The Adventures of Zaiden Darkmere

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

I really hate to say it, but my family has serious problems. Every single person. I guess that would include me, but I don’t see how I compare with the rest of them. They with their eccentricities are somehow considered normal and I’m the odd one out. They tell me to grow up and stop being difficult. Life is life, and I have to get used to it someday or I’ll get eaten alive.

It all started some decades before I was born, right about the time the Empire was formed. Most everyone was parading through the streets of Evercity while Lucky took his place in the abandoned throne room. That was when he gave everyone a choice: serve him or leave Aethasia forever, following the so-called Great Engineer into his self-imposed exile.

At the time, no one had a problem with serving him. One day, however, people stood up and started asking what right Lucky had to call himself the Emperor. Lucky didn’t take very kindly to the accusations and knew he needed to do something about them. Enter my grandparents. I don’t know what rank they were in the Empire at the time. My aunt likes to brag that her father was one of Lucky’s closest friends and advisors, but Grandfather and Grandmother Darkmere are gone now and can’t verify the story. I never met them.

So, my grandparents casually suggested that the old Foundry be converted into a massive production plant for automatons. And every good factory needs workers, right? That was the end of the questions and the people who raised them. I may only be thirteen, but something about that doesn’t sound right.

Among their other eccentricities, consider my parents’ desperate attempts to gain every ounce of Lucky’s favor. They’re never home more than a few days before they’re off on a mission again. They hardly talk to me, so I’m stuck in the Evercity mansion with a few household servants and nameless automatons for company. Why give it a name if it has no personality, I ask? Come to think of it, here’s a good description for half my family members: names without personalities. A job without a life.

But this is the real world, and I need to grow up or get lost.

---

This is the backstory of Zaiden Darkmere, written by @Ariella_Newheart. It's based loosely around events in The Arbitrary Antics of Ariella Newheart, but focuses much more on Zaiden's character and his adventures. This is a story of trust, redemption, freedom, and a search for meaning. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. ~A.N.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 1 - My Eccentric Family

Six months later…

I thumped my forehead against the desk a couple times, trying to jumble my thoughts around a little so they’d make sense. It hurt my eyes to look at the black and white automaton diagram spread out across the lumpy piles of gears, pipes, springs, and screws. A pencil rolled over the edge of the desk and clattered on the floor.

“Nothing to it, eh?” I muttered, remembering my aunt’s words from the previous night. She couldn’t have said anything farther from the truth. Not only had I failed to assemble the automaton, I hadn’t even been able to make sense of the instructions she had so helpfully provided.

A knock on the door jarred my thoughts. I dragged my head off the desk and stood, bumping against several tables and half-finished automatons on my way to the door. If only my stupid legs would stop growing and work like they were supposed to—

The thought ground to a halt as I flung open the door and faced the person standing in the hallway. My dad, in his imperial uniform, was flanked by three automatons. Generic Pacifier models, nothing special.

I didn’t move out of the doorway for them to enter. “Am I in trouble or something?”

“No,” he replied, surveying me with what was probably disappointment or displeasure. “Your mother and I have something to discuss with you.”

I peered around him, searching for Mom or her automatons. Nothing. She must be in the office. A meeting in the office smelled of trouble, no matter what my dad said. “What is it?”

"You’ll see. Come along.” He pivoted on his heel, marched between the automatons, and paused to make sure I was following.

I glanced at my cluttered desk. Surely whatever Mom and Dad had to say was better than going back to that. I shut the door a little too hard, though not on purpose. Dad wouldn’t have known the difference, anyway.

The office’s door was usually kept locked. I’d only been inside twice. Once as a ten-year old for a lecture about not pranking the automatons, another time when I was twelve for a discussion about the future my parents had picked out for me.

My dad waited outside the office as I stepped through the door. Two people sat by the fireplace: my mother and Aunt Alena. Something was wrong.

Mom stood and hugged me stiffly. Falsely smiled. Her face was more wrinkled than I last remembered. Or perhaps that was just the effect of the smile. “I’m sorry we had to miss your birthday, Zaiden.” She somehow said it convincingly.

“You’re fourteen now,” Dad interjected, stepping to the fireplace and sparking a match to light his pipe. “That means you’re moving up in the world. You’re learning advanced mathematics and science. It’s time you were enrolled in the Academy Automicus to hone your skills and prepare you for your future station. We’ve provided everything you need to become a good engineer. This is your proving ground.” He paused, staring into the smoldering fire. Small puffs of green smoke drifted from his pipe.

No one spoke. Only the clock on the mantel ticked dismally. A dull ache crept up the back of my skull and wound tighter as I struggled to keep from lashing out with bitter words.

My father turned slowly, his face as menacing as a thundercloud, and stood completely motionless. Only the gleam of his fog-tinted eyes showed that he wasn’t a statue. “You must not fail us.” Each word fell from his lips like a death knell.

Aunt Alena stepped soundlessly to my side, looking just as stern as my father. “I am the Emperor’s ambassador to the schools of Aethasia. As such, I can closely monitor your progress.”

My father nodded, raising the pipe to his lips again. “From now on you are answerable to my sister for your conduct and grades while in the Academy Automicus. She will report back to your mother and me.”

Silence fell again, broken only by the chiming of the clock. It struck six times. I clenched my jaw, fixing a glare on my dad’s stony face. “Is this my birthday present?”

He studied me, eyes narrowing slightly. “You might say that. Your aunt gave you a new diagram for your studies. Your mother and I give you the gift of an education. You are very privileged, Zaiden.”

Now I was seething. “I’ve done nothing but eat and sleep and study in this house for most of my life. Is that what you call privileged?”

For some reason, this made the adults laugh. Heat crept up my face.

My father gave a wry smile. “You’ll think back to this time with longing once your enter the Academy Automicus, son. Your service to the Emperor begins now. You’ll leave with your aunt tomorrow.”

And just like that, my journey began, changing my life forever.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 2- When I Learned to Grow Up

It didn't take long for me to pack. I stuffed some clothes and a toothbrush into a bag, then dumped a tray of mechanic tools and a collection of ragged automaton diagrams, Evercity newspapers, and notebooks on top. Even though Aunt Alena claimed the Academy would give me a spiffy new uniform and all the school books I’d ever need, it wouldn’t hurt to come prepared.

I gave the room a final inspection. No need for anything else. Why bother packing multiple bags when I’d just have to waste time unpacking them again at the Academy? I zipped the bag closed and headed to the door.

As I went past the desk, my elbow knocked against a recycled tin can, loosing a cascade of pencils and screwdrivers of various sizes. One landed on my foot, almost impaling it, and the others rolled under my bed. I glared at the rumpled covers and gave the bedframe a kick. Getting to sleep the previous night had been almost impossible, though it wasn’t exactly the bed’s fault. Rather, the deprivation of my sleep had been caused by my relatives’ benevolent birthday gift.

As I crouched down to retrieve the pencils, my gaze caught on a folded pamphlet under the bed, forgotten with whatever else lurked in those uncharted depths. I carelessly poked my head in and unfolded the white paper. It had the face of a mustachioed man on it, and something was spelled out across the top in faded purple letters. Where had it come from?

Something smacked into the window above me, and I started. My head bashed hard against the underside of the bed. I groaned and lay flat on the floor, waiting for the nauseous pain to go away. The hazy gray shapes and pale, sparkling lights were hypnotic. I took a mental note of the symptoms, wondering if I should record them for science.

The haze cleared. I sat up and rubbed my aching head. This had happened one too many times. Hopefully the beds at the Academy Automicus were a little less painful.

I squinted at the window. A rock couldn’t have hit it; the room was too high above the street for that. Beyond the buildings crowded close around my window, the sky was full of dark clouds. It would probably rain. I wrinkled my nose, grabbed my bag again, and backed out of the room. I’d probably never see it again. Good riddance.

My aunt was waiting for me in the lobby. In the doorway behind her, the Fitzspark clan was clustered, watching the proceedings. Mr. Fitzspark was the cook, Mrs. Fitzspark the housekeeper. Their daughters were Maurine, Birdie, and the smallest one whose name I could never remember.

“Ready to leave?” my aunt asked, straightening the cuffs of her uniform.

I nodded stiffly.

“I will signal our transport.” She cast a sidelong glance at the Fitzsparks. “Say your farewells quickly.”

Birdie approached and tugged my sleeve. “We’ll miss you.”

The smallest one held a package in front of my nose. I took it gingerly.

“Cookies from us,” Maurine explained.

I pasted on a smile. “Thanks.”

“Be safe, young man.” Mr. Fitzspark’s voice was solemn. “If you ever need anything, come to us.”

I nodded and stuffed the cookies into my bag. Without a word, I slipped past them and out the front door. Round, fat raindrops splattered the road. I dodged as many of them as I could, but one still splashed into my ear. I rubbed it against my shoulder and paused in front of the waiting carriage. The lantern on the front cast flecks of green light across the large, painted wheels and the manes of the horses. I caught a glimpse of metal automaton chassis hanging from the back of the carriage just in case we ran into trouble on the road. I smirked. Wouldn’t that be an adventure?

“What are you waiting for?” My aunt’s sharp voice cut into my thoughts. I bounded up the steps and sat across from her, leaning my head against the frame of the small window to look out. The rain came down harder, tracing blurry lines across the glass panes. The coachman closed the door and climbed onto the high driver’s seat.

I took a last look at the looming house. Small faces peeked through the rain-streaked windows. A person’s hand lifted to wave farewell as the coachman put the horses into a trot. Then the house was gone, replaced by the streets of a bustling city.

I leaned back, letting shadows replace the window’s light. My aunt was watching me. “Your eyes are like your mother’s,” she commented.

I glanced away. People said Mom’s eyes were blue with hints of green. They said the colors were unique and vibrant, but I only saw the tired look in them and the gray shadows that never went away. Perhaps that was what Aunt Alena noticed. After all, I’d not gotten much sleep last night.

I closed my eyes, wishing I could fall asleep and forget everything. The jostling of the carriage kept making my sore head thump against the back of the seat. Who was I kidding? I could never forget. It was high time I got used to that fact. Saying goodbye to my home was the first step on this new adventure. Saying goodbye to Evercity was the next. I was moving from the shadow of the Emperor to a far-flung winterland. I couldn’t think of any better way to become the person my parents wanted.

So I moved to the Snowmoors, growing up more in the process than I ever would in the Academy. And if I could help it, I would never return to Evercity.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 3 - A Friend?

The Academy Automicus was the size of three city blocks in Evercity, but the structure as a whole was a huge disappointment. During the trip through the Wild to No Man’s Landing and the great blue, I’d been in the middle of a tug-of-war between anticipation and dread. Before we arrived, I’d been leaning more toward anticipation. What had I anticipated? Something more grand than reality, apparently.

The Academy Automicus was a cylindrical structure made of brown bricks. It looked like a heap of rock thrown on a backdrop of white. Not nearly as impressive as Evercity or my own home, for that matter. The inside wasn’t much better. Everything was shadowy, with narrow halls leading to stuffy, windowless classrooms. The furniture was ancient. Faded yellow wallpaper stuck to the damp walls. At least there was a science lab and library, but I couldn’t find anything else good about the place except the food.

The very worst part? I learned from one of the instructors that all the single-person dorms were full and I had been assigned a roommate. After a cheerful lecture from Aunt Alena about doing my best in classes and making my family proud, she left me to my doom.

In the lobby, I barely paid attention to the teacher, a tall, straight gentleman with a bedecked top hat. I only knew that the dreaded roommate would be the one to show me my assigned room and answer any questions I had. A kid with dark hair emerged from one of the side halls, introduced himself as Nikolai Whyatov, and led the way through the dizzying maze that was the Academy Automicus. “The evening meal is at six, so we have about two hours,” he was saying.

Oh joy. Two whole hours stuck with this kid. When I didn’t reply, he made another attempt at conversation. “So where are you from?”

“Evercity.”

“And your name is Zaiden Darkmere. Are you related to Ambassador Alena?”

I nodded stiffly. “She’s my aunt.”

“Do you know what you’ll major in?”

“Engineering.”

He raised an eyebrow. “We’ll be in a lot of the same classes, though I do plan to become Captain of the Automaton Guard one day.”

I snorted. “Lofty goal.”

“It’s not impossible.” He stopped in front of a door in the east wing. “Well, here we are. Home sweet home.”

Inside the room were two beds, one on each side of a high window, with a desk between them. A rickety door led to a closet. On one bed lay my green uniform jacket and tie, but no books.

“Do I get my books in class tomorrow?” I asked, throwing my bag onto the bed and picking up the uniform. Suspiciously, it looked like it was the right size. Looks could be deceptive. With my luck, the sleeves would probably be too short.

“Yes, unless you want to get them now.”

I put on the jacket. The sleeves were just the right length. I tugged on them to make sure. Since I hated ties and didn’t know how to put one on, anyway, I left it on the bed.

“You’ll want to wear that. There’s a strict dress code,” Nikolai warned.

I stuck my hands in my pockets and shrugged carelessly. “I’ll take my chances. Are we going to get the books or not?” A paper brushed against my hand. I took it out of my pocket and unfolded the pamphlet from earlier. The letters spelled out, The Resistance Needs YOU! How had I gotten a piece of Resistance propaganda? I crumpled it in my fist and stuffed it back in my pocket since there was no place to discard it. Plus, I didn’t want Nikolai to see.

He led the way to the different classes I would be taking. Each book I got was as thick as a dictionary and nearly as heavy. By the time we made it back to the room, I was sweating. I dumped the books on the desk and shook my arms out, almost regretting not allowing Nikolai help with them.

Speaking of him, he was just watching me with a mildly amused expression on his face. “Any questions?”

“Actually, Nik—can I call you Nik?”

“You can call me Nikko.”

I shrugged. “Actually, I don’t have any questions at all. So I’ll just study, and hopefully we’ll survive until six o’clock.”

He shook his head, still looking like he was inwardly laughing at me, and picked up one of his own books to read. I opened an engineering tome and focused on the first page, blocking out every distraction. I ground each interesting or useful fact into my brain, determined that I would not fail.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 4 - Learning the Ropes

A few days after I met my roommate, I became acquainted with most of the other students. They all appeared to have their own little cliques and clubs. I didn’t care for them. The Academy didn’t exist for socializing. If I was going to be a good engineer, I couldn’t spend my time gabbing with others in my peer group. If I stuck to that, I wouldn’t have to worry about peer pressure, peer review, or peer anything. As far as I was concerned, my books were my friends.

The automaton classification and mathematics courses were easy. I had already memorized every kind of automaton and their strengths, weaknesses, intelligence ratings, and attacks. I knew advanced math up to trigonometry and wouldn’t start calculus for another year, but that didn’t stop me from studying ahead in my free time.

Grammar and speech classes took a lot of practice and late-night studying. At the end of the semester, students presented essays about the might of the Empire, the wisdom of Lucky, and the benefits of fog. It took several experiments in the laboratory for me to accurately write a paper on fog.

While working in the lab, I discovered someone who held very strange views about Aethasia. She claimed that she could see evidence of the Great Engineer’s power in each of her experiments. Naturally, I laughed at her. The Great Engineer was gone—he might even be a myth—and the power that she saw was because of Lucky’s reign. He had changed Aethasia for the better. She only shook her head at me and turned back to her experiment. I later found out that Nikko was her brother. He didn’t take very well to me ridiculing his sister and made me promise to stop. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort, anyway.

Science philosophy took no effort whatsoever. I even fell asleep in class a couple times and still passed.

Engineering was the worst of my subjects. Despite every attempt I made to comprehend the assignments, I still had to ask Nikko for help. He mentioned that I might be better at fixing broken gadgets than inventing new ones, but I was supposed to be an engineer. My parents had the position ready for me when I graduated. They were already polishing my desk and armchair in whatever office I would soon occupy.

So I labored through the projects, designing my own automatons and making them function properly. Even with all my hard work, I didn’t get a perfect score in any of my school subjects by the time my birthday rolled around again.

I glared at the report card with distaste before realizing that my aunt would be visiting soon. No doubt she’d have something to say about my grades, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 5 - The Ladder of Power

Just like that, my first year in the Academy was over. After receiving my report card, I was called into Principal Fairrow’s office for an official review of my performance. Just as I’d expected, my aunt was there. The first thing out of her mouth wasn’t “Happy Birthday, Zaiden,” or “How are you, Zaiden?” It was, “What do you have to say for yourself?”

