- Prologue
The woman paced back and forth across her cell like a cat in a cage. Her bare feet whispered against the stone tiles, the edges of her pants brushing the dirt away as she moved. She was trapped. The air was stale. Tugging on the lank silver locks that hung around her, she groans.
It had been a long while since she had been trapped like this.
The man who entered the room caught her attention, though her movements did not stop. He paused at the gate between them. “Well. Are you ready to talk?” His voice was soft, a dark baritone that carried easily in the space. She looked him over. Brown hair, cut short. Probably military. Grey uniform. Ill-fitting. Perhaps his original uniform was damaged and he was waiting for a replacement. Was he one of them that had stopped her when she arrived? The woman couldn't remember.
She laughs shortly, pausing in her pacing to turn and face him. “Talk? Is that all you wish? This thing, we could have done in a tavern, boy.” She mocks him. The woman wanted to see his face change. To frustrate a person gave her power, after all.
He shakes his head, pulling an apple from his bag, taking a bite before speaking. “No, Rain. We both know you would have found a way to wiggle out of that too.”
She tilts her head, stepping to the bars and resting her hands on them. “You have so little faith, boy. I am near insulted.” Her long fingers drum on the bars, rotating from pinky to pointer fingers over and over again. The drumming echoed in her body, seeming to resonate loudest in her ribcage.
The man smirks. “Tell us a tale. How’d you come to be in the Vale of Mira?”
“I don’t think that’s the story you want, boy.” She smirks, leaning her head against the bars. The drumming continued. It felt like her heart lined up with every tap of her pinky finger.
“It’s the story that my master wishes to hear. None come to this place without help. We need to close those portals and keep them closed this time. Quit stalling.” He continued eating the apple, watching her with blank eyes. His expression betrayed nothing.
The woman pushes away from the bars and goes to the bench in the back. Sitting carefully, she pulls one leg up to her chest, and breathes out slowly. “To know that story, boy, we have to start with another person’s story.” It was frustrating that he wasn't reacting. The woman was getting annoyed.
He frowns, tossing his apple core to the side. “No. The story of how you got to the Vale, and no more.”
“You are impatient. If I just told you the end, you’d never understand it. You want to close all roads coming in, I will start with her story.” She smiles slowly, looking up through her dirty hair. “Or...I could tell you nothing.” The last part had a sing-song quality to it, and she noted his first reaction. A twitch of his eyebrow. Interesting.... She chews on her thumbnail, staring at him.
He sighs and pulls a stool away from the wall, bringing it closer and sitting so he could watch her. “All right, Rain. Start your tale where you wish.”
She leans her head back and closes her eyes, then smiles to herself. That's what she had wanted all along. To tell him this story would make him understand her rage. Maybe then he would help her. Maybe she could make an ally happen in this awful place.
“This story…” She pauses, opening her silver eyes slowly to stare at the moon through the bars above her. “...it starts in a place you cannot imagine. Out in the stars, beyond the surface you know, where the wind doesn’t blow.”
She leans forward slightly, speaking nonchalantly. "Emily Robinson was born in the stars. It sounds poetic, does it not? But she was born there all the same. It was the year 1056 AE, and Emily was the only daughter of Gracie Ellis and Theodore Malachi Robinson of the space station Promethia. She grew up surrounded by love. Not one part of her doubted that she had worth and people who would look for her should she go missing. Her only experience of Terra to this point was what she could observe out the window of the East Promenade. She would watch out that window often, dreaming of setting foot on the planet below them."
The man interrupts her, his brow furrowing. "Don’t be ridiculous, Rain. There are no stations in the space around Terra. It’s still a designation F planet." He speaks dryly, taking another bite of his apple, watching her.
She grimaces and turns to look at him, incredulous for his interruption. "Your Terra, perhaps, boy. This Terra Emily Robinson knows is of a different time. A different realm. Now shut up and listen." The woman turns back to the moon, focusing on it while she speaks. It helped steady her mind. Remind her of what she was going there. It told her how much time she had left to tell this story.
"Emily had spent much time at that window, gazing down, wondering how it would be. If it would be like the pictures they saw on the holos, or perhaps different now. Perhaps it would be wild and free in a way she could not even imagine. And her time was soon arriving. The sensors were picking up a promising message of the surface being safe again. Soon, they would choose the crew that would go down first, and Emily promised herself that she would be one of them. She had studied it for years."
The woman grins, a small victorious feeling in her chest. The story resonated with her each time she told it. Emily was as close to her heart as a person could get, after all.
"On the eve of her twentieth birthday, the call had come out, and she had applied as soon as she was able. She watched the other’s around her, and felt their excitement at the prospect of leaving the station they had called home for too long. Emily had been first in her class for survival studies, and she was on the way to becoming the highest ranked geologist on the station. She loved the idea of being the first to discover what hadn’t been seen in centuries." The woman grins, turning back to the man. She walks to the bars, wrapping her fingers around them once more, leaning forward to whisper the next part to him.
"But the day when the list was posted, Emily felt something else. A shiver of unease that drifted through her person. Perhaps, if she had listened to that feeling, things would have been different." The grin spreads further, and she laughs. "But she ignored it in her youth and hubris. As one so often does when you are young...."
It had been a long while since she had been trapped like this.
The man who entered the room caught her attention, though her movements did not stop. He paused at the gate between them. “Well. Are you ready to talk?” His voice was soft, a dark baritone that carried easily in the space. She looked him over. Brown hair, cut short. Probably military. Grey uniform. Ill-fitting. Perhaps his original uniform was damaged and he was waiting for a replacement. Was he one of them that had stopped her when she arrived? The woman couldn't remember.
She laughs shortly, pausing in her pacing to turn and face him. “Talk? Is that all you wish? This thing, we could have done in a tavern, boy.” She mocks him. The woman wanted to see his face change. To frustrate a person gave her power, after all.
He shakes his head, pulling an apple from his bag, taking a bite before speaking. “No, Rain. We both know you would have found a way to wiggle out of that too.”
She tilts her head, stepping to the bars and resting her hands on them. “You have so little faith, boy. I am near insulted.” Her long fingers drum on the bars, rotating from pinky to pointer fingers over and over again. The drumming echoed in her body, seeming to resonate loudest in her ribcage.
The man smirks. “Tell us a tale. How’d you come to be in the Vale of Mira?”
“I don’t think that’s the story you want, boy.” She smirks, leaning her head against the bars. The drumming continued. It felt like her heart lined up with every tap of her pinky finger.
“It’s the story that my master wishes to hear. None come to this place without help. We need to close those portals and keep them closed this time. Quit stalling.” He continued eating the apple, watching her with blank eyes. His expression betrayed nothing.
The woman pushes away from the bars and goes to the bench in the back. Sitting carefully, she pulls one leg up to her chest, and breathes out slowly. “To know that story, boy, we have to start with another person’s story.” It was frustrating that he wasn't reacting. The woman was getting annoyed.
He frowns, tossing his apple core to the side. “No. The story of how you got to the Vale, and no more.”
“You are impatient. If I just told you the end, you’d never understand it. You want to close all roads coming in, I will start with her story.” She smiles slowly, looking up through her dirty hair. “Or...I could tell you nothing.” The last part had a sing-song quality to it, and she noted his first reaction. A twitch of his eyebrow. Interesting.... She chews on her thumbnail, staring at him.
He sighs and pulls a stool away from the wall, bringing it closer and sitting so he could watch her. “All right, Rain. Start your tale where you wish.”
She leans her head back and closes her eyes, then smiles to herself. That's what she had wanted all along. To tell him this story would make him understand her rage. Maybe then he would help her. Maybe she could make an ally happen in this awful place.
“This story…” She pauses, opening her silver eyes slowly to stare at the moon through the bars above her. “...it starts in a place you cannot imagine. Out in the stars, beyond the surface you know, where the wind doesn’t blow.”
She leans forward slightly, speaking nonchalantly. "Emily Robinson was born in the stars. It sounds poetic, does it not? But she was born there all the same. It was the year 1056 AE, and Emily was the only daughter of Gracie Ellis and Theodore Malachi Robinson of the space station Promethia. She grew up surrounded by love. Not one part of her doubted that she had worth and people who would look for her should she go missing. Her only experience of Terra to this point was what she could observe out the window of the East Promenade. She would watch out that window often, dreaming of setting foot on the planet below them."
The man interrupts her, his brow furrowing. "Don’t be ridiculous, Rain. There are no stations in the space around Terra. It’s still a designation F planet." He speaks dryly, taking another bite of his apple, watching her.
She grimaces and turns to look at him, incredulous for his interruption. "Your Terra, perhaps, boy. This Terra Emily Robinson knows is of a different time. A different realm. Now shut up and listen." The woman turns back to the moon, focusing on it while she speaks. It helped steady her mind. Remind her of what she was going there. It told her how much time she had left to tell this story.
"Emily had spent much time at that window, gazing down, wondering how it would be. If it would be like the pictures they saw on the holos, or perhaps different now. Perhaps it would be wild and free in a way she could not even imagine. And her time was soon arriving. The sensors were picking up a promising message of the surface being safe again. Soon, they would choose the crew that would go down first, and Emily promised herself that she would be one of them. She had studied it for years."
The woman grins, a small victorious feeling in her chest. The story resonated with her each time she told it. Emily was as close to her heart as a person could get, after all.
"On the eve of her twentieth birthday, the call had come out, and she had applied as soon as she was able. She watched the other’s around her, and felt their excitement at the prospect of leaving the station they had called home for too long. Emily had been first in her class for survival studies, and she was on the way to becoming the highest ranked geologist on the station. She loved the idea of being the first to discover what hadn’t been seen in centuries." The woman grins, turning back to the man. She walks to the bars, wrapping her fingers around them once more, leaning forward to whisper the next part to him.
"But the day when the list was posted, Emily felt something else. A shiver of unease that drifted through her person. Perhaps, if she had listened to that feeling, things would have been different." The grin spreads further, and she laughs. "But she ignored it in her youth and hubris. As one so often does when you are young...."
