by Zamil Akhtar
MIDNIGHT
“Brother, I did it! I made that job mine.” Kav had never thought himself a great conductor, but his new boss’s words played in his ears: “Creative and precise. Very unusual to see someone so young with such ability. You’ve got the job, son.”
Mezzin stopped swabbing the kitchen floor, dropped his mop, and gave his brother a one-armed hug. “You’re awesome, bro.”
“First task’s some kind of construction, of all places, at the Palace.”
Sons of the Deep wanted insiders in the Palace. Perfect place for smuggling and theft. Get people in, and those Sons could make some money on the side.
“You visit the hospital today?” Kav asked.
Mezzin picked up his mop, leaned on it. “The doc said...they gotta send Mam to Hyseria to be cured. The Hayats are gonna cover it.”
“Oh, I guess that’s—”
“They get a little wet, and think they’re doing us a favor,” Mezzin said. “Isn’t that what you said? If only they’d helped her when she needed it. If only—”
“Forget them Hayats! We gotta support each other. You and me and Mam — is all that matters right now.”
“Yeah bro, it’s just...it ain’t right.”
“Right? When did right ever count? Listen, you and your mop gonna spend too much time thinking. Instead, go out and look for work. You’ll get something, I’m sure of it.” But who would ever hire a cripple?
First day on the job, a cool sun blew a breeze on Kerb. Kav went to the Hayat Palace with the rest of the construction team. While walking through the central plaza, he gawked at the architecture. Bricks of gold and emerald adorned the towers at each corner, and overhead domes blazed with Shirmian black marble. Swarms of Keldanese faces went to and fro in labor.
“First, we have to dig in order to set the foundation,” the boss said after the team assembled. He wore a bucket-like helmet on his head like a crown. “Not what you were all hired for, but it’s the first step!”
Kav and team grabbed shovels and dug, heaving into the ground, then tossing the dirt. One, two, three hours of intense digging. Followed by intense tiredness. Sticky heat replaced the crisp day. Kav wanted something to drink, so bad. Just a sip of auntie’s lemonade would be heaven.
Leaning on his shovel, he looked for relief. It came to him, because that’s when he saw her: the Hayat girl.
She was kneeling in dirt across the lawn. Her hands in the dirt, she planted little mounds. She’s gardening. Her naked knees kept Kav staring. Dirt speckled her dress and legs. He wanted to rub that dirt on her thighs, then pour water over her to make her pure again.
That day, weeks ago, she had whispered it to him. Her name. And now watching her put seeds in the earth, he craved her frequency.
Layla, was it. Well, I’ve never backed down from a challenge.
Kav stared long enough to get his fill of her pretty face. Sweat made it glaze, and her hair was the color of a calm sun.
And that was when, Kav was sure, he fell in love.
Today, Mezzin looked new as he walked out the smoky hole he tore in the cave’s metal door. His prosthetic arm was no longer a chaotic metal mesh; instead, it possessed a deadly order. His arm is a sword. He was out of place on this pier, in this cave, in the world and the universe itself. A glow surrounded his body, though his face was dark.
Fuck what he looks like, this is the end of his road.
Kav had no weapon. Mezzin approached. Their stares locked.
“You there, said you’re in my unit?” Mezzin looked straight through him.
Has he lost his eyesight?
“Speak up, junior,” Mezzin said, “we’re not taking prisoners today.”
Let me jolt your memory. “We’ve known each other a long time, brother. Back from the Kerb days, how could you forget?”
“Kerb? Got ya. A survivor, eh? Good to know. Now pick up a weapon ‘cause we’re going after the big boss in the sky.”
Mezzin walked out the exploded metal door with his posse, leaving Kav to shiver in his thoughts.
Why...why doesn’t he recognize me!?
Are they gone? Saina messaged.
Kav picked up a TEX scimitar off a dead officer, caressed the bloody edge.
Why doesn’t that piece of shit recognize my face!?
He climbed out the metal door to the daylight of the Settlement. Saina caught up.
