[Excerpt] [Fiction] [Green Ruins & Shallow Blues] [Prologue]

(C) 2023 2024 Kyrinn S. Eis
All  Rights Reserved Worldwide

BOOK II: FRUITFUL
PROLOGUE

At ground level, the towers of Alnavranath were much more impressive. Their tops were like stars which hovered over the ground fog which otherwise blanketed the first twenty paces of buildings. This accounted for the majority of those structures at the outskirts, abutting the cliff face. Runoff had carved deep channels of now calcified, or iced-over runnels tens or hundreds of paces deep.

zZ"Careful, those calve off and anybody lost down one is ever seen again; that water itself is a death sentence."Zz

Mawzer knew this approach, and still, she had to study the lay of the land as it was now, and for the fog. Makeshift foot bridges were dotted along the way, and with so many channels to cross, the process was time consuming. Down here, it was easily twice as cold as on the plateau which overlooked Alnavranath. As they entered the slums, Sasko was taken aback by the number of iced-over dead. Automatons, 'bots, were busy hauling them off to other bots which functioned as a combination conveyor belt and reclamation unit. The sound was duplicated block after block. Sasko felt eyes upon him, strange widely-spaced luminous gold, eyes peered at him from just over the bottom of a domicile's window, until a taller whatever called the little one away and the eyes disappeared. The dead, too, were mostly non-human, and those which most appeared humanlike were still decidedly different in significant ways: scales, webbed digits, black domed eyes, misplaced facial features, and more radical departures, still. Feminine faces with black lips who shared a water pipe bit and sidled each other to incite lasciviousness looked on alluringly, but said nothing directly to Sasko, who then felt Zandig in his mind. It was just a signal to go to the 'com-unit'

zZ"I imagine they are the same everywhere, no?"Zz
-- zZ"Those gentlemen were inviting you to partake in a gambling match; so, no. Keep out of trouble by assuming the worst, and for stars'sake, keep your blaster handy."Zz Sound advice anywhere, really.

Mawzer led him through the pale wall of nothingness via the amber lantern, but the further on they pressed, other lights began to compete in the white. It was so cold that if he were to stop moving, he could had easily fallen asleep on his feet. Once a second, brighter, amber lantern entered his field of vision, Sasko charged where last he knew Mawzer to be, and was relieved to see her puzzled expression grace her face. He took her arm in his, and she laughed. She led him faster, now, and handed him the lantern to hold. In short order, the two emerged into a bustling open air market of colourful lights, strange sounds, and voids in the fog where machines spun wildly in the air. Bots were everywhere. Some sold items from clear cloches atop them, others acted as hawkers to their masters' wares, still others congregated in rows three deep with cables which strobed in scintillating rainbowed colours as they seemingly drank the light from buildings which hosted these banks of ...power-troughs... for lack of a better word. Sasko felt the bumpkin of highest order here in this dazzling display of foreign civilisation.  Further, he knew from the ridge, how small this market must be in comparison to the ones he could see from that distance; this a kiosk to those distant port cities, by way of example.

zZ"C'mon. We're here to secure a flop, a--" He nodded. Zandig smiled, yes, he also was a crook... Her smile widened beyond the confines of her mask, and he nodded again; his eyes beckoned for the entrance of a drinking establishment, and she led the way.

There was a foyer of sorts, blood and godsknew what else-stained, and no one left their coats there. It was merely cold inside, rather than frigid. Everyone wearing a coat was either Human-looking, or something as- or more delicate. Life forms with higher tolerance were often, but not always, furred creatures. The noise was loud and indistinct, but not as loud as he had thought, given the sheer number of patrons. Areas of the establishment served different aims, and clientele; dancers and oh--...

Sasko looked to stay near Mawzer, who had already pushed her way two deep into the queue for drinks from the living tender, while bots dispensed custom drinks all about the place. Some flew along seemingly prescribed routes, but others were walkers rather than rollers, and one which he saw had a mostly human appearance, if tall -- most of that being legs -- and a feminine face with a metallic shimmering makeup-like paint-job.
-- zZ"What do you wish to drink, human?"Zz
"Crisp ellap ale, or Redjack."

The machine looked on and then replied with a drink which rotated out on a disc from its central mass. It was in a ceramic-looking container, tapered, roughly hourglass-shaped. He took it and sniffed. It was sweet, but not too sweet, with spices. He sipped. Ah. Amazing; some sort of blend between the two; a warm spiced cider with tropical notes and something else, something incongruous -- it made him think of the colour blue, and of sweet effervescent acid and coldness.

