Lilly touched the water in the side of her belly. Her finger went right through and almost touched the weird wormy thing inside her, but then her finger was ejected, and when she pushed again there was some give but it felt like poking one of the floor mats at the daycare. Chila had the water too, but Chila’s water didn’t eject her - even when she held her hand through zher like a bracelet. Her hand got wet, but once she was done experimenting, the water came off and went back in Chila’s wound. Her hand was completely dry now.

“That’s let-water dear.”

Lilly looked up at the man who knelt in front of her. He was looking at Chila. Lilly stared at him. He was very plain but handsome. Lilly did not trust him. 

“The let-water is keeping you alive. We never knew it could do that.”

Lilly was quiet, but listening. She made Chila smack his own belly like a drum. Some of the water bounced out and back into itself like it was playing along. “Can I drink it? I’m thirsty.”

Her belly and side started tickling; the let-water was juggling. “Ah, stop that!”

“Hehe. that’s not possible and potentially very dangerous.

“You said my mama is dead.”

“Yes, it’s a tragedy.”

“I…” tears gushed out and Lilly shivered in denial and incomprehension. 

The man didnt say anything. He simply held her shoulders when she collapsed on the ground. “Why didnt the water save her?”

“She was already gone, dear.”

Lilly cried until she was nearly gasping. 

“What are you doing! Hands off technologist! That’s verging on child abuse.”

“What!? She doesn’t have a parent. She needs comfort…” Nathan stopped.

The spy was offering the girl water. Then he sat next to her on the couch.

Nathan raised his eyebrows at the spy, who in turn raised his hands and said “See no suggestive touching. Just sitting side by side.”

Nathan wouldn’t be going anywhere while the spy was still here. The girl didnt have any family in the area except her mother. Her father, they discovered, was off with a fist of the militancy - supposedly saving a village or something good and helpful to improve people’s lives.”

You don’t need to be here. Go to the militant hall and complete a report of what you saw. We will handle it ourselves.”

“Yes of course. You’ll make the best decisions for the city.”

“No wait, you’re to stay as I escort both of you to the hall.”

They bickered as the spy looked out the window. He called them over to the door. The girl stood up. She seemed to want to walk by herself. They stayed close and mingled with the crowd. Near the militant hall structure, the crowds thinned to nearly nothing. 

“They will have contained the threat, but want to know your involvement.”

“The…” Nathan trailed off as he saw someone in casual clothes raise a tubular object. 

“Earthquake!” Nathan knew that wasn’t enough so he slammed his hand into the ground and made the earth shake with a split-second request to the spirits. Everyone in 30 yards of him felt their legs give out or nearly fell. The man with the rod fell on one knee. He held his rod up again and fired. The plasma was different this time. A strange blue aura spun around it. The plasma vanished as fast as it appeared - before hitting Nathan. He could feel it’s heat left behind. 

He was stunned. Then as people stood up, the air coalesced into small floating droplets - then one larger orb of water. The water dove toward the girl’s stuffed animal and settled there after swirling around a moment. Let-water!

“Somehow our cover was blown.” The spy had the would-be-killer pinned in a sawcrab bind. His top hat had fallen off and Nathan realized he was a zeman! He whistled in his mind. Zeman spies were even more cunning than himself. This one had a long braid curled up and pinned to the hair near her scalp. He could tell in the broadness of her shoulders and the slight curve of her hips. Her more feminine features seemed to suddenly pop out more.

“Get over here and help me! This is a two man job.”

Nathan was jolted out of his reverie. She shuffled up to the two adults and snapped a quick glance at Lilly to ensure she was okay. She had been sitting up and talking to her doll last  he looked. Now she was clutching the doll to her and staring at the Spy and zher prisoner.  

“Get his legs. He’s ex-militancy I think. Or a dropout. We need him walking.”

Nathan almost offered to bind his legs with the earth, but thought best to keep that to himself. The ground was unstable under this yard near the hall. The spirits in the rock had been eager to shift into a more comfortable place. They would resist moving from this spot anyway. 

The zeman militant spy clasped something around the attacker’s wrists behind his back. A rune glowed almost too brightly on the strange bracers. They stuck together and the man twisted and strained but nothing he did could separate the bracers. 

“Runic bindings? Those must be knew.”

“They are. I’m the first to try them out. But… they’re prototypes so its good we have backup.

Nathan looked up toward the militancy hall structure. A team of four militants was hauling a stretcher of some sort. The man yelled and broke the connection between the bracers. That only seemed to help them, for they slammed his arms onto the rods on either side of the stretcher and his bracers were then bound to them. 

“I’ll handle this. It’s in our jurisdiction as militants. You go find the girl.”

Find the girl? She was right - nowhere. She wasn’t standing nearby. She wasn’t sitting up anywhere. He turned around and looked. He looked in the small crowd of people. She was nowhere to be seen. 

“You looking for that man and daughter?" a deep voice asked.

“Yes. Who are you? Did you…?” He saw a man with a cane watching him panic.

The man pointed with two fingers away from the structure. “He carried her away on his back. Probably shocked like the rest of us. Earthquke was short but really shook me up. She looked to be having a tantrum too. Smacking him on the back. A father needs a good strong back. The girl’s scared surely. Maybe they’ll…ive …here….eