NaNo Days 1 & 2
This is the very roughest cut of my writing as it was done quickly, on very little sleep, and after work when my brain isn't always the sharpest. So far I have succeeded in writing "a story" every day which is sort of my plan. I had intended to jump around in my mind's plot but these two stories go together. In fact, they are sort of a prologue and opening chapter to the whole thing. This is only a tiny taste of what I have in my head as I still haven't worked the dynamics of magic into the narrative yet.
Have I told you here how super excited I am about this plot? I gush all the time at work, especially after a night where good ideas have slipped onto my paper, sometimes almost by accident. This world is a lot darker than it was initially. It's a tad more steampunkish than just turn-of-the-century, although the world is actually post-apocalyptic in a way that I haven't completely sketched out yet.
My writing music as been the most beautiful album! A History of Scotland performed by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. There are a couple of tracks on YouTube but I found it on Spotify and it's been on repeat ever since. I even turned it on this morning before I fully awoke and let it run while I went back to sleep. It's can't hurt now that it's in my subconscious!!!
Story 1 (A sort of Prologue)
22: line everyone up - 1353
Her first impression was of burnt bread. Everything smelled of burnt bread. It was enough to turn her stomach. After a month on board her mother’s ship, The Valiant Delight, Cyril Ann had expected to welcome dry land but now she wanted to run back up the gangplank and hide in her bunk.
Still, she’s made a promise that she would try to like it on the island of Mago. Her mother and father both talked of the charm of New City as if it was a heaven on earth. No fruit tasted as fine as anything they’d ever eaten straight from the many trees that lined the pathways of the city. No leaf was ever as green. No sun shone as bright. No experience was ever the same as the ones they’d shared while they lived in their childhood homes.
But both her mother and father had lived here in a different time. They’d been children in a land that wasn’t torn apart with war with outside forces and irritations from inside concerns.
“We were so innocent,” her father often sighed at the end of his stories. He’d stare into the flickering flames of the camp stove, his eyes full of memories that he couldn’t put into words. “All of us. We knew nothing of the world outside our town, let alone on the other islands of the archipelago. That there were nations even outside that never once crossed my mind.”
Those nations had tried to take the archipelago for themselves but they hadn’t succeeded, in part because of people like her mother. Commander Bray looked particularly dashing today, the many buttons of her coat shining in the bright sun. Even after a month in the cramped hold of the ship, she still looked pressed and neat. A true Commander of the Fleet. There was a flood of real pride in Cyril Ann’s heart as she watched her mother stand at attention at the railing so far above the hustle and bustle of the dock.
As much as she wanted to put her handkerchief over her nose to stop the stench of burnt bread from permeating into her brain and staying there forever, Cyril Ann didn’t want to call attention to herself. It was already too late for that, what with the delicate, white lace dress her mother insisted she wear for her first introduction to Mago. From her quick glances around the busy dock, white wasn’t exactly a popular color and lace wasn’t a popular fabric.
“This isn’t anything like Eighteen.” She glanced over to get her father’s reaction, expecting to have him smile back at her and offer something soothing like, “Oh, you’ll get used to it.”
But his eyes were as wide as her own felt. “We’ve been gone so long,” he finally said, his words barely audible in the bustle.
That was true enough. While the war itself was only a year older than she was, Cyril Ann knew that her parents had been stationed at Command Post Eighteen for nearly twenty years. Ever since the first hint that there might be a conflict, as a matter of fact. Commander Bray had received her commission, her ship and her husband all on the same day. Most women in her position wouldn’t have had a child but Command Post Eighteen had been a different sort of place than the other military holdings.
It hadn’t been Eighteen that had been her real home. The wooded hills around the compound were what Cyril Ann really missed, most of all. She’d made friends with some of the people who lived outside the compound, against her mother’s wishes, but she’d also been perfectly happy alone up in the branches of the tallest trees. As far as she could tell, there wasn’t a tree on this island. Not that she could see from her vantage point on the heaving dock.
“Tell me about Mago, Daddy.” It was all they’d talked about on the trip over but it had mostly been from a military standpoint. As far as Cyril Ann was concerned, she didn’t know enough about the place that would be her new home. Right now, she needed to be reminded of why this was in her best interest.
