The Eight of Earth

16: Tanya Crown

A Savron guard barely pays attention to me atop the south watchtower. Instead, he miserably slides grey nutrient blocks into the pulsating slit of his torso. Spending every day at this hour alone in his perch, the other towers lying vacant. I know it shouldn't, but it comforts me to watch him lifelessly absorb his meal. The poor bastard sits on a stool far too short for him, wings clipped so he can't fly and galestone weights bolted to his hooved feet so he can't make use of his immense jumping ability as well. I glance down at my med gown whipping in the breeze, and the pill-sized bulge under the skin of my wrist as the tracker inside blinks green and can empathize. We're both prisoners being held in broad daylight.

I haven't spoken to him before, but Miku's lecture on helping people and its soul-cleansing qualities has me trying to soften my edge.

"Those good?" I yell up the tower. He glances around, realizing I can only be talking to him.

"What?"

"The block things... are they good?" I point to my stomach, not knowing how else to signal what I'm referring to. The guard's face has a reptilian quality to it, covered in prickles that look like tiny mountain ranges peaking up through his skin. They're an ugly race with a stubby snout set between two sets of staggered eyes, yet he's not entirely repulsive to look at. He inspects one for a moment and shrugs.

"You tell me." He tosses the block from the tower, and I have to lunge to catch it before it lands in the mud.

"Shitty toss." I glare up at him. He smirks.

A distant rumbling turns my attention to the east. It's low and steady like the hum of excavating bots. It wouldn't surprise me if the digging crews were getting an early start on the day. It's warmer than usual. Plenty of resources in Su Hoz. Just hardly any people.

"Can I even eat these?" I ask, lingering on the faint trembles that echo just out of sight, a puzzled expression twisting on my brow. They seem oddly close for excavating bots, though.

"Don't know. But if you can't and end up dying, the lab probably shuts down, and I get to leave, so... I say go for it." He grins as he presses another block into his torso slit. His arrogance pulls me away from the rumbling.

"You got some nerve talking to me like that." I sniff the block. No scent. I suppose that's a good thing, considering the alternative...

"What do I have to lose?" He gestures around to his pathetic perch and lifts a leg over the railing to showcase his bolts. "Plus, I figured you'd prefer frank conversation since that seems to be your native tongue with us." He pulls himself up by the railing, standing now and leaning over it to speak with me. "The guards talk, ya know?"

I glance around to the other empty watchtowers.

"Yea, really seems like you got your finger on the pulse on what's going on around here." I mock. "Tell me again, where's everyone else right now?" I don't need him to answer; I know where they are. They leave at midday and head into the only piece of civilization for miles, a tiny merchant settlement called Yerally. There they guzzle haze and get conned out of their daily pay by the envoy merchants who bring back exotic goods from their trade runs in Berban. And the Savron chump has to stay behind and cover for them. Because as a second-class citizen, he can't say a damn thing about it.