The Ball

She wrapped the sash around her waist, and tied it at the back. She slipped into her heels, a pair she had bought at Estonia’s suggestion yet never worn. She looked for her clutch, found it, then stood in front of her full-length mirror and studied herself. Lithuania cocked her head to the side, amused. It wasn’t often that she wore a dress and prettied herself up. Tying her hair back into a tightly pulled ponytail usually sufficed. But tonight, something was different. She actually wanted to look pretty. She wanted to impress.

She placed her clutch on the table next to the door and brushed the pleats of her dress flat with her palms. The guys would have a laugh, no doubt. Her hair dropped over her bare shoulders in thick ringlets, her earrings peeking through her full wavy hair here and there, unexpectedly, like glistening blue fireflies. Her hair really was beautiful, when she let it show. A deep, chocolate brown with the occasional reddish sheen, depending on the lighting. Marco had told her he’d like to see it loose sometime. Well, this was the time.

Lithuania smiled. Her pale skin was complemented wonderfully by the champagne hue of her dress. She looked beautiful, if she might say so herself. Embracing her feminine side could be fun, after all. It was silly, yes, and superficial, and in the long run rather pointless, but it would at least be a short-lived pleasure, and not just for herself.

A knock on the door. Lithuania held her breath as she peered through the hole, stepped back, practiced her smile, then opened the door. “Oh, hey,” she said, casually. “You’re not late for once!”

Marco stumbled over his tongue, tripping between surprise at Lithuania’s appearance, an attempt to remark on it and simultaneously reply to her comment. “Yeah—sorry—I mean, no. You look—erm—you’re ready, right?” Marco felt his cheeks glow, as he scolded himself internally for behaving, or at least feeling, like a school boy.

“The guys are so going to make fun of me,” Lithuania said, locking the door behind her and dropping the key in her clutch. “I’ve never actually attended one of these.”

Suddenly, Marc’s tongue felt twice its size. “Well, these balls are more or less designed for the guys to have a break and see their girlfriends.” At which point Marco thought maybe he was implying Lithuania was his girlfriend, which he wasn’t, which made him blush further, and forget what he was going to say to begin with. He cleared his throat.

“Well, good thing we’re both single to keep each other company, eh?” said Lithuania.

Marco cleared his throat again. “Well don’t worry Lith. If the guys make fun of you, it’s only because they’re jealous none of their girls look anything like you.”

“You’re so sweet,” Lithuania said wryly.

“I try.”

As they approached the elevator, Marco felt both relieved and peeved that Lithuania had a clutch to keep her hands busy. He pulled his keys from his pocket and fiddled with his keychain.

“Marco,” Lithuania said, her voice steady as she pressed the lobby button inside the elevator. They’d be in the Events Hall, where the ball was being held, in just a minute. “You ever wonder where we’ll be, a couple of years from now?”

An odd impromptu topic, Marco thought, though not entirely unwarranted, considering permanent shipments abroad were underway. “Not really. No.”

“Well we’re kind of kicking ass, if you haven’t noticed.” She was referring to their work together in the training sessions and mock missions. “And if we keep it up…”

“We might hit the high ranks,” Marco said.

“We’d better hit the high ranks,” Lithuania said. “We’ve got to make sure we stick together. We’re a good team, you know.” That was about as suggestive as she felt herself capable of being.

Marco looked at Lithuania, and for the first time that night they made eye contact in earnest. “Don’t worry, a few years from now, we’ll still be—” Marco looked away suddenly, irresistibly “kicking ass...” 

“We’ll be officers…’

“Commanders, even.”

“You sticking around in Antioch?”

“I’m sticking around. You?”

“I’m sticking around,” Lithuania said.

The elevator doors opened, and Lithuania and Marco stepped out into the Events Hall. It was as much as they could do to commit to each other, without actually committing to each other. But in their hearts they both knew that they had, indeed, promised never to leave the other alone.

