The Rift in the Domain- The Auranos Stories Book 2

Chapter 39 - Keystone

          

After getting Matt on board, I went back to the meeting tower downtown. This tower was the biggest building in the city, and had become a sort of headquarters for our new government. A police force was burgeoning there, people could bring concerns to the council, and offices for military officials were being assigned. After looking through some old documents still on file within, we found that the building had been used as a commerce center, renting out offices for dozens and dozens of companies. It was called the Keystone Building.

            So I went up to the nineteenth floor of the Keystone- a floor with soaring ceilings and full-wall sized windows that gave a dazzling view of the world below. That was the meeting floor, where the Council held its gatherings around a circular table. The meeting room itself was in a corner of the building, giving us a 180-degree view of the city.

            "Can I bring this meeting to order?" I asked, looking around at the assembled representatives. Everyone nodded- we seemed to be ready. "Alright, then. The, uh, sixteenth meeting of the New Moon Council comes to order immediately. May we hear from the city counties?"

            This had been a nightmare to organize... we had to make our own democracy from scratch, so all of the decorum of the Council meetings was basically written by Lykar, Urtam, a few of the Council members, and me. It sounded a little pretentious, considering we were just a ragtag band of rebels, but as Urtam said, the best way to be taken seriously is to be serious. So we were.

             Most of my friends found it absolutely, mind-numbingly boring, though I thought it was kind of amazing... the way people could make something so tangible and important out of something so seemingly arbitrary. But Comet kept telling me not to leave this part in the letter or you'd fall asleep, so I'll just give you the summary.

            The six districts were represented by six different people. Those people had basically been picked before the county lines had even been drawn; because ex-townsfolk tended to stick together in the city, their previous leaders were still pretty much in charge. The old sheriff from Cavebrook represented the Uptown District, for instance. His name was Trunk Rivulet, and he was one of the smartest men I'd ever met. The other districts were the Edge District, represented by Wander Tails, the Banks District, represented by North Ocean, the Central District, represented by Carrier Track, the Eastern District, represented by Rail Weather, and the Park District, represented by Melody Fire.

            Rivulet spoke up first, saying that Uptown was still stable, and that the economy- as far as he could tell- was still thriving. Next was Wander Tails, from Edge District. The Edge District was becoming the 'party' district; it was the area farthest from downtown, with streets filling up with bars and entertainment. Tails was looking to have an extension of our law enforcement build an office in the district in order to keep their rowdy populous somewhat in check.  Ocean, Track, and Fire had nothing new to report, and Weather was happy to announce that the reservoir was up and running with full staff.

            We discussed a few ongoing projects, like Kaian's health system. There was a pre-established hospital building in the Park District, but it had been claimed as office space by a construction business called Charms Incorporated a few weeks earlier. That meant we'd have to give them another option if a hospital was going to-

            You're bored, aren't you? Comet was nodding off by that point in the meeting, so I'll cut to the chase.

            We made a lot of decisions, changed around a few things, and I announced my plans to leave the city for a few months. The rest of the Council was a little apprehensive, but they seemed to gain confidence as I explained the plan. Urtam would remain in the city to help maintain stability, and the Council itself would hear from those of us who left in two months, because we planned to stay in Lagokia for a while on the way back. From Lagokia, I could make calls to the city and take part in Council meetings from there.

            And there was more good news- I told them about my hopes of gathering Lagokian support through Matt. We all agreed that having another Earthling could be a huge asset.

            So after weeks and weeks of planning, weeks and weeks of construction, my last day in New Moon was rapidly approaching. Gone were the days of late nights in the city, replaced instead with late nights planning, hunched over a desk writing up contingency strategies for keeping the city under control and using resources wisely.

And during that time, I even started the first section of this letter. Most of part 1- er, book 1, I guess- of this letter was written in my notebook while we were travelling, but it occurred to me to write things down properly sometime while I was wandering about New Moon at night. So the letter began.

            After just a few more weeks, Matt's presence in the Lagokian community became a success- partly because of my involvement and partly because of Matt's, ah, let's call it debonair charm. He knows how to get people to like him. I can respect that, I guess.

            Anyway, with a few good words put in by me to Orai and the support of his people, we'd secured the full military assistance of the Lagokian Kingdom. An initial stealth-focused armada of 4,000 of their soldiers was set to arrive within a few days of our departure from New Moon. (They were sailing first to a remote cove off the southern coast of the Domain and keeping a low profile to keep Shadow's interest at a minimum.)

            Everything was fitting together- everything was falling into place.

            But suddenly, my last full day in New Moon arrived, seemingly without warning. I was about to leave it all behind.