Thankfully, he didn’t question her need for reassurance or her use of the title she’d been forbidden from using in public. Instead, he took a step closer to her so that they were close enough for a quiet conversation.
“Your mother was born in Old Town. Not far from the docks, as a matter of fact. The house doesn’t exist any longer. Much of the houses in this part of town were torn down to make room for this dock and the larger warehouses.”
She knew that Mago produced most of the grain that was used in the archipelago and, reportedly, the best fruit. It was the largest of the islands and had the most producible land. Before the war, there hadn’t been much need for larger warehouses. The little that was produced over and above what the people who lived on the island could consume was stored in the silos near the farming collectives as a measure of security against drought or storm, both a scourge of the island.
“The warehouses were built after the war started?”
He shook his head. “Years before, actually. Your mother was in training when it happened. Sad, really, that she never knew that it wouldn’t be there when she returned.”
There was a pause, one that Cyril Ann didn’t expect. When she glanced over to see why he’d stopped talking, her father appeared to be deep in thought about something that didn’t please him.
“And what about where you were born? Was it near?”
“The other side of the island, actually.” His voice was soft as he continued to stay lost in thought. “It’s not what it used to be, either.”
“Why? More warehouses?”
“More of everything, if my sources are to be trusted. The orchards of my childhood are doubled, some tripled, in size. They aren’t owned and operated by families any longer. The operations are too big for just a few people taking care of the trees. Fruit knows when it’s being loved.”
Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out what that last line meant but her attention was diverted back to the procession of military might. There were several rows of women, in contrast to the single line of men. Most of them weren’t actual members of this platoon, having only come back over because of the closing of Command Center Twelve. Many of the Command Centers were closing now that the war was over but not all of them had a ship of this size at their disposal.
For most of her life, Cyril Ann’s father had been the only male in her vicinity. The women in her mother’s command weren’t the sort to have hangers-on, nor were they allowed to visit anyone outside the Command Center. For the most part, everyone ignored the fact that there was a whole group of people living on the same island as they were, as per the command of their leader.
But Cyril Ann had been quick to break that particular rule. Not because she was a person intent on subversion but because she needed more than the rigorous daily life of the Command Center. If she had let her mother have her way, Cyril Ann would have been a smaller version of the soldiers in her command.
There had been too much going in the last few years for Commander Bray to give her daughter much of her time and energy. As she watched the soldiers walk by, their impassive faces all identically cold and unwelcoming, Cyril Ann felt sick. The days of using her time as she saw fit were gone. Her mother’s change in duty would leave her with plenty of free time. Free time to use in molding her daughter for a life that only one of them wanted.
story 2 (Two years after prologue)
13. embrace failure - 2451
“And what about this new mark? Is the job a go?” The stout boy had his hands on his hips, his jaw thrust out as if he might have finally grown enough of a backbone to stand up to the older boys. “I’m hungry. We don’t have enough money to get anything good to eat. We need this job.”
Xie swung his legs over the edge of the splintered window, halfway to the freedom of being outside the four walls of the slum he currently called home. It never felt like home. Not without his sister.
The only thing that kept him here was Lec, Erns and Gio. They’d stuck by each other through the pain of losing family members (there was only one mother and two fathers between the four of them and Xie was the only one with a sibling still living, that they knew of), gaining and losing honest work, gaining dishonest jobs, and earning a reputation in Old City for being able to acquire “lost” items.
He’d never seen himself as a criminal. Not really. It made more sense, this utilization of a collection of talents that was suited for a specific skillset, than trying to find a job that didn’t mind him taking days off at a time when he followed up a lead on his sister’s location. No amount of money was worth the knowledge that the next time might be the time he found her.
“Don’t have time for this job, Gio. Feel free to take it. I’m not about to waste my time looking for a lost watch when it’s probably down the back of the guy’s bureau.”
Red stained Gio’s cheeks but he was doing a formidable job of holding his temper these days. “Then let’s go check there. It’s a job. It’s real currency. Not the promised stuff on paper people keep trying to give us. Enough to get a few proper meals before storm season sets in.”
He couldn’t blame Gio for being angry for the complaints his stomach was making. There was something in the air, though. Something that was tugging at his heart, promising that the hope he still harbored wasn’t for naught. His sister was still out there. Maybe... this time... maybe.
