Children of the Silent Season (Heartbeat of the World Book 1)

by T. Wyse

  “It’s fine. The less of the fabric that’s scraping against my skin, the better.”

  “Oh, right, sensitive skin.” The woman gave a peek around the curtain. “Hm, is that the bigger one or the smaller?”

  “Bigger. No good?”

  “Try the smaller again. Was it too tight?” She disappeared again.

  “No, I’m just happier with the looser stuff. The chemicals and the fake fabrics really itch.”

  “Ah well, we use detergents sparingly, even before…well, before. The school was fairly well funded, so the uniforms are well made at least.”

  “Okay, I think, there.” She buttoned the new top fully. It didn’t dangle, but it did indeed itch quite a lot more. Amelie began craving that jagged wall at her back.

  “Okay, looks passable. That’s the smallest we have anyhow.” Lyssa reappeared, this time with a brown tie, a shiny metallic tip at its end. “I know this is a little odd, but you’ll understand soon enough. The Professor prefers that those staying within the walls conform to a certain unity. Boosts spirits and all that.” She made a rolling gesture, but came short of rolling her eyes.

  The socks were an immediate nightmare, closing hungry barbs around her feet, and the shoes clamped the jaws even more tightly.

  “Are there other shoes?” She desperately tried to stifle the itch but snuck a scratch of her leg with the ball of her foot.

  “Hm, they seem to fit.” Lyssa pinched the toes. “Just have to break them in I suppose.”

  With everything in place Lyssa’s head bobbed left and right, circling around Amelie, and brushed here, straightened there.

  “So, you see many people come through here?” Amelie asked, the woman circled to the front and adjusted the tie.

  “Some. Most just pass by. We do some trade, though none seem to have standards of value and whatnot. We’re working on that.”

  “But you take in some. Is that right?”

  “Just children, for the most part. All are welcome to stay at least once, more if they have something to barter. Most have somewhere they want to be anyways. We offer survival assistance to those who are deemed worthy, instruction to those willing to listen. More than we should, less than we can.”

  She gave a final overall brush down of Amelie’s new clothes. “Force of habit, but it’s nice to see someone in fresh gear.” She chuckled. “Won’t last long.”

  She led Amelie to an old adversary, and the girl looked once more at the stranger in the mirror. The thing hung on her so stiffly, the shoulders overly wide and jaggedly pointed. The cleats on the skirt, though only touching her legs lightly and sporadically, felt like knife edges resting gently on the skin.

  Still out of habit, she arched her back, squared her shoulders, and forced her eyes open, now drinking in a sad brown aura. The stranger looked right for a brief moment, until she broke down into the mad dog itching.

  “Whoa, is, are you okay?” Lyssa caught her before she toppled from having gone on one foot to have her shoe scrape against her leg.

  “F-Fine.” Amelie tugged madly at the tie, and knelt down to indulge her legs itching a moment. “It’s fine. Just, give me a sec.”

  She tore at the thing, all over, and it never relented even for a moment. Her skin sang that stinging song, and she itched the skin under the socks until her nails came up red.

  “Okay, okay. Stop. Get a hold of yourself.” Lyssa forced her to her feet and propped her arms out. “You’re just going to have to restrain yourself, I’m afraid.”

  “Okay. Okay.” Amelie repeated. She reached reflexively back to her hair tie, and found nothing but that ugly knotting.

  “Two more pieces to add. You promise to stop if I let you go?”

  “I promise.” And she was released. She feared the tears again, the watery pit in her stomach had balled to an icy cramp. Still, the sadness seemed to pass almost immediately, though the ache remained.

  “There was a hair tie, and a dress, and a shoe with me. Did you find—”

  “You’ll have to ask The Professor about that, I wasn’t the one who brought you here.” Lyssa was rummaging in a closet at the far end of the washing machines.