I thought about this for a moment. “I’m bored to death and it ain’t my fault.”

She gasped, her mouth opening and closing like a fish struggling to breathe. Baron Fairrow looked just as indignant. “You are receiving the best education in the Empire!” he exclaimed. “We are preparing you for your future and that is how you thank us?”

The question didn’t need an answer, but I gave one anyway. “Yep. I should have baked a cake and spelled it out for you with frosting.”

“You are a disgrace,” Aunt Alena hissed, striding forward. Her green eyes blazed brighter than normal. “The passing grade in Engineering is eighty. You scored eighty-four. That is far too close to failing the class. You will do better from now on, do you understand?”

I’d forgotten how scary my aunt got when she was angry. “Y-yes, ma’am.”

She stood there for a moment, deciding whether she would yell again or walk away. Before she could do either, Baron Fairrow cleared his throat. “If you expect to move up the ladder of power, failure is unacceptable. If you would just apply yourself, you could become one of the very best in the Academy.”

“Yes, sir.”

Aunt Alena turned to Fairrow. “I will return next semester with the new students from the Junior Academy. Good day.” She brushed past me and marched quickly away.

“You may go,” the principal said, waving me away.

I slipped outside the office, closed the door, and waited for my aunt’s brisk footsteps to fade away. What couldn’t she understand? I was doing the best I could. “I guess the best isn't good enough,” I muttered, wandering away to my room.

Nikko was inside, stuffing something into a bag on his bed. He looked up and whistled low. “What happened to you? Get in a fight?”

“With my aunt and Fairrow.” I kicked the wall, leaving a black mark on the faded paper.

“What’d they say?”

“I need to do better.”

“What’d you tell them?”

“That I’m bored to death and it ain’t my fault.”

He sat down on the bed, running a hand through his hair. “That’s not good.”

“Nope.” Habitually, I went over to the desk and picked up a book. My mind didn’t register the words I was reading off the page.

“I think I know what your problem is,” Nikko said, shuffling around in his bag. “You’ve been working nonstop since you came here, but you haven’t given yourself a break. You’ll be completely burned out before you even graduate. Here, catch.”

I turned around just in time to catch a small, colored ball he threw in my direction. I glared at Nikko, wondering what I was supposed to do. He shrugged. “You could take up juggling. I never got around to learning.”

I gritted my teeth. “What’s the point?”

“To have fun.”

I didn’t see how I’d have fun by repeatedly tossing a blue sphere in the air. A second ball smacked me in the stomach before I saw it coming. “Hey!”

“Sorry. You need more than one to juggle. Three, preferably.” He plucked a third ball out of his bag and threw it. This time I caught it. I set all three balls and the book on the desk.

Something wasn’t right with this picture, and it wasn’t the juggling balls. Nikko had been packing his school bag. “Are you leaving or something?”

He nodded. “I’m off to the Junior Academy for a round as Junior Autofficer. After that I’ll be going to Evercity. Told you I’d make it.”

“Lucky kid,” I muttered. At least he got the job in Evercity and not me. I didn’t want to work there, though my parents might make me do it anyway. I hated the way they had complete control of my life.

Nikko zipped up his bag. “You want me to take a message to anyone?”

I thought of my parents. They wouldn’t appreciate a message. What about the Fitzsparks? Nah. I didn’t owe anything to them. They had just tolerated me for fourteen years. I frowned. When I thought of it that way… “I guess you could take one to the Fitzsparks. They live in my parents’ house. Tell them that I’m still alive and I send my regards.”

“Sure, I’ll tell them.”

“Thanks.”

He stood up and stretched, looking around the room. His half was just as clean as always. Mine was littered with dirty socks, piles of school books, and broken pencils. “Well, so long.”

I gave him a half-hearted salute. “See ya.”

He returned the salute and opened the door. It closed behind him with a depressing click. The only person I had ever called a friend had just left. That was life. I couldn’t do anything about it. I glowered at the juggling balls on the desk. Might as well throw them out the window. But what if Nikko was right? Maybe everyone did need a little fun in their lives. A smirk crept onto my face. I could have a lot more fun with pranks than juggling balls. If I wasn’t caught, good. If I was, it didn’t matter. So long as I kept my school grades up, Aunt Alena couldn’t do anything about it. She might not even care.

And I knew who my first victim would be: Nikko’s sister.

---

The prank was a resounding success. Danrya didn’t even know what hit her until she was soaking wet. I pulled the old bucket-of-water-over-the-door prank. She’s always the first person to enter the science lab in the morning, at six precisely. It’s like clockwork. She’s also the last to leave at night, come to think of it. Sometimes I wonder if she even sleeps.

She doesn’t suspect me in the slightest, something that has encouraged me to try more elaborate pranks. I have several lined up, including one that will hinder the progress of her experiments. That will teach her. Speaking the name of the Engineer favorably brings consequences. Better they come from me than from Lucky. In a sense, I’m helping her.

---

Engineering class again. I hated it even more than I hated wearing ties. All around me, students studied their handbooks or wrote notes about automatons. Pencils scratched the paper, disturbingly loud to my ears. The girl ahead of me was especially annoying. She wrote slowly and meticulously, the strokes of her pencil like the ticking of a clock. I wadded up a scrap of paper and flicked it at her. It landed on her desk, and the pencil stopped.

Quickly, I bent my head over my schoolbook, pretending to have been studying the whole time. A shadow blocked the light, and I looked up to find one of the Blackpiper sisters standing over me. She was the scarier of the two. I barely glanced at the empty seat ahead of me, knowing I’d made a huge mistake.

But instead of punching me right then and there, she placed the wad of paper in front of me. With a sly smile, she stepped up to the teacher’s desk and gave him the paper she’d been writing on. I stifled a groan. Getting smacked by that lady would’ve been bad enough. If she told the teacher, I’d be in double trouble. But the teacher didn’t even spare me a glance. Frowning, I returned my attention to the book. She’d probably get even with me later. I’d have to be careful.

After class ended, I slipped away as stealthily as possible. She still found me. Or maybe I had found her. She was perched in the mouth of a dark hallway adjoining the one I was creeping down. I nearly jumped out of my skin when her face appeared next to mine.

“What—what are you doing?” I recoiled quickly, tripping backward and slamming into a wall in the process. I tried to tell myself I wasn’t frightened. I had taken combat classes. But she’d taken the same classes as me and had been here longer, so she could probably defeat me. Plus, she had height as an advantage. How was she so freakishly tall?! Maybe that was just the heels on her shoes. Heels were hard to run in, or so I’d heard. Running would be my backup strategy if negotiating failed.

She sauntered forward, pinning me in place with her fog-colored eyes. “I take it you received the message?”

I blinked. “What?”

“Is that the only word in your vocabulary?”

“What? No,” I quickly added.

This made her smile. “Then shall I ask only yes or no questions?”

“You don’t have to ask questions at all.”

“Read the paper.”

I stared blankly. What paper? “Excuse me?”

“Hmm. You are a very lucky individual to have wandered into a meeting place without knowing it was one.”

"I don’t know what you’re—”

“Simply this.” She pressed her palms together. “We have not been properly introduced. Under other circumstances we would have never spoken, you and I. But you found it necessary to aim a wad of paper at me, thus initiating contact.”

I crossed my arms, less frightened now but still wary. At least she didn’t seem to be in a bad mood. “So…you wrote me a message to have me meet you here, but I never received it and now you expect me to explain why we are meeting?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Precisely.”

This was not going at all as I thought it would. “Listen, I don’t know what you think we’re meeting here for, but I only threw the paper to get you to be quiet. You write very loudly.”

Her smile spread, and she chuckled, very quietly. “Then this chance meeting may be important in future days.”

“What…do you mean?”

“Allow me to give you a hint: I am Jasmine Blackpiper. Within two weeks I will be an Autofficer in the Abandoned Labs. Within three years, you may be an official in the Empire. It is better for you to make friends than enemies with those who are near the top of the class. They may consider you a threat and choose to take action. That is the importance I speak of, and such events may come to pass sooner than we think. Or perhaps they will not.” She shrugged slightly.

I didn’t know what this lady thought she was talking about, but I wasn’t going to let her lecture me about something that had already been drilled into my head by my family. “I don’t have friends, and I don’t have enemies. Besides, who’s to say those are any different? Or that those positions won’t change over time?”

“The Emperor says,” she breathed, her eyes seeming to glow. “He supersedes all alliances and disputes.”

Except for the Resistance. Stupid rebels, always trying to ruin things. “That’s true.”

“And if the Emperor should choose to replace some broken mechanism?”

I opened my mouth, then realized I didn’t have an answer. So what if the Emperor replaced an ailing Autofficer? What about a suspected traitor? Both were human. Both had loyalties. Both were in danger of being removed, but to where? An Autofficer would retire to some comfortable Evercity penthouse, but a traitor? Their doom was the Fogworks. Which scenario was Blackpiper speaking of?

Her hard gaze still bored into me, never turning, never wavering. I cleared my throat, suddenly uncomfortable. “The Emperor does what he wishes. It’s not our place to question him.”

Now she smiled. “Good. Never forget that.” With a rustle of movement, she swept away into the shadows.

I took a deep breath, trying to loosen the tightness in my chest. That lady was going on the list of people to avoid at all costs. Her words had been sharp and accurate. A true master of insinuation. She had been testing me to see how I would react. Apparently I’d passed, not that it mattered much. She was just another imperial academic. Her threats, if they’d been threats, were inconsequential.

I straightened the collar of my uniform and tugged on the tie to loosen it. There was nothing to worry about.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 6 - How I Met My Nemesis

As it turned out, there was plenty to worry about. For one, my score in engineering was still under par and Aunt Alena was returning soon, accompanied by the newest students. Over the weeks since my aunt’s last lecture, I’d been studying constantly. I ate meals as quickly as possible and spent the free time between classes with my nose in a book. My other grades were high enough to put me in the top ten percent of students, but my major was in engineering and I could not fail. I would not fail.

Even with my obsessive studying, I never fell out of the loop with school happenings. Victoria Le Roque, another person on my list of people to avoid, was still the top student, but rumor had it that Danrya was edging closer to her. That made me think of Blackpiper’s words: “It is better for you to make friends than enemies with those who are near the top of the class. They may consider you a threat and choose to take action.” Victoria was no one’s friend, though Danrya didn’t realize that. I wasn't too worried. She’d figure it out eventually.

In the meantime, I kept her plenty busy with small pranks that sometimes extended to the other scientists in the lab. She suspected me now, and had even asked me very nicely to stop. I didn’t confirm or deny anything, of course.

My entire engineering grade rested on one assignment. I had to design, program, and test an automated fog dispenser. It was a lot like a fog boiler, but for residential use. At least it wasn’t an automaton. Those were tricky and had cost me a good portion of my grade in engineering.

So like the dedicated student I was, I spent a few hours in the library studying. Just before curfew, an automaton marched up to my table and announced, “You will report to Principal Fairrow’s office immediately.” I jumped to my feet, wondering what I’d done now.

The automaton said nothing more as it led me up the long flights of stairs to the principal’s office on the top floor. I rapped loudly on the door and waited, listening.

“Enter!”

I obeyed, turning the doorknob. The creak of the door grated against my eardrums, and I grimaced. The grimace turned into an expression of shock as I saw who was seated next to Fairrow. My aunt. I counted up the days in my head. She wasn’t supposed to be here for another week! A week to finish the assignment. A week to get my grades up. All my planning fell to pieces in that one moment.

“Oh, heyyy…” I forced a smile. “Wasn’t expecting to see you for another week, aunt.”

“Expectations are rarely reality,” she said stiffly. “I am here to discuss your grades.”

“Just like usual, then.”

“Yes, Zaiden. You have acceptable scores in everything except one subject. Do you know what that is?”

I ground my teeth together, despising the way she talked down to me. “Engineering.”

She picked a speck of lint off her sleeve. “Do you have any…explanation for this?”

“I have been working as hard as humanly possible. If I finish just one more engineering assignment—”

“One more? Is that really all?” My aunt chortled.

“Yes,” I replied, biting back a sarcastic quip.

“Zaiden, you must know by now that the Empire does not offer a second chance after failure.”

“I haven’t failed yet!” Panic rose quickly in my throat, trying to strangle me. Or maybe that was just my tie.

“No, not yet. But academic scores are set in stone. One mistake will be emblazoned on your record forever. Remember that, Zaiden.”

I snorted. “There’s no way I could forget.”

“Is that impertinence I hear?” She exchanged a glance with Principal Fairrow, who was reclining in his office chair. “That’s another thing. The record of your conduct in the past year has been less than pleasing. For instance, is it true that you’ve resorted to pranking your fellow classmates?”

Oh, snap. “I can neither confirm nor deny that.”

“Come now, don’t be difficult.” Her eyes narrowed just like they always did when she was annoyed.

I’d always been told I was a difficult child. Time to live up to that title. “Why not?”

“Oh, Zaiden…” she sighed. “Can it be that you’ve not learned anything at all? Your grades may be improving, but proper behavior is just as important. Without it, you’re just a child in need of strict discipline.”

“So you’re telling me to grow up? What if I don’t want to?”

“You have no choice in the matter.”

I was about to retort, but Principal Fairrow sat up straighter, clasping his hands over his rotund girth. “If such pranks continue to happen, you will be disciplined.”

I glowered at him. “What if I didn’t do them?”

“Then I suggest you find the person who did and stop them. You are dismissed.”

I gave them one last glare and stalked out of the office. The door slammed loudly behind me.

It was almost curfew. I slipped into my room just before the nightly inspection automaton came around. As I opened the door and beheld the automaton, I just barely restrained myself from punching it right in its smug metal face. I closed the door and collapsed on the bed, completely exhausted. In another minute, I was fast asleep.

When the wake up call came the next morning, I didn’t feel very refreshed. The conversation from the previous night still loomed above my head, undiminished and impossible to forget. Hopefully it wouldn’t make studying harder than it already was.

I almost made it through breakfast without noticing the new kid seated across from Danrya. She was munching her potato chips with great enjoyment. Not that unusual. I turned back to my fried scorpion and was about to take a bite when nearly everyone in the room let out a collective gasp. I glanced back at the new girl, only to find that she was missing. The tablecloth rustled. Had she seriously gone under the table? This was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I finished off my food, contemplating what I could say that would make Danrya angry. Crime by association, and questioning the new girl’s sanity. Yes, that was perfect. Just before the breakfast hour ended, I got up to dispose of my plate, then wove through the tables toward Danrya.

Fully aware that the kid under the table could hear me, I asked, “Who’s the new girl, Danrya?”

She gave me a probing look, trying to gauge where this conversation was going. “Her name is Ariella Newheart.”

“Why are you, the third best student at the Academy, keeping company with her?”

“What business is it of yours, Mr. Darkmere?”

So far she didn’t look very angry. Time to kick it up a notch. “She’s got a screw loose, don’t you think?”

“If that’s what you want to think, Mr. Darkmere, that’s fine. Now would you kindly pick a fight elsewhere?”

I stared at her, suddenly unsure of how to reply. Danrya hadn’t taken the bait. The new girl poked her head out, glaring at me. I glared right back as she crunched loudly on one more potato chip.

Danrya winced. “That is not helping, Miss Newheart.”

No, not at all. If she had the nerve to do this, who knew what else she would do? I might even get blamed for her antics. That would never do. With one last smirk, I turned and walked away.

About a week passed before I was able to annoy Danrya again. Danrya was talking to the other new students about an expedition into the Snowmoors. Naturally, I jumped in and invited myself. At one point in the conversation, Danrya accused me of being prideful. She said my actions would catch up to me someday. I didn’t care if they did.

To secure my passage on this expedition, I went directly to Baron Fairrow. He was in an agreeable mood, thank Lucky. When I proclaimed the news to Danrya, she unfortunately took it very well.

I always seemed to fail when it came to angering her. There had to be some point where she would break, but that would take patience and persistence to reach. I decided to focus on Newheart instead of Danrya. As luck would have it, she and her friends were studying in the library. Plus, there was a missing automaton. I volunteered to help the automaton patrol search for their missing unit and consequently found Newheart struggling to pull a load of books to the top floor of the library, by way of the lift.

“Need any help?” I asked, smirking.

Newheart didn’t even look at me. “Nope. Go bother someone else.”

“That’s a bit rude.”

“Sorry, Zaiden,” she muttered, not sounding very sorry at all.

“That lift looks like it’s heavy. How many books could you possibly have in there?”

