Scene 4 - Mercy in the Shadows (Skylost Chronicles)

Life gets chaotic when sixteen-year-old Sage is chosen as a sacrifice. The post-apocalyptic airship society she calls home needs girls to face a nightmarish landscape. She's determined to survive her

Sage wasn't afraid of the dark, but she considered whether the Void would use darkness against her. The thought was fueled by the descent into the condemned lower decks of her home ship, where the absence of power for light and heaters meant a trip into cold darkness.

She had enough experience with sneaking into the first few decks of the forbidden area to know her way around. The inky blackness had been a fun aspect of her rebellious treks in the past, even if it smelled like damp dust and mold.

The condemned decks had once been dedicated to factory production and featured wide spaces for equipment and cargo to get through. Even the stairwells were spacious, with Sage having to reach out to the fullest with her arms to touch both rails at once.

Sage's eyes were wide, but she saw nothing. The chill of the cold rails against her fingertips made her wish she owned a sweater to wear on her excursions into the forbidden parts of the Solvang. She let out nervous chuckles as she tiptoed down the stairs, happy to take one last trip down, especially since it was with Adriana. But she had the growing sense something was wrong.

Everything was physically correct about the wide stairwell. Twelve steps to a landing, then twelve more to the next deck. Repeat two more times to deck twenty-three, where the abandoned warehouses were located. The skyship's flight engines rattled and provided vibrations in the guide strings other renegade teens had set up in the darkness. But the energy was off within the vibrations, which felt like they contained more information than a steady hum. And something sounded off about the ambient rattle, as if it was more than the ship's engines.

Nothing made sense until Sage and Adriana reached the twenty-third deck. They turned, guided by the strings and their signal knots, toward the main causeway meant for cargo vehicles. It was supposed to be a black cavern that echoed even the slightest noise. She never knew more of it than that, since there were details she would never see, and areas which the guide strings didn't lead to. For her final trip to the deck, Sage discovered it was different than she imagined.

"Do you see that?" Sage's pulse froze as she asked the question. Platforms and catwalks above the vehicle level of the causeway were visible for the first time. The illumination was almost imperceptible, but it was there, providing perfect detail for eyes adjusted to seeing absolute blackness for the past five minutes. No stray object existed, as every last scrap of material had been salvaged years ago.

"Yes. I see everything." Adriana clutched the string, something both she and her friend could see tied to posts and rails for the first time. "Why is there light on this deck?"

"It's coming from down there." Sage lifted her hand to point, surprised at how easy the gesture came with the addition of sight. She'd never thought to point at anything on her prior trips to the condemned decks. "The light's coming out below the doors of one of the warehouses." She measured the visible distance against her memories of sneaking through the darkness. "It's the one I used to go to. Someone's using it."

"I don't like this." Adriana closed in behind Sage.

"Me neither." Sage let go of the guide string, judging the extra vibrations as signals picked up from whatever was going on in the lower decks. "I need to find out what's happening." She walked in the middle of the causeway toward the light.

"Come back." Adriana reached out for a moment, then rushed away from the wall and string, and after her friend. "What if it's Okawa's goons? What if we walk in on them and they catch us? You don't want to spend your last day of freedom in the brig."

"What if it's someone in need?" Sage turned around to face her protective friend. She was pleased to see so much concern in Adriana's eyes. "It's probably nothing bad. Maybe it's someone from class."

Adriana scoffed. "No one from class can afford flashlights."

"Neither can the guards." Sage grinned, her face impish in the pale light. "So it's not a classmate or a goon in there."

"You don't need to pretend to be fearless for me," Adriana said. "And you shouldn't act reckless before your big ordeal. This is about reflection. Remember?"

"Reflection is discovery." Sage led the way. The light had more effect as she closed in on the warehouse doorway, the fifth down the causeway from the stairwell. "And right now, I want to discover what's going on in here, behind the doors."

"We'll open them together, then." Adriana scooted to one side and readied her hand on the handle of one of the tractor-sized doors. She waited for Sage to do the same. "Ready?"

Sage wrapped her fingers around the handle of the other door. "Open it." At her command, both girls pulled the heavy doors aside.

