For the second time in thirty years, the entire world has fallen asleep...
Thirty years after the Greymen caused the decimation of her people, high school drop out Rain Collins spends her days learning to pickpocket and hold her booze. Yet she long...
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Breakfast was served in the great hall upon our arrival. The halls round belly expanded as the two hundred of us crammed inside its walls with the Regressives who awaited us there. The broad shouldered and grey eyed distant cousins paced the hall, laden serving trays balanced along each arm. Like the stone's light, a resonant humming emanated from the walls, a calming sort of musical effusion.
My family settled at a huge, oak table across from Dr. Farrah, Billy, and Kayle. Despite the festive atmosphere, I dug into the feast in silence, relieved for our safety but somehow unsettled. Something tugged at the edge of emotion, but I could not fully feel it, so I left it alone.
With a forkful of concocted meat and bread halfway in my mouth, I paused. Had my plate just moved? I blinked, staring at the plate. Yes, it definitely shifted. "Shit," I muttered, setting down my fork.
The great hall disappeared.
And the marketplace appeared.
A single Master casually paced the square, gazing into the storefront windows like a Sunday morning window shopper. He did not acknowledge my appearance, but seemed rather intrigued by Miss Becky's display of the day's goods. I stepped forward, peering over his shoulder to see what arrangement of golden breads she had chosen to spark even a Master's interest. But on that day, Miss Becky's window displayed no bread. Instead, Sir sat in an oversized wicker basket, grey skin pouring through the small holes here and there.
"Listen to me," the Master said, staring at Sir but speaking to me. "You have a choice: you may be a Greyman or you may be a Master. Human is no longer an option. We will find the Regressives. They will be Greyed. If you do not surrender, you will be Greyed with them. Greymen do not have souls, memories, nor self. Those who surrender now will be made Masters. We offer you the chance not just to live, but to have limitless power. But this is your only chance. Join us or serve us, it is your choice, but you must make it now."
I reached a hand toward the store window, toward Sir, and tried to feel his strength in me.
"I see," said the Master. His hand shot out inhumanly (of course) fast, wrapping around my wrist. I did not need to feel the disconnection and he did not need to remove his hand to reveal the beam of light; I already knew. I was unbound from my Greyman, powerless.
Sir shouted my name as the Master snapped his fingers, magicking everything away. Sir disappeared. I cried out as the Master laughed, as my heart shattered, as my soul was rent.
Sir was gone.
The vision faded and Sanctuary returned, its arching rock walls huddling me and my fellows in safety. There had been no safety for Sir.
Nor for Jacob. That was what had seemed so wrong, why I felt ill at ease: Jacob. I had watched him die. I had watched my city destroyed. How had I forgotten?
The dining hall returned and immediately erupted with activity as, breakfasts forgotten, the people began to move in every direction. Many shouted and screamed in fear, announcing their intention to surrender as they rushed toward the cave's mouth, trying to escape Sanctuary. A breeze swept through the hall, pulsing over the crowd as they continued to scramble for the door.
Dr. Farrah leapt up from the table, running with the chaos toward the entrance. The breeze tousled her hair lightly before dying in her wake. My father wrapped the rest of us in his arms, cradling us against his chest as he charged across the hall to a flat wall, ducked under its overhang.
At the mouth of the entrance, Dr. Farrah and several other familiar faces from the city had gathered. Miss Nicole from the laundry, the Larrabee brothers, even a few of Dad's farmhands.
"Mom," Billy whispered as he watched. "What are you doing?"
"Your charade is done. Let us go," the doctor said to the entrance guard.
"I can't," the Regressive guard said, eyeing the growing crowd around her. Certainly her powers as a Master could subdue the rabble, but as a Regressive, she would not want anyone to come to harm. She needed backup to stop everyone from getting out.
"I'm sorry," a voice came from outside the entrance. A moment later, the Speaker stepped through the hole, flanked by several Regressive guards. "Icarus was not to deceive you. It will not happen again."
"Move, Speaker."
"I can't do that."
"You'd keep us prisoner?" Dr. Farrah asked as the crowd around her grumbled.
"You know I don't want to, Farrah, but if any of you go to the Masters, you will take your knowledge of the Sanctuary with you. We cannot have that in the Masters' hands. Please understand. The survival of humanity may depend on this secret."
"Is it true? They can change us. Make us Masters?"
The Speaker frowned, nodding. "Yes. But you cannot trust them, Farrah. They'll only use and discard you. You must see that they are lying."
"Like you lied our entire friendship? I'll take my chances." Dr. Farrah shook her head, her face incredulous. "The Regressives," she spat the name. "It's so appropriate. I do understand now. Knowledge means nothing to you. You don't want to be better or more or... You don't want anything. The only thing you're concerned with is keeping power from those greater than you, which is almost everyone. Certainly the Masters. And if we can become them, what better way for you to fight them than to capture us? You're frauds, all of you! All the opportunity you had--you could have solved all the world's problems but instead you doomed our planet and you're trying to do it again! Set us free, Speaker. You need to let us go."
The crowd around the doctor roiled with the same furious energy as she, shouting and cursing at the Speaker and his family. They seemed poised to attack when a deafening rumble shook the cave. The Regressives hit the deck as Dr. Farrah and her compatriots fled through the caves entrance and disappeared through its silk, into the Wilds. I ran the opposite way as the black silk entrance exploded.
The smooth, curved walls of Sanctuary cracked and shattered around me, above me. Through the endless, deafening rumble of the attack, I heard the rocks breaking, smashing against each other, the ground, the people below. Those who weren't lucky enough to be knocked out with a single blow screamed themselves breathless as their bones shattered nearly as loudly as the walls. Soon, I could not see through the roiling, dark cloud of debris. The screams and smashes continued through the darkness as I crouched on the ground and held my head.
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