Even though they’d never met his sister, had only heard his disjointed ramblings of what sort of person she was, his mates were always around to help him check out the new stories of a girl with strange eyes and the dark hair that curled down her back. If he had told Gio about the meeting he was trying to get to, he was sure the younger boy would have gone with him. The note had promised information but only if he came alone. Sure, it probably meant alone as in no brutes but he couldn’t take the chance.
“Sorry, Gio. When I get back, we’ll discuss it. How about that?”
They both knew that the likelihood of him coming back before daybreak was slim but still the boy nodded. Silently, Xie promised to make it up to him and slipped out the window and down the side of the building to the cobbled street below.
The sun was peeping over the horizon when he struggled back up through the opening. With a sigh, he let himself fall to the cold floor without putting a hand out to stop his sudden descent. It had been a fruitless outing that had garnered him nothing but a black eye, a strained leg muscle, and the taste of bile in the back of his throat.
“I’m failing you,” he whispered in a broken voice. There were times when it felt as if his sister was in the room with him, as close as a hand stretched out. After nights like this one, he wondered if he wasn’t reaching out for a ghost.
His quest had become the stuff of legends, albeit the wrong kind of legend. The group of boys waiting for him tonight had been intent on raising his hopes with a foolish story of a girl matching his description waiting just around the corner. He knew a lie when he heard one but that didn’t stop them from trying to beat him to a pulp. It was only good sense and constant training for just this sort of thing that had kept him away from their best efforts with such little injury.
“That you, Xie?” Lec called from the other room. It was odd that to hear his voice raised so that the gravelly growl was accentuated instead of downplayed by his normal muttering. “Come meet our client.”
Damn but he was tired of the others taking on clients just for the sake of money. It made him feel cheap and dirty to do most of the jobs they’d been taking on lately. Still, for Lec to sound so excited, it must have been either a doozy of a story the client was laying down or the money was affecting him.
“What is it?”
“Just... come in and hear for yourself.”
Xie pulled off his bloodied shirt, stuffing it behind a pile of old newspapers so Erns wouldn’t find it and decide it needed to be cleaned and mended. She could barely keep up with the demands of searching for the lost items their clients wanted without also taking on the extra burden of keeping them clean and presentable, no matter how much she needed to imagine they were one of the normal families she yearned to be a part of.
He pulled a clean shirt out of the box that served as his bureau and foot locker. As he slipped it on, he took a deep breath and appreciated the slight scent of lavender that still wafted up from the cloth. There were times, this being one of them, when it felt good to be clean.
The decision to clean up before meeting their guest seemed even better as he walked into the second of the three rooms in the flat. Erns and Gio stood behind the imposing bulk of the chair that Lec sat in. If it looked as if they were protected by the piece of furniture, so much the better, because they were actually protecting Lec at the same time that they were staying out of the way. Gio was a crack shot with the sling shot he held at the ready, his thumb caressing the bit of cloth that held a small, polished rock.
Erns looked much younger than she really was so most people assumed, if they even realized she was a girl, she was still an empty vessel. If they saw past the shy facade to the fierce warrior that showed up in light eyes, they would probably decide she was a constant and dismiss her from thought. That was where they would be wrong. This was no young miss to be trifled with or forgotten. Erns had never been tested, one of the few girls to fall through the crack of a society that valued the well of magic within their females. The three men knew enough about how the magic worked to know that Erns was something special and they did whatever they could to make sure that she stayed safe and below the radar of anyone out looking to score some points with the brutes.
Right now, with her head bowed to the side slightly, she looked like a scared child. If the guest seemed as if he might be a problem, she’d be even further behind the chair so that she dared look at him straight on and not risk giving away her sex or her age.
Lec was able to handle himself in most any situation, except the one he appeared to be in at the moment. Social situations completely through the boy off. He wasn’t as calm as he appeared to be, the peaks of his hair a good indication that he’d been running his hand through it out of frustration at being the one to lead the meeting.
“What’s going on here? I didn’t know we had a meeting with a client.”
“Because we don’t. Or we didn’t. You’ll want to hear this.”
“Yeah,” echoed Erns. “You’ll want to hear this.”
After capturing all the pertinent information from his silent friends, Xie turned more fully to study the man on the only other chair in the room. His graying hair and lined face indicated that he held Elder status but he appeared, at first glance, to be far older than any Elder that Xie had ever met outside of a guilded hall. On the streets surrounding this slum, he was sure to have been roughed up by at least one of the gangs that prowled around looking for this exact opportunity. He was sitting in their home, looking as calm as could be and not caring that he didn’t belong.