She clung to his arm. “Stop! Let’s go back to the boat, and sail to Necia, to Kaysr, where it’s peaceful.” She squeezed tight. A warm squeeze. “Kav?”
He jostled his arm out of her hold and treaded on.
Mezzin marched onward in the distance. The world burned. Crumbled buildings lined the streets. A thick haze made everything murky, and as Kav chased his brother, the litter of dead men became clearer. Shirmian bodies were piled on a cart like mashed potato. So much flesh, charred and rotten, smelling of burnt sewage.
Kav almost collided with a troop of Sons escorting surrendered TEX soldiers. Bursting heartbeats and burning blood energized him.
And then a levship died in the sky. It broke into pieces, all on fire, and crashed upon several houses. Walls exploded; chunks of marble and cement flew everywhere. Kav dodged, falling to his side. Saina did the same.
“Kav, come back! I won’t leave without you!” She crawled, coughing. Soot stained her face and clothes.
But Kav couldn’t miss this chance. He got up and checked spectrum. A white dot swirled with light near the tower: Mezzin.
The TEX Tower stood radiant just in front. Kav pushed through the army of his “brothers” until he saw the man he sought.
“We’re going in. Taking the Tower will make Hyseria ours,” Mezzin proclaimed to those around him. “We will win.”
Kav made eye contact. Mezzin swerved his eyes away.
Don’t you see who I am!?
Pushing through, he closed in on Mezzin. A white glow surrounded the man. Like a maskless Magus.
Kav got right into his ear. “So, Mezzy, how’s your Mam? She walking again?”
Anger flared in Mezzin’s eyes. “You say something about my mother? I don’t want to kill a brother today, so you better answer straight.”
“I’ll give it to you straight as a—”
That’s when it happened. Thunder roared one and a thousand times. A beam of blue fired off the tower. It broke the sky and surged into the sea, at the horizon where the Barrier stood.
The world became blue. And then white. A collective gasp followed. In the distance, something changed. The whirling red wall, the Barrier of Iskander, withered. It dissolved into the sea until there was no red at the horizon, and only the black sky beyond.
That color...
Kav released a spectrum ping, focusing on the Tower. Something pinged back: a blue scream, as if that beam of blue was its pain releasing. Warm and sad, a river crying into the sea.
Her light. Layla?
“Listen up, sons of Keldan!” Mezzin proclaimed. “Inspiration has come to me. What just happened is a trick to make you fear. Don’t let their weapons bring you to fear them. They’re weak at heart! Once we take the Tower, we gain our freedom. All the courageous will come with me!”
The blue ping was unrelenting, swimming on Kav’s spectrum, dripping onto his mind. Is this really her, or another ghost?
Just like the ghost on the CAL-409. What he did for that ghost.
And the ghost on the monstrous ship. What he did for that one too.
Mezzin and his troops poured into the mouth of the Tower. Kav gazed at its tip. Steel and glass, a dagger sundering cotton clouds. Up there, whoever it is...
Years ago, a day after he got a job at the Hayat Palace, a relieved Kav learned there would be no more shoveling. Instead, they would work with cement, wood planks, and marble bricks.
“Time to set the foundation,” the boss said in his bucket-like helmet. “You all should know how this works. I’ll be the prime conductor, and we’re gonna do this professionally.”
&n
bsp; A wire was passed around for everyone to hold, which the boss connected to his aperture. “Close your eyes! I want all your energy!”
Kav did. He channeled the sun, purifying the light with his will. It streamed into the wire, colliding with the other wills, directed by the will of the prime conductor. Now the light was being sucked from him, flowing out of him like blood. It was hard to concentrate, to remain steady, but he bit onto his will and forced himself to.
Dg-dg-dg-dg. The foundation coming together sounded like bricks raining.
“And we’re done!”
Kav opened his eyes. There it was, a foundation in the ground, about fifteen feet squared.
What a marvel.
He turned his attention to the little garden at the rim of the lawn. Nothing grew there. Yet.
Can’t wait ‘till she comes out and finds my surprise...