“That’s none of your business, kid.”

I tried to suppress a wince. She was older than me and she knew it full well. But what did a few months matter? I called the automaton patrol over and waited expectantly as Newheart lowered the book lift and opened the door. Inside was nothing but a pile of books on the subject of frog dissection. I didn’t know how she’d done it.

“Frogs?” I asked, scowling.

She blinked innocently, but I saw the hint of smugness on her face. “I was wondering about frogs. Do they live here in the Snowmoors?”

“Certain types of frogs live in the rivers, though the Snowmoorian wildlife is rapidly disappearing.”

“What other wildlife? I haven’t seen very much.”

I dismissed the automaton patrol and glanced once more at the book lift. She was crafty, that much I’d admit. “Crocodiles, scorpions, and snakes. Frogs are rarer, though we’ve had them in the dining hall once or twice before. Fish and shellfish, of course. There are also Tundra Wolves. You wouldn’t want to stumble across one of them.” Then I walked away. I’d had enough of girls and their peculiarities.

---

The science expedition was pretty much just a long, cold sleigh ride through the Snowmoors. The others talked and laughed and sang, but my mind was back with my school books. At least I’d get to meet Jefferson and tell him my ideas about the meltdown.

Upon our arrival at Jefferson’s research station, Danrya immediately started one of her silly experiments. This one had to do with testing whether plants grew better with or without fog. The outcome didn’t matter. It was traitorous to even suggest that fog caused harm. Fog was the best thing Lucky had given Aethasia.

So instead of participating in the experiment, I turned my attention to Jefferson. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was divulging worthwhile information to empty air. He was completely ignoring me, or perhaps his helmet had sound dampeners built in. There was also the possibility that he’d gone deaf.

With no other option, I marched outside to go frog hunting. If Newheart wanted frogs, that’s what she would get. The trip to the river took much longer than it should have. By the time I came within hearing distance of the snow frogs, my feet were numb and I was regretting everything. The sentiment dissipated after I caught my first frog. It was bluish-gray and very cold to the touch, even through my gloves. I wondered how it even survived in the freezing temperatures.

As I gradually collected more and more, an idea for a prank came to mind. It was sloppy and desperate, but I didn’t care. Newheart would get her frogs, and everyone else, too. I made my way up to Jefferson’s research station, my pockets stuffed full of frogs.

In the entryway, where all the parkas were hanging, I quietly slipped a frog into each of the pockets and hung my coat alongside them. Then I waited. Danrya eventually announced that it was time to leave and everyone started pulling on their jackets.

The girls’ reactions were the best, especially Newheart’s. I looked away to hide a smirk. Everyone eventually discovered the frogs in the other coats, and then they started looking for the culprit. I was surprised to see Danrya actually glaring at me. Perhaps I’d finally made her angry.

“What is the meaning of this?” she demanded.

I shrugged, wondering if I’d get a lecture. It didn’t matter. I was used to them.

“Your pranks are getting sloppy. You did not even try to disguise the fact that you were the one to put them there.”

"I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Gearwheels! Now you’re denying it even when it’s clear that you were the culprit!”

I couldn’t stop a smirk. Danrya was finally mad, and about frogs of all things. Yet even this apparent success didn’t have a lasting effect. Danrya calmed down eventually. My amusement faded away, replaced by the nagging suspicion that there was something I needed to do. I’d already turned in the engineering assignment. I knew I would get a good grade. But I had to keep up with my other classes. It was time to get back to work, and most definitely not fail.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 7 - The Disappearance

The new girl had been playing pranks. It had to be her. No one else held such disdain for Academy rules. Under other circumstances, I would have suggested we join forces, but her little shenanigans had earned me a trip to the principal’s office.

“Zaiden Darkmere. You must know why you’re here,” Fairrow said gravely, tapping his fingers on the edge of his desk.

“I haven’t the faintest idea. What did I do now?”

Fairrow proceeded to explain how a broken automaton had been found outside the library, and how mysterious rocks had appeared around the school, causing great harm and injury. He slammed a fist on the table. “This aggression will not stand!”

I crossed my arms. “What, you think I did it?"

“Don’t play games with me. For your punishment, I assign you to kitchen duty for one week. You will report to the Academy kitchen twice a day, an hour before breakfast and just after dinner, to complete your tasks. Am I clear?”

It wasn’t any use denying it. He wouldn’t believe me. No one would believe me. But of all the punishments, why did it have to be kitchen duty? “Yes, sir.”

“Good. You are dismissed.”

I stalked away, inwardly seething. Newheart was going to regret ever coming to the Academy Automicus. Such vengeful thoughts made it hard to keep track of my surroundings. By the time I realized Victoria was in front of me, I’d already run into her. She fell down, a paper dropping from her hand.

“Terribly sorry,” I said.

“Don’t just stand there looking stupid. Help me up!” She held her arm out stiffly.

I obliged. She would have continued on her way if I hadn’t swept the paper off the ground and said, “You dropped something.” It was the latest list of class standings. Danrya was now at the top. Victoria was right below her, followed by Blackpiper, Newheart, me, and the rest.

Victoria snatched the paper from my hand. “Mind your own business, Darkmere.”

“I will, thank you.”

She squinted at me. “You are a friend of Danrya’s, aren’t you?”

I snorted. “Nope.”

“Good.” The strange glint in her eye made me wonder why she asked the question.

“What would happen if I was?”

Victoria’s expression hardened. “You wouldn’t want to find out. Good day.” She hurried away.

Good day? When was it ever a good day? Scowling, I headed in the direction of the science lab. Danrya was liable to get herself hurt by Victoria. Newheart and Blackpiper, too, if they weren’t careful. I found Danrya in the science lab with Newheart and a few of her other pals.

“I’ll be back in a few weeks, to keep up with my studies and take you all to see the progress of our fog experiment,” Danrya was saying. “I will retrieve the equipment from Mr. Waterhouse’s laboratory and continue watching it closely in my own station.”

My ears perked up. Her own station? How had she managed that? I thought I’d already made that possibility impossible. Fairrow obviously hadn’t listened to me.

Newheart was bouncing up and down, looking entirely too happy for Danrya. “This is wonderful!”

“I’m sure it is,” I muttered from the doorway, uncertain if they could hear me. Apparently they could. Newheart spun around and spouted some rapid, unintelligible phrases.

“Calm down, Ari,” one of the other girls said.

“Fine. But were you spying on us?”

I shrugged. “Maybe I was, and maybe I wasn’t.”

An annoyed look flashed across Danrya’s face. “Clearly you were, Mr. Darkmere, or you wouldn’t have heard that conversation.”

I smirked. “Aren’t we smart?”

“You tried your best to stop me from furthering my research, Mr. Darkmere, but you didn’t succeed. Now please pick a fight elsewhere.”

“All right, fine. I was going to give you a word of warning about Victoria, but I suppose since you want me to leave…”

“Wait.” Every trace of annoyance disappeared, replaced by worry. “Miss Le Roque?”

“Yes. I’ve heard that she isn’t very happy that you overtook her as the top student.” Danrya could figure that one out easily. She was smart. I turned my back on the group and walked away. Kitchen duty called.

---

Kitchen duty wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated—except for the dishwashing part. How could so many dishes exist in the world? When I wasn’t washing dishes, the cooks had me chopping vegetables or making pancakes. I went from having no knowledge about cooking whatsoever to being an expert in less than a week. It looked like I’d missed my calling to be a chef.

A month passed. No more pranks happened, at least none that I was punished for. Then came a day that I would forever remember as one of the worst in my life. As I came out of the library for the evening meal, I discovered a crowd of people in the lobby. Victoria stood in the doorway, tapping her foot and keeping an eye on the clock. Was this some sort of speech? Had she been named valedictorian?

But no. She came straight out with her announcement, proclaiming, “I regret to inform all of you that Miss Danrya Whyatov has had an accident in her laboratory.”

Not a big deal. Everyone had lab accidents every once in a while.

“She was not careful enough with her experiments, and there was a large explosion.”

My breath caught, but I told myself it wasn’t worth worrying about. Danrya would recover. It might take a while, but—

“Unfortunately, Danrya didn’t make it out.”

Every expectation and denial vanished. A weight slammed into my chest, squeezing the breath from my lungs. I’d never actually wanted Danrya to die. That’s why I warned her. That’s why I had argued and ridiculed and tried to stop her experiments. One way or another, opposing views to the Emperor would be destroyed. Arrests, disappearances, and “accidents” were all means of doing that. But now it was done. Victoria had finally done it, and there was no going back.

I hurried into the dining hall. Without meaning to, I wandered by Newheart’s table. She’d gone to the place where Danrya always used to sit. How touching.

“You think it had something to do with that triacetone triperoxide she had in her lab? That could have caused it,” Newheart was saying to one of her friends.

I slipped a dose of my usual scorn into my voice. “TATP is quite dangerous, isn’t it?” I was such a pro at entering conversations uninvited.

“Danrya’s dead now, Zaiden. What do you think about that?”

What did I think? Danrya had been careless. Danrya should have taken my warning. Danrya…was not coming back. Nikko would be torn up when he heard the news. Newheart expected me to make some savage and heartless comment, so of course, I had to deliver. “It is of no consequence. Though she was a decent scientist, she can be replaced by one more qualified.”

“Qualified?”

I was startled by the sheer force of anger in Newheart’s voice as she jumped to her feet. She faced me, looking ready to snap at any moment. Her eyes were red and watery, and I imagined what would happen if I asked whether something was wrong with them. But I wasn’t so daft.

"Danrya was more than qualified,” she hissed. “If you had anything to do with this—”

“Careful who you accuse, Newheart.” I kept my voice low, glancing furtively around the room to see if Victoria was listening. “And don’t be like Danrya. Take my words of advice so you won’t end up like her.”

Victoria was a monster who would stop at nothing to get her way. If Newheart wasn’t careful, she’d be eliminated like Danrya. Nemesis or not, I didn’t want to see that happen to her.

---

It happened. Two days after Danrya’s death, Newheart completely disappeared from the Academy Automicus. No one knew what had happened, even Victoria. Or so she claimed. Victoria had been sent on an expedition to find a piece of Old Tech. The same day, a set of snowshoe tracks was found leading from the fog-rock storeroom into the wasteland, most likely left by Newheart.

I sat in the darkness of my room, elbows propped on the desk and head in my hands. I could be next. I’d been careful so far, but Victoria was unpredictable. Climbing the ladder of power wasn’t worth the risk anymore.

I could never be the person my family wanted me to be, anyway. Right then and there, I decided to tell my aunt that I wasn’t going to be an engineer. Why not a chef? Mechanic? Doctor? Scavenger? Any of those was better than doing something I hated for the rest of my life.

But who was scarier, my aunt or Victoria? I shuddered. Victoria would come after me if I kept advancing my grades. My aunt would be angry if I chose to drop out of the race. I would rather not die, even if it meant getting lectured. Better a live dog than a dead lion, or however the saying went.

Even with this resolution, the fear didn’t go away. It probably never would. That was just the price I had to pay.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 8 - My Fate Is Sealed

My aunt rose from her chair, staring at me with cold, piercing eyes. If looks could kill, that one would have had me writhing on the floor in death throes. “Two years into your academic education and you refuse to complete it?”

I swallowed. This was not going at all as planned. “That’s not what I said.”

“Are you sure, Zaiden? Because I distinctly heard you say you did not want to be an engineer.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “I haven’t wanted to be an engineer even once in my entire life. I’m just saying I’d rather graduate with a different major. That’s not too hard, since—”

“You will be an engineer. Your father was an engineer. He is the administrator of Fogtech Enterprises, the firm where you will one day work.”

“Doesn’t Fogtech Enterprises need mechanics? I don’t like inventing. I’d rather just fix stuff.”

“You want to fix things?” Her eyes glowed brighter. “I wonder if you’d do better in the Fogworks, repairing broken automatons. How about assembling new ones? At least that way you’d be of some use to the Empire.”

This wasn’t normal. She usually lectured and yelled and insulted. She never spoke threats in a soft, tranquil voice. I had crossed the line, and there was no going back. I swallowed, scrambling for some response.

She leaned closer, speaking before I could. “You will graduate the Academy Automicus as an engineer. Where you end up afterward depends on the manner in which you graduate. You can either graduate with honors and take your place beside your father, or you can spoil your record and amount to nothing more than a Fogworks engineer.”

My head throbbed with searing pain. How had this even happened? Why couldn’t my family be halfway normal? “I won’t let you control my life like that.”

“You’ll thank me someday. In the meantime, I see you must be convinced of the wisdom of your betters. Pack up your things and be ready to leave by morning.” She waved her hand, brushing me out of the office like a pesky fly.

I crept into my room, feeling darker inside than ever before. If my self-respect had a rock bottom, I was very close to hitting it. My life was no longer mine. Perhaps it never had been. And whatever my aunt had planned for me now, it wasn’t good. In my honest opinion, she had won the prize for worst birthday gift giver in the history of ever. Why couldn’t she give me something normal, like a baseball glove or socks? Maybe birthdays were actually just an excuse to ruin someone’s life.

With these dark thoughts swirling in my head, I drifted off into a fitful sleep. I had just enough time after the wake-up call to pack my bag and report to the office my aunt now inhabited whenever she visited the Academy. There wasn’t even time for breakfast before she dragged me out into the Snowmoors and toward the port. I couldn’t help feeling like I was being taken to my own execution.

The trip took us across the ocean to No Man’s Landing. I dared to hope we wouldn’t go beyond the town. But of course, my aunt defied all hopes and expectations. We and our automaton escort traveled east until the forest became a wasteland of barren earth and fog.

Looming in the distance, far larger than the Academy Automicus and far more terrifying, was the Fogworks. As we traveled, the monstrosity grew larger and larger until it nearly blotted out the sky. The fog was thick, and its weight in my lungs was almost unpleasant. A massive door appeared in the grimy black walls of the factory, flanked on either side by automatons.

“Welcome to the Fogworks, Zaiden,” my aunt said, her voice chilling. From the glowing mass of fog beyond the door, a shadow drifted closer. It materialized into a pale woman who I recognized easily: Cassandra, the overseer of the Fogworks.

“It’s about time you met your cousin.” My aunt’s words startled me. Did she mean Cassandra was my cousin?

“Technically, a cousin once removed,” Cassandra replied, her words precise and clipped. “How wonderful of you to come for a visit.”

I stared at the black building and the fog pouring from the smokestacks. If I went in for a “visit,” would I ever come out again? I swallowed and squared my shoulders, determined to show them that I wasn’t afraid.

“If you’ll follow me, I will show you my little empire within the Empire.” Cassandra stepped away into the fog. Aunt Alena gave me a shove, and I followed Cassandra into the depths of the factory.

Inside I saw unspeakable things. From a walkway above an assembly line, I saw ranks of people in ragged clothes, each working to manufacture their daily quota of automatons. Other parts of the factory produced different things: carriage frames, automaton weapons, and every sort of fog-tech imaginable. I saw people die right before my eyes from overheated furnaces and exhaustion.

The living conditions of the Fogworks engineers weren’t much better. Each had their own office in which they worked constantly to develop and perfect new automaton models to eventually mass-produce. It was a living nightmare. A daily torture. I knew I would never survive in that place, and yet if I was sent there, I could never leave.

Even though the fog whispered alluringly, trying to drag me into complacency and surrender, I stubbornly fought it. I tried to cling to my fading sense of identity. I told myself I wasn’t just a mindless slave.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, Cassandra brought me to an isolated chamber. The only thing inside was a vat of liquid fog.

Cassandra rested a hand on my shoulder, making me flinch. “You will now see what happens when an engineer or worker fails to perform his duties.”

Automatons dragged two people in from a side corridor. A thin, sickly girl and an older man. They must have been father and daughter. The automatons stuffed them into a cage over the vat. An icy feeling flowed through me. I wanted to turn away, but Cassandra’s hand clasped tighter, riveting me in place. My heart lurched as a thick chain began lowering the enclosure.

The girl’s scream died away as the cage was fully submerged into the fog. I scrunched my eyes shut, feeling a strange, abrasive wetness on my face. I told myself I wasn’t crying. It was just the fog irritating my eyes. I hadn’t cried since before the Academy.

Cassandra released her grip on my shoulder, leaving painful marks where her nails had dug into my skin. “You see now, Zaiden? You are very privileged. Make the best of it, or you will not be much better than them.” She meant the people in the cage.