  “Since you don’t know anything about machines, normally we would have you work the garden. That’s what sustains us, that’s what’s important. However, since going outside is not currently possible for you…” She held up the white thing, sizing it against Amelie's standing figure. "Yes, that'll do," she concluded, adding the apron to the pajamas folded neatly on Amelie's arm. “We have a cleaning crew. It’s not glamorous or full of praise, but you will be safe doing it. I presume that is agreeable to you?”

  "Oh...yes." Amelie answered. Having some duty to pass the time was welcome. "So...are the crows...here?" She asked, the words dragging inside her mind, she really didn't want to know.

  "Oh, are they ever." The woman gave a weak whisper, then immediately changed the subject. "Now, we have few rules here, but they are reasonable ones. First: everyone needs to contribute in one way or another. We aren't, however, running a slave camp, we just want you to be useful in some manner. Do your best under Melissan, and that’s all we can ask of you.”

  “Second: Respect those in charge. In uncertain times, unity and coherence are key to maintaining our existence. This includes the burden of wearing a uniform that perhaps does not feel native to you, but trust that it is all in the interest of the greater whole. I assume that neither of these are an issue?"

  "No ma'am, and I appreciate you taking me in like this." Amelie answered.

  "Well, that's settled then." The woman said with finality, igniting the strange torch again, and killing the lights, plunging the room into blackness save for the blue glow.

  They proceeded back the way they had come, following the star lines right of the door, then turning left. There was that wall again, Kokopelli ignored it this time, apparently the novelty having worn off.

  "Why are those walls different?" She asked, not daring to touch it in fears of disturbing some kind of restful state.

  “There are many tunnels here, and there were many more before the construction. They were mostly blocked off for safety reasons. James…The Professor tells me the original structure is at least four times the size of the space we use, and it goes down more than a couple levels as well.” They passed the door on the left, which declared itself to be a storage room, the predefining word never shone into clarity in the blue haze.

  “He’s seen the tunnels, but I thought the construction was finished a long time ago?”

  “Oh yes. He has his ways.” Lyssa stopped, glancing back at Amelie. “This place is full of secrets best left unexplored. Dangerous before, even more so now.”

  They passed that second roughened wall, and the star field veered left. Amelie made an effort this time to see what the museum was. The sign was little better than before, it simply said 'North Tower Museum' before fading into the darkness.

  "What's down here?" Amelie asked finally, the oddness of having a basement museum linked to a western tower overwhelming her shyness.

  "Classrooms mostly, there are the two museums as well, a few storage rooms.” They turned right, heading back towards the stairwell.

  "The students and teachers move around down here?" Amelie asked, surprised. It was all she could do to not fall over her own feet.

  "Well it's usually brighter than this, these are just the absolute bare bone emergency lights, they never go out." Lyssa smiled, opening the door for Amelie.

  Strangely enough the stairwell door did have a locking bolt, and all of the features one would expect a door to have. They proceeded out of the starry darkness, and into the almost blinding dimness of the stairwell.

  She hadn't noticed it the first time they'd descended, but the mosaic window of multicoloured glass that stood on each of the landings was unmistakably similar to the walls of the tower. It looked completely out of place surrounded by the crude grey concrete locking it into the wall.

  “The
glass is interesting. Is it all the same?”

  “Oh?” Lyssa paused, her face radiant in a red square’s glow. “Interesting, most definitely. The glass is from the old ruins as well, and is as tough as the clay. They patched it in like this for aesthetics, really, since it’s hard set in a lot of patches in the walls.” She gave a weary head point up the stairs. “Come, let’s go. You’ll get used to the glass, the clay, and whatever else soon enough.”

  Lyssa broke into a faster march, passing beyond the clinic door and the cluster of doorways in the hall. The air erupted outwards into a monstrous dome so bursting with light that both her sight and wind sense were overwhelmed for a few moments.

  “As I said, you’ll get used to the glass.” Lyssa’s lungs puffed in a chuckle.

  The floor of the room was that whitened, smooth concrete substance, and along the length of the room were a number of couches, tables, and small chairs. A number of plain rugs with white and brown colouring declared the intended walking paths of the room.

  "Oh hello there." A girl, around seventeen or eighteen, greeted them.

  She appeared behind one of the couches further along the room, and had been scrubbing the floor, as evidenced by the wet rag in her hand. She wore an apron, and a white head cover. Long locks of brown hair straggled out of the rag cover and left their stringy shawl well past the girl’s shoulders. Her eyes were bagged and low, but sparkling with a relentless enthusiasm. "Is this a new recruit?" she asked Lyssa, dropping her cloth into a hidden bucket to meet them in the hallway.

  "Melissan, this is Amelie. She will be assisting you for the time being." The woman declared.

  "Amelie, this is Melissan. She is in charge of our rather dwindling cleaning crew."

  "Dwindling is good." Melissan grinned. "I'd shake your hand Amelie, but..." She raised her hands, which were filthy and soggy, "gross hands and all."

  "Are you the only one cleaning?" Amelie asked, surprised that she was responsible for the entire school.

  "Nope. Dwindling but not solo just yet. I still have E to keep me company." Melissan gestured upwards.

  A tiny shape was climbing impossibly up the glass' half archway. Amelie gasped and felt vertigo, the little creature was scrubbing windows at a terrifyingly precarious angle, almost hanging off of them vertically.

  Lyssa rubbed her temples, clenching her eyes closed. "I still can't look at that girl when she's doing the windows like that. Thank god James got that harness for her."

  Amelie now saw that the girl was tethered to a line that had been set up almost invisibly along the curvature of the glass and looping at the highest of the three balconies above. It looked rather insubstantial given the height.

  "Oh, don't worry, nobody forced her to do it. Heck we tried to stop her from going up there, but it's what she likes for whatever reason." Melissan apparently caught the horrified expression Amelie wore on her face. "Nobody's going to work you to death, or ask you to do more than you can. Are you sure she's with me?" Melissan changed her focus to Lyssa almost mid-sentence.

  "She can't go outside, unfortunately, and knows nothing of machinery. She falls to you, as I said."

  "Ah, well, then shall I expect you later today, or tomorrow?" She asked Amelie.

  "Tomorrow, I think." The woman replied for her. "Giving her a short tour, and getting her set up in her accommodations."

  "Tomorrow then." Melissan smiled at Amelie, then quickly disappeared back behind the couches.

  Amelie snuck another look at the girl, who seemed to dangle now even more precariously than before. Amelie’s head spun, and she looked away before getting any real details of the small figure. Turning her swimming eyes towards the ground instead she noticed Kokopelli was staring perplexedly at the little girl as well, regarding her with an intense concentration, his eyes narrow slits.

  "Let's move on then." Lyssa ushered her back the way they had come.

  They returned to the relative dimness of the hallway they had come from. They passed the clinic once again and entered a doubled door on their right. The blue torch sparked into light again, illuminating the otherwise pitch black room.

  "The room we left just now, is the commons room. After work is done, those residing here as guests are welcome to take rest and congregation in the rooms declared as public. The current public rooms are the commons room, the fire room, and the games room. You are welcome to visit the library as well, but your access may be limited at notice."

  The words echoed in the darkness of the room, hinting at a rather large and empty space. Amelie could feel hints of drafts framing the cavernous box around her. There was a hidden forest of things, their shapes not revealed in clarity, but standing with uniform rows.

  "Melissan cares for, and guides the children who are too shocked and dazed to help in other ways. Her crew was once larger, but gladly it has shrunk as they have recovered, and stabilized. The girl you saw climbing is a special case of sorts, and you should try to be careful of your words regarding her, around Melissan."

  With the warning over, the woman raised the lantern, casting feeble illumination against the darkness of the room. It answered at least the feeling of the uniform shapes: They were tables, the kind that were easy to store, to fold away when necessary. "This is the gymnasium, and the cafeteria. All meals take place here." She lead Amelie to the right, a few tables with attached benches were visible with dim blue reflection. They proceeded along the wall, coming to a door.