Exodus

Night had fallen over the Antioch Complex and Econometric Elation, and everywhere citizens were stepping out from their homes, or peering out their windows, looking up at the sky and the red moon of Styx, which seemed to be surrounded by thousands of glowing fireflies. Spaceships. Or explosions. Whatever they were, the effect made Styx look like a glittering red disc. Something was happening. What was worse, now that night had fallen, everyone could see that the black band that had been developing across the moon’s surface had finally been completed: Styx now resembled an eye. The eye of AssMachenstan.

“Shit.” It was all Jessica Bangs could say when she looked up at the sky, out from the floor-to-ceiling glass window of her office. She snatched up her phone and dialed a number. He wasn’t picking up. She dialed again. Still nothing.

She dialed a new number. “Hello. I need you to put me through to the Space Disk. Now.” She paused. “What do you mean connectivity has been lost?” she asked irritably. “I need to speak to Jagesic, now. Yes, this is an emergency. Wait—” Jessica’s personal cell was ringing. She picked up. “Jagesic, thank God!”

“Jessica,” said Jagesic, his voice grave, tense. It sounded like he was jogging. “It has begun.”

Jessica had already known it, but Jagesic’s confirmation made beads of sweat start trickling down her forehead. “I feared so,” she said. She glanced out the window and looked again at Styx. “Jagesic, we need to step out.”

“Yes.” Jagesic said, exhaling heavily. He was quickly being led down the corridors of the Space Disc by a group of armed soldiers. They were going towards the escape hatch. “Though I feel like a damn coward.” 

“They must not capture you Solomon,” Jessica said, gripping her phone tightly. She knew Jagesic wasn’t one to shy from battle. “You know what could happen if they do.”

“I know,” Jagesic said, reaching the escape hatch. “From here on, I go alone men. Thank you,” he said to his soldiers. They nodded, as Jagesic took his place in the launching pipe. “Jessica, I’m about to launch. I must go. I will see you on the other side.”

Jessica nodded. “Good luck.”

“And to you. Remember to contact Martin and Timoteo.”

“I will.” 

Jagesic hung up, and Jessica was left in her office, alone with her thoughts. It was the calm before the storm. And while the calm lasted, she had to flee. If any of them got caught, they would all be compromised. Everything would be compromised. She picked up her phone and dialed Martin’s direct line.

Nothing.

She dialed again.

Still nothing.  

“Damn it Martin.”

The Spring

“Why are we going off the path again?”

It was Estonia. Again. Just as uptighter-than-a-snare-drum-head as ever. But winfry preferred Estonia’s whining over Latvia’s passive aggressive eye rolls. If Latvia so much as said anything so help him God winfry would have snapped. isa, however, said she never saw Latvia show any such expressions but winfry knew better. He still hadn’t figure out away to repay her for throwing the librem but he was brooding his time. He’d to think of something, eventually.

Anyways, they were going off the path because the chimera – the finch, rabbit, Labrador tribrid – told winfry that they needed to find the hollow, that it was very important, dire in fact. Only he never told winfry what the hollow was or where or why it was so important? And that didn’t sit well with the rest of the group. And that was starting to eat winfry’s newfound confidence for midmorning snack.

When the finch told him to follow her right before the surprise attack at the B&B, winfry knew they had to follow the bird. She was there only hope. And she was. By following the ally they weaved their way almost directly to the woods without any problems. The company of course was very grateful for the forest’s cover but of course they didn’t mention it so soon forgot.

After two days of aimless trekking through the now-infernal woods, tempers and water were fast running out. (For some reason the mist woman’s divining-spammer was still jamming winfry and isa so the were unable to just conjure up water like they had done the last time they wandered the woods and none of the sisters had enough control without Timoteo to do anything useful.) winfry was sitting just outside the camp to get a break from it all. With their month as victims to the tricks of the woods, winfry and isa knew they had been walking circles but Lithuania refused to hear it and there’s a mathematical limit to how many times you can tell someone she is wrong before both parties snap. isa was resting her eyes and doing breathing exercises to keep calm so she didn’t see the bird watching them from a nearby bush. But winfry did.