I kept my eyes fixed on the ground, resisting the urge to rub my aching shoulder. I did see, very clearly, and I hated it. But there was nothing I could do except bear the last few years of school.

---

I worked harder than ever before, haunted by the memories of the Fogworks. As it turned out, I didn’t have to bear the last few years. More like just a few months. Principal Fairrow called me to his office one day and announced that I could graduate from the Academy early and become a Junior Autofficer. I started to protest that I was supposed to be an engineer, not an Autofficer, but he assured me that I could leave the Autofficer position once I turned eighteen and enter my father’s firm. In the two years until then, I would travel around Aethasia, learning the different functions of the Empire and making use of my academic training. I simply had to grade well on the final exam in order to receive my diploma.

My first assignment as Junior Autofficer would be to Evercity, and I would return to the Snowmoors when the official graduation rolled around. Of course, my opinion wasn’t asked, but I didn’t care this time. If it meant I could delay being an engineer for a few more years, I was all for it.

After weeks of constant studying for the exam, I passed. My score in engineering was perfect, ironically. The other subjects were lower but still acceptable. I hated that scoring paper and diploma with every bone in my body. They sealed my fate and barred me from shaping my own future. My parents had planned this for me from my birth, and I couldn’t change it no matter what I did.

So I moved from the Academy Automicus to Evercity, as much as I hated to return there. I stayed in my old house and old room, but was surprised to find that the Fitzsparks were gone. When I asked the new cook and maid about it, they avoided the question.

I eventually contacted Nikko, who was still an Autofficer and happened to be in Evercity. He probably knew what had happened to the Fitzsparks. I met him at his spacious office in the Evercity castle, a place I’d never been before.

As I gazed wide-eyed at the interior, Nikko nodded and said, “It’s quite a lot to take in, I know.” He spoke with a very distinct accent to his voice.

I tried not to crack up. “What did you just say?”

“I…” He didn’t seem to have an answer.

“You sound like some sort of posh Autofficer.”

Nikko frowned, tapping the top of the desk rhythmically. “That’s kind of what I was going for.”

“Why?”

“Just…just don’t question it. Why did you want to meet?”

“I was wondering about the Fitzsparks who used to work for my parents.”

“Oh, them? I’m surprised you don’t know. They were convicted of treason and sent to the Fogworks.”

My smirk faded, and I stared at him to see if he was joking. He was obviously not. I glanced away quickly. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“All of them?”

“All.”

I swallowed. “What kind of…treason?”

“Association with the Resistance and spying on Imperial officials.”

“How was this discovered?”

“Pamphlets of Resistance propaganda were in their possession, and the father was found meeting with a known Resistance operative.”

I frowned, shaking my head. How could they have been so foolish? They had chosen the wrong side and become careless. It may have cost them their lives. None of them would last long in the Fogworks.

“That’s all I wanted to know,” I finally said, standing up. I told Nikko goodbye and hurried home.

The thought of what had happened to the Fitzsparks, people who had known me from my childhood, tied my stomach in knots. I focused all my attention on my assignments, never letting my mind drift back to the images of the Fogworks and the father and daughter in the cage, plunging to their doom.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 9 - A Wrong Move

My assignments usually consisted of overseeing fogrock transfers, inspecting newly-produced automatons for defects, and investigating civilian grievances. One day a new assignment appeared on my desk: a folder with a yellow stripe on the side, designating a document of level two priority. At first I thought it had been mistakenly sent to me, but then I saw my name spelled out in clear type at the top: Zaiden R. Darkmere.

I flipped open the cover and read the first paper. The assignment was to investigate rumors of illegal automaton re-engineering in an old warehouse. My degree apparently made me a professional in the field. I tossed the assignment back on the desk and pondered its yellow stripe for a moment. Level two priority. More challenging, and more important. It would be dangerous if I failed the assignment. But did I really have a choice?

Gathering up the file, a notebook, and several pencils (just in case I broke one), I called for an automaton escort and left the mansion house. The weight of the control gauntlet at my wrist was still new enough to be uncomfortable. With it, I could coordinate automaton attacks and arrests. Though I’d not had to do either of those… yet.

I reported to the warehouse within the time specified by the file. Two other Autofficers were waiting nearby, already investigating. At least if we failed, I wouldn’t be the only one to take the blame.

A brown-haired woman looked up from the file she was reading to greet me. “Cadet Darkmere?”

I nodded, tapping a button on the gauntlet to make my escort stand off to the side somewhere. “That’s me.”

“I am Lieutenant Veera Oldentop. This is Captain Marcus Ironscope.” She gestured toward the other Autofficer. “You were assigned to help us with our case.”

“I was?” I hadn’t known I would have assistants.

Marcus sent me a frosty look. “Did you read the case file?”

“Obviously. What are we up against?”

“That’s just what we’re trying to figure out,” he replied. “We have a search warrant for this unauthorized warehouse and were just about to blow the front door off its hinges. If you would wait off to the side until your expertise is needed, that would be great.”

“Marcus is a demolition expert,” Veera whispered to me before stepping a safe distance away. I followed suit, not wanting to get hit by a piece of burning shrapnel.

Veera wasn’t one for small talk. That was fine by me. At least she didn’t make generous use of sarcasm. Compared to my aunt, her silence was almost pleasant.

Marcus set several explosives at the base of the door and started a countdown. We had plenty of warning to take cover behind a stack of empty crates. Empty crates?

“Did you already check these crates?” I asked Veera.

She bobbed her head. “Yes. We think their contents were unloaded and stored within the building.”

An automaton continued the countdown. I wanted to see what happened, but common sense told me that was a bad idea. Veera had her eyes squeezed shut and both hands clamped over her ears. Figuring she’d probably done this before, I did the same. The roar of the explosion was loud even with my hands over my ears. A warm breeze swept the back of my neck, then everything was still.

“All clear!” Marcus called.

We gathered around the smoking remains of the door. Maybe blowing it up hadn't been the best idea. “Couldn’t we have just asked for a key?”

Veera nudged a piece of glowing metal with her boot. “The lock’s been changed, and we don’t know who has the new key.”

“It’s triple-enforced titanium. Only level four explosives work,” Marcus added, frowning. “You just let us do our job, kid.”

The space beyond the gaping hole in the warehouse’s wall was dark. Only a few scattered crates showed in the shadows. A layer of fog clung to the ground, creeping outward into the sunlight.

A few automatons stepped forward to investigate, followed by Veera and Marcus. I didn’t wait for an invitation, already prying the lid off one of the crates. Inside were all sorts of automaton parts, most from old models of automatons.

“Wait.” Veera snatched my wrist before I picked up one of the pieces. “Use gloves.”

I shrugged and stuck my hands into the gloves she gave me. Picking up an old difference engine, I looked carefully for evidence of re-engineering. Nothing, only a few places where broken pieces had been repaired.

“Take a look at this,” Marcus called from the far corner of the warehouse. “There are whole automatons back here. Kid, time to show us what you’re good for.”

I set down the difference engine and stalked over to him, resenting his choice of words. Hanging from racks along the walls were several deactivated automatons. They weren’t as old and dusty as the other stuff and showed clear signs of re-engineering.

I took out my notebook and pencil, scribbling a few notes. “Snapjaw cannon on that Pacifier, plus a modified chassis to accommodate a larger difference engine. I wouldn’t doubt there’s extra ammo in the gun, too.”

Marcus, who was also wearing gloves, tested the theory by prying open the ammunition cavity. Two extra rows of darts were inside, all filled with some sort of clear liquid. Definitely not your typical Snapjaw venom.

“Assassins,” I remarked.

Marcus snapped the hatch closed, turning to face me with another of his frowns. “Tell us something we don’t know.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Such as?”

“Can you trace the maker of it?”

“That’s not my specialty. You’ll have to ask someone with a forensics background.”

“We’ll take them for evidence,” Veera said, also writing in the margins of her case file.

A creaking sound drew my attention back to the automaton rack. The one Marcus had touched was shifting downward. “Look out!” I shouted.

The guy had the presence of mind to listen to me. He jumped out of the way as the automaton crashed to the floor. If Marcus hadn’t moved, he’d probably be flat as a pancake, or at least have a broken arm.

“Assassins indeed!” Marcus dusted off his uniform, glaring at the crumpled automaton. “Let’s just take these and go. We’ll send someone to clean up the rest.”

Veera had her automatons gather up the re-engineered assassins and put them on a cart for transportation. While Marcus made sure the smoldering wreckage wouldn’t cause a fire, I kept looking around the warehouse, hoping to find something to contribute. Thus far, my help hadn’t been very helpful. Maybe it was the fate of Junior Autofficers to never be trusted with important missions.

I wandered back to the place where we’d found the automatons, studying the wall. I may not have been the most observant person, but I was almost certain the wall here was a different color than everywhere else. Or maybe I’d gone colorblind.

I poked and prodded the metal panels, trying to hear if there was an echo behind the wall. Perhaps it led to a hidden passageway. What would that accomplish, though? Was there a secret stash of assassin automatons? Something clicked under my hand and I froze, listening. A mechanical whirring traveled down through the wall to the panels under my feet. The next thing I knew, I was falling away into blackness.

Stupid, stupid! When would I learn that anything I touched promptly broke or spiraled into disaster? The ground rushed up to meet me and I hit it hard. It knocked the breath from my lungs and the sense from my brain. With my last coherent thought, I wondered if I would have a concussion when I finally woke up again.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 10 - Entrance to the Underworld

Everything was dark and cold and painful when I came to. How long had I been out for?

“You could have just used the ladder,” a voice said, drifting out of the darkness as a faint, echoing whisper.

I groaned, trying to sit up. “What happened?”

“You fell into the Underworld.”

“When?”

“Just a few seconds ago.” A slight shadow padded closer. The only things I could make out were two glowing green eyes. Automaton eyes.

I reached for my control gauntlet, stupidly thinking that I could control this automaton before it hurt me. The keypad and screen were smashed to smithereens; somehow I’d landed on my arm when I fell.

“Don’t you be afraid of me,” the soft, childlike voice whispered. The face of the creature came into focus. It was human, except for those ghastly eyes, and framed by wisps of long, pale hair.

Strangely enough, I wasn’t afraid. “What are you?”

“My name’s Ivy.” The child extended her small hand toward me. I took it gingerly. She drew me to my feet and led me into darkness. When I protested that I couldn’t see the way, she only laughed and said, “I can see clearly. You only have to trust me.”

So I trusted her. She hummed a song as we traveled along, never stopping once. The world was a haze of unfamiliar passages and distorted shapes, as though I was walking through a dream. Finally, a light brightened the path ahead. Ivy stopped some distance from it. “This is the entrance. You must now forget who you were before. Take off your automaton gauntlet.”

I drew in a sharp breath, everything becoming clear in an instant. Why was I here? Couldn’t I go home? “What’s beyond the entrance?”

The green eyes stared up at me, round and unblinking. “A world no one ever sees. There are people of all sorts. The smugglers hire workers, but never let yourself become a slave to them.”

She meant the Underworld. I suppressed a shiver. “No, I don’t want to be here.” I shook my head and backpedaled quickly, hoping I could somehow find the ladder and get out.

“Are you sure?”

The question made me stop again. For once in my life, I actually had a choice. I could go back to the surface, finish my time as Junior Autofficer, and ultimately end up working for my father. Or I could disappear into the Underworld, the black market society of Aethasia. I would have more freedom down there than I’d ever had before. “Would anyone come after me?”

Ivy tilted her head, smiling faintly. “Would they? Are you important?”

“Sort of.” I was only the heir of my father’s company, an Academy Automicus graduate, and a Junior Autofficer.

“People go underground all the time. They hide from the Empire and are never found.”

That sounded perfect. I couldn’t keep myself from smirking. “Thanks, kid. I think I know what to do now.” I started toward the light, but the girl’s voice stopped me again.

“The gauntlet?”

I paused, removed the gauntlet, and handed it to her. She took it gleefully and scampered away. I crept toward the green glow, finding that its source was a lantern made of an old automaton head. It cast just enough light for me to see the base of a door.

Cautiously, I let myself through it into…an empty room? There was a board on one wall, covered with small slips of paper. Some were advertisements for illegal goods, others were ads for jobs. One said: Mechanic needed, Ray’s Garage. I was a mechanic. Ray’s Garage would give me a job. Only, I didn’t know where that was.

“Who are you?”

I spun around to face a guy who hadn’t been there a moment before. I didn’t even know how he’d gotten in the room. I scrambled for something to say, knowing instinctively that I couldn’t give him my real name. “A-Aiden,” I blurted.

He crossed his burly arms, glaring down at me. “Well then, Aiden, how did you get here?”

“I…fell in.”

He still frowned. “I see. You got past the sentries?”

I nodded.

“Then I guess you’re authorized. Come with me.” He pressed a button on the wall and released a hidden door.

I followed at a distance, wary of tricks. “I need to get to Ray’s Garage.”

“You a mechanic?”

“Yep.”

“You don’t look like one.”

I looked down at my new jacket and shiny military boots. They’d need scuffed up a little if I was going to pass for a real mechanic. The gloves I still wore were thin and marked me as some sort of government worker, so I quickly removed them.

We came out of the tunnel into an underground cavern. Buildings and shanties were crammed along every inch of the narrow streets. I saw all sorts of people. Some, like my guide, looked like they could be hired guns or smugglers. I tried to ignore everything, especially the people who stared at me like I was some novelty.

“Any rules in this place?” I asked hoarsely.

The guy chuckled. “First rule, there are no rules.” How comforting.

We eventually came to a less seedy section of town. Even so, I saw several men with knives lurking in a dark alley. My guide gave them a slight nod and they let us pass by. A large sign hung above the open front of a mechanic shop. It read: Ray’s Garage in brightly-painted letters.

“Here’s your stop. You owe me one,” the guy said before walking away.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 11 - Tough Luck

I glanced back through the streets of the Underworld. I probably could have made it here on my own without getting mugged. Probably. With a shrug, I stepped up to Ray’s Garage. All sorts of gadgets and machines were piled along the walls, from racing airships to automatons to printing presses. I couldn’t see anyone nearby except a girl in a mechanic’s suit who was chewing bubble gum. She’d be my best bet for finding Ray, assuming she wasn’t Ray.

I decided to skip the pleasantries and keep it strictly business. “I need a job. Where’s Ray?”

She blew a large bubble and successfully deflated it, watching me intently the whole time. “He’s in the back. What makes you think you deserve the job?”

“I can fix anything,” I replied confidently.

“I don’t trust a mechanic who hasn’t got grease under his fingers. Come over here, wise guy, and tell me how to fix this.” She thunked her finger on the top of an old radio and stepped back.

I glared at the radio as if that would help, then knelt on the greasy floor beside it. After a little fiddling, I straightened up and said, “Speaker’s out. It needs replaced.”

“Anything else?”

“Nope. Just the speaker.”

Her bronze eyes narrowed, but she pointed to another gadget and had me find what was wrong with it. I was getting annoyed, but did what she told me to. “Are we done yet? When can I meet Ray?” I asked.

She smirked. “You aren’t meeting Ray. You didn’t pass the test.”

I scowled at her. “What do you mean I didn’t pass? I did everything you asked me to!”

“Tough luck,” she replied, turning back to whatever machine she was trying to fix. It looked like an automaton. Or perhaps that was a_ re-engineered_ automaton.

“Hold on,” a voice said from further back in the garage. A guy who must have been Ray stepped into view. He looked old enough to be my grandfather, not at all what I had expected. “Let him work on the automaton.”

The lady shrugged and stepped away. I focused on the automaton. Definitely modified. Still, the basic components were recognizable and easy to fix. I opened the front hatch of the upright automaton and inspected the fog boiler, which was covered with greenish rust. The corrosion spread outward from the central chamber, reaching even the difference engine and the edges of the connecting wires.

“It needs a new fog boiler,” I said, straightening up.

“Then do it.”

I glanced at Ray to see if he was serious. He lowered his bushy eyebrows and tossed a wrench my way. I caught it by reflex and bent over the automaton again. It wasn’t simple to remove the boiler. The bolts and wires had to be loosened in a specific order, like a puzzle. It was just like the automaton diagrams my aunt always gave me to study.

Putting in the new boiler was even harder; I had to replace everything exactly as it had been before. I rubbed my hands on my jacket to clean them and stared coolly at Ray. “Done.”

“You’re not done until you see if it works.”

