shrunk down, shivering under his suspicious gaze, until he pulled away.</p>
- <p>"You're divine! But..." He glanced down the hallway, checking that there were no eavesdroppers. "You don't sound like any sibling of mine that I know of. Rikella, perhaps?"</p>
- <p>"...No? I don't know a Rikella."</p>
- <p>"One of Arkensia's children, then?"</p>
- <p>"No. I'm just a human. Same as anyone else here, 'cept for you, and maybe Solstice."</p>
- <p>"Hmmm." Lukas paused, thinking. "Are you, maybe, from another dimension where divinity takes a different form?"</p>
- <p>"No! I'm from <em>this</em> one!" Mori stomped her foot and scowled, almost like she were half her age. "Look, Mr. Lukas, I appreciate you not kicking me out of Rennica. I like it here. But I'm not some kind of undercover spy. I'm down here to hide from Chronos, too. That's it. That's all there is to me."</p>
- <p>"What's your affinity?"</p>
- <p>"My... what?"</p>
- <p>"Your magical affinity. What element you find easiest to manipulate."</p>
- <p>"Oh, um..." Mori snapped her fingers. A little flicker of a flame appeared in her palm. "I've always been good with fire, I suppose."</p>
- <p>"What about your father?"</p>
- <p>"I... don't really know anything about my parents." Mori shrugged off her wave of self-pity and looked Lukas straight in the eye. "Is this game of twenty questions almost over?"</p>
- <p>Lukas sighed. "Sorry. My paranoia got the better of me for a moment. I thought, maybe, for whatever reason, you were a descendant of Lex Kinnyan."</p>
- <p>Mori cocked her head. "Who's that?"</p>
- <p>A glint in his eye. "Follow me. I'll tell you a story."</p>
- <hr />
- <p>Lukas' room was like a mini-Rennica all in itself. A space much bigger than Mori's or anyone else's (that she knew of); a miniature version of the center tree spanned from floor to ceiling. Several hammocks were canopied in the branches above, all accessible with a series of pegs sticking out from the rough bark. Some human-sized, some... bigger.</p>
- <p><em>Far</em> bigger.</p>
- <p>Mori kneeled. Packed dirt underneath her knees, hard as a stone.</p>
- <p>He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "What? Are you waiting for something?"</p>
- <p>"You said you were going to tell me a story, sir."</p>
- <p>He yawned again. "Sorry. I haven't gotten a full night's sleep since Solstice was born." He turned to the tree and climbed up to the lowest-hanging hammock, only about six feet off the ground. He let his legs dangle off the side, feet swinging, like he were a little boy in a tree in the middle of an idyllic otherworld summer. "So. Lex. A lifetime ago..." His eyes went distant. "He was a little younger than you, if I recall correctly. Orange hair, brown cloak, wind affinity. He came from the firstworld, after the first societal collapse but before everything went to..." He gestured all around him. "Sand. He had a raging hatred for all the gods, but <em>specifically</em> me, since the societal collapse was-"</p>
- <p>"-your fault," Mori cut in. "I'm from the firstworld. I know that much. What did Lex do?"</p>
- <p>Lukas sucked in a long breath. He rubbed his eyes. "He and his sister and his... girlfriend, I think- all traveled through the underworld to find me. Which was fine and all, except I had no idea how to use my powers, and they were trying to drag me back to the firstworld with the intention that I <em>would</em> use my powers." He wrung his hands. "And I had a friend. A friend I loved dearly."</p>
- <p>"What happened?" Mori whispered. "They- they didn't <em>kill</em> him, did they?"</p>
- <p>Lukas grunted. His eyes glistened.</p>
- <p>"Oh- uh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"</p>
- <p>He shook his head, furiously wiping away tears with the back of his hands. "It's alright. It's a valid question. And yes. They did, because I accidentally killed <em>his</em> friend. And I went feral, and they murdered me, too."</p>
- <p>He fell silent for several heavy moments. His face reddened, but he managed to keep himself together just enough that he didn't burst out bawling.</p>
- <p>"And then what?" Mori piped up.</p>
- <p>"His story ends there. I never really saw him again after that. I assume he's still trying to slaughter Chronos. And that he'd add me to that if he got the chance, too." He raised his head. "What does that piece of paper in your hand say?"</p>
- <p>"Um..." Mori unfolded it. Red letters crinkled before her, smudged and barely legible. "Selmina and I are going to kill Chronos." Lukas perked up. Mori winced. "And we're leaving soon. Pretty damn soon, after this injury heals and I don't feel like a piece of-" Mori hummed over the profanity. "You seem pretty trustworthy, otherwise I wouldn't have let you into Rennica. Mail me through the mainframe when you get a chance."</p>
- <p>Mori glanced up at Lukas with wide eyes. "What do I do with this?"</p>
- <p>Lukas cursed under his breath. "Disregard it. I'm not letting you or Solstice or any of her friends leave Rennica. It's too dangerous out there."</p>
- <p>Mori stood up. "Well, then, I'll be taking my leave-"</p>
- <p>"-to the jails," a voice behind her said, grabbing her wrists.</p>
- <hr />
- <p>A thick shadow passed over Mori. She opened her eyes halfway. Outside of the bars of her cell door, framed by the inky black of the unlit hallway, stood the snake woman. The woman who'd whisked her down the stairs, who'd opened the hatch to the stairway.</p>
- <p>Who'd opened Rennica to her.</p>
- <p>Mori rubbed her eyes. The woman was wearing a heavy-looking violet cloak, hood obscuring her eyes. Six snakes draped down like the tassels on an otherworld scarf.</p>
- <p>"Oh. It's you."</p>
- <p>The woman nodded. "Yes."</p>
- <p>"Long time no see." Mori pulled herself up to sit. She grimaced and wiped her hands on her legs- the jail floors of Rennica weren't <em>filthy</em>, to say, but they were a <em>little</em> off from hospital-quality clean. "Did Solstice want you to escape, too?"</p>
- <p>"I have no idea what you're talking about." She frowned- or at least frowned <em>more</em>, since it seemed to Mori that her mouth was stuck in perpetual displeasure. "Rennica <em>is</em> freedom. Freedom in restraint, but freedom nevertheless."</p>
- <p>"I... don't understand."</p>
- <p>The snake woman crouched down to Mori's eye level. Her cloak swept the floor. She didn't seem to mind.</p>
- <p>"Freedom is naught but the ability to choose our own captors," she whispered. "Rennica is dark and dank, indeed. Especially where I've been dwelling. Some nights, it's near silent. I can study in peace without being bothered by the artificial clock of biological restraints that humankind imposes on all like creatures." She reached a hand through Mori's cell, a hand whose fingers terminated in black glossy claws, like it was a lizard now patting her knee. "Can you feel it too?"</p>
- <p>Mori gulped. "F-feel what?"</p>
- <p>"There's something in the air. Something reverberating in my bones, like the two are holding a conversation. Can you feel it too?"</p>
- <p>Mori shook her head. "You're starting to scare me." She pulled her legs in close to her chest. The snake woman's arm retreated. "<em>And I don't even know your name!</em>"</p>
- <p>"Mediuth." She stood up. The cloak fluttered around her ankles- or, at least what <em>would</em> have been her ankles, because, for all Mori could see, she was floating in midair. "Do not think that you can hide from God forever."</p>
- <p>Mediuth turned around and walked out of the jail.</p>
- <p>Mori squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her knees. Hot tears seared in the corners of her eyes. Something liquid dripped somewhere, too many echoes for Mori to tell where it was coming from, whether from her face or the civilization several stories above.</p>
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