Chapter One1
Creatures of the Black Mist2
3
“Aren't you worried?” Rei asked.4
Coda was staring at his hand again, and all sound was blocked from him. The scar was there, as it always was, and it wouldn't go away.5
“Ah, you're worried about something else.” Rei looked at the scar himself. At times, he thought it ran deeper than the skin, but it was difficult to tell. The scar was as black as the Mist itself, and it ran from Coda's palm to backhand. The skin was wrinkled on the outer edges of the scar, and in the dim light of the tavern, every detail within those wrinkled edges was hidden in darkness. Rei took another swig of beer and shook his head. “Why can't you just realize that that scar's in the past?”6
“Because it's not,” Coda snapped. “As long as it's here I have to remember that day.”7
“Coda, you're forgetting who you are. You were part of a great force ordered to save people from the Black Mist. Can you even count how many people you helped survive?”8
“I can count the ones I couldn't help: two,” Coda answered. “And they weren't just any two.”9
“I know, I know,” Rei said, waving his hand through the air. “Look on the bright side: you're here, safe, and you're part of Creto's military. And that brings me to what I was saying before—”10
“Creto's considering disbanding the military, I know. Why should I give a damn?” Coda hung his head low over his mug as he spoke, concealing iridescent blue eyes behind a tuft of black hair. A pendant dangled close to the glass, a silver crescent with a four-point star inside it.11
Rei sighed and pushed red hair out of his own eyes. “I swear, sometimes I think that scar is inside your mind more than it's on your hand.”12
“Well I'm sorry that I don't appreciate these homeships as much as you might. I for one can't stand them.”13
“Far as I can see, they're safer than Seilice was before the Mist. None of them have had any problems yet, even after fifteen years.”14
“There's no greater 'goal' in life anymore. Children here grow up only knowing the ship and nothing else. I lived in Sendeau, where people could dream of being Ingredoan heroes.”15
Rei laughed to himself, then said, “Well, if someone could find a way to get rid of the Black Mist then maybe kids would learn more about Seilice than what they learn in school. Maybe they could even fight for Sendeau and become heroes!”16
“Don't patronize me.”17
“Okay, okay. Maybe I've had enough for tonight.” Rei pushed his mug back across the bar and placed a few money notes next to it. “But don't think that you won't miss the military once it's gone.” With that, Rei walked out into the synthetic night air of Creto.18
Coda shrugged, not caring whether or not his long-time colleague and friend was right. He set a few notes next to Rei's and walked out.19
The crisp night air, emulated by Creto's advanced environmental conditioning system, was as cool as ever. Coda pulled his white jacket closer to himself to keep warm. As he walked, he looked around. The stars did not blink as he remembered they had on Seilice, and the darkness of the sky almost seemed to be producing light. He shook his head.20
The roads of Creto were all straight, flat, and narrow, which made it easy for a drunk person to get lost going to his own house. But Coda had remembered the way home very carefully so as to avoid this embarrassing folly.21
Like many homeships, Creto was filled with apartment-like complexes such as the one Coda lived in. It had been one of the homeships built later in the original catastrophe, one that had been built solely for escape and not comfort or luxury. It was by this reason that the roads of Creto were not much more than a grid, at least in the lower residential areas. Larger families, ship crew captains, and people who had been high in power on Seilice were upgraded to larger facilities.22
Coda stopped suddenly. Looking down the road, he saw a line of men as dark as shadows—or at least at this distance. They didn't look real, but he rested his hand on the blue and white handle of his sword just to be safe. As he approached, he saw that they looked more real than he had thought. But not real people—more like a humanoid manifestation of the Black Mist. He watched them carefully.23
They moved slowly. Their faces were concealed behind the hood of a robe, but the hood had no opening in front. How can they see? he wondered. He stopped for a moment, staggering a little as if the stop had been too sudden. The base of their robes looked to reach down and into the ground—like they were mounds of black matter rolling along the road.24
The line was longer than he had expected. Even as he neared his home he could not see the end of it. And what was even stranger was that they were all the same. Every detail was the exact counterpart of the next.25
Finally, arriving at his flat, he thanked whatever force it had been that prevented an altercation and walked inside. He looked out at the creatures through the slatted blinds of his window one time and then closed them.26
Not caring for any unnecessary sleep arrangements, Coda flopped over onto a couch and fell asleep within seconds.27
28
“Seven,” Evra called, “wake up!”29
Seven awoke with a start. He looked into the large, brown eyes of his sister and said, “Don't shake me.”30
Evra backed up and folded her arms.31
“What time is it?” Seven asked, apparently cooling down.32
“Time to get up and eat.”33
Seven grunted. “Fine. Let me change and I'll be out in a minute.”34
Evra half-smiled and nodded, leaving the room quietly.35
Seven got out of bed and found some blue denim pants. That would be decent enough for breakfast in his own home, though he wouldn't have cared otherwise if it wasn't his place. As he pulled up the pants and buttoned them up, he looked for his sword.36