I knew without a doubt that it would work. But Ray didn’t, so I cranked up the fog boiler and let it run. It made the difference engine’s gears turn and create a rhythm. Low and precise, like clockwork. The automaton’s green eyes flared and it turned its head from side to side. The bonds restricting its limbs stretched taut as it tried to move.

I reached out to deactivate the automaton, but a saw blade sprouted from a gap in its forearm and sliced away the ropes instantly. A sharp bayonet flashed out toward me. I deflected it with the wrench and plunged my hand into the chassis. As I pulled the deactivation wire, the automaton’s engine stalled and the joints seized up before the glowing optics faded.

Balancing it against a chair so it wouldn’t fall on top of me, I stepped back and winced at a sharp pain slicing through my palm. Somehow I’d cut my hand on a piece of metal within the chassis.

“And that is why you wear gloves,” the lady remarked, looking entirely unimpressed with my feat. “Clearly you’re green and have no place in a mechanic garage.”

“He knows machines well enough.” Ray lumbered forward and stuck out his hand to shake my uninjured one. “You’re hired. First things first, you need gloves and a cap. Gabby will show you the market.”

“Is that so?” I turned to Gabby, hooking my fingers in my pockets.

She frowned. “First things first, you’ll fix that cut or get tetanus.”

“I’ll be fine.” I tried to wave her off, but she snatched my wrist and practically dragged me to a chair next to the wall. She proceeded to pour rubbing alcohol on my hand and tie it with a scrap of fabric, all within a matter of seconds. I didn’t even have time to scream, which was probably better for everyone involved.

“Now I’ll show you the market.”

I glared darkly. If I hadn’t liked her before, I definitely didn’t like her now. We left Ray’s Garage, heading in the opposite direction as the entrance. I spotted a few pawn shops, junkyards, and even a platform dedicated to selling refurbished airships.

“You can buy just about everything down here, eh?” I said under my breath.

“Everything and then some. It’s the black market.”

“I thought that was illegal.”

She snorted. “Duh. Did you just arrive here yesterday?”

“Nope.” More like a few hours ago.

“You still have a lot to learn.”

“Such as?”

“Everything is legal here.” She glanced at me over her shoulder. “So who are you running from, city boy?”

I replied with a blank stare.

“You don’t look like the type to be involved in smuggling or robbery. Did you offend someone high up?”

I allowed myself a tiny smirk. If only she knew.

“Unless you killed somebody.”

“No! Why would you even think that?”

She flipped her braid over her shoulder. “I always assume the worst, grease monkey. It’s safer that way.”

“Don’t call me grease monkey or city boy.”

“What else would I call you?”

I gritted my teeth. “Aiden.”

“So, Aiden, why are you down here? I’m here because I rigged a piece of fogtech to explode. It nearly killed Cassandra.”

My eyes widened. “You’re from the Fogworks?”

“Hardly. I infiltrated it for a mission. Some high-bred rival of Cassandra’s needed her gone.”

I frowned. “I’m running from a family member. She’s what you’d call ‘high up.’ ”

Gabby nodded. “Blood feud, then. We have plenty of people like that down here. They clog the employment system, but I suppose without them, the Underworld wouldn’t exist. You’re lucky, you know. You got one of the only mechanic jobs left in the Underworld.”

I shrugged and focused on the street. A large, open area appeared ahead of us, crowded with stands and carts of all shapes and sizes. “That the market?”

“You betcha. Si Mulligan sells gloves, right over there.” Gabby pointed me in the right direction before disappearing into the crowded market. She hadn’t even told me where she was going or if she’d be back. How terribly inconvenient.

I stomped away, muttering under my breath. I found Si Mulligan’s stand and suddenly wondered how I was going to pay for the gloves. I had no cogs or sovereigns, or whatever currency the Underworld dealt in. Fortunately, the guy agreed to accept my watch in trade for a pair of mechanic gloves and a worn cap with welding goggles. Who needed to tell the time in a place like this, anyway?

A commotion on the opposite side of the marketplace drew my attention. Not wanting to get caught in a brawl or something just as bad, I pushed my way out of the crowd to a higher place outside the market. I stood there in the shadows, my new cap pulled low over my eyes, watching and waiting. The crowd grew into a mob, and I spotted Gabby near the center of it. My breath caught. She would probably get trampled. At the least, she’d come out with a few scrapes. Tough luck for her.

She was talking to someone—yelling, more like. I recalled that the goggles on the hat had several advantages besides eye protection and disguise benefits. I pulled them on. The world took on a bluish tint, and when I pressed a button, the lens zoomed and focused on Gabby and her opponent. He was the same guy from earlier, the one who had guided me to Ray’s Garage. Both of them had pistols trained on each other. A gunshot rang out. From the distance, I couldn’t see who was hit, if anyone.

The mob went to the next level, a stampede, and within two minutes the market was almost clear of people. I looked for Gabby. Neither she nor the guy were anywhere in sight. Suddenly uneasy, I hightailed it out of the market and back to Ray’s Garage, hoping Gabby would be there. She wasn’t.

“Gabby pulled a gun on some guy in the market. Have you seen her?” I asked Ray, trying to hide my worry.

He froze, saying nothing at first. When he did reply, it wasn’t in answer to my question. “Get to work. I’ll pay you with grub and any piece of junk you want from the back. We here in the Underworld deal mostly by trading.”

That was how I was hired by Ray Longcraft. Every day I worked my fingers off repairing machines and broken automatons. Every night I ate a bowl of Ray’s grub and slept in a hammock in a back room. The first few nights were hard, since the underground city was filled with noise almost constantly. Shouts, gunshots, crashes, and whirring machinery pervaded the atmosphere. It made me wonder how people in the overworld managed not to hear it.

Paranoia and nightmares plagued me. Besides that, Gabby still hadn’t returned. I had to do her work in her absence. What could have happened? Had she been hunted down by a rival like Danrya and Newheart? Or had Cassandra finally gotten her revenge? My questions went unanswered.

While working, I thought long and hard about what to choose from Ray’s junk piles as my pay. Most of the stuff was half broken and would need a lot of fixing. In exchange for a repaired racing ship, someone dragged in an old merchant wagon with broken wheels. Since it wouldn’t fit in the garage, Ray stuck it in a nearby alley.

On a whim, I decided I wanted to fix it up to sell. Ray opposed the idea, wanting instead to use it for spare parts, but I convinced him to let me work on it during my free time.

At one meal, Ray asked, “You want the wagon for your pay?”

I swallowed hard, thinking. What could it hurt? “Sure, I’ll take the wagon.”

“It’ll take you a year to earn it at this rate.”

“What if I took over cooking?” I bargained.

He squinted at me, the corners of his mouth curving downward. “You can’t cook.”

“But I can cook.”

He shrugged. “Alright, knock yourself out.”

So, I started work on the merchant wagon. It had a bench on the front for a driver to sit on and a door in the back. The small room inside the wagon was furnished with a bunk bed, and the single large window even had shutters. The repair work took months, much longer than I’d thought or intended.

Out of the blue one day, Ray announced that he would be hiring two new mechanics. I asked him if this meant Gabby wasn’t coming back.

“She’s never coming back,” was his blunt reply.

I stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Gabby is gone. Has been since the day I hired you.”

I was left to wonder about the details. The news of Gabby’s passing left me in a constant state of pessimism—not very good for business. Ray pointed out that unless I learned to put on an act, I would never be a good businessman. So, I made myself another mask, this one a false, painted smile that could almost be mistaken for a real one.

I also learned to read potential customers for hints about their gullibility. Most of the people who came by the garage were hardened like Ray, but there were some with less sense. With a few glib words and half-truths, I could easily cheat them and they never suspected a thing.

It was so easy to learn the tricks of the trade, far easier than life at the Academy. Moving to the Underworld was the best decision I’d ever made, and I didn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 12 - My New Job

It took only one day to change everything. That day arrived soon after Ray hired the new mechanics, two guys who liked to poke fun at my exemplary cooking skills. It was also just before my birthday, by my best reckoning, about the time for me to get another terrible present. The guy from my first day in the Underworld, the same one who had pulled a gun on Gabby, showed up at the garage during breakfast.

“There’s someone here for you, Aiden,” Ray called from the front room.

I left the pancakes frying in a pan and poked my head out of the kitchen. “Who is it?”

“That would be me,” the guy said. I stepped back and he squeezed through the low, narrow door into the kitchen. “You owe me one, remember? Time for you to pay up.”

I decided to play the ignorant card. It was an effective strategy for customers who came wanting refunds. “I'm sorry, do I know you?”

He shoved me backward so hard that I almost bumped into the stove. “Don’t play dumb. Of course you know me. I need that wagon on the side of the garage.”

“It’s my wagon,” I told him, standing up straight.

“That’s why I’m talking to you. I need to borrow it.”

“You won’t give it back.” I sniffed the air. The pancakes needed to be flipped. I forced myself to turn around, pick up the spatula, and flip them.

"I won’t?”

“You and I both know you won’t.”

His voice took on a hard, no-nonsense tone. “I still need it.”

“Tough luck.”

“Listen, buddy—”

I heard him stepping forward and quickly shoved a plate of golden pancakes between me and him, right under his nose. “Care for a pancake?” I made myself grin the way everyone seemed to think was cheerful and carefree. It made me feel stupid, but I did it anyway. It had saved me before.

He loomed over me like a dark thundercloud. “You won’t let me have it?”

Oh, I wanted to let him have it, all right. Problem was, he was at least six inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier. “If you mean the wagon, nope.”

“In that case, I have a job for you.”

---

Agreeing to help a criminal, much less the guy who might have killed Gabby, wasn’t my idea of a job. Not that I’d had a choice in the matter. Why did this keep happening?

I humbled myself enough to ask Ray for help, but he didn’t even listen. He said it was my problem and I had to take care of it. The wagon was my property now. I couldn’t help but wonder if he just wanted to get rid of me. Maybe I’d scared away too many of his customers.

After “hiring” me, my employer gave a few terse instructions. I was to wait three days, then rent a team of horses and take the wagon to the junkyard in the western quarter of the Underworld. There it would be loaded up with all sorts of garbage to disguise the real cargo: re-engineered automatons like the assassins I’d seen in the warehouse months ago. I would drive alone through the Underworld until I came to one of the larger exits. Once there, I’d meet a smuggler who would tell me the location of a secret warehouse.

When my employer told me that, I tried to protest that I wasn’t a smuggler. He waved it off and claimed I was only a teamster, not a smuggler, and that I would do my job because I owed him. And so I began a hunt for horses. I had to do it at night since that was my only free time nowadays. The streets of the Underworld were mostly abandoned in the few hours between dusk and dawn. Not that one could see much of a difference in brightness this far below ground. To simulate nighttime, lanterns were periodically switched off, leaving everything in near-blackness. All the better for shady operations such as horse renting.

I had absolutely no idea where to find livestock. My employer could have at least given me a tip along with the sovereigns. I ended up invading a few saloons and pawn shops, keeping my welding goggles on and a cloth mask drawn over my face.

A barkeeper told me the only place to rent horses was in Evercity. The Underworld sold everything except live animals, it seemed. I stalked toward the more well-traveled exit. The slum where it emerged was supposedly the bad part of Evercity. If these paupers could see the hidden world under their feet, they would count themselves lucky.

From the slum, it took a little late-night scouting to find the nearest livery stable and plan the easiest route to the Underworld. Hopefully no one would question why I was bringing two horses underground. The only things left to do were twiddle my thumbs, fix broken automatons, and take a nap.

---

The fateful day dawned just as bleakly as every other. I had to force myself to open my eyes. I told Ray I’d not be working that day and set out bright and early to get the horses. The livery manager was suspicious and asked me what I would be using them for.

“A little hauling to market,” I replied, grinning. Taking my goggles and mask off was a risk, but he would have suspected me otherwise. I realized that I probably looked and smelled like a street rat. I didn’t remember the last time I’d bathed, and my hair kept falling into my eyes.

“I’ll need a piece of insurance, just as a precaution.”

“Such as?”

“Do you have a pocketbook or watch?"

I recalled trading my watch months ago. Maybe that hadn’t been the best idea. What else did I have? I dug in my backpack and came up with the three juggling balls Nikko had given me. I showed the manager how well I could juggle, then bowed low, waiting for applause.

He didn’t clap. “Are you a circus performer or something?”

“Just a hobbyist,” I replied modestly.

“That won’t be enough, I’m afraid. I need something of monetary value.”

I frowned and pretended to be thinking hard. Would I have to make another trip to the Underworld for something valuable? Then I remembered the pistol holstered at my belt. It was an old flintlock that someone had traded and Ray had let me keep. I’d wanted to have it handy in case my employers planned any funny business.

Reluctantly, I suggested the flintlock. The manager’s eyes glinted, and he quickly accepted. I paid him the fee and vowed I would return the horses by sunset. He just waved me away with a warning to not hurt myself. But he didn’t have to worry. I knew exactly how to handle the horses.

Or maybe I didn’t. Both of the creatures balked as I tried to lead them through the Underworld entrance. They didn’t like the idea of walking into a dark tunnel any more than I did. Through more luck than skill, I calmed and led them through the tunnel. They, as big as they were, easily parted the sea of people on the dark streets. We made it to the wagon in record time.

It was only then that I seriously considered what I was doing: taking part in an illegal smuggling operation. A crime against the Empire. I closed my eyes, breathing out slowly. The horses tugged restlessly at the ropes in my hand. Drilling machinery and thousands of footfalls made the ground vibrate. I couldn’t back out now, even though I was completely powerless, with no weapons and no promise of safety from my employer.

Quickly, so as to not allow myself any more time to think, I hitched the horses to the wagon and pulled on my goggles and mask. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I muttered, stashing my backpack under the wagon seat.

“What are you up to now, Aiden?” one of Ray’s other mechanics called, looking up from his work.

“None of your business. I’ll be back before the day’s end.”

He waved his wrench. “See ya!”

I snapped the reins and clicked to the horses, wondering if they would obey. If not, I would look pretty stupid. Fortunately for me they did obey, and soon we were on our merry way to certain doom. I kept imagining what would happen if I got caught. All the blame would be pinned on me, teamster or not. The horses could be traced back to the livery. The livery manager could identify me as the one who rented the horses. I was just the scapegoat for a smuggling operation.

The realization made me angry, mostly at myself. I shouldn’t have broken so easily. I should have given Gabby’s murderer a lecture he’d never forget. Though he would have just pounded me into the ground and taken the wagon without my cooperation.

I arrived in the western junkyard miserable, angry, and just a little hungry. I probably should have eaten before I left. But my woes had only begun. My employer, who still refused to tell me his name, ordered me to unlock the wagon’s door so they could load the junk and disguised contraband. I did exactly as he said while secretly plotting revenge.

I stood off to the side, arms crossed, and watched them stuff the wagon with broken gadgets, rusted tools, re-engineered automatons, springs, cogs, and every size pipe imaginable. All of the workmen were shifty characters, just like my employer.

Within minutes, the deed was done. I was given one last threat-laced reminder about my mission before being sent on my way. I ground my teeth together and spat out a few choice words. But words wouldn’t help. My words had no power here or anywhere. “Why am I doing this?” I asked myself again. I couldn’t think of a good answer.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 13 - One-Way Ticket

I found the smuggler waiting near the Underworld exit, in a narrow alleyway. He matched the description I’d been given: short and stocky with a bowler hat and tie. My stomach still grumbled, and the air was cold and damp. The sky, covered with low, heavy clouds, seemed to reflect my mood.

“Looks like rain,” I commented after waiting a full minute in awkward silence.

He puffed on his pipe for a moment, loosing a cloud of greenish smoke into the air. A shiver went down my spine at a recollection of my father doing that exact thing. I glanced over my shoulder at the bustling street, unreasonably afraid that someone would appear out of the shadows to arrest me.

“You have the goods?” he wheezed, putting away the pipe and lumbering forward.

I narrowed my eyes. Something about him was off. I was glad I was up high on the wagon seat, out of his reach in case he got dangerous. The way he scrutinized me also made me glad I was wearing the mask and goggles as a disguise. “All of the goods. I just need to know where to put ’em,” I replied, adopting a businesslike tone.

“Two of the warehouses have already been cracked open. I’ll need you to take the goods directly to the buyer.”

I frowned. This wasn’t part of the plan. “Where’s that?”

“Outside the city.”

“Nope,” I replied immediately. “I wouldn’t get past the security. I’m not gonna take a risk.” Not to mention the fact that I wanted to stay alive.

“There’s a different way out.” His eyes glinted green. “I’ll give you directions.” He told me of an abandoned culvert on the other side of the slum district. It led directly beneath the city until it emerged in the forest outside. The exit was where I would meet the buyer.

It was secret and secluded, perfect for conducting illegal business. Also a perfect place to hide any evidence of a crime, I thought to myself. No one would ever know or care if I disappeared off the face of the earth. I swallowed hard, trying to push away the fear.

The smuggler displayed a pocket watch. “The clock is ticking.”

“All right, fine. I’ll do it,” I muttered, backing the wagon out of the alleyway. The horses’ hooves struck loudly against the cobblestones, driving spikes of pain and pressure into my head. Sweat trickled down my back, soon to be washed away by the foggy rain that came pouring down. My hands chafed against the slick leather reins.

I didn’t want this. I didn’t want any of this. I’d rather not have been born. There was nothing to live for. I had no hope, no prospects. I was probably going to die soon, and then I would be forgotten forever. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I bowed my head against the driving wind and rain, watching for the culvert entrance.

A long, dark tunnel opened in a stone wall adjacent to the road. Over it hung a dilapidated sign that read: Engineer Aqueduct - Under Construction. By my guess, it had been “under construction” for the past few decades. The project had probably been started long before the Engineer abandoned Aethasia.

The horses were nervous. I was making them go into another dark, unfriendly place without their consent. Well, horses didn’t get a vote. They were just animals. They were supposed to do what I told them, and that was pull my wagon.

I urged them into the culvert one step at a time, conscious that I couldn’t get back out afterward; the space was far too narrow to turn the horses around in. Faint light gleamed through grates in the ceiling of the tunnel, but it was barely enough to see the damp stones at the horses’ feet. It was colder down here than above, but at least I was out of the rain. Mostly. Small streams of water still dripped through the grates, not quite enough to soak me.

The weirdest part of the trip came when smaller tunnels adjoined the main culvert. None of them were large enough to fit the wagon through, much less a horse, and they appeared to go nowhere and serve no purpose. They made me think of catacombs and other ancient burial places. I half expected to see a skeleton hanging from the ceiling of one of those tunnels. It was unnerving to have to turn my back on each of those tunnels as the wagon rolled past them.

The culvert led due east for what must have been the entire length of Evercity. It surprised me that I didn’t run into any people or at least an Underworld entrance. The tunnel must be too high up.

Just as I thought this, a light blinked in the distance. Actually two lights, both bright green in color. Maybe I’d finally run into an automaton. No, that wasn’t an automaton. A girl clad in rags dashed forward, frightening the horses more than me. I recognized her eyes from when she’d brought me to the Underworld entrance.

“And so we meet again.” I reined in the horses and tipped my soggy cap toward Ivy, wondering if she would let us by. I didn’t want to have to risk running her over.

“You are leaving the Underworld?” she inquired, her eyes round and unblinking. They had no pupils or irises, glowing solidly green in the depths of her pale face. Her eyes had been completely replaced with fog-tech.

I tried to act innocent. “Am I not supposed to?”

“For each person there comes a time to leave. Yours has come now. You’ve prospered in the Underworld and become something new.”

I frowned. “I’m the same as I was before.”

“The same but different.”

Sure, I’d learned a few things. How to deal with difficult customers, for one. Whether this could be called “people skills” was debatable, but I was definitely still the same unimportant Zaiden Darkmere.

“Don’t believe me?” Ivy quirked an eyebrow. “You look different than before.”

“Sure. I’ve got a few new patches on my clothes and scars on my hands.”

“You’re not a scholar anymore, are you?”

“Nope.”

“The Underworld has toughened you up.”

I glanced away, remembering how I’d been moping about my fate minutes earlier. I needed a good deal more toughening up. “Are you going to let me pass or not?”

She nodded and stepped into one of the side tunnels. I drove on, wondering if I’d really changed all that much. In reality, I hadn’t. Ivy didn’t know anything about me. I glanced over my shoulder, but the girl had already disappeared.

A light appeared at the end of the tunnel, but it gave me no hope. A steady stream of rainwater trickled out through the grate at the end of the culvert. Beyond was a wall of vegetation, grayish-green in the stormy light. I looked around for some way to get through the grate and discovered a latch on one side of the metal latticework. It made it easy to open the grate outward, like a door. I brought the horses and wagon through it, hoping that the automaton buyer was somewhere nearby. I didn’t want to have to stand out in the rain for hours. The hinges of the grate made a low whining sound as it closed.

“Should have kept it open,” a voice said. Three shadows drifted out of the forest, lining up in front of me. Two men and one woman, all masked and dressed in pure black.

I stared at the speaker. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t keep the gate open and you’ve got yourself a one-way ticket out of Evercity,” the lady said, her voice garbled by the modulator on her mask.

I gritted my teeth. What a blunder to make. I felt so stupid that it probably would have shown on my face. Good thing I was wearing a mask, too.

The third buyer stepped forward. “We’ll take the goods now, teamster.”

I was required to help them separate the automatons from the junk, wrap them in tarps to keep off the rain, and load them onto a cart that the buyers had waiting in the trees.

"Are we done?” one of them quietly asked another.

“Just one more thing.” The tallest of the three turned and strode purposefully toward me. I wanted to run, but couldn’t make my feet move. I was tired of running.

He socked me in the gut and hit my head as I doubled over. The blow was definitely hard enough to knock me unconscious. On the bright side, at least he hadn’t killed me. But boy, what a headache I would have when I woke up.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 14 - Cityscape

I had forgotten how wide and open the sky was. It was a flat expanse of deep indigo overhead when I regained consciousness. The storm had long passed and evening was approaching.

I glanced at the only other thing in the area outside the grate: my wagon. The horses were gone, probably stolen by the buyers. No way I was getting my flintlock back now.

The sharp pain in my skull made me groan. I had no idea what to do now. My backpack of supplies was still under the wagon seat. I couldn’t go back into Evercity. I couldn’t take the wagon. What else could I do? Why couldn’t I just go back to sleep?

That might be a good idea, but I had the vague sense that I wasn’t thinking clearly. My headache wouldn’t let me sleep, anyway. It made me stand up and walk to the wagon for a drink of water to drown the nauseous feeling in my stomach.

Probably a concussion. I’d have to take it easy for a few days. But where could I rest? I glanced at the grate. If Ivy came to open it for me, I could ask her to take me back to the Underworld. But the chance of that happening was slim. The wagon had a bed inside. I could rest there.

I staggered to the door and pulled myself inside. The buyers had left all the junk strewn across the floor haphazardly. I collapsed into the bottom bunk, tired, wet, sore, nauseous, and still very hungry.

---

The next morning was crisp, and my clothes were still damp. I shivered and gnawed on a piece of beef jerky, trying to think. A plan. That’s what I needed. But no matter how hard I racked my brain, I could think of nothing. The only thing I knew was that I couldn’t live like a vagabond outside of Evercity.

Just to make sure I was really locked out, I pushed and tugged on the grate for a few minutes. Then I gazed at the looming cityscape. Maybe I needed to think outside the box. I didn’t have to return to Evercity. What else was nearby? The Fogworks. The Giant Seed Forest. No Man’s Landing.

The only viable option was No Man’s Landing, but that would take days of travel on foot. I had enough food to last that long, and I could probably sell some of my junk to a salvage shop there. After that I might be able to rent a horse and return for my wagon.

No use sitting around moping. I had to do something now or I never would. The earlier I began the journey, the better. I gathered up a few supplies and saleable items, closed up the wagon, and started off.

I came to several different waypoints, the first of which was the high road leading south. It was the easiest path for my aching feet to trod and the quickest route to the rest of the Empire. I glanced backward once, but the Evercity skyline was no farther away than it had been an hour before. I still had a long way to go.

Each step I took brought me closer to No Man’s Landing. I kept rehearsing a story in my head, just in case I ran into someone and was questioned. The preparation was unnecessary. No one was traveling today, probably because of the rain. The mud sucked at my feet, several inches deep in places.

By nightfall, the city was just a speck in the distance and my clothes were splattered with mud. I rigged a hammock a short distance into the trees and tried to start a fire. I had no luck, probably since all the wood was wet—or maybe because my matches were. I held out hope that they would dry eventually.

Dinner that night and breakfast the next morning were the same: beef jerky and hard biscuits. So long as it was edible, I didn’t see a reason to be picky. I wouldn’t have minded some fresh bread, though.

After being underground for so long, the outdoors were literally a breath of fresh air. When was the last time I’d seen so many trees? Certainly not in the Snowmoors.

The next waypoint was a roadside market with produce from the Evergreen Meadows. This was a sign I was getting closer to No Man’s Landing. When I asked one of the salespeople, she said it was a half-day’s walk but I could hitch a ride if I needed one.

“Thank you kindly, ma’am,” I replied, giving her my most charming smile. I’d taken off my mask earlier in the journey to let it dry. Keeping a piece of wet cloth over one’s nose and mouth was a surefire way to get a cold.

The lady smiled back, making me hope that she was halfway friendly. “You got family in town?”

“Nope. I’m going there for business.”

“That so? I hope you’re successful. Here, you look like you could use some bread.” She went over to her stand and cut a thick slice.

I stared at the bread for a moment. I wasn’t one to pass up free stuff, so long as it was really free. “I have a few things to trade.”

“Oh, no.” She laughed and shook her head. “It’s my treat.”

“Well, in that case, thanks.” I munched the bread contentedly, watching the vendors pack up their goods. Soon they started the journey back to No Man’s Landing. True to her word, the saleswoman let me ride on the back of her cart. The whole way we talked about bread and food in general. She even gave me a few recipes.

We made it to Evergreen Meadows just before dusk. After saying thanks and goodbye to the nice lady, whose name was Ruth, I went to scout the town. The salvage place was closed, as were most of the other shops. A few new ones had opened since I’d last been here.

I didn’t see the point in paying for a hotel room when I could sleep in Evergreen Meadows—just like a vagabond, I realized, almost smirking. I’d gone from a prestigious Academy Automicus cadet to mechanic to vagabond in just a few months. Not to mention the smuggling fiasco, though in hindsight I much preferred being called a teamster.

That night, I spent a while looking at the star-filled sky. I’d never been very interested in astronomy. It wasn’t a required class for an engineering degree, but I knew enough to pick out some constellations. I started to wonder how different my life could have been if I hadn’t been born into the Darkmere family.

I could have been a scientist, or maybe even a doctor. Being a doctor was kind of like being a salesman. You had to be a good actor and keep your customers calm and confident in your expertise. I probably wouldn’t have been very good at that. Thinking about alternate realities made me drowsy, but the frogs in the pond were croaking too loudly. They reminded me of the Snowmoors and the Snowmoors reminded me of the Academy Automicus. I put my arms over my head, trying to block out the ribbiting and unwelcome memories.

No Man’s Landing had once been the gateway to Aethasia. Now it was nothing more than a salvage town—a place full of castoffs. That meant I would fit in perfectly. I could even make a business here, if I managed to get my wagon. Hopefully it would still be there. Who in their right mind would steal a heavy, junk-filled merchant’s wagon? They might decide to live in it, but definitely not steal it.

The next morning, the sky was full of clouds again. I could almost smell the rain in the air. Time was of the essence. First, I went to the livery and found out the price to rent a horse for a whole day: ten sovereigns or fifty cogs. Then I headed to Little Stone Salvage and haggled with Padre Stone over the prices of each item I’d brought. I received just enough cogs to rent the horse. Luck was on my side today.

I toted the bag of blue cogs to the livery and received a large brown draft horse. The livery manager was in such good spirits that he didn’t even ask me to put down something as insurance.

I had no idea how to ride a horse, but the manager gave me a few tips. I was not to gallop the whole way, and I had to rest the horse every few hours. He said that by the first stop I would be extremely sore. I suppressed a grimace. As if I wasn’t sore enough already. Maybe both kinds of soreness would cancel each other out eventually.

It was wishful thinking. By the time I made it to Evercity that afternoon, every part of my body, from my toes to the roots of my hair, was sore. It hurt to dismount, stand up, walk, and do pretty much anything else. The luck from earlier wasn’t helping me now. I was beginning to question whether there was any such thing as luck at all.

I found my wagon just as I had left it. I was glad to hitch the horse to the wagon and ride on the seat instead of on a saddle. The journey back was slower with the wagon, and I made it to No Man’s Landing late that night.

I didn’t know a legal place to park my wagon. Maybe Evergreen Meadows? Automatons rarely patrolled there, and if any of the residents complained it would take a while for Autofficers to process the grievance. (I knew from personal experience that such things took between two weeks and one month to be investigated.)

I left the wagon in a small clearing near the lake and returned the horse to the livery, waking up the manager in the process. Then I limped back to the wagon, about ready to drop from exhaustion. As I opened the door and stepped inside, a pair of glowing green eyes appeared next to my face.

“What the—” I stumbled backward, tripped on the steps, and landed on my back in the soft grass.

“Ivy’s here,” the girl said, smiling innocently. She crouched in the doorway like a cat about to spring.

I rubbed my head, wishing that I was just dreaming this. “I can see that. Why did you stow away in my wagon?”

“I’ve come to visit the salvage town.”

“But why?”

“Because I want to.” She slowly crept down the steps, smiled once more, and dashed away into the night.

I shook my head, grunting as I stood up. I stepped into the wagon and glanced around to make sure there weren’t any more children hiding inside. Nothing but clutter and an array of broken tools.

I wouldn’t let myself ponder deep and philosophical questions tonight. The past was gone, and I couldn’t change it. The present stank. The future would come whether I wanted it to or not. Since I couldn’t predict the future, I should be ready for whatever life decided to throw at me. But that wouldn’t happen unless I got some sleep. I threw myself into the bottom bunk and was asleep in an instant, dreaming of all the opportunities that lay before me.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 15 - The Nemesis Returns

Throughout the next few months, I built up a moderately successful business for myself. It didn’t prosper like my father’s company, but I was able to make ends meet. The connections I had in the Underworld proved useful for supplying merchandise that no other shops had.

But I didn’t make it to that stage until much later. I started out by selling the junk I had laying around in my wagon—after fixing it up, of course. With a businessman’s charm, I peddled whatever I had to any unsuspecting customer who crossed my path. Oftentimes I just made a nuisance of myself, but I still sold enough to invest in other goods.

I brought my wagon to a strategic spot in No Man’s Landing and used it as a base of operations. It gave me more credibility as a salesman, and I soon developed a reputation as the most reliable seller of exotic products outside of Evercity. I didn’t use my real name, of course. I was just known as Aiden Tincraft to anyone who cared enough to ask.

One afternoon, less than a week after I got the wagon up and running, I decided to take a quick nap. Business had been slow all day, and I didn’t have anything else to do while I waited.

I propped my feet on the windowsill and draped my mechanic’s cap over my face. All was fine and dandy until a light tapping sound roused me. Then came a loud ahem as someone cleared their throat.

I sat up quickly and pushed the cap off my eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was just—” I stopped abruptly, my jaw going slack. The face of the person outside the wagon was familiar, and she looked just as shocked as me, if not more.

“Zaiden!”

I rose halfway out of my chair. “Newheart!”

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, clenching her hands into fists.

My mind drew a blank. Every planned explanation flew out the window. “That’s…that’s none of your business,” I spluttered.

Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll find out, you just wait and see.”

“No!” I wanted to remain inconspicuous if at all possible. Having her prying into my record would help the Empire to find me. “First off, what you said my name was is not my name now.”

She blinked. “What?”

“I’m Aiden now, in case you didn’t know.”

“It’s one letter different.”

“I know that.”

She smirked. “You could have picked something more creative, like Alfred or Edgar.”

I closed my eyes, trying to pick up the remnants of my mask. “What do you want, Newheart?”

“I heard there was a new person in town and wanted to give him a good old-fashioned Resistance welcome!” She picked a basket off the ground at her feet and dropped it on the windowsill. “That means free cookies from my shop and a basket for you to resell.”

I glared at the basket for a minute. Courtesy demanded that I say thank you, but I didn’t care.

“Hello? I’m still here,” Newheart said, crossing her arms.

“You’ve given me the cookies and now you can go away.”

“Hm! Just as I thought. You haven’t changed at all, Zaiden Darkmere.”

I curled my fingers around the windowsill, seething inwardly. Why couldn’t she just leave me alone? She was going to ruin everything. “Don’t call me that.”

“Why not?”

“You know what? I don’t need your cookies. Just take them and go back where you came from. To the Resistance, or whatever it is you’re doing now.”

Newheart smirked. “I am a Resistance worker, yes. I have been since I left the Academy Automicus. I take it you left, too?”

I exhaled sharply. “What is your problem?”

She shrugged. “I’m trying to decide whether I’m still mad at you or not.”

“I don’t care. If this is what the Resistance is like, I don’t want anything to do with them.”

The smirk vanished, replaced by something else. Her face was pale and drawn, almost like she was in pain. “I…sorry. I should go.” Turning quickly, she ran away down the street.

I slammed the shutters of the wagon window closed. Everything was engulfed in darkness and the faint scent of chocolate chip cookies. My stomach grumbled, but I firmly decided that I wouldn’t eat them.

I sat down, clutching my head. I’d almost thought I could forget the Academy and everything associated with it, but Newheart’s return had made that impossible. She was one of those people who brought back bad memories. Probably bad luck, too.

Despite my best attempt at self-control, Newheart’s cookies were gone in a day. She might be as sour as a pickled lemon, but she did know how to bake.

The next time she bothered me, I saw her coming and had time to prepare. I put on a mask of brash confidence with an extra dose of self-importance. Maybe if I annoyed her enough, she would give up.

“Er…hi,” she said, shuffling her feet.

I barely looked up from my paperwork. “Yes, what do you want?”

“I was wondering if you had any dyes to sell.”

“I might.” I stood and brought a crate of imported dyes for her to look at. While she rummaged through them, I watched her carefully. She had a red badge displayed prominently, marking her as one of the Resistance. “Why did the Resistance let you join?”

Her hands stopped moving, but she didn’t look at me. “I…left the Empire. I had nowhere else to go.”

“Your family wouldn’t have anything to do with you?”

Now she did look up, her face grim. “My family is dead. I only have my sister.”

I blinked, a little surprised. After a moment, she continued picking through the dyes, her face taking on that pained look again. “So what, you decided you liked the Resistance better and joined?” I challenged.

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“Oh, I’m sure. Do you think I’m too dumb to understand?”

“No…”

When she said nothing else, I shook my head in disgust. “You aren’t one of them. Tell me you don’t wonder whether your fight against the Empire is really worth it.”

She stepped backward, her expression blank. “I don’t think I’ll be buying anything today, Z.”

I snorted and picked up the box of dyes. As I replaced it I realized what she’d said. “What did you call me?” I turned around to look, but she was gone. In her place was Ivy, perched smugly on the windowsill.

She blinked her glowing eyes once. “Very well done, sir.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t looking for her approval. “Go away.”

“If you wish it. Only remember, you’re no better than her. You’d be just as easily tempted.” She smiled and slipped away.

That night guilt weighed on my conscience, but I shoved it away. Newheart deserved whatever she got. She had chosen the wrong side and would pay dearly for it.

---

I hadn’t thought the nemesis would return for another lecture, but she did. This time she brought a friend. Another redhead, though this one carried a dangerous-looking hammer. “Hanna Brassheart,” she introduced herself, smiling in a friendly way.

I glanced from her to Newheart, wondering what the two had planned. Something bad, no doubt. Still, this Brassheart was a potential customer. “What can I do for you ladies?” I inquired, putting on my salesman act.

“I’d like to know whether you sell to both the Resistance and the Empire,” Brassheart replied.

I shrugged. “You could say that.”

“Why? Do your loyalties lie with the Empire? You don’t seem to be sympathetic toward the Resistance.”

This lady wasn’t playing games. I narrowed my eyes, the mask starting to slip. “Where did you hear that?”

Newheart raised her hand meekly. She was just a ghost in the background, looking very small and pale. “I told her.”

Brassheart jumped back in, not giving me time to reply. “I’ve also heard that you were loyal to the Empire at one time. How can you sell to both sides?”

Well, the best way to make money was to fuel both sides of a war. I couldn’t tell them that, though. Time to play the innocent routine. “Look, I’m just trying to get by. I sell my products to anyone who will buy them, and those might happen to be Resistance folk or Imperial officials. I don’t discriminate.”

“So you have loyalty to neither side?”

“I’m not answering that.” I glanced past her at Newheart. “Did you bring your friend to hide behind, Newheart?”

She bristled, giving me a very dark look. “No. I brought her to receive answers.”

“Well, you aren’t getting any. There’s no use trying to gang up on me.” I reached for the shutters on either side of the window. “If you’ll excuse me, it’s about time for my afternoon nap. Goodbye.”

---

I worked hard to keep the business afloat, pouring everything I had into my work. Over the next few weeks I met many other annoying people, but none who recognized me. My fear that Newheart would somehow bring the Empire down on top of me was relieved, at least for the moment.

One morning, I woke up expecting another normal day. I ate breakfast, prepared my merchandise for sale, and decided to step outside for some fresh air. As I opened the door, I discovered something strange. A small person was curled up there, either dead or sleeping soundly. Just like that, the pleasant monotony of life was broken.

“Hello? Are you alive?” I asked, prodding the person with my shoe.

She moaned and dragged herself upright. In the early morning light, I recognized her as Ivy. She said nothing, only stared straight down at her hands.

I tried again. “What are you doing here?”

“I can’t see,” she whispered, opening and closing her tiny fists. When she looked up, I drew in a sharp breath. Her automaton eyes no longer glowed.

“What happened?”

She hunched over, cradling her head in her hands. “My eyes are broken. I’ve had them since I was a baby.”

I shook my head slowly. “What do you expect me to do?”

“Please, sir. You have to help me. I haven’t anywhere else to go.” Her shoulders shook with sobs, but no tears came from those gray, lifeless eyes.

I couldn’t do anything. I wasn’t a doctor, and I wouldn’t be responsible to pay for a doctor. Maybe the Resistance had doctors who would help Ivy free of charge, but I wasn’t about to find out.

I started to close the door, but her hand shot out and stopped me. “Please don’t, Zaiden Darkmere. I’m scared.”

She knew my name. She could get me in a heap of trouble. I glared at the sky, regretting everything. “Fine. I’ll take you to someone who will help.”

Ivy took firm hold of my hand as I led her through the silent streets. Every step took us closer to the Newheart Tea Emporium. Newheart could deal with this problem far better than I could. I told Ivy to wait in the shop’s doorway until the owner found her, then headed back to my wagon.

“Hey!” a voice called out.

I stopped, glancing over my shoulder. Newheart was leaning out from her shop’s upper story window, glaring at me. I turned away and took another step. Something hit the back of my head, bouncing off onto the ground. I yelped and stumbled forward. When I looked at Newheart again, I saw a slingshot in her hand. She waved it threateningly. “Come back here!”

I obeyed, dragging my feet. Newheart brought Ivy and me inside her shop, which was very small and had a fireplace in one corner. I braced myself for the questions.

Newheart turned on me, planting her hands on her hips. “What are you doing here?”

“Bringing her,” I replied.

Ivy turned her face in the direction of my voice and Newheart gasped. I had to explain about Ivy’s eyes and the fog-tech in them. That last part really seemed to worry Newheart. She said she would take Ivy to the Resistance doctor immediately. When I refused her invitation to come along, she promptly evicted me from the premises.

I spent the whole day trying to forget about Ivy. Her plight kept me distracted, and my resulting bad mood scared away customers. Newheart finally came later that evening and put my curiosity to rest.

“At first Ivy wouldn’t let the doctor examine her eyes,” she began.

“Why?”

“Shh, I’m getting to that part.”

I shrugged, trying to still my fidgety hands.

“When I finally calmed her, the doctor found that the fog-tech in her prosthetic eyes has failed. Nothing can be done to repair them. They’ll need to be completely replaced. Ivy doesn’t want anything other that fog-tech put in. That’s why she resisted at first. She knew we don’t use fog and was ready to defend it.”

“So will the doctor help her?” I asked.

Newheart shook her head. “He can’t, unless Ivy agrees to have the fog-tech replaced.”

"With what?”

“Aether-tech.”

I snorted. Aether-tech was inferior to fog.

She sighed. “I know you’re skeptical, but aether is powerful. It makes machines run how they are supposed to. It can bring healing. Next time you get hurt, try pouring liquid aether on the wound.”

I waved my hand, dismissing her words as mere fantasy. “Where’s Ivy now?”

“She’s staying with me. Maybe she’ll come around eventually.”

“I wouldn’t get too optimistic.”

“Well, you never know,” she replied, forcing a smile.

I could only shake my head. Newheart was deceiving herself. Ivy would just have to learn to live in darkness. I tried to imagine how that would feel, but the closest I came was a memory of the Fogworks. No one should have to go through that. A faint hint of sympathy lodged itself in my mind, but this time I made no effort to remove it.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 16 - I Hate My Life

Something had to be done. In the weeks since Ivy appeared on my doorstep, everything had taken a turn for the worst. Life was set on throwing lemons at my face every chance it got. There wasn’t even a pinch of sugar with which to make the proverbial lemonade.

Not only was business bad, but my reputation had gone down the drain. I dared to wonder if those two things were connected somehow. What had I done to deserve this?

First a crowd of hooligans bombarded my wagon with rocks. Then someone stole a large quantity of rare mushrooms I’d gotten from the Giant Seed Forest. And besides that, none of my customers seemed to like me. They gave me false coins, occasionally threatened my life, and annoyed me to no end.

Of course, there were a few people who didn’t annoy me. I ended up hiring one of them, a guy called Jazper. His family was a little strange, but the kid himself was dependable.

One gloomy day, something terrible happened. Another person recognized me. Her name was Aislinn Mollisong, and she gave me the delightful nickname of “Friendo.” Unfortunately for me, it stuck.

From what I’d heard, Mollisong was a friend of Nikko, and Nikko was no longer with the Empire. He was one of those Resistance people now, something that disgusted me. Whenever he or Mollisong visited, I made sure to be as infuriating as possible.

The only person who I didn’t utterly scorn was Newheart. She’d made a habit of bringing me cookies. So long as she kept that up, I saw no reason to make an enemy of her. We still argued and lectured each other sometimes, and soon had an unofficial competition to see who could be the most annoying.

Once, she claimed that she didn’t hate me. I found that hard to believe and plainly told her so. She looked worried, saying she thought that I just argued for the sake of arguing and was willing to humor me. How...insulting.

“But what else am I supposed to do?” she demanded. “All you ever want to do is argue or make sarcastic comments. I was just trying to speak your language.”

I didn’t know what I wanted her to do. Being left alone made me pessimistic, but talking to her made both of us exasperated. If anything, it was a way for me to vent to someone whose opinion I didn’t care about.

But she wasn’t the worst. The kids in town liked to visit for the sole purpose of annoying me. They must have found my reactions amusing. I usually yelled and chased them away. Only on rare occasions would we have a civilized conversation.

“The kids like you because you act like them,” Newheart once explained.

I glared at the clouds in the sky, speculating whether or not it would rain. It usually did. “Nah, that can’t be it.”

"You sure?”

I thought for a moment. “I spent two years at the Academy Automicus. Can any of them say that?”

She smirked. “Experience doesn’t mean you’re grown up.”

If only she knew. I’d done more than enough growing up already and didn’t aim to continue it anytime soon. “Your point is taken. But I’m not a child.”

“I never said that. They just see you as an older friend who still has time to run around and play games with them.”

“They think I play games?”

“Well, don’t you?”

“If life was a game, I’d be losing.”

Her eyebrows raised. “Oh?”

I didn’t feel like explaining. So far she knew nothing about my excursion to the Underworld, or any of my eccentric relatives. Except my aunt, maybe. She’d met Alena before and knew the scope of her vitriol.

“What happened to you, Z?” she asked quietly.

I snorted. “Are you joking?”

“No.” Her face was deathly serious.

Shaking my head, I retreated further into the wagon. “Don’t ask me that again.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. And you’re not going to find out, no matter how many cookies you bribe me with.”

“Oh, so I can just stop bringing them?”

“Go ahead. I don’t care.”

A shadow passed over her face, and she backed away from the window. “Fine. Goodbye, Z.” She stalked away, looking like a miniature thundercloud—if thunderclouds had orange hair.

Great, now I wouldn’t get any more cookies and Newheart probably hated me. I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter. I could always make my own cookies. But I didn’t want to be on Newheart’s bad side. She could get scary sometimes.

On top of it all, the sky started pouring rain. I didn’t think it could get any worse than that, but in truth my woes had only begun. The next thing was a parking ticket, payable on demand. And the Empire demanded it now. It took the contents of my whole savings box to pay for that stupid ticket.

But it got worse. I was in danger of being jailed for tax evasion. The day after I got the notice, the local automaton patrol came for a visit. I managed to secure more time to fix everything by telling a few more lies than I was comfortable with.

I made every possible effort to keep my business alive, but it wasn’t enough. All in one day everything but my wagon was gone. What was I supposed to do next? File for bankruptcy? Move to Evergreen Meadows? Maybe I could take up farming.

I went on a walk to clear my head and came back soaking wet. (It was raining again.) The fresh air hadn’t helped at all, as I still had no idea what to do. I glared at the dreary sky. Maybe the air had been a little too fresh. “I hate my life,” I muttered, kicking the wagon wheel.

“Do you?”

I jumped, finding that Ivy was standing right behind me. “How do you keep doing that?”

She shrugged, smiling faintly. Her eyes weren’t green anymore. They glowed purple and pulsed with vibrant streams of energy.

“You gave up the fog-tech?” I asked.

“Everything is so much clearer this way. I’m not walking in a green haze.”

I crossed my arms. “What are you doing here, Ivy? Did you just come to rub it in?”

Her eyes were solemn as she shook her head. “No. And my name is Ayla now. Miss Newheart thought it would be appropriate. She has helped me very much.” She must have; Ivy’s pale hair, though wet from the rain, was combed and neatly braided.

“She wants to help you, too. I told her how you worked in the Underworld.”

I blinked slowly, unsure if I had heard her right. “You did what?”

“She asked me and I told her. She’s gone away to look at the records.”

I stumbled back against the wagon, suddenly lightheaded. I took a large gulp of air, but it didn’t help. It felt like I was drowning. “Where?”

“Evercity.”

“When?”

“Yesterday. She’ll be back today.”

I banged open the wagon door and snatched up a few items. Newheart. Newheart and her infuriating curiosity. Why couldn’t she leave well enough alone? If she had alerted the Empire to my location…I didn’t want to think about what would happen. Whatever the situation, my life would be over.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 17 - Betrayed

I took off down the road, mud squishing under each heavy footstep. My mind was racing so fast that I didn’t even think about renting a horse. I only wanted to find Newheart and stop her before she did anything. It may have been a futile hope, but it was the only thing keeping me sane.

During the trek, I gradually realized that it was near my birthday and I was about to get another terrible present. If that wasn’t proof that birthdays were cursed, I didn’t know what was. Or maybe it was just me that was cursed.

“Zaiden!”

I glanced up to see Newheart on the road ahead of me, waving her arms over her head. I picked up the pace, deciding what I could say that would leave an impact. When I was a short distance from her, close enough to speak without having to yell, I said, “Newheart! What did you do?”

She stopped, looking bewildered. “What?”

I clenched my fists. “You went to Evercity, didn’t you?” Thunder rumbled in the distance, accompanied by an increase in the storm’s fury. Rain pounded the earth in silver sheets, falling sideways as the wind picked up.

Pulling her coat tighter around her, she nodded stiffly. “I did. What are you doing out here? You’re going to catch your death of cold.”

I didn’t care if caught a cold, drowned in the mud, got struck by lightning, or met some other untimely demise. “You went to Evercity to look at my record.”

“Did Ayla tell you?”

“She told me a good many things,” I growled. “Why didn’t you just listen to me?”

“I…I’m sorry, Zaiden. I was curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, who would be me. The Empire will find me and send me to the Fogworks and it will be all your fault!”

“What?!”

I ground my teeth together. “It’s dangerous, Newheart! The Empire still wants to find me. They will find out who looked at my record, track you to No Man’s Landing, and then capture me.”

She looked stricken. “I didn’t know! Why didn’t you tell me?”

I scoffed. “Oh, come on. You’d just try to find a different way. Did it ever occur to you that I might not want anyone to know my previous circumstances? Maybe I want to forget them.”

“You can never forget. Trust me, I know,” she replied, grimacing.

“Well, can’t I live my life in peace?”

“No, you can’t. Without the Scarlet Man, you won’t ever have true peace.”