Light flooded out from a fully-lit warehouse. Dozens of emergency lamps stood three feet from the ground, perched atop battery tanks with dented aluminum cases. They provided light and warmth in one, as well as a steady buzz. It took a moment for the girls' eyes to adjust to the brightness. But before that could happen, they were hit with the overwhelming stench of blood, infectious fluids, and medical alcohol all mixed into one. The sounds came next, a mixture of pleas, moans, screams, and sobs. From time to time, stern orders broke out, spoken in a foreign tongue.

Sage blinked and took in a view that matched the harsh smell and sounds. Dozens of cots were arranged in rows in the fifty-yard-wide warehouse. Many of them held multiple people, but many hundreds more patients were huddled on the floor. A majority of the patients were children, most which were visibly ill. Less than one third of the people were adults, who were all incapacitated by injury or illness. Gray clothing, bandages, and misery were all about. The only break from the horror were dozens of monks dressed in bright yellow habits. They rushed throughout the crowds, tending to as many medical needs as they could, moving swiftly among the children.

"Is this a secret hospital?" Adriana's eyes widened at the sight. "Why would Captain Hale order this?"

"Doesn't matter." Sage leaned into her walk and went right to the closest person she saw, a middle-aged man with a bleeding forehead on the floor who had two underfed boys sitting on the cot above him. "They need help!"

Adriana followed Sage in a short sprint. "Where did all these people come from? Do you think Captain Hale had them brought over from somewhere else?"

Sage shot a concerned glance back to her friend. "I don't recognize anyone. And there's way more monks here than the two who serve in the ship's chapel. They were definitely brought in." She broke away and crouched near the injured man and his boys.

The man strained to lift his eyes and acknowledge Sage. "My sons need food. I'll pass on a bandage. Just get them some ration packs, please."

Sage pulled out the red fabric from her pocket and crouched near the man. She dabbed the fancy cloth against his forehead to clean the wound, and discovered the skin around the jagged laceration was deep red with infection. "I'll find someone to get your sons some rations as soon as I help you out. After all, you can't provide for them if you don't get medical attention."

"I can't provide for them now." The man's eyes were filled with sorrow. "I think that's why they sent me here."

Sage continued to clean the wound. She hoped she was wrong about the infection, but the deep red around what looked like a machinery accident proved how long the wound had been allowed to fester.

The man resisted for a few moments, but accepted Sage's help after she held his weakened head still with one hand. "Thanks." He examined the young woman crouched above himself. "You're not one of the monks or soldiers?"

"I'm a civilian, just like you." Sage dabbed the last of the blood away and looked at Adriana just long enough to issue an order. "Find me antibiotic cream and a suture kit." She shifted her attention back to the man and quickly discovered he had a broken arm that hadn't been set.

"Civilian?" The man's face twisted in confusion. "Where are we? No one will tell us."

"You're on the Solvang." Sage glanced up to the man's children, who looked like they were ages eight and five, and appeared to suffer from a bad cold.

"Sage, you just started your medical classes," Adriana said. "This is an emergency hospital. These are real people, not training dummies. You aren't qualified to help here."

Sage cast a furious glare back at her friend. "I'm the only one helping this man. Get me the supplies I asked for."

The man bobbed his head in thought. "Solvang? You're a factory ship, right?" He grinned against his pain. "I'm from the Maddox. It's also Pleiades-class. But we aren't as well fed as you."

"What happened? Was there a disaster on the Maddox?" Sage evaluated the man's broken arm. She thought she knew how to properly set it, but hesitated to even try with her limited medical experience.

"Only two other families are here from the Maddox," the man said. "I don't even know half the ships everyone else is from. But all of us were brought here for obvious reasons. Too sick or injured to work." His face went grim. "I used to be a computer engineer before the Cataclysm. I was stupid to ever think I could make it as an assembly line worker. Accidents happen when you're bad at the job, you know?"

"Don't dwell in misery," Sage said. "You'll get patched up. And your boys will get fed. You'll be back to work on the Maddox before you know it."

"Uh, Sage?" Adriana tapped her friend on the shoulder. "You need to get up."

"Got me the supplies that fast?" Sage switched her focus to the two boys. "I'll need a vitamin pack for these two."