"Oh! I like this very much. What is it called for for future ...reference?"
-- "A mug of Morgenstern. That will be--"
--- "On my tab; here, scan:" Zander, her cheeks already red and her eyes a bit unfocused, happy.
-- "My pleasure serving you." The thing walked away in such a fashion as to never rise or lower, and seemed incredibly stable.

"What could one of those do on the battlefield, I wonder?"

Mawzer's expression visibly saddened, she looked as if she would cry.

"Oh, no. I'm sorry Zandig. Mawzer, oh..." Sasko held up his drink and welcomed her into his embrace, which she accepted.
-- $"...so many dead...so many..."$

Sasko found an unoccupied seat, and upon her sitting there at his guidance, another was freed up, which he then sat. She mumbled incoherently, and between sniffles, drank her ruby-red elixir, the scent of which was like that of rosehip and jewelellap and what he imagined the aroma of the reddest of red wines must be like. As she lowered it to unsafe keel, Sasko took it from her and sniffed-, and then, sipped it. His mouth was aflame, and he had visions of forge-salamanders and penitent spirits amid flames of purification, while over and above that sea of fire was a storm-wracked slate-blue sea with a ship in process of wreck. As Sasko exhaled, he imagined that he saw green and yellow girls with glassy wings and scaled tunics fly from his mouth in a trail of glitter. He laughed and cried, and remembered his beloved dead: [rescinded] among them. He looked about him at all the partakers, and understood that these were more than mere draughts of alcohol; these drinkers had come to live a different life while here and able to pay for the experience --experiences. What would the effects be of a mixture of potions? He thought better of it, and still drank deeply of his Morgenstern. Again, the ship appeared in his vision, and the waves quenched both the heat in his mouth, and the image of the flames. The ship was wracked, but the young blonde tied to the prow sang such a beautiful song that the sea, although still terrible, calmed directly before the craft. His vision gained a moving focus which drew closer and closer to her face; her beauteous face. It was then that she took on more androgyne features and he saw that she held onto straps, rather than be bound by them. The face was more that of a beautiful man with hair of golden flames. Hys voice was like a choir accompanied by a band of players all in precise unison; and yet, there was some sense of melancholy and dissonance, as if each stanza sung was just slightly precipitous and rushed, as if spoken before silence robbed the figure its voice, forever. Hir eyes of black fell upon Sasko and the sad smile turned wicked--

"Are you alright to walk? Sasko? Are you with me?"

Sasko could still smell the salt air, felt the waves; vomited and again, and just when he thought it over, a third time. Something red slithered off and flew away; it trailed smoke and chittered as it went.
-- "Oh gods! Get me out of here and to a meal and a bed. -- My head. My head!"

Mawzer empathised, and lugged him on her shoulder. Many others were in the same condition, and as new patrons entered, just as they had, bots cleaned the floors, towed away unclaimed unconscious or dead, and otherwise maintained the place in good order.

The cold woke him with a fright, but Sasko nodded in thanks. This was real. The bitter cold was real; it had been before he had entered that place, and it was here again, still. He nodded again and sobered more with each step.

zZ"What was that place?"Zz
-- zZ"Just another bar, why?'Zz

Sasko almost swore-off drink, but knew that would be a lie; he thought back to the figure on the ship and hir black eyes...
'Dabil Arasoya, temper me that I may master my desires.'

Mawzer looked on at him, frowned and then smiled sadly, and then nodded.

It was early light, and the fog was only more opaque for it. Sounds of industry which had been there all the time, droned on louder in his overhung brain. Sasko couldn't shake the singer's face, hir voice, the song out of time, not tune, hir eyes. He peered in deeper and felt lust and longing and love of life; those eyes of black... He almost screamed aloud as he remembered that what most bothered him was that of his reflection in those glossy orbs of jet.

Mawzer stopped, held him tight, bent him over as if he were to again vomit, but all he did was sigh and whine as he panted and sought to catch his breath. He knew that there was no time to waste, none at all.

"Let's be about our business -- we're on a tight schedule."

Zandig was about to try and calm him, but thought better of it: his emotions were of regulated panic; his concern about the time he had left to make something of his life; his one life.

All about them, thousands milled. Each block and again, over and over, as the city spread out to cover the horizon, millions and millions of lives ticked and whirred and clattered and hummed. Each but a lit match in the unconquerable darkness...