After opening to a wide grin winfry said, “I bet you think this a great show, all of our little group’s tension and temper tantrums ‘cause I suspect you birds don’t have TV now do you?”

But the bird just twitched its head.

“I also suspect that you’ve come here to tell me how to find water and save the day. Even though you don’t have a TV I bet you know that’s how the stories always go.”

But the bird still just twitched its head.

“Oh. I see. You’re a greedy little one or maybe you have babies to feed.” And winfry dug in his back till he pulled out a nutrition bar and tossed some of the crumbs towards the bird.

The bird stopped twitching and stared at winfry.

“And yes I’m getting you some string just give me a few seconds.”

The rest of the company, if they did noticed winfry at all, just assumed he was talking to isa, who they didn’t know had fallen asleep.

After the bird finished the crumbs and was wagging its tail, she looked up at winfry. “You have to come quick. It won’t last long. Get everyone.”

“What? Now?! We just set up camp can’t we”

“Now!” And then it flashed off.

winfry woke isa and told her they had to go quick if they wanted to get water.

“Did you see that bird again?”

“Yeah, and it said we all have to go. I’ll let the rest know.” He dreaded doing this. With the day they had, no one would want to leave the camp they’d just made. winfry was too nice for this type of thing.

“Um… Hey… Can I have your, ah, attention.” Latvia looked up and Felix gave him a glance but that was it. “Look. I know where we can get water but we have to leave now. It’s not going to last very long.” It wasn’t a brilliant speech but it got their attention.

“What are you talking about?”

“How do you know all this?

“No way in Brisdin am I going to leave this camp.”

“Shut up Estonia.” winfry was more surprised to hear that than Estonia but he kept going. “It’s for you own good and I got us out of Lokton if you don’t remember. Just do it.”

Felix was the first to get his things, well second after isa of course, and that set the wheels in motion even if Estonia was a bit squeaky. All following winfry who hoped to follow the bird.

“Why are we going up hill? I’d imagine more water would be downhill,” reasoned Lithuania.

“Well, at least–,” winfry was about to go off but isa interrupted with a whisper.

“winfry, please not now. Relax it’s ok,” She knew winfry hadn’t yet seen the bird and was bleeding confidence.

“These woods aren’t exactly normal so it’s no using trying to reason with them. At least that’s what we’ve learned living in them.”

And then he saw it. Pecking on the ground underneath a tree.

“There it is. Come on!”

Only no one else saw it, even as it fluttered into the dark of the woods. Not even isa.

“There what is?” “What did you see?” “I don’t see anything.” And all sorts of other remarks waterfalled onto winfry. But he didn’t want to tell them about the bird. They’d think he was crazy and go back. So he hand-waved on.

“It’s just up ahead come on.”

He picked up the pace. Re-energized by the bird. He even thought he heard water. And then he ran face first into a briar bush. Well it was a patch actually and it created a huge barrier. It looked like it would be quite a walk to get around it and they couldn’t see over it.

“Oh no, I’m definitely not trying to get through that, even if there is water.”

isa quickly set to cleaning winfry’s scratches but they weren’t causing his grimace. A dead end! How could that be happening? He had given the bird everything. And worse he had dragged everyone else out of the camp. They were going to hate him! There had to be a way through.

The disapproving looks had started, worse than if he’d walked into the lady’s by mistake. The shame made it even harder to think of how to get through. But that’s when he heard the bird. It must have been far away because it was muffled and with it being so hollow in the first place it was terribly hard to make out.

“Listen. Do you hear that?”

“No. What?” “It’s just the wind.”

“No it’s saying something. Listen.”

But no one really listened, except isa.

“It says look in the tree. We need to find something in a tree.” winfry rushed from tree to tree but the others weren’t as enthusiastic. Estonia didn’t even get up. Finally Felix shouted out.

“Hey, come here. Look at this.”

Much to winfry’s annoyance, no one had any problems following Felix to the tree.

It was a hollowed out tree but inside was a ladder of sorts that lead down to the ground. winfry immediately scaled down. After ten seconds he shouted up for them to come down, that there was a tunnel. The tunnel led underneath the wall of briars and up to a clearing with steaming geysers spraying up water at random intervals. The group managed to collect the water with only a few burns for the small pools that formed after each geyser went off. Shortly after they fill up all their bottles the geysers stopped, the pools dried up and the questions began.

“How did you know we would find water here?” “Had you been here before?” “And how did you know about the tree?” “Yeah, what was it that you were hearing?” “And how did you know to take the alley?” “What’s going on?” “You owe us an explanation?” And on and on and not even a single thank you…

This caught winfry off guard and he was still reluctant to tell them about the bird. “Um, well, I just felt like it was the right thing to do. You know? Umm…”

“It was a bird. You saw a bird. Tell them winfry. It’s ok.”

“A bird?”

“Yeah well it’s not really a bird because it has rabbit ears and a Labrador’s tail…” no one said anything, “and it came to me before the mist lady came and told me we had to leave right away. It flew down the alley. Isa saw it too. And then just now it came again and told me to follow it up here and I heard it telling me to look in the tree. That’s how we made it. The bird saved us.”

The rest of the group obviously hadn’t spent enough time the woods because they were reluctant to just accept winfry’s story. And of course they had questions. Piles of them.

“Where did this bird come from?” “How does it talk?” “Did you see it too isa?” “Does it really have a dog tail?” “Why would it help us?” “Why couldn’t we hear it?” “Do you think it will come back?” Like it was winfry’s new best friend from school and they were his mom – well not winfry’s mom she wasn’t one for questions but you know. After fifteen minutes of interrogation, winfry was hoping that he were more socially adept and could just figure out a way to get them to stop.

“Hey, look at that. I can use the quilaire again!” And there was isa with a freshly flamed fire, which was much more interesting than winfry’s vague unanswers. Finally some relief. Once again, isa to the rescue. What a girl. And all that sap.

Unfortunately we still haven’t gotten to part about the hollow (and all the parts in between) but them other narrators can pick up the slack.

The Duldroms

“I trust you have a compelling reason for not compromising ms. garner?” It was a question and more importantly a threat and you guessed it, it was the magistrate, pisseder than pissed.

But martin didn’t seem too concerned but maybe he was. Because he thought more than felt, jacob had despotic control over his facial expressions. “They would just find someone else. According to my investigations the resistance has taken roots and simply cutting off the top won’t keep it down, if you’ll forgive the metaphor. Many of garner’s current advisers, if you will, were leading there own groups before they consolidated under her. It wouldn’t be hard for them to return to leadership. What’s more, garner has a pressure point: mobile nine. With all the company’s media attention, public scandal could be pulled off by even our interns. I doubt we could do the same with another leader. Also taking mr. wishmacher was the worse thing I could have done to ms. garner.”

The magistrate just stared.

“I presume your silence means you begrudgingly accept my logic. If you will excuse me, I have some articles you want me to write.” And with no further dismissal jacob walked out of the room leaving the magistrate staring. martin definitely wasn’t too concerned, but the magistrate would deal with that soon enough.

While jacob went home to write slander articles against Foggistan for the magristrate, elizabeth was busy figuring all about mr. landers activities at 257 e. mahogany. Of course, landers would be in charge of the prisoners kept at that address (the one mr. martin must have left at her house after the fiasco at the morgue). Once again, martin was using her to take his rival down a notch. elizabeth hated being played. Her pride wanted so much to just leave the prisoners to spite jacob but she knew that was terrible base but she still dreamed about doing it. The more she learned about 257 e. mahogany, the more complicated her rescue plan became. However, it would take much longer for her plan to reach fruition.

nilbmah had reached the doldrum calm before the storm.