Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Chapter 1: Shadow and Sunshine

MICA

After all this time searching for Anda, she never dreamed her search would lead her to Peter's death.

Mica couldn't remember how she got back to her cell, but it felt colder and smaller than before. As if the rock had shifted. Mica collapsed to the stone floor by the door and cried.

After Anda had been removed from the conference room, wailing and crying, they had sat in silence, letting the gravity of the situation sink in. Then Colonel Mason, Dr. Adams, and Dr. Paulson had grilled Mica and Ben for hours. So began the trial of Miranda Alderman.

It was a strange afternoon. To Mica, it felt both over in an instant and eternal. Hot and cold. Real and a dream. Sharp and painful yet numbing and dull. Colonel Mason assured them that no one outside that room would ever know of what Anda had done. If the council found out, they would insist on the death penalty: Unseen justice was swift and sure. Even worse than the council finding out, they couldn't let the Unseen people ever know who had killed Peter, or they would riot and come for Anda. The Unseen loved their prophets, and whoever murdered a prophet was the same as the Rufus, the Prophet Killer, and deserved death.

But, Colonel Mason said with a frown, "I am in charge of keeping my people safe. So I have to know if, deep down, in the deepest part of her core, Anda is a killer. Or did her circumstances force her to act?"

Had the Burn simply removed the safeguards that her life in West Six had put into place, revealing the core of her being? Was part of her a killer? Or was she not and had acted out of self-preservation in reaction to her surroundings? Was murder part of Anda's nature, or had her new context and surroundings formed her and shaped her?

The Colonel and the doctors asked question after question about Anda and demanded clear and specific answers. They wanted to know what she was like. Had she ever done anything like this before? Kill someone? Of course not, don't be stupid. But they kept asking.

All the while, Aaron and Cassandra and Stephen listened silently. Occasionally, someone would ask Cassandra or Aaron a question about their experience with Anda back in West Six. They answered directly and clearly: they did not think that Anda was a threat.

Then it was time to vote.

Colonel Mason had pursed her lips and tapped her fingernails on the table. Hers was the only vote that had mattered. When a vote had been taken among the three, Colonel Mason, Dr. Adams, and Dr. Paulson, Anda had been found innocent of murder. Precautions would still be taken—she was still dangerous, and the Unseen would not risk their people and their city in any way. But Anda would not die for her actions.

Despite the innocent verdict, Anda would remain in the Unseen as a prisoner. But what good was the innocent verdict if it got her a life sentence anyway? She'd be a prisoner just like Mica, just like Ben. The Colonel didn't say it out loud, but she didn't have to.

Mica kicked her cot. The metal shuddered. She kicked it again. And again, and again, and again.

"Hey! Calm down in there, Mics," Stephen said from somewhere on the other side of the door. "What'd that bed ever do to you?"

"Will you people ever stop watching me?" Mica asked, annoyed that even in her cell, she was not alone. Yet, she was grateful that it was Stephen and not a stranger.

"Probably not," he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

She came closer and peeked out the little window in the cell door. Stephen sat in a chair opposite her cell. Mica wondered how she didn't realize he was there. "I guess it was too much to hope for some privacy. But I'm too special, aren't I?"