The Capitán flexed all of the muscles in her jaw to prevent herself from yawning. The effort was becoming torturous but she knew that in the focused silence of the atrium, a lot of eyes were laid on her and she would rather not make apparent the extent of her boredom. She sat alongside the Pillars of Last Kunlun in the main atrium of City Hall, under the great pagoda. Even laying her neck backwards, eyes to the ceiling, she couldn’t appreciate the vertiginous view of the inside of the hollow pagoda, stretching far above them as the tallest building in the city. The Capitán only felt the breeze, the constant draft that ventilated the crowded atrium. The purpose of this monthly meet was giving a public checkup of the city’s current conditions. While her head was facing up, the Capitán snuck a yawn, putting a fist against her mouth and promptly straightened up. She sat at a convex table, stuck on the far left side next to the rest of the other Pillars. One seat always remained empty, in the middle of the table. Directly to her right, the Pillar of Education, San Carlo, kept on with their tirade.
“For the Scavengers, they haven’t met any issues and don’t look like they’re going to find shortages anytime soon. Direct reports from the executive conductor, 3, tell me they can still make two full trips in and out of Shanghai for food, wood, metal, even cosmetics like clothes and jewelry. As long as there’s space for the Scavengers to bring back trinkets, we aren’t running out any time soon.”
The Capitán knew as much, even if her earlier visit to Freeway hadn’t been to check for logistics. This meeting in the heart of Last Kunlun was meant for anyone who wondered if the city would run out of steam. Last Kunlun hadn’t been stocked to last, farms had been abandoned, facilities in the Caldera had never been repurposed. Once the bottom of the shelves became visible, the city quickly started relying solely on the travels of the Scavengers to not have its people starve to death. The Capitán had participated in making the shift from the city’s reserves to pillaging the abandoned cities all over the world. The Scavengers had answered the call without needing convincing, this meeting following all of their arrivals used to be accompanied with a celebration of their culture but since they rarely ventured out of Freeway, the people took the party to them as they rode into the city. As such, attendance in these meetings had dwindled, the extent of which was hard to gauge for her.
Compared to yesterday morning, the calm under the pagoda felt uncanny, the Capitán almost waited for the aberration to crash in the doors of City Hall and decimate everyone in its path, proving in her final moments she hadn’t been fast enough. What would she hear first? Does it truly hide alongside the rest of the citizens. Has it come in disguise, fading between the attendees? Was it there? Could it listen to her think? Why haven’t they moved yet? The question parasited her mind, refusing to let go. Another day had passed and the Pillars all sternly gave their reports. The Capitán’s lip twitched as she heard a cough from the audience. She couldn’t be faster. No, the fault would lie in all the ones who did nothing. Lethargic parasites. She heard San Carlo taking a swig of a drink that could’ve well have been highly alcoholic before continuing his speech.
“Like our Pillar of Life said earlier, numbers are going down, steadily. Even if we keep up predictions for how many people we’ve lost last year and how many will be left at the end of this one, there’s not much point in sharing that.”
The Capitán heard the audience mutter amongst themselves. Tentative arguing was exchanged but noone intervened. There had been some high intensity in the audience over the years but since she sat on the table, no riot against City Hall had been attempted. She knew the other Pillars would never admit, especially not in front of her, that her presence as the Pillar of Order had instilled a healthy amount of calm in the atrium. The Capitán rarely commented, despite keeping a perfect attendance. She had little to add, this blurry audience had no business hearing anything about what she was doing. They just had to remember, sear in their mind, that she was there, always. San Carlo was wrapping up, chairs started shuffling and she heard movement flowing away from the cold atrium. The Capitán didn’t move, arms crossed she stayed seated, waiting for the waves of noise to calm down. The others that sat on the table were leaving as well, swiftly stepping away behind her. The Pillar of Education attempted to follow suit.
“San Carlo, may I have a word?” The Capitán asked confidently, her voice carrying well into the now empty atrium.
