Page 14 of Xerxes Ascendant
“I hope you’re exaggerating.” Kyle chuckled. “If he gets any bigger, he’ll sink Xerxes all by himself.” He adjusted his position on the bed, determined to not let himself dwell on Akira’s heartbroken expression as he’d left. “Tell me everything that’s happened while I’ve been out of it, Indira. Has the city plummeted any further?”
“Nothing sudden. But we’ve been gradually descending since the Fall.” Her expression was grim.
“The Fall? That’s what they’re calling the…”
“The huge-ass explosion that ripped Xerxes apart and made its engines temporarily fail, yeah. Kyle, Xerxes doesn’t have long left before the Earth’s gravimetric forces become stronger than our lift. There’s not much-”
The lights blinked out, the machines around the bed fell silent, and then a moment later it all whirred to life again, albeit in a dimmed, subdued way.
“The hospital has back-up generators, as otherwise all the rune outages would disrupt patient care,” his cousin explained with a calm reassurance, rolling off the bed and padding over to the window to peer outside. She hummed thoughtfully and typed out something on her runepad with the fingertips of her right hand.
“What is it?” Kyle asked.
“I’m recording the time.”
He frowned, happy to be distracted from his own bleary ruminations. “Why? Rune blackouts happen all the time.”
“Just a theory,” Indira said cryptically. Then she slipped the device into her pocket and turned back to him, clapping her hands together with a wide grin he was immediately suspicious of.
“Right. The doctor says you’ve gotta be here for at least three more days while they monitor your recovery. So what’s your poison? I Spy, or Tic Tac Toe?”
Kyle mock-groaned, laughing even as he brought an arm up to cover his face. “Stars have mercy on me.”
Fellow Lower Xerxians,
We have been betrayed. It is with disappointment but not surprise that we inform you the recent, devastating tragedy that struck our beloved city was orchestrated by none other than our own mayor.
In a reckless act driven by greed, fear, and selfishness, the Uppers sought to sever the lower levels in a desperate attempt to preserve their comfort and privilege. In doing so, they condemned us all.
Xerxes was torn apart because of Mayor Benedict Mackenroth.
We fell from the sky because of Mayor Benedict Mackenroth.
Our families and communities have been irreparably shattered because of Mayor Benedict Mackenroth.
The Coterie no longer recognises his authority over the people of Xerxes. We will not be complicit in his lies, nor will we allow his rule to continue.
Stand with us. Together, we will rebuild what was lost...and forge a new city from the ashes.
-Coterie press release, 8 June 2073
CHAPTER 5
Kyle
The stars did not, in fact, have mercy. By the time Kyle was discharged from the hospital, he and Indira had played so many games of Tic Tac Toe and Hangman that they’d invented a way to merge the two in a convoluted, rule-intensive stroke of brilliance. Bensen stopped by his bedside when he could, the man’s calm presence giving Kyle relief from his wife’s snarky exuberance, and he also had several visitors from his colleagues at House Epsilon. But they all had jobs and responsibilities to attend to that kept them from staying for long, and Kyle spent much of the next three days alone, trying not to think about Akira.
It was not lost on him that the one person who would have spent every moment by his side if he’d asked, was the one he refused to let near him. BecauseIain’t missing you at all,Akira fucking Miyasaki.
A lie, of course.
With Kyle’s runepad missing, taken from him when he was captured by Theta and Mouse that night, it meant hours of mindlessly staring at the ceiling above his hospital bed. He’d have escaped the expensive and soulless institutiondaysago had his cousin not threatened to have him dragged back andrestrained with the handcuffs she had lying around from her days at House Rho.
It was not wise to call the bluff of Indira Randall. One tended to discover that it was rarely a bluff at all, and Kyle did not wish to spend the remainder of his admission fielding awkward questions from the nurses about why he was chained to the bed, or lose the freedom of being able to waddle down the hall to take a piss.
And then the three days were up, and the discharge papers were thrust at him, and Kyle was breathing deep the un-fresh air of Xerxes’ filthy Level E streets once more. He bounced eagerly on his heels while waiting for Indira to catch up with him at each intersection, and her unjustifiable slowness meant it took forever for them to cross the four sectors to where House Epsilon resided.
“Are you sure you want to go straight back to work?” his cousin asked dubiously as they drew closer to the familiar building. Despite the rubble and destruction they’d navigated on the way here, the House and its immediately surrounding streets looked oddly pristine – or at least, as much as Lower Xerxes ever did.