"Who are you?" The words were authoritative and sharp, but rolled with the foreign accent of a native speaker of Deisol. A monk with a lithe, athletic frame stepped up, next to the cot with the boys. Hints of ceremonial tattoos poked up from the tall collar of his habit. He appeared as young as Sage, and his long, black hair was tied back in a braid that went all the way down his back. He stared down at Sage with his deep brown eyes, while his strong, narrow face held a youthful but stern expression.

Sage almost fell backwards in shock. The monk was in complete contrast with the ugliness of the hidden hospital. He was healthy, commanding, and most daunting of all, he was absolutely handsome. Her awe vanished in a second and she returned the stern look as she stood to meet the monk. "Sage Mustang. I'm a student taking medical classes. And I can help." A notion tickled at the back of her mind that she should announce she was a Champion, but she preferred being a regular girl.

The monk looked Sage over and sneered. "You have spent one rag on one man. You have no idea how to help."

Sage's face turned red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment in the monk's presence. He looked down on her, while she only wanted to do good. And in the back of her mind, she admired his strength while wishing he knew about hers. She snapped back, "I came to this man's aid while you and your fellow monks were too busy."

"He is alive to plea for the salvation of his children," the monk said with a serene authority. "Did you make an effort to look around? There are parents in worse shape within this room. They cannot plea for their children." He glanced down at the man from the Maddox. "Did you come to this man's aid because he appeared to be the one person in this room who needed help the most?" He spread his arms to indicate the misery of all the other people in the warehouse. "Or did you fail to make a proper assessment of the situation?"

Sage turned to Adriana, who met her with a look of full support. She knew she could count on her for that. Adriana would never judge her, or rub in when she made a wrong call. She shifted her attention back to the monk. "I saw someone in need and rushed in to help him. But I'll assist your monks in any way I can."

"We'll both help." Adriana put a hand on Sage's shoulder. "I'm no medic. But together we'll do whatever you need us to do."

"The children are our main concern," the monk said. He waved a hand to signal behind himself.

Another monk, slightly younger and with a shorter braid in his blonde hair, rushed forth from the crowd. "Si, Provost?"

The monk turned to his subordinate, but kept watch over Sage and Adriana. "Go to the Second Temple's supply box and get as many ration packs as they can spare. Do not come back empty-handed."

"Si, Provost." The young man rushed away.

"I'm fine with handing out food." Sage looked around. "But what if Adriana hands out food to the children, while I provide medical attention to the parents?"

"Please listen carefully as I repeat, in case I slipped and spoke in Deisol the first time around." The monk stared for a few moments to ensure he had both girls' complete attention. "The children are our main concern."

Sage's jaw hung open for a second. She surveyed the room and found so many injured people in need of care. "But I have enough understanding of medicine to help as an assistant nurse or equipment technician."

"If you offer to help, then you will only act upon the orders of myself, or Provost Omilia of the Second Temple." The monk locked his handsome eyes on Sage in a harsh gaze.

Sage looked around the room. Her head spun at the realization as to where the monks came from. The temples were located on the fleet's main sanctuary ship. The presence of provosts and monks from those temples meant the Vicarus, matron of the Church of Empyrea, had a hand in whatever was going on. She huffed in acceptance. "Fine. I'll help under your command." She spotted the small gold numeral stitched on the monk's collar: IX. "But who are you? The other monk called you a provost. Are you in charge of this operation? And what's going on here, anyway? Is this a mission from the Vicarus herself?"

The monk's eyes locked in and his irritation was evident even through his calm demeanor. "Asking questions is not assisting. You will do as ordered."

The blonde monk returned and lifted a hand to his superior. "Perdon, mi Provost--"

The Provost raised a finger to stop the monk. "Please, Deacon, show respect to our guests by speaking in their language. Say that again, in Empyrean, not Deisol."

The blonde monk nodded and reviewed words for a moment. "Provost, I did as you asked. But Provost Omilia said the Second Temple could spare nothing more." He held a single ration pack, a small metallic pouch filled with mashed nutrients.

The dark-haired Provost took the ration pack and waved his subordinate away. He handed the pack to Sage, brushing his fingertips against her palm as he did so. "Distribute this to a family in need."

Sage squatted and looked at the two sick boys from the Maddox in front of her. "This is for you." She met their astonished stares with a smile, one of the first sincere smiles she'd shown in the past few days.