The figure to her right sighed and sat back down as the rest abandoned him without hesitation, leaving both of them alone under the pagoda. After having to deal with Closer, the Old Man and 3, it was good to be face someone that had less of an attitude and feeling her own presence reflected around her was soothing. She was aware of her own smile and made no attempt to dissimulate it. San Carlo waited for her to talk, she enjoyed that moment for a few more seconds.
The Capitán broke the silence, facing him, “I’m currently working on a little personal project. I expect a lot, and I mean a lot of data coming my way in the coming days. Data I would love to be able to cross reference with the ones held at City Hall, what do you think?”
“I can’t, I can’t do that you know I can’t do that,” San Carlo stammered in a panic, “It’s not against you but we’re all under the Old Man’s imperative, I can’t hand anything over.”
“But when was the last time he deigned coming here I wonder, would he even notice?”, the Capitán hummed, “I wouldn’t overstay my welcome, truly.”
She could hear him shifting in his seat, his physical embarrassment motivated her to keep digging.
“What would you need?” San Carlo asked tentatively.
“Nothing much, just access to population records… death certificates… the DNA bank… only what you offered the audience earlier, really.”
“No, no, definitely not. You know it’s a stunt by Van Kalkain, he can’t release any of that to anyone, you can’t be excluded.”
The Capitán didn’t care about the numbers themselves, she needed a list, over all of the years since Last Kunlun was rehabilitated. This kind of data had always been greedily held by City Hall under the Old Man’s jurisdiction, even grinding wood all the way to the far side of the Minnow Gardens his influence lingered. She had been fine letting him keep his territory in the city, graciously leaving City Hall to its own devices. The Capitán had managed on her own all these years but right now the data could prove itself crucial, getting a hand over City Hall early even more so. The Capitán realized she wouldn’t be able to go through the Pillars nicely either. San Carlo was the most spineless out of the three, if she had a chance of rummaging in City Hall’s greedy pockets it would have been through him.
“What a shame, creative freedom once again stifled by the chains of bureaucracy.”
The Pillar didn’t laugh, waiting for her to dismiss him. She waited a few more seconds like this and shooed him away with a hand, which he promptly followed and scampered away without any more questions. The Capitán remained alone in the atrium, the constant breeze was pleasant but it didn’t fully distract her from the dead ends she had accrued since yesterday. The Old Man found pleasure in keeping his cards on the table out of her reach, 3 had no place in their head for subterfuge and despite being one of the Pillars, City Hall kept its doors tightly shut to her. They all had nothing to give, or nothing they wanted her to take. She sat here empty handed, drumming her fingers against the marbled table. The Capitán was still waiting for the entity to come out, as if it still waiting in the audience. The wind bellowed, rattling some empty chairs and pushing hair in front of her face. Nothing came, and so she rose.
Byzance neighbored Kunlun Plaza to the west, going from City Hall back to the Cors quarters was probably the path she’d taken the most in her life by now. She didn’t bother probing the path with her cane, the streets would be open to her as they always were. Her collision in Freeway came back to mind, making her squint behind her glasses. She remembered well the Scav child, eager for an escape, an insatiable hunger in their voice to eat away at the city with the rest of them. The child had learned to find its own way, the world was still moving fast and the Capitán wanted to keep them in mind. Volantis, the vaults of City Hall, the Hull, all out of her reach. She needed to expand where she could. Every opportunity, every scent of possibility to find cracks around her needed to be remembered, if not directly exploited. It had been her way for decades now, but as she headed further away from the pagoda, the ticking of its ornate clock weighed heavier on her back. Only one of her detractors hadn’t directly shut her down and she intended to make the most of it while he was at arm’s length.