It was always a game to try to figure out what the person wanted found. He didn’t look the type to want something dishonest done, but then not many people showed their true colors on the first meeting. Most of them had a sob story of some kind or another that made it seem as if they were just poor sots trying to get by in life with nothing but a good attitude and a pleasant demeanor. What would a gentlemen such as this want found? Certainly something of value or he wouldn’t be here.
“I refuse to kill anyone because you think you’ve a right to diamond cufflinks.”
Erns nearly choked on the laughter she dared not let out. The group had a running joke about diamond cufflinks. Not that they’d ever seen either a diamond or cufflinks but a rival gang six streets over had gone looking for just such a thing and ended up being dredged up from underneath the dock six days later.
“Not diamonds. Not cufflinks. I was just telling your associates the particulars of what I’m interested in. You must be the Xie they talk so highly about.”
He would have felt a swelling of pride if he wasn’t uncomfortable about Lec and the smaller two touting his finer qualities about as if he was a sheaf of wheat being passed through the crowd as assurance that the whole crop was ripe. Most of the time, he was the one doing the convincing that his crew was the best. It was strange to have the tables turned on him.
Now was his chance to accept his lot gracefully or walk out of the room. The same sense that something out of the ordinary was about to happen nagged at him. To turn this man down without at least hearing him through would be foolhardy.
“I’m him,” he answered lamely. Today, he certainly wasn’t the one with the silver tongue. “Shall I just call you The Client or do you have a name?”
The man unfolded himself out of the chair and stood up so tall that Xie was concerned his head would suddenly crash through the ceiling. “I apologize. My name is Denton Lambden Bray.”
Xie’s blood ran cold as he heard and understood who the man was. His first instinct was for the smaller ones but Lec would have to keep them safe because Xie didn’t think he dared let himself split his thoughts into both defense and offense. Instead, he pulled out his small knife, as the larger knife was too hard to get to in such close quarters, and faced off against a new foe.
“Get out.” His voice was dripping with ice. “You can either go it alone or you can have me help you out the door. Either way, I want you out of here before I count to three.”
The man’s hands lifted slowly in the air, a sign of surrender that Xie didn’t believe for one moment. “I believe there’s been a misunderstanding. I realize that you must recognize my name but-”
“Recognize? You bet I recognize that name. My sister’s been missing for a year, thanks to Commander Bray.”
“My wife. I assure you, I had nothing to do with your sister.”
“Likely story.”
But now he was being held back from charging forward by strong arms. Only Lec knew how to pull his right arm up just right so that the pull of the injured muscle was too much for him to bear and he dropped the knife. He struggled only because it was instinctual to do so and not because he wanted to hurt Lec. That was the last thing he was thinking about. Survival was high on his list.
“Listen to him, Xie. Just listen.” Lec kept repeating the words until there was no more fight left in Xie. Not enough to deal with this much agony.
The man leaned down so they were eye to eye. There was kindness in the man’s expression, as well as pity, but that could be faked. Anyone would know what buttons to push to make Xie react. All it took was hearing the right stories in the right sequence to put it all together.
“They tell me your sister is missing because of my wife. I believe we can help each other out. You have the ability to find lost things. I have a lost thing I want found. They might very well be in the same area.”
“What have you lost?” he wheezed out, the pain in his arm still intense even though Lec had loosened his grip. “What’s so important that you need to find street rats to help you out?”
“My wife has been given command of a very exclusive group of warriors. They guard the entrance to the mines. Have you heard of them?”
“The bloody crystals,” Erns murmured. She’d had nightmares about them ever since she’d first heard about them.
The man nodded at her, his eyes never leaving Xie’s face. “Quite right. I thought it was odd for a naval officer to be given a duty so far inland. Her initial power is only good near water but my daughter,” his voice faltered for a moment before he gained control of his emotions, “has far different talents. I believe my wife took this assignment because of her.”
“Shouldn’t a mother want to be near to her child?”
“No. You mistake my meaning. She took our daughter there against her will. For all intents and purposes, I have lost my daughter. I want her back. When you find her, from what your associates have told me, I believe you will also find your sister.”
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