“Alright, good job with the foundation. Now let me tell you a little more about what we’ll be building here. Blah blah blah...” Kav didn’t care what his boss was saying, because she came out a glass door beneath one of the arches.
Doves fluttered through him as she put her knees on the dirt to check her seedlings. She’s got to find it. What’ll she think when she sees it?
She picked it up, a little piece of paper. And she opened it, and stared at it, and then put it in her dress pocket.
Yesss, I can’t wait! When’s she gonna message me?
The doves circled his heart, tickling his chest. And somehow they got into his feet and hands, and he couldn’t control his expectation.
Their next task was to build the base by layering marble bricks and buttering on cement. That creamy cement sure smelled good. Kav inhaled as much as he could while piling the bricks on, following the others like an automaton.
An hour passed; she had gone inside. When’s she gonna do this? Ain’t she curious?
Two hours, and his mind became static while layering. Three, four, five, and the boss called the day over.
Is she just gonna keep me hanging?
Through the glittering Hayat gate, out the Shirmian quarter, and back to the slums. It was a long and empty walk. At home, Mezzin was changing into his boxers as Kav entered.
“You get anywhere today?” Kav asked.
“Nah...cleaned up a bit is all. Hey, you don’t look so good. What happened?”
Kav went to their bucket and began washing. “You know, just tired. Boss overworked us today.”
“Please, I know when you’re tired, and I know when you’re miffed ‘cause you didn’t get what you want,” Mezzin said. “You’re keeping something from me. I thought we were bosom brothers?”
Kav rinsed water onto his hair and face, letting it cool his pores. “Don’t ever say that again, man.”
“Say what?”
“Bosom brothers — you get sliced for saying shit like that.”
“You know it’s true, so tell your bosom brother what’s wrong.”
Onto the arms, he wiped the soot off. “Look, it just started yesterday, aright? Don’t think I’ve been holding out. You know how I am.” So Kav told him everything while scrubbing his feet.
“So you’re actually gonna do it?”
“She’s all hot in that garden, you know.”
Mezzin sat against the wall, shook his head. “There are a lot of hot girls, you want a Shirmian one. And what’s more, you want a rich one. And what’s more, you want an impossible one.”
Kav jumped in bed and cocooned in his sheets. “You’re right, but only about the last part.”
“How you gonna take it without asking?”
“Without asking?”
“I mean, you just want some action, right?”
“Obviously,” Kav said.
“She does deserve it.”
Sleep took him that moment.
And then he opened his eyes and was somewhere else: floating amid a flurry of fireflies. They carried him through heaven’s ocean on a stream of sparkling dust.
“Whoah...”
He landed on a planet, in a garden, beneath a layered and dark sky. In this place, there was a tree, and its branches were clouds and its trunk another planet. Fireflies lived on it, lighting the way.
“What an incredible dream.”
“Isn’t it?” A girl’s voice.
Kav turned around. It was her, the Hayat girl. She was like another flower in the garden, around which pulsed a pure blue light. And her hair, blue like petals of deep sky.
“Never thought I had much of an imagination,” Kav said, “but thank Nur for it, since it’s made you...with weird hair, but I’m okay with that.”
She giggled. “This isn’t your imagination. It’s mine.”
“Whatever, let’s get down to business.”
He strutted toward her. She jumped back onto a branch. Then the world flipped, as if gravity pulled in another direction. Kav fell off the earth.
In free fall, the fireflies’ whirl seemed like pillars of light. Kav landed in a field of crystal flowers. He got back onto his feet and looked up to find her. Now, that tree protruded sideways out of a floating garden in the sky.
“You haven’t even told me your name. So, what is it?” Behind him. The blue-haired girl stood with pink cheeks.
“You know, this is one of those too real feeling dreams,” Kav said. “And don’t play with me, you’re my imagination, you know my name.”
“Okay...I’ll just call you ‘construction guy’ then.”
Kav picked up a flower; it really was crystal. Heavy and delicate. “Call me what you want, but can you stop running away?”
“We’re not going to do that, okay?”
“That ain’t fair. This is my dream!”