The main hall of Byzance 131 had become oddly silent since the Capitán tasked both Willow and Armageddon to work downstairs. It was cleaner for it, she could enjoy making her way to the stairs without risking to trip on wires, she doubted either of the two even made their way back up since last night. Diligence or recklessness, at least she was confident progress was getting made somewhere. The Capitán slid her cane in next to the stairs, she didn’t need to keep it around as long as she was in the building. She kept an ear out for the Major as she made her way down through the silent corridors. It didn’t sound like he had come back yet, uncharacteristic of his self-imposed schedule. She would wait another hour before giving it another thought and gently knocked on the glass pane of the laboratory. The space where the Major had left the underbelly’s samples had been sterilized by Willow and Closer to avoid any outside contact that would disturb their work. She stayed outside of the room, laying an ear on the glass, hearing nothing. The door opened to the only steps she wasn’t intimately familiar with.
“They’re waving at you… energetically through the window,” Closer said.
“I know,” The Capitán replied, her ear still on the glass, “How’s work?”
Closer sat himself of one of their nice couches, the Capitán only hoped he hadn’t stained it all with blood, still unsure about the state of the Doctor’s personal hygiene.
“Slow. The samples are as much a mess as they looked under the Caldera. It’s a work of art.”
Closer hadn’t meant this as a compliment but him being there this late was proof enough of his commitment. The Capitán still wished he would keep his dry kind of snark to himself.
The Capitán laid her back against the window, exhaling out a response, “So you don’t think it’s a natural phenomenon.”
“Do you?”
She was already getting frustrated with his deflections, but she wanted to keep their environment in good faith. For all of his evasiveness, Closer had been the only one willing to meet her halfway in the past, there was more he could give her.
“I don’t,” the Capitán sighed, “But think about it, almost two days have passed now and what? Nothing? Something, someone with this kind of power just lays down and wait for time to pass?”
“Maybe there is more than one.”
“Oh, please.”
“I’m serious, Lady Capitán, you’ve only recovered a fraction of the organic matter that you found under the Caldera. Until we can compile and analyze what we have in detail, we can’t ignore the possibility that this was the work of multiple individuals.”
“This reinforces my point. If they’re multiple, they’re organized, and they just decide to wait? A force like this could topple the entire city in one night! The entire planet in a week if there was still something worth taking.”
“Maybe it’s conditional. Maybe there is a time to recharge. Maybe we’ll find it’s another case of chemical discharge in the water, another whim of Volantis, hm?”
The Capitán ground her teeth against her tongue. Empty hands. She hadn’t considered that the time Gale’s expedition had taken could’ve been used in preparation for something of that scale. She originally saw it as a process but maybe they were off the mark. Both of them were throwing ideas at the wall, similarly to when they had tackled the Stillborn two decades ago. Their time constraint back then had been the growing unrest in the population. Now the problem was more insidious, there was a shadow in the corners, possibly waiting to strike again, and her hand only reached so far.
The Capitán could feel the edges of her own influence as hard as ice. She started to regret letting go of Dove this early, having him look around the clock for any abnormalities in the city would’ve given them some comfort in anticipation. With his mental state, he would be of little help now. The Capitán wouldn’t have to rely on dust lickers if the decrepit fucks let her be the heir to Volantis but between yesterday and now it was obvious she would once more have to make do on her own.
“They’re good,” Closer said, “Your little Doctors.”
The words felt loaded but the Capitán chose to ignore it, “I know. They’re behaving?”
“I can feel the tension, but like you said, if they’re focused it does not seem to impede their work. They’ve made a decision between them, one they managed to agree on. The phenomenon, the entity, they called it “World-Eater.”
“Evocative,” The Capitán said, with only a hint of sarcasm.
“Tomorrow is another day, Lady Capitán, don’t you think?”
The Capitán didn’t entertain an answer and Closer rose from his seat. She heard him slap a fresh pair of gloves on his hands before entering the laboratory. She waited for him to be out of the room before swiping a hand where he had sat. Finding nothing to clean, she took his place, foot over her knee and exhaled. More and more waiting.
Back when the Stillborn stirred the city, it had been her task to scour all of the districts, the Major behind her and reassure the population of her and Closer’s efficiency. Empty words, empty hands, empty lies. However, she was masterful at it and in the deafening absence of the Old Man, the panicking masses clung to her promises like starved wretches. Closer, all on his own, had been truly motivated back then as well, for reasons he had never shared. Even if for posterity, the entire year was taken as mourning, it had only taken three weeks for them to find the answer. A terribly boring one, a debilitating chemical reagent carried through Volantis currents and into the water lines. Its origin could have been anything from a hiccup in waste disposal to an intentional sabotage. The Capitán’s final task for the Stillborn incident was to convince herself as well as the rest of the population of Last Kunlun that it wasn’t the former.
Would it have been easy for Closer to manifest this entire situation by himself? It was him that came to the City at the time of this unprecedented unrest, and it was him that gave the final verdict as to its conclusion. The Capitán had been there the whole way, refusing to make him work alongside Willow and Armageddon. But when he finally gave her the results, too tired to keep his guard up, his voice carried heavy purpose. Was it presumptuous from her to decide he told the truth because she decided to believe it? The deed was done, irreversible, almost poetic. The third fold in the withering of the world. The Exodus, the False Dusk and now the Stillborn. The clock kept ticking regardless. And now she let them all play in this little sandbox, she had welcomed this volatile outsider in her own sanctuary. Such was the Capitán’s burden.
Now, put to the test again, the Capitán didn’t have a population to appeal to. They were all blissfully unaware of the fresh aberration roaming around alongside them and for as long as this “World-eater” would allow it, the Capitán well intended noone else find out about it. She nonetheless didn’t want to feel like her options had run out so she had kept some pins around the city but none felt too promising. The Capitán didn’t want to entertain for too long the idea that she’d be grinding her nails outside of this room, powerless to do anything more until it resolved itself or rended everything asunder. An hour hadn’t passed yet, but she heard the Major passing through the building, his heavy steps echoing through to her.
“Missed the bus?” the Capitán said, once she knew he could hear her.
“I apologize, I was invited by professor Sihvan to the museum down the Helix hill.”
“Oh ho! Proactive, great to hear it. You had fun?”
The Major sat next to her, flexing the joints in his legs so that his entire weight didn’t crush the couch. He seemed confused at her question. In truth, the Capitán hadn’t sent him back to Universalis in hope he’d bring back anything substantial, it felt like sending a newborn into the dark to search for a needle. She needed him out of her legs to visit Freeway and City Hall and, most importantly, very near the Old Man’s son. World-eater currently felt merciful and so would she, but contingency plans only felt appropriate.
“There are things I can learn, a lead I can follow that might give us some answers. Or at least hints. I will have to go back.”
The Capitán raised an eyebrow, knowing full well he would take notice. The Major put himself on a task as well, she had to keep up the pace. Sending him to Universalis had been an overnight decision from her once she realized his presence had been thoroughly etched into her shadow. She let him go, in a sense, and hadn’t thought much about it. She would have supported any discipline he would have found himself attracted to, a part of her needed him to look away from her, even for a little. Now that he sat next to her, the gentle wind flowing from his body sweetening the air, the Capitán was congratulated for her choice. He hadn’t asked permission, hadn’t hesitated in claiming he was on a path, the possible futility of his efforts maybe hadn’t even crossed his mind. She tried to find pride in that, she wanted to.
“That’s good. That’s great. We need any progress we can get, you can see they’re working hard in there as well but Closer told me it would take its time.”
“Willow waved two middle fingers at me when I arrived.”
The Capitán smiled, she’ll need to drag her little Doctors away from the laboratory when she had the chance.
“I also met someone, at the museum, who had a conversation with me.”
“Such a day for surprises, someone else from Universalis?”
“No, a human from the Hull.”
The Capitán’s heart picked up the pace, she was ready to find her bed and let tomorrow come but that sentence sparked an idea. She saw the leads, the threads weaved all around her, the light in the distance pulsing, waiting for her to take it all. She could finally get to work herself. There was no coincidence, every step she ever took sent ripples of opportunity to every corner of this city. Any place she couldn’t get to, any people she would never meet, would come to her instead. She grinned from ear to ear, her heart light and her voice chipper.
“From the Hull, you say?”