Winter's Edge

Chapter 7 - Temptation

Ian

I steadied my legs and drew in a deep breath, listening to the celestial voice sing, its words so sad and longing. These powers draining my energy was getting old. They'd better be right about gaining endurance, or controlling my abilities would be pointless. And I was beginning to feel like a complete wuss.

Kat took hold of me again, relieving Asa once more. Asa wore a proud, satisfied smile as she watched my amazement.

I couldn't pull my eyes away from the beautiful town square. "Why's it called Winter's Edge?"

"Because of our location." Asa's British accent made even mundane phrases sound interesting. "It's always winter on the snowcapped mountains nearby. Our city's at the edge of the mountains, underneath the foothills. Thus, we are always at the edge of Winter." She looked out over the park. "This is our town square."

The beautiful song stole my attention away from Asa for a moment. "If the singer's half as beautiful as her voice, she's gorgeous."

"Don't go getting any ideas." Asa glared at me. "That's Abby."

Images of levitating metal blades chasing me flew through my head giving me second thoughts about liking Abby. I hadn't known Asa very long, but I knew upsetting her was a bad idea.

She cooled her protective-mother tendencies with a deep breath, then pointed to the ceiling's rim. "The sound comes from a resonance chamber, through small passages that open at the outer edge of the ceiling."

I marveled at the ceiling for a moment, the sound seemingly floating down from the painted clouds. "It's like the ultimate surround sound system."

"Joseph," she said, biting off the name, "has been known to use the resonance chamber to make announcements at times. He uses a separate one in his quarters. Abby thinks the resonance chamber she uses is contained and just for acoustics. She doesn't know we can hear her out here." She raised a finger. "And if you tell her, a lot of people will be upset with you for taking away their music."

What? That was just wrong. How could they keep that from her for so many years? How had she not found out by now?

Asa looked at me with eyes that said, Talk and you die. I'll do it myself.

I nodded slowly, a stirring conflict in my gut.

Kat moved me to the right toward a large passage. "Come on, wobble-legs. Let's get you to the commons."

***

The next day, Abby and Kat showed me around some of the city. They had a beautifully-painted aquaponic farm they called the Gardens that produced a ton of food and money for them. Fiber-optic cables filtered out shortwave radiation from the sun, allowing the plants to grow far longer and produce a much greater quantity of huge vegetables. And that wasn't even their most lucrative money source. They had gold mines whose profits dwarfed that of the aquaponic farm. In short, they were loaded. And yet they didn't use money in Winter's Edge, Kat had said. Apparently, it had just caused problems for them in the past. But when they worked, they made money to spend on supply runs. It was an interesting system.

After the partial tour, I was put to work at Murph's Tavern. Serving food wasn't really my forte, but it was a small price to pay to stay and train for a while. Luckily, I wasn't stuck with the job. The pink-haired load of sarcasm actually had her own restaurant called Kat's Kitchen. Southern food with a German flair, she'd said. I'd try working there eventually just for something a little different. After all, anything sounded better than the mines.

By mid-afternoon, my shift had ended and Murph handed me a hefty lunch before he vanished back inside the restaurant to clean up. I sat alone with my thoughts in the massive vacant commons area. It wasn't quite the size of the town square, but it wasn't a whole lot smaller either. Its centerpiece was an exquisitely-carved, three-tiered fountain filling a large portion of the center. An aqueduct began at the second tier of the fountain and disappeared into one of the passages heading toward the town square. Quite a distance from each side of the annular fountain sat empty café chairs and tables. Calling this a room wasn't doing it justice. It was more like a banquet hall for Goliath.