Fanfare

True Darkness

Joss is calling to her, a low voice in the night. She leaves the building with a hiss of frustration and a shake of her head, which dulls the small bit of anticipation in his eyes but not the faith, the fight, the hope; he will continue to search for her. He will not give up. That is good news. Because neither will she.

They prowl the streets of the broken city, past buildings with people, sleeping or awake, wary, unable to succumb to the freedom, the vulnerability of sleep. The city is a relatively safe place; people all know one another, as it is comparatively small. But not everyone trusts everyone. Not everyone deserves to be trusted. To Trenna, the city feels huge. She can count on her fingers the people she trusts.

The old streetlights used to be lit by electricity, many, many decades ago; now they shine with delicate traceries of reflected fire, some actually lit with candles, small bunches of slow burning plants or fabric that smoulder, shedding light, placed there by those brave enough or motivated enough or desperate enough to climb the treacherously high poles and light a fire up there. Trenna used to do it, for money, before Joss found out and didn't let her. This is another reason she is valuable; she is nimble and quick, and can climb very high very quickly, can see, from a high place, where the attempt is taking place. She does this now, Joss guarding the pole at the bottom as she shims up it, arm over arm, the smooth soles of her shoes slipping a little until they find purchase on the rusting metal. Once at the top, she looks at the small pile of smouldering embers, once a flame, but not enough to fuel it. She blows on it softly, and a flame sparks with the oxygen before dying when her breath runs out; this only reminds her of Joss, speaking about the bomb, untested and dangerous, and she turns her gaze to the ground, quick and sharp, searching for any sign of the attempt or her sister, a fleet, tall figure in the night. She sees neither, and slides down the pole to the ground with a sad shake of her head.

Full of energy, life, Joss turns away and continues to search. They've looked almost everywhere. Trenna can't see where else her sister would be, would go. She starts to worry. Wonder if Kina has gone and done something reckless. But, no. Kina wouldn't do anything. Kina wouldn't leave her alone in this. Never. 

Swallowing fear and sticking close to Joss, watching his back as they traverse the streets, narrow and wide, thin and gapingly empty, she thinks of her mother, of that place she goes to when she's not really there. She wonders if there is any way, will ever be any way, to reach into that place, that dark shadowy realm, and pull her mother free from it. It is the place where her heart rests, hiding with her mother and the secret of where Kina hides, and if she doesn't find her sister tonight, she's not sure her heart can take it, nor her mind; she fears it will go to rest with her mother, and never return again, stuck in the no-man's-land between life and death. Never really living, but never really dying, either. A waking death, Trenna thinks a little morbidly. A place where true death would be a mercy. She doesn't like thinking of her mother never being able to come back from that place, so she turns her thoughts away from that uncomfortable topic, tunes her senses to the familiar streets, flickering with orange firelight over the rooftops of the buildings.

Glass crunches beneath her shoes, and she is careful to dodge the biggest pieces, wary of infection and the horror, the pain it can bring once it sets in. Joss hits the large, jagged bits away with the length of steel, gently, but they still make noise.

And then Trenna hears the shattering of glass. Her head whips to the side, following the noise. Joss has heard it, too. He leaves the glass on the ground and turns, following Trenna as closely as a shadow, protective but looming over her. She shoots him a pointed look over her shoulder, and he shrugs apologetically, a small, not really sorry smile on his face which quickly fades as they hear more glass shattering, disturbing the quiet of the flames. Slowly, carefully, they slink past buildings, following the sound and the lure of a different kind of light; torches shine in beams over the ground. The few batteries that people have found a way to recharge are expensive, and Trenna wonders where this rebel group got them, got the money to get them. She only has a torch because it was her fathers' present to her and her sister, for when Kina was scared of the dark and Trenna would huddle with her in her bed, trying to calm her down, reassuring her that everything was fine, reminding her that in this place, they were never really in the dark. She remembers opening the curtain, pointing outside and saying, in her small, childish voice, that it was always bright in the city. In this place, it was never truly dark.