"Thank you." The father laid his head down on the cold, metal floor.

Sage stood and smiled. Her feeling of accomplishment lasted until she met the Provost's eyes.

"One ration pack for a family." The Provost crossed his arms. "Nothing more could be spared, and you chose a family of two boys. Over all the families of five, nine, or fifteen. Somewhere in this room is a mother or father with wounds so bad they think they will die here. And that parent is begging, with what they believe to be their last breath, for more than two children to get food."

"I'm sorry." Sage hung her head in shame. "He asked me to bring them food. I couldn't turn down his request. I might not be able to treat his wounds, but I could grant his request, for his sons to be fed."

The monk turned his back on Sage. "You have provided help. You have shown your poor judgment and your inability to be of further assistance. Leave."

Sage's mouth quaked. "I can't just leave everyone behind. There are people suffering here, and I need to do everything I can to help!"

The monk returned to face Sage, but his serenity was replaced with fury. His knees were bent slightly, as if ready to fight. "I am Provost Lajos of the Ninth Temple. I am giving you this final chance to leave as asked."

Sage stood frozen in awe for a moment. "I'm the Champion of Empyrea." She revealed the coin from her pocket. "It's my duty to protect every person in the fleet."

Lajos tilted his chin up in admiration. Serenity replaced the fury in his expression. "Then your duty is far from here. Leave to serve the souls of this unraveling fleet. But know that every child in this room will be taken care of. They will have food and shelter."

"And will you care for the parents, too?" Adriana leaned in to ask her question.

Lajos gave the slightest shake of his head as he glared at Adriana. "Leave."

Sage trembled at the answer, but found enough strength to grab her friend by the shoulders and lead her out of the warehouse. A trio of monks from the Ninth Temple shut the massive doors behind them.

The cold darkness of the causeway was devastating. After having adjusted to the illumination of the battery lamps, both girls were blinded by the shadows outside.

"I'm coming back." Sage was pleased by the echo of her words.

Adriana fumbled in the darkness to find the guide strings that led back to the stairwell. "Do you think it's a good idea to go back in there? I want to help all those people, too. But what can you do?"

"I can return." Sage growled at her echoes, empowered by their energy.

Adriana led Sage to the guide string and prompted her along. "That might turn out to be a bad idea. I don't know how the monk temples work, but I think the second are the humanitarians. And the ninth are the--"

Sage growled again, interrupting her friend. "Not to that vault of sadness. I mean to the fleet. I'm going down to the Void with my head held high. Because I'm coming back from that ordeal."

"There's no doubt you'll make it back." Adriana coaxed her friend closer to the stairs. "What then?"

"I've found my purpose." Sage smirked in the blind blackness. She set her foot on the first step in the climb up to her mundane existence on the working decks. "Someone has to rise up as Champion and protect humankind."

"Is that what you're going to tell the team?" Adriana followed up the stairs, led along by the string.

"It's what I'm going to tell my family." Sage beamed with determination, even though nothing of her expression could be seen in the darkness. "I have to tell them first."

Adriana hummed in thought. "If they won't come home until late tonight, you won't get to tell the team until morning. Well, late, late tonight. I'm sure everyone is going to stay up just to hear the news."

"I know the team would do that for me." Sage shook her head, seeing nothing of the stairwell, but feeling the cold rail and delicate string at her fingertips, and the first landing under her shoes. "You all would risk getting no sleep for tomorrow's classes, just for me. And I can't let that happen." She took a deep breath in consideration. "Adriana, I trust you to go back to the team meeting and tell them on my behalf."

"Meeting's way over by now," Adriana said with a scolding chuckle. "But everyone is sure to hang around for a long practice, hoping we pop back in."

Sage counted the steps until she was on the next deck up. "That's why I need you go for me. Because I need to be waiting for my family so they can be the first ones I deliver the news to, personally."

"You have my full support." Adriana patted her friend on the shoulder. "And the team will support you, too."

Sage dragged her fingers along the rail up to the next landing. "I'm sorry about snapping at you back there, in the hidden hospital."

"I don't remember what you're talking about," Adriana said. "So there's no need to apologize. Just go be with your family."

Hints of light grew as the two made their ascent to the operational decks of the Solvang.