I stepped closer and lowered my voice to drive home the point. “I don’t care about the Scarlet Man. I just wanted to survive, and you’ve cost me the last shred of security I had.”

Her lip trembled, and I wondered whether those weren’t just raindrops trickling down her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

I turned away quickly. “I’ll have to go underground again. Hopefully I can make out it before they find me.”

“If there’s anything I can do—”

Thunder crashed directly overhead, making us both cover our ears and run for shelter. Conveniently, there was an old, rundown house a short way down the path. In the dry spot under the stonework, we sat as far away from each other as possible. That decreased the risk of both of us getting electrocuted, after all.

I blew on my icy fingers, trying to warm them. “Why hasn’t the Empire come after you before now?”

“I’m with the Resistance.”

“And that somehow offers protection?”

She nodded slowly.

“But at a price.” I paused to see if she would jump in with some remarkable insight. She just kept shivering. “The Empire will crush the Resistance, you just wait and see. I tried to warn you and Danria, but it didn’t work. One of you died, the other joined the enemy.”

“I’ve made my choice and am willing to endure whatever may come—even if it’s getting lectured by you in the middle of a monsoon.”

“I thought you were humoring me.”

She gave an airy laugh. “No, when you start to scold instead of debate, that’s where I draw the line.”

I wouldn’t have called it scolding, per se. More like…condemning. Now that I thought about it, I might have gotten a little overzealous. Frowning, I kept an eye on the road through the open doorway.

“Why do you give such loyalty to the people who controlled your life?”

I glanced quickly at Newheart, wondering how much she knew. “I don’t give any loyalty to any of them. I just know the winning side.”

“You know the Empire because you spent your life under its hand. You haven’t even seen what the Resistance can do.”

She made a point, not that it would change my mind. I much preferred to follow what I already knew. It was easier that way.

“Would you rather continue in ignorance or learn the whole story and judge the truth for yourself?” she asked.

I scowled. “I already know the truth.”

Newheart’s sharp gaze bored into me. “But I could also claim that I know the truth. If there’s only one authentic truth, how can both of us claim to have it?”

“It’s simple; you’re wrong and I’m right. That’s the end of it.”

She closed her eyes. “What if you’ve been believing a lie?”

“Ignorance is bliss.”

“Not if it’s something that will kill you.”

“Just let me have my opinion and I’ll let you have yours. Agree to disagree and that sort of thing.”

“I only try to change your mind because I care.”

That was a new one. I shook my head to deter Newheart from any further attempts.

The storm kept on for what seemed like hours. I was already starting to feel hungry when the sun parted the clouds and cast a rainbow across the sky. Even though it was still drizzling, Newheart stepped out to admire it. I started off down the road without her. She didn’t try to catch up. Soon she was nothing more than a speck in the distance. Time was running out quickly, like the sand in an hourglass. I had to get to my wagon, scrape up enough funds for a horse, and hightail it out of town before anyone caught me.

When I came to the wagon, I found an official-looking paper tacked on the door. Another parking ticket? Nope. I had just received a notice for a court hearing. Apparently I was suspected of selling illegal goods and faced imprisonment if convicted. Crumpling the note in my hand, I didn’t hear the footsteps coming up behind me.

“Zaiden Darkmere?” a smooth voice asked.

I spun around to face a man in an Autofficer’s uniform. Of all people, it was Marcus Ironscope. “Excuse me, sir?”

He gave a sour smile. “Don’t try that trick, and don’t run. You’re completely surrounded. Surrender any weapons you may have and come with me.”

I obeyed. A ring of automatons now surrounded the wagon. Beyond them I saw Newheart and Ivy watching. The redhead’s face was more pale than usual, though she still looked ready to tear the head off the nearest automaton. Ivy looked frightened and was trying to pull Newheart away from the scene.

Anger rose up inside me, filling my heart and darkening my vision. I’d been betrayed. Unwittingly, yes, but still betrayed.

I almost wished the Autofficer would arrest Newheart and Ivy, too. But no. They hadn’t meant to cause this. If I incriminated them, they would never forgive me. Besides, it might be more useful to have them on the outside.

Marcus and his metal menaces loaded me onto a prison cart. We were going to Evercity. I spent the trip brainstorming a few wild escape plans. Since I had no hopes of being rescued, I would have to rescue myself. It was the only hope I had left.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 18 - Shadows of the Past

There was nothing worse than being alone in a dark place. A shiver crawled up my arms like the feathery legs of a spider. The air was heavy and reeked of darkness and decay. I could almost feel it pressing down on me. How had I gotten here? And where was here? All this fog made it hard to tell. A fragment of memory flickered like a dying ember, trying vainly to hold onto life. An overcast sky. Rain pouring down in heavy sheets. In the heavy downpour I saw the face of a familiar redhead. Her eyes were glazed and held the eerie glow of fog.

“Have you had enough, Zaiden?” The voice drifted out of darkness, bringing a relief that was almost tangible. I clung to it, using it to break free of the twisted chains of memory. Emptying my lungs in the dream, I inhaled deeply in the waking world. The stench of death was still unpleasantly real.

A yellow-green light sprang out of the darkness, illuminating the pinched face of Alena Darkmere. “You have been very naughty, Zaiden.”

I could barely move. My limbs were cold and stiff. How long had I been here? Why hadn’t I escaped yet?

“Do you remember?” she asked, her voice insistent.

I groaned. “Cold…dark…”

“And what else?”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to go back to the memory.

“Tell me, Zaiden.”

A fresh wave of fog billowed toward me. One of its snakelike tendrils caressed my face, whispering indistinctly. It willed me to speak. To remember. I focused on the vision. Again I saw the pale face and luminous green eyes that reminded me of Ivy. Hopeless. No use resisting. It was all over now.

The light slowly faded, but that wasn’t the end. A single vibrant spark, different than before, shone forth. It brought the dead back to life. Newheart.

My eyes snapped open and I stared at my hands. They were stained and shook visibly. Somehow, the fog was gone. “I see a dead heart receiving new life.”

“Who and when?”

I delved further into the past, searching desperately for the spark of life. I saw it in the eyes of an urchin in No Man’s Landing, a student at the Academy Automicus, a worker in the Fogworks, and a mechanic in the Underworld. Even in my childhood home, it was there. It had been all around me and I never even realized it. “Everywhere and anywhere. All the time. I never knew…” I felt numb at the realization. No, not numb. I felt dead inside. As though I was trapped in utter darkness. I could never escape these chains binding my soul.

“What do you mean, Zaiden?”

I stared blankly, wondering if Alena saw the eerie glow of her eyes reflected in mine. Or maybe I had no light at all. After all, my hope was dead. My life was broken. Despair shrouded my heart, and no one mourned its passing.

Voices blurred into dreams. Fog invaded my mind with its poisonous whispers, and the sparks of life disappeared. I let my head fall limply forward, giving in to the darkness. It just wasn’t worth fighting anymore.

---

I didn’t know how long passed until I finally became conscious of my surroundings. Had my aunt really been here, or had I dreamed about her? No. It had to be real. I was in the same cell with the same stench in the air and the same hollow feeling in my chest. Though I tried to rub the emptiness away, something deeper was missing. I realized that now.

Hunger, a separate feeling, combined with the void and made me thoroughly miserable. My clothing wasn’t damp anymore. It had been a while since the rainy day.

I stood and wandered around the dim interior of whatever cell I’d been stuffed in, waiting for the unbearable silence to be broken by another human voice. Likely they would leave me in these catacombs to rot like in that one story I’d read. The thought came as an offhand observation, nothing at all worth getting panicked about.

At last, the clank of automaton footsteps echoed down the corridor. Two Pacifiers unlocked the cell and led me out.

“Where are we going?” I asked, though I didn’t really expect an answer.

“The Darkmere family will see you.”

I stared at the automaton who had spoken, a chill creeping up my spine. No. No, it couldn’t be. I tried to pull away, but they held me firmly. At least I had time to prepare myself. My fear was overshadowed with the usual anger. It was easy to tap into. I’d kept it simmering through the long years, ready to be released whenever the need arose. And by the Engines, I needed it now.

A doorway of light appeared in the darkness, and I squinted. When my eyes finally adjusted, I stood in a large room. At the top of one wall was a row of dark windows. Nighttime.

Three people stood before me, stiff and unsmiling. First was my father, the esteemed bureaucrat Renold Darkmere. His face was just as stern as I remembered. Next was my mother, Narcissa. I didn’t have as many bad memories associated with her, but now her eyes were filled with brooding shadows. They were supposed to be blue with green streaks interwoven, but when I looked at them now, I could barely see any hint of blue.

Lastly was Aunt Alena. She displayed the least emotion of the three, and that was what unsettled me. She’d proven in the past that she could hurt me. I focused on my mother, holding the faintest hope that she, at least, would have pity on me.

“At long last, the prodigal son returns,” my father announced, his voice resonating through the empty room.

I shrugged off the automaton hand clamping my shoulder. “Returns? Is that what you call it?”

“You had better choose your words wisely, Zaiden,” my mother warned.

I looked at her again, silently pleading for help even though I hated to. My pride tried to scrape up the last of its defenses, berating me for showing any sign of weakness. It didn’t seem to realize that I was weaker now than I’d ever been before, and there was no way out this time.

My father took a pipe from his pocket and tapped the usual green powder into it. The action brought back quite a few bad memories. I suppressed a wince as he struck a match and lit the pipe. “We’ve been searching for you, Zaiden. It’s been a year since you left us. It seems you’ve been busy.” Mother handed him a folder. He flipped through it while puffing on the pipe, waiting for my response.

I didn’t even know what I could say. Sarcasm would be detrimental. Deference was humiliating. Silence could be taken as rebellion. But I had to do something. Swallowing, I forced myself to nod.

“You infiltrated the Underworld and were hired by…Ray Longcraft, wasn’t it?” He raised his eyebrows and waited again.

How in the world did he know that? “Yes…”

“You left his employment and traveled to No Man’s Landing shortly thereafter.”

I nodded again.

“And the file says you’ve been operating a small business under the pseudonym of Aiden Tincraft. You see, we’ve been following you every step of the way. We knew exactly when you entered the Underworld, and when you left Evercity. We could have brought you back, but we didn’t. Do you know why?”

I shook my head, setting my teeth together firmly.

“To prove that without the Empire, you are nothing. Alone, everything you set your hand to will end in failure. But there is still a place for you among us. You belong here, son. Don’t try to run away again.”

I stared at the ground. This couldn’t be happening. It was all just a dream. It had to be. “How did you follow me? How did you know?”

My father chuckled. “We have our ways.”

Closing my eyes, I made myself think back to the time when I found the entrance. Only, I hadn’t found it. Ivy had shown me. Ivy? My eyes snapped open. Ivy showed me the Underworld entrance. Ivy followed me out of Evercity. Ivy came with me to No Man’s Landing. Ivy’s automaton eyes had been manufactured by Fogtech Enterprises. “You used Ivy.”

He smiled darkly. “Yes, yes we did. It worked marvelously until she incurred a problem.”

“Her eyes failed,” I said, the numbness returning. “You couldn’t spy on me anymore and knew it was time to bring me back.” I could hardly believe my own words. I had never really been free. My parents still controlled me. They always had. And with a few pretty words they hoped to bring me back to the Empire. To a captivity I could never escape again.

If my capture had been planned all along, Newheart had nothing to do with it. She hadn’t betrayed me. My parents probably didn’t even know she existed, which was a great relief.

Now they had given me two options, and they clearly expected me to choose in their favor. They thought they had me under their thumb, but they didn’t know how much I’d changed. They didn’t know what I’d seen. I would rather die than go back to the Empire.

The words were on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to say them, but something held me back. What was it? I had no reason to lie. There was no way to escape this. I didn’t care what happened to me anymore, but somehow I knew I couldn’t tell them. If there was ever a time in my life to be careful, it was now.

Choose your words wisely, my mom had said. That was what I would do. “What do you want from me?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral.

My mother stepped closer, resting a light hand on my shoulder. “We want you to come back to us, Zaiden.” Her eyes had taken on the faintest hint of blue.

“Of course, we’ll give you some time to think it over,” Aunt Alena put in.

A little more time. I exhaled slowly, trying to hide my relief. Mother gave me a questioning look, but I shrugged her hand away and let the automatons take me back to the dark cell.

Now more than ever, I wished that I could forget the memories and the vast emptiness that darkened my soul. I had to find a way out.

[Zaiden_Darkmere]

Chapter 19 - Finding My Own Way

A low creaking sound roused me from sleep. I blinked drowsily at a soft light hovering in the doorway of my cell. Just another dream. But in this dream the light didn’t disappear. I crept toward it, mesmerized. It pulsed with a heartbeat rhythm, leading me out of the shadows.

I walked without feeling the ground under my feet. I saw no automatons, nor even where I was walking. I only saw the light. A dream. Just a dream. A cold breeze swept over me, and my heavy eyelids closed.

The distant rumble of thunder stabbed through my sleepiness and I woke to the patter of rain on a leaf canopy. Mist rose from the ground, chilling me to the bone. I stared around, wondering how on earth I’d gotten here.

As I brushed aside the leaves overhead, a cascade of rainwater sprayed my face. Spluttering, I jumped to my feet and ran blindly into a tree trunk.

I groaned and squinted at the gargantuan tree before me. I wasn’t in the middle of nowhere. I was in the Giant Seed Forest. Not that there was much of a difference between the two.

I paced a circle around the tree, deciding what to do next. I couldn’t go back to No Man’s Landing, even if I knew the way. Not Evercity, either. The forest would have to do. I could finally accomplish my lifelong dream of being a hermit. I turned up the collar of my jacket against the incessant rainfall and started walking.

I’d done a lot of walking in my life. Walking from my bedroom to the kitchen in my parents’ house growing up; walking to the Academy Automicus, then through its labyrinth of hallways; walking in the Underworld and No Man’s Landing, at least until I got a wagon to ride on. Walking was a little like growing up: undesirable but necessary. Inevitable, too, unless you had a wheelchair to coast around in. If I lived until I was old and gray, I would get a wheelchair just for the sake of not having to walk.

I kept an eye out for any sort of structure. I had to hide somewhere until my family gave up looking for me. If I hadn’t trusted Ivy, they would never have known where to find me. I should have been more careful.

What would happen to Ivy now that the fog-tech prosthetics had been replaced? She said she saw everything clearer, but would that last? And would my parents really let her go on with her life? Doubtful. She’d been their tool for a long time, perhaps ever since her eyes had been replaced. Hadn’t that been when she was a baby? I shivered. How could her guardians ever have agreed to such a dangerous procedure? It was still highly experimental and had a low chance of success. Now Fogtech Enterprises would want her back in order to correct their mistake or erase the evidence of it.

But what could I do about it? I couldn’t warn her. Newheart and the Resistance would look after her. I had to look out for myself. No one else would. I just had to stay low for a while and try to survive. But the farther I went into the forest, the more reluctant I became. The thought of being alone for the foreseeable future was unsettling. I could die out here and no one would even know.

And once I died? Well, that was the end. The hollow feeling proved as much. I had to find some way to fill it, but not with the stuff I had tried before. Knowledge and notability didn’t work. Freedom was a lie. Friendships ultimately failed. Wealth was too easily lost or stolen. What could I be missing?

Shelter, for one. I spied a low hut resting at the base of a tree and made a dash for it, hoping that no one was home. As usual, things didn’t go my way. A little old man answered my desperate pounding, muttered something in another language, and slammed the door in my face.

I tried again, scrambling for something to say. When he opened the second time, I launched into my most eloquent and persuasive speech to date. He just stared, uncomprehending, until I was out of breath, and shut the door again. I hadn’t even made it past the outline of arguments.

“This is stupid,” I muttered, walking back into the rain. “Why can’t I do something right for a change?”

No one answered.

I kept walking until nightfall. The sky kept pouring rain, so I had to take shelter beneath a rocky overhang. I didn’t get much sleep that night. Through the long hours, I was haunted by the memory of that light in my cell. Or the light in my dream. I didn’t know what was real anymore.

If the past was any indication, the light was a lie, just like everything else. It promised freedom but in the end gave me chains. Everyone knew that when light was extinguished, it left behind a darkness greater than the one it had held at bay.

I couldn't trust the light. I had to do this myself. As I watched the cloudy sunrise, I told myself I wasn’t lost. I could make it on my own, I knew it. I just had to keep walking.