The Suggestion Box, Vol. 4: A to Z Challenge

Letter S: "Safety in Solidarity"

*This story is a sequel to List #4 from The Suggestion Box, Vol. 1 [https://www.wattpad.com/1240853380-the-suggestion-box-volume-1-list-4-steampunk ]

Summertime in Walesmoor was usually a mild affair. The sun shone her very strongest, but a thin sheen of cloud still staunchly stayed, filtering her light and heat.

A young girl and her governess sat on the steps behind the house, stitching with silk threads over swatches of muslin. Such a pastime befitted ladies of their status.

The girl glanced up at her governess.

"What is it like, Vonica?" She asked, looking up and brushing her dark hair aside.

Vonica raised her eyes from her work and smiled. "What is what like, Sophia?"

The young girl's gaze grew very serious. "Being an Ordinary."

Vonica's lips pinched somberly. "Your father does not want us to talk—"

"But I am afraid!" Sophia protested. "You have been through a Division before. I just want to know what it is like!"

Vonica gazed at her charge, barely seven years of age. "You are still so young, Sophia. You'll have a few more years ahead of you before you are in the eligible range from which they cull. You can learn all you need to know—"

"From my governess, who was an Ordinary herself," Sophia finished stubbornly. "You were Seventh, right? What was it like, the Base-10? Were there obstacles, or puzzles you had to solve? Did they tell you all the secrets behind the institution of Ordinaries and Cardinals?"

"Sophia, stop!" Vonica's eyes widened in fear. "Are these the stories you've heard? Such speculation does not become a lady of your stature."

"Then tell me the truth!" Sophia insisted. "What happened on the way to Londonshire?"

"Nothing!" snapped the governess. A tense moment of silence hung between them. Vonica's shoulders slumped, and she sighed. "Nothing happened to me, at any rate... but when I arrived at Base-10, they informed me that I was no longer Seventh. I needed to be the Third Ordinary."

Sophia gasped. "Third? But wasn't there a Third already selected?"

Vonica shook her head. "There were only two other Ordinaries when I arrived."

The young girl quickly subtracted in her fingers. "What happened to the other four Ordinaries?"

Vonica shrugged and went back to her sewing. "Who knows? No one talked about it while I was there, but later on—after I came to work for your father in looking after you—I heard rumors that there had been a Nullifier attack on our caravan."

"Nullifiers? What are those?" Sophia felt a sudden panic rise within her at the word.

Vonica glanced around to make sure they were alone before sinking her voice to a whisper. "No one has actually seen them, but there have been sequences of events that confirm the existence of a shadow faction. Nullifiers want to overthrow the Cardinals, and that is why they began instituting Ordinaries, one for each Cardinal. The Cardinals, then, cannot be touched until all of the Ordinaries are killed in the order of their assignment. Each Division is another chance for the Nullifiers to strike. "If you are selected, Sophia, I want you to be on your guard at all times. No one has solved the mystery of how or when the Nullifiers slay the Ordinaries—or even if they exist, and it wasn't just some arbitrary accident that claimed the lives of these people in the past. Stay alert, and live, so that the others may survive!" >>>>>>>>>