“No!” she said.
“Well, what do you want then?”
“You left that paper with your frequency. No one’s ever been so bold. So you tell me, what do you want?”
“You know what I want!”
“Is that really all you want?”
There was a fragrance here Kav had never enjoyed: honey scented with rosewater. It came from a river, and the river was filled with glitter, and it descended from clouds which puffed off branches of that tree. It streamed to his feet as the blue-haired girl stood before him, the brightest thing in this world.
“You’re so damn hot, what else could I want with you?”
She folded her arms and bit her lip. “Fair enough. Good night then, construction guy.”
Zauri felt herself moving up. She woke on a hospital bed, her body heavy, her throat sore. She listened to the people around her.
“This is a galling catastrophe.” Lacan’s voice. “The girl eviscerated seventeen miles of Wall! Seventeen miles! The limiter was supposed to ensure enough energy only for a small hole.”
The moving stopped. Her ribs felt strained, as if they would snap at the lightest touch. And her arms, were they even there? Her legs? Numb or gone.
The room began moving down. Zauri opened her eyes, relieved to see her arms by her side and the outline of her legs covered by sheets.
“It’s not her fault your limiter broke.” Merv’s voice pulsed tremors through her. He came into her field of vision, looking down upon her. “Zauri, how’re you feeling?”
Zauri couldn’t move her tongue.
“It shouldn’t even be possible!” Lacan said. “Anyway, the Keldanese are coming. Getting out of this tower unscathed will be a challenge.”
Lacan had lied too. To gain her trust, to make her do what he wanted. Nothing but liars with false promises.
The Blue Mask, with its eyeless sockets, stood at her side. Something was different about him. He was human. The mask no longer burned like a blue fire; rather, it crumbled like porcelain. The masked man wore a brown robe with blood gushing from a wound in his stomach.
He coughed. Coughed blood onto his hands.
“Asha,” Lacan said, “soon you may need a hospital bed too.”
Asha turned to Merv. “You’re brother
, had it been his day, would have ended me.”
“Why isn’t your wound closing?” Lacan asked.
“It will, watch.”
The masked man turned to the window. Something didn’t make sense. The sky was becoming a murky red. Like the arrival of Midnight. Wait...
Zauri remembered. Her fire blew into the Whirling Wall, and as she fainted, she watched it wither into the sea.
A blue fire draped the face of the masked man. It burnt the porcelain, becoming a new mask. He stood still, as if bracing for his own resurrection. “For the first time, the sun sets on Eden,” he said. “But my sun is yet to set. This should be fun.”
The floor moved up as twenty Keldanese guerillas spread around. Kav stood in the corner and watched Mezzin grip the control conduit. On spectrum, Layla’s blue flare faded.
“I’ve been inspired! The enemy is moving down, and we’re going to halt them.” Mezzin said. “That will open all of Keldan to us!”
His men cheered, brandishing their blades. Kav noticed someone odd: a frail boy, wearing an oversized flak-jacket and dirty knitted-hat. He raised his weapon in unison with the others. Almarian, with red eyes.
Saina?
Quite the disguise. There’s gonna be a fight...what if she gets hurt?
She noticed him looking at her and approached slowly.
“You shouldn’t have come with me,” Kav said.
“Where the hell else am I supposed to go?”
“Where you won’t get killed.”
“There any place like that left?”
They were interrupted by another proclamation. “Sons! I’ve received inspiration. In a few minutes, we will arrive on the fifty-fourth floor. I’ll stop our enemies’ elevator there too, and then we’ll fight our final battle! Against the very leader of oppression!”
Everyone cheered and raised their blades. Saina imitated, like a little Son.
Then she tugged at Kav’s shirt. “Just who’s ‘inspiring’ this guy?”
“I’m gonna inspire him to a world of pain.”
Don’t say stuff like that out loud. Saina messaged. Did he do something to you? Is that why you’re so intent on this?
The blue phantom was in flight, spreading faint light across Kav’s inner map. The fading light unnerved him, like fleeting love, like the thought of not having her the first time he wanted her.
