Downworld

Chapter 34

Maybe it was too fast. Maybe I should have waited longer. But I didn't want too and Afra's threat was the perfect excuse.

Even beyond Afra's threat, if asked back then, I would have said I was worried about the Glen's neighbors. They'd noticed, and been not happy about, how many people were leaving them for, or making their way through their territories, to the Glen. And they'd noticed that despite the growth, the Glen didn't seem to be short on space. It made Territory Lords nervous when they couldn't count their neighbor's forces; even if they were technically your allies.

Not that we had more forces than our neighbors did, because after a several years of my college program, I expanded it to include families with younger kids. Mostly commoners who didn't want their children to grow up with no choice like they did. They all got new identities as legal-enough immigrants. The kids went to school, and the parents to jobs that didn't require much skill. And if they were ignorant about technology, or law or other things, well, that's just how foreigners are, right? They didn't mind the boring work. Probably the best parents in downworld, only they weren't in downworld anymore.

Of course there were rumors, without rumors people wouldn't come, but the Territory Lords didn't believe them. Why would any noble or royal allow anyone to immigrate to above? It made no sense to them. It was against everything they knew and it was a danger to downworld. Humans had known about us once, back when freaks played and killed them as we liked, but that was before they'd had the numbers to win any war against us twice over. They'd killed their share, before we made downworld to hide in and convince them that they'd won. But it wouldn't take much to reveal we were very much alive. They thought it was a gimmick to trick people into swearing to Malik.

And that was what led me to a busy intersection in the middle of the city.

'You sure you want to do this?' Isamu said.

I didn't. It was going to fucking hurt. But I really did. I was sick of waiting.

'Should I give you my phone?' I replied. 'Do you think it'll break?'

He gave me one of his signature looks that he'd been working on since he was teenager and had never grown out of. This one said stop fucking around, Jay. I knew it very well. 'I don't think you should be worried about your phone right now.'

'Maybe I should put it in my shoe.'

'Fuck, Jay. Shut up about your phone.' People glared at him as they passed.

I reached over and squeezed his shoulder. 'You know I'll be fine, right?'

'Sure, intellectually, I know you'll probably be okay. But what if you're not?'

'I will be. I can heal almost as well as Malik.'

'What if you break your neck of something?'

'Where in the middle of the city, nothing's going fast enough to kill me. It'll be fine.'

He didn't look comforted, he just hunched in on himself further. 'Just don't die, okay?'

'Of course I won't. Now, we did check that Stephen wasn't on yet, right?' Isamu nodded. I wanted to keep everyone else away from this part, and Stephen being one of the paramedics to attend would be a bad plan.

I did put my phone in my shoe, which seemed the safest place for it. 'Camera?'

Isamu pulled out his own phone -- or rather the expensive camera phone that was registered to someone else and in no way could be traced back to either of us. 'Malik's going to be so pissed at us.'