Mama, Hold On

Chapter 4

After the sun had disappeared into the horizon, Acacia and I walked through town and stopped at my office. It was about a two and a half hour's walk, but I needed certain documents and records to hold the meeting. Unfortunately, we had to leave Bebiche behind as the horses needed some kind of guardian while they slept out in the open. 

Near the southernmost areas of Gyran, there was a string of workplaces coated in polished marble and stone. At the very edge, was a small, box shaped building. From my pockets, I dug out my ring of keys. A few dozen of them, mainly silver or gold, with a few exception, all clanked against each other as I scanned for the silver one that unlocked my door. 

As I opened it, an overwhelming glow invaded the area around Acacia and I, replacing the faintly illuminated black of midsummer's midnight. I stepped in, the worn floorboards beneath me creaking. Acacia tailed me, and standing in my elongated shadow, she carefully took in the room. When her eyes settled on each individual object, she nodded, almost as if checking a mental list, before moving on.

The office was nothing more than one room, yet all of Gyran's history could be found in here. Thus, in my father's reign at least, it was frowned upon to have just anyone walk in. Original copies of anything with any importance to the town could be found in one of the several cabinets that covered and hid the wall from sight. The one time my old man ever broke the unspoken rule, a certain recipe was stolen, the Reja antidote. That plus the sudden disappearance of Dr. Resent, indirectly led to his and Mama's untimely death.

Reja was a sickness that appears exclusively in Lenties. In simple terms, it pulls out the powers inherited from their Lent ancestors. It was created when a team of scientists in Thirty One wanted to force their Lentie slaves to be more efficient. The problem was, through this method, Lenties are unable to control their abilities at all and the unfamiliar surge of power overwhelms their bodies until they drop dead from pure exhaustion. 

Lucky for Gyran, Mama had managed to nearly replicate the recipe before the illness stole her too, and a team of doctors was able to complete it by the end of that year. That very antidote saved Earnest and eradicated the disease. My gaze hovered until it settled on the very cabinet where the recipe was kept. I hadn't touched it since it had been announced that Reja had completely died out in Gyran. Suspiciously, I single piece of paper peeked through, waving at me.

"Am I supposed to be here?" Acacia mumbled from behind me. I turned around and saw a bittersweet expression on her face. I walked over to the desk, not more than three feet away. When I sat down and Acacia tailed me, I felt slightly intimidated as her larger build seemed exaggerated from down where I was. 

Nonchalantly, I answered while sifting the drawers at the desk that held all the recent events of Gyran, "Not really, no. But with everything suddenly so financially unstable, I hold meetings in here all the time." Grabbing a small packet of papers with the stables' record, I dropped them onto the table and added, "Plus, it's more convenient."

Shyly, Acacia nodded slowly and leaned against the desk which barely reached her midriff. The air felt so strangely heavy, so I side eyed her and joked, "Unless you're planning something, Lee." Frantic, she shook her head and retreated into herself. She rubbed her hands and looked at me with confusion as she slumped into the chair across from me. I sighed, "So let's start fairly simple with your proposal, shall we?" I pulled out a pen along with a few sheets of paper to draft out the grant.

Like a flipped switch, her timidness faded and Acacia sat up slightly taller. "So," she took a deep breath and scanned through the packet. Muttering something to herself, she pointed to the first page. "The stables were established in 4709, just three years after the town opening as Gyran saw the deep importance of keeping our horses well trained and taken care of. Until around 4760, only trained professionals were allowed to come anywhere near any of the horses. The stables were considered a serious business building like any other and Gyranians treated it as such.