Despite the dripping, the rats, and the smell of shit and piss, Reniere’s underbelly was peaceful.
At least to Serpahine. With her head held high and a sharp frown on her face, the mercenary knew that in this waste, no one would find her, Oliver, Artemis, and Lily. Though the underground remained unpleasant. It may be out of sight far from the light, but it was still shit-piss-rat-infested sewers and with each minute that passed, the air left a stink in their mouths and on their skin.
And Artemis made it clear that she hated it here, “Sera, can we please find somewhere else? I am tired of finding rats gnawing on my wires.” The engineer said as she twiddled with her tools to fix the holes in her equipment.
Artemis Fireyoung, a brilliant mind but unfortunate dropout from the Academy of Mechanical Arts. She enrolled to become a Materials Mechanic but unfortunately, according to her, the broken system that is academia was not an environment she wanted. So, here she is. Soldering wires with the rats for company.
While Artemis gagged at the smells and screamed at each rodent that scurried past, Oliver remained focus, detailing blueprints and maps of the city and what roads to light up when the power went out.
“Always whining. Always complaining. Just solder and hush up.” He said with a quipped smirk. Artemis shot him a gaze then twisted her solder at him. It sparked, he jumped, and she felt pleased with herself. Oliver Sirenbreak, a master of a dying profession. For Oliver, maps and city plans had been his passion since he was little. From the moment he could read pictures, something about the curves and angles and complex maths used for maps has always been his intrigue. So, here he was. Looking over the city plans with their complex wirings and their broken geometry to decipher what they so very much needed.
While Oliver and Artemis bickered and quarreled, Lily couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Her lavender hair and pale face almost glowed in the dim light of the sewers fluorescence. Her doughy eyes looked up at Seraphine only to dart away when her stare was returned.
Seraphine sighed and knelt to the frail girl, hand coming up to her cheek as she stroked her gentle skin. “This will work., trust me.” Her voice was rough but her words were low enough for it to soften. Lily gazed into the girl’s dark eyes and although she saw herself, she felt at ease, but worry remained. Fragments scattered inside her as she pressed her back against the dirty wall.
“And if it doesn’t?” Lily whispered back and the work stopped, a frozen blanket fell over the four as theta ll turned to Seraphine. Doubts were not allowed. She made that rule. Seraphine chose to ignore them. She told them all that the moment they felt hesitant, wary, scared, that they could leave.
Oliver and Artemis knew this, of course. Seraphine had them on her team for the longest, since the beginning. They knew the rules and why they are in place: to protect them, to conform them to the idea that success was not just an end goal, but a state of mind. Doubts meant fear meant failure.
“Then we try again.” Seraphine looked back at Artemis and Oliver as they exchanged glances, “we have spent years doing this. We did not suffer the chase, the raids, the fear to give up now. It will work. It will. This... This wingless thing will not take from us again; the horrors of the dark will no longer haunt us. We are the space that is in between, every corner, every alley, every crack their light cannot enter is a space we will call home.” Each word sent the shadows lurching from the walls, the darkness danced as her tongue lashed out. No longer did determination drove her. A forged desire fueled every bone in her body and Seraphine knew exactly what that would mean.
Artemis’s faint folly faded and a crooked smile crept over her face, “soon, we will call it all home.” Her emerald eyes dimmed as they looked at Oliver. His face darkened as he gripped the pen tighter in his palm.
And as the three confided in each other’s gazes, Lily rose to her feet, allowing the light to hit her face. Her scars writhed almost in the harsh light. To some, she would be seen as ugly; a beast in a little girl’s clothes, but to them, to Oliver, Artemis, Seraphine, she was exactly who she needed to be.
“Doubt means fear means failure,” Lily spoke and the others repeated.
“Doubt means fear means failure.” the air warmed. Seraphine looked to Artemis. The toe-headed girl nodded, mouthed something to her before she stood, and walked deeper into the dark. A switch flipped and their machine, tall and made of rusted steel, whirred to life. They all smiled at it but not at the metal. No, not even Artemis enjoyed the alloy. It was the center: a column of golden liquid that sparkled even in the draining fluorescence.
Seraphine, lit up by golden light that forced shadows cascading down her features, gawked at the light. “When?” Her words were hungry, eager, greedy for the time to come.
Oliver looked at his watch, counting the ticks, “thirty seconds.” His own smile stretched to his ears.
Every pair of eyes was on Seraphine now, waiting for her command, waiting to begin what they started so long ago. A plan, a dream soon to be a reality with the press of a button. With her word, this machine, the four of them would start the draining process, the mission they sought out to save themselves from the neon that plagues them.
Reniere, a city of endless light and unmatched power. A place that the heavens could not compare to. Reniere, the home that sent them into the underground, forced to live among the shit, and the piss, and the rats. Reniere, the soon-to-be wasteland covered in eternal darkness, no more light. No more neon. No more pain.
Seraphine’s face fixed. She leaned in, tears welling behind her eyes, nails digging into her palms, spoke gently, slowly, but the weight pulled down their world.
“Light her up.”
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