The Sundered: Query (new)
Harry Iskinder has no future, but it doesn’t matter. Nobody else on Earth has one, either.
Black water that kills on contact covers the entire planet. Humanity survives because of the Sundered Ones, creatures with amazing powers and broken minds. Invulnerable to the black water but incapable of disobeying human beings, the Sundered provide food and shelter, manipulating matter with finite but effective skill.
They’re also dying out.
Harry desperately searches for a legendary panacea called the Hope of Humanity. Traveling on the black water is deadly, so he claims a new Sundered One, but this Sundered isn’t normal. Aakesh is smart. Aakesh is crafty. Aakesh reinterprets Harry’s orders to his own benefit, which isn’t supposed to be possible.
Doubting his control, Harry researches and learns something that shakes him badly. The Hope might actually be a Sundered weapon, designed for use in a bloody revolution. Aakesh insists the Hope is tied to Sundered survival: damaging it equals a dead Sundered race. But others insist the Hope will only end the human race, and needs to be destroyed before it’s too late.
Harry doesn’t know what to believe anymore, but he has to make up his mind soon. The survival of both species rests in his hands.
Originally published at Ruthanne Reid, Author & Designer. You can comment here or there.