  "Given that you have somewhat easier duties to perform than those in the gardens, I would appreciate your assistance in the vicinity of mealtime, at least of midday and evening." The woman produced a key, and unlocked the bolt of the door. "This room is considered a commons room, but as we cannot spare the power to light it fully, even during meals, it's best if you stay out of it except during times of full congregation."

  They passed through the door and into a kitchen area. It was a large, restaurant sized work space. Some lights flared into existence, spurred by a hidden action of the woman behind her. The room sported a huge cooking area, four gigantic stewpots sat on burners. Sacks of things lined up against the walls in storage, some sitting open and spilling out numerous vegetables of various breeds onto the tables.

  The kitchen smelled busy, though it was essentially cold and dark now. The scent of prepared food, the lingering mustiness of soup hung in the air. Amelie's stomach growled, finally acknowledging the hunger she felt.

  The woman walked over to one of the pots, opening its lid. "Are you any good at cooking?" The woman asked, spooning around the mystery contents of the pot. Amelie stood back, hands on a table, leaving the woman her space in her kitchen.

  "Not very." She said sadly. "Haven't done much cooking really."

  "Not even 'home economics' or some such?" The woman asked, spooning a ladle twice into a bowl.

  "No, I was homeschooled up until recently," Amelie answered. “I tried to help my mother more than a few times, but my hands are bad. I end up cutting myself more than the vegetables.”

  “Well, we’ll have to remedy that, but we’ll start you slow. We can start with cleaning and peeling. I handle the specifics myself.” Lyssa gave a smiling shrug, and handed Amelie a bowl of cold soup, a spoon swirling with the sloshing liquid.

  Amelie chomped down on the spoon, tasting the soup for a moment. She had expected something similar to water and vegetables, but there was the flavor of broth, the tang of salt, and a mixture of flavoring herbs and spices in it. Amelie devoured the soup, trying to savor the novel taste. Even though it was cold it was the best thing she could remember having since the season began.

  "Thank you. That was incredible." Amelie grinned, though it hadn't quite extinguished her hunger fully.

  "You are quite welcome. I'm glad to say that we've managed to retain just about the same level of quality food as we had before, though I have to make it all myself now." The woman smiled.

  "Now that we've got some food in you, I'd like to finish our little tour." Lyss
a lead her out of the kitchen, killing the light in the room, and igniting the blue orb once again.

  They left the comforting smells of the kitchen behind, and then the darkness of the cafeteria as well. They passed through the commons room again, the sight of the little girl, 'E' was thankfully hidden from Amelie's eyes this time. Kokopelli was still there, staring upwards.

  "Come on you silly thing." Amelie said to him. Melissan's head popped up from a different area, but seeing the words weren’t for her she merely continued her work low on the floor. Kokopelli fell in step and they passed beyond the commons room.

  There were two doors, on opposite ends of the hall, twins in all respects. Lyssa turned to the one on the left, opening it.

  The room was a library, stacks and shelves ran along its walls, and made the beginnings of a maze towards the back of the room. The room was much wider than the common's room, though only one story tall. There were a number of tables, chairs neatly placed up upon them.

  "This is the library. Time you spend here is expected to be quiet, and in tranquility." The woman stated bluntly. "We have a fair collection of books, though we would prefer they remain here, returned to their places when the time is up. We have library supervisors who will allow you to take a book with you to your accommodations if you wish, but you will be fully responsible for its wellbeing if you do so."

  The room sported a double window, like the landings of the stairwell it featured that funny glass, and felt just as out of place as the earlier one had.

  “More of the glass, framed in the new concrete,” Amelie observed to herself.

  “Yes, quite common, as I said. Really none of the windows in the school can open.” She shooed Amelie from the library.

  "This is the 'games room' or lounge as many prefer to call it." They entered the door across the hallway. The room resembled the commons room, but with a number of much wider and longer tables with many chairs along them. Board games and other such distractions lay waiting on a pair of shelves. The room was half the size of the library, and sported another small squared window as light.