Gregory Grey and the Fugitive in Helika

by Stanzin

CHAPTER 8.2

  Lesley's Diary - Conspiracy - July 20, 1909

  I’ve been awake here in the Falstead Refugee camp a week, and it is the most suspicious place I’ve ever seen.

  Everyone says the camp will make aid and rehabilitation easier, but that’s not the whole picture, and here is why I think so:

  1.

  Helika is an Observant country, yet almost every refugee in here is Reflective. Winnie said it’s because Falstead is at the meeting of four different valleys that have more Reflectives than anywhere else in Helika. That’s NOT the same as saying most of the people in those Valleys were Reflectives! Helika BARELY had Reflectives to begin with. The Reflectives outnumber the Observants in the by twenty-to-one, and outside, I bet that ratio is inverse – it’s like they’re being herded!

  2.

  Reflectives are pouring into the camp even now! It’s been nearly two weeks since the quake! Where were they all this time? I can question because I have a position of advantage – I can read and write! I’ve never met so many people who could not, and they all think their Hairless Wonder (as they’ve taken to calling me) is rather clever because she can. I’ve been at it for long enough now that I can tell you this – these people are coming in from far, far away.

  3.

  We’re not allowed magic anymore. The Reflectives here are mostly the farming kind, so it’s not like most of them knew magic in the first place. Even so, the only people allowed to keep their instruments are village Elders – mayors and suchlike. Oh, sorry. Elders and every bleeding Observant, whether guard or refugee. Can you believe they actually gave the official reason as, and I’m paraphrasing here, “the greater number of Reflective refugee mages could spell disaster in the event of another Voidmark”? Everyone’s grumbling about it, but quietly. We get along well enough with the Observant… because they have their own section of camp that we aren’t allowed into.

  4.

  Speaking of the guards… we have full battalion of Imperial Whites here! Why do they need one thousand Spooks to guard unarmed refugees? Spooks don’t talk to us by the way. They speak to official representatives, who tell us the important matters. I thought it was some kind of dumb religious pride, but nope. It’s freaking policy – the Spooks aren’t allowed to talk to us. There’s to be no fraternisation between the guards and the prisoners whatsoever. Yes, prisoners, because that’s what it feels like. The camp has high wooden fortifications. I’ve no idea what the other side looks like.

  5.

  They’re confiscating Reflective stuff. Every Reflective that comes in with so much as a bag of clothes has to declare it and put it in the common warehouse. Obviously, the Observants have to do no such thing. Upon entering the camp, Reflectives are handed out three sets of clothes, linen, standard shoes, and some toiletries… and that’s all they’re allowed to have. The reasoning? It won’t do to “foster envy among the less privileged in the camp.”

  6.

  I’m not allowed to talk to the Incoming. A Spook (Riordan) is always hovering over me, and the few times I tried to make conversation beyond the filling up of forms, he barks, “No talking!” He sounds like a cockroach might. They’ve got another girl who DOES talk to the incoming – Angie. Angie feeds the incoming the exact same spiel every time – that the camp is God’s gift to Reflectives. I think this is called ‘propaganda’. A Spook’s always watching her too, and she never goes off script. It’s really creepy.

  7.

  Thankfully, the Incoming are eager to chatter, and my Spook can’t always shut them down. Their reason for fleeing to camp? Bandits. Almost a third say they can’t deal with bandits and thieves in the night anymore. I understand that the Voidmark stirred up unsavouries here and there, but to hear them talk, there’s an entire nation of bandits in these hills. Where did all these bandits come from? And why in the world would rovers target Helikan Reflectives? They aren’t even rich! They’ve never been rich. They’ve only got one thing – land. Bandits can’t carry land away; they’ve no use for it. You know who DOES have use for land? A country full of Observants who don’t think Reflectives belong here in the first place. Aren’t the bandits being just so wonderfully convenient?

  8.

  The Helikan Emperor has declared a National State of Emergency, and now has all the discretionary administrative power that goes with it. It’s the only other thing the incoming mention other than bandits. In other words, Helika is effectively cut-off from the rest of the outside world. Wards have been put up around the country’s borders, around every city and town and village, just like here at camp.

  If I could, I’d make a wager here, but there’s no one to make it with, so I’ll just make the bet all by my lonesome:

  Helika is using the Voidmark as an excuse to dispossess the Reflectives of their home, and when they’ve taken over everything, they’re going to foist the Reflectives off to Domremy and its sister states.

  That’s the best-case scenario.

  I don’t want to imagine worst case.