He found it leaning against a closet door. He picked it up by the sheath and said quietly, “Are you the reason for these dreams?” He grabbed the handle, and a chilling pulse ran through his body. His breathing stopped for a moment and he broke out into a sudden cold sweat. As he regained his breath, he removed it from the sheath.37
The length of the sword curved back, reminiscent of a katana, and ended in a sharp point. But just before the point was a peculiar design; its end was hooked slightly, but it was shaped to mesh into the overall curve of the blade.38
The chill still ran through him, painfully ebbing in his body until it numbed. It was a normal occurrence, but he never understood why or how it happened.39
Still troubled and slightly anxious, Seven put his sword belt on and strapped it to his hip.40
41
Evra pushed the remainder of the eggs from the pan to the plate, next to the bacon. As she set the plates down on the table, she heard Seven's doorknob click open.42
As he walked out, Seven tried to wipe the tiredness from his eyes and tousled his hair. He had put a shirt on—a black one, as usual—and the sword clicked rhythmically at his side.43
Seven sat down and began eating slowly.44
“I made the eggs how you like them,” Evra said, trying to coax some sort of reaction out of her brother. He nodded, and that was it. Evra sighed. “Have you looked for a job?”45
At this, Seven stopped eating. He swallowed the bit he'd been chewing and then answered: “No. All the worthwhile jobs are at Utopia and Haven.”46
“That's not true,” Evra said with a smile. She picked up a paper she'd set upside-down on the table and said, “Here.”47
Seven read the list. They were jobs on Gedric. He read some of them out loud incredulously. “You think I'd want to manage the Clouds? Nobody ever uses them! And a teaching assistant—if I could be your assistant I still wouldn't do it.”48
Evra sighed hopelessly. “I was just thinking. You're nineteen, you live with your sister, and you have no job. Don't you think it's time to grow up?”49
Seven returned to eating. In between bites he said, “I'll think about it.”50
51
A breeze brushed through Seven's dark hair. He stood on a bridge, arms folded over a guardrail, looking at the reflected twilight sun on the manmade stream which ran around the park area. Passersby—the few of them at least—paid no attention to him standing out alone at sunset.52
The sky above was a domed ceiling with a screen spanning all across it. It displayed the sun, stars, and moon all with brilliant clarity and lifelike resemblances to their true counterparts. It had been made to pass a day in twenty-four hours. If there was no screen at all time would have been skewed by the constant motion of the homeships around Seilice.53
Seven watched that screen; it was a nightly routine for him. Arms always folded over the guardrail, hair drifting into his vision with the wind, he thought:54
What is my name supposed to mean? Is it a number used to symbolize goodness? Luck? Maybe that was the intention, but now it symbolizes nothing but irony. He released a sardonic laugh at himself.55
His laughing was cut short as his knees buckled underneath him. He could see everything around him becoming dark. He gasped, trying his best to stay up. “No! Not now!” he cried out. He saw the setting sun, and then darkness filled his entire vision.56
57
A group of people crowded around the boy they had just seen collapse. They whispered amongst themselves, all in concern of his condition.58
One person crouched down next to him to check if he was breathing. He felt air coming out of his nose and announced that he was all right. The group seemed relieved, but stood by to see if there was any way they could help. None of them knew what to do.59
One side of the crowd opened, allowing a girl in a corduroy jacket through.60
“Seven?” she called out to her brother. He did not answer. She lifted him by his shoulders, attempting to wake him. “Seven!” she called again. Worry filled her face.61
“Do you know him?” the man who announced his respiration asked.62
“Yes, I'm his sister.”63
“Is there any way we can help?” another person offered.64
“He does this occasionally. It's nothing out of the norm.” She tried to assure the group he was safe. “It just takes a lot to wake him.”65
Hesitantly, the group nodded. Sure that the boy was in good hands, the group dispersed, returning to their dwellings.66
The sky was dark now. The only light came from the glow of the stars above. Evra looked at her surroundings. The people from the crowd were out of sight, but in the middle of the park area, she saw shadows making their way across the grass towards her and her fallen brother.67
68
The darkness opened up, giving way to a sea of stars. Seven sat up in alarm—how long had he been out?69
Then sound came back to him as the loud snap of thunder invaded his ears. He felt a warm mist on his cheeks, and he knew it had been magic. Behind him, Evra brandished a cane to some black hooded things. They advanced on Evra, and Seven's stomach began to churn.70
He reached for his sword, clenching his teeth against the cold bite that never failed. Standing up as quickly and quietly as he could, he ran to one of the things and slashed through it. Its body dissolved into the air.71
“Move!” Evra yelled. Just as Seven had put himself out of the way, streaks of white-hot electricity bolted through the air, piercing the remaining two assailants. They too vanished into the night.72
Evra put her hands on her knees and breathed heavily. “Are you—okay?” she said between breaths.73
“Me? Look at you! You've got blood running down your cheek,” Seven said concernedly.74
“It's a scratch.” She stood up, hoping the gash in her face would stop bleeding on its own. “Let's go.”75
Seven looked around in sudden realization. He sent them for me.76
Adding your comment:
