The glare of the sun makes more sweat emerge from my brow. As it drips into my eyes, the sting of the salt almost drives me to raise my hand and wipe it off. I catch myself in time to keep myself steady. This is not the time to worry about trivial pain. I’m hanging at the side of a cliff, getting a sample of the obsidian that I need to take to my laboratory. If I let go, I’ll fall and there is nothing fun about that.
The obsidian that I am here to take has been here since a group of wizards decided they knew better than every witch alive. The witches told them it was impossible for them to produce the obsidian. But the wizards decided they knew better. They used an ancient spell that was supposed to create the rock. But this spell could only work if you have a connection to the earth. Which wizards don’t have because their connection to the energy is centered on intention.
The spell relies on the knowledge of the spell caster to transform a common rock into obsidian. Since the knowledge the wizard had was superficial they couldn’t use the spell. The rock they produced was a facsimile of the authentic thing. At first, it seemed identical, but once you opened only the outside had changed.
They spent all that time and materials for nothing. The council’s witches told them that only specialized witches could use it. But they refused to listen. Terra witches are the only ones able to cast it because of their connection to the earth.
It wasn’t about scientific knowledge. Terra witches have this affinity that gives them instinct knowledge of everything that comes from the earth. That is why the council uses them to know when and where earthquakes can happen. They are the reason there weren’t any major disasters in our written history. Because their connection guided them.
The wizards didn’t care about any of that. They were angry at the recent rules the council had imposed and since obsidian was such a valuable commodity; they tried it anyway. If they had produced obsidian they would have been able to sell it. Becoming a corporation would have been the next step. And with time they would have enough power to strong-arm the decisions of the council.
At least that is what history tells us. This all happened a century ago when the recent rules were approved.
A few years after the wizard failure when the company that I work for, Montelch Enterprises, came to clean up the mess they left, they discovered a large deposit of obsidian. The irony could not be clearer.
That is why my job is to come here and take a sample of every pocket of obsidian on the query. Take it to the lab and see which one is real. Only then can the diggers come to excavate.
Sometimes I wished those wizards had worked the spell correctly. Then I wouldn’t be hanging on the side of a cliff collecting samples. It wasn’t so much the hanging that I minded. It was the fact that I had to work and not just enjoy the surrounding view.
I secure my safety rope on my belt, reaching for my hammer as I pick at the rock with care so I can take a sample. There is only one more sample for me to collect, then I can go home. My mother doesn’t like it when I’m late for dinner.
Concentrating on the task at hand, I take my sample and secure it to my bag. I climb a few feet to the last one I have to take.
When I am zipping my bag a gust of wind comes out of nowhere. The gale is so strong that it lifts me off the cliff and I lose my foothold.
The fall seems endless. I feel my heartbeat a mile a minute and I can feel sweat break out of my skin. I flail my arms, trying to find purchase anywhere, but I only get scratched for my efforts. The adrenaline is kicking my brain into overdrive but instead of being focused panic sets and logic disappears.
Focus!
The yell snaps me out of the panic, and I relax my body. I will only fall until the rope locks off on the belay. The biggest problem is when I stop. The rope breaking my fall will throw me against the wall and I have to make sure that my arms won’t take the brunt of it. I can handle the pain on my legs, but I need my arms to climb and collect all of my equipment.
The fall ends and I swing towards the wall. I turned my body sideways so I will take the brunt on my left side. Luckily my thigh takes the most damage, this will hurt like hell when the adrenaline wanes but for now I only feeling mild pain.
I right my body so I’m facing the cliff before starting to climb again. I can’t stop now because once the adrenaline lowers my body will hurt a lot more. As I climb what I feared happens, the adrenaline leaves my body, and the pain becomes more striking. When I reach the top of my climb, I collect my equipment. That is when I notice that my fingers are shaking.
Not only my fingers, but my complete body is shaking. The pain on my thigh is reaching a peak and I settle on a ledge so I can let the pain wash over me. I need to climb down so I need to move. It’s painful, but I just have to wait for it to pass its peak. Then I can climb down.
By the time that I get back to the ground, my arms are shaking and my legs feel like jelly. But I got everything that I needed. So I won’t have to come back here. My job is done and I don’t need to go back to the lab until tomorrow. That means going home to a very long, very hot bath. Just thinking about it makes me smile.
The trek to my car takes me another half an hour which means that I will be late to dinner. I sigh thinking about the sermon waiting for me when I get home. My mother is always scolding me about how much I work.
When I get to the car, I take a couple of pills for the pain on my thigh. I can’t be limping when I get home because my mother already hates that I work for Montelch Enterprises. She can’t know that I got hurt doing my job.
I never understood why she hates this particular company. As far as I know, they did nothing to us. But the moment that I mentioned getting their internship when I was in college, she lost her mind. She spent the next week until my first day lecturing me that the company is evil. She never gave me a reason. Just that it was.
She calmed down when I started working, and nothing happened. I was lucky to be picked out of the hundred interns that worked there. The job offer set her off into another series of lectures. But I explained to her that with a geology bachelor I didn’t have many options in our town. The only company that would hire me would be Montelch.
There has been contention between us since then. Whenever I am even one minute late from work, she scolds me. The spiel never changes. She never gives me a reason, only the same thing repeatedly. I don’t argue anymore; I listen and nod along. She knows that I will not quit my job because of vague reasons that she refuses to explain. But that won’t stop her from trying.
Driving home, I pass beside the shifter compound. The sight of the imposing structure only brings frustration. Most of my childhood was spent inside those walls. Yet when I needed them the most they refused to help.
Every time that I have to go to the quarry I have to pass the compound. It sits outside of town because shifters don’t like to mix with the other species. There is already a separation because of the council’s rules. But shifters are more skittish than everyone else.
Before my father died, he was an exceptional friend to the alpha of the compound. Everyone there treated us like we were royalty. But after the accident, I tried reaching out because I thought they would understand how much I missed him. Not only they didn’t respond, they didn’t even listen. I couldn’t burden my mother because she had to take care of my newborn brothers.
And yet when I reached out, they shunned me. They sent me a page from the council’s website stating that a recent rule had been approved. No regular could go to a shifter compound without an escort.
They wouldn’t even respond on person. They cut all contact with us and never answered the myriad of letters I sent.
That was the day that I realized that you can’t trust anyone outside of the family. Because they can’t cut ties with you at any time. Without fanfare, without warning. They can abandon you.
That was the day that I decided that I wouldn’t trust anyone outside of my family.
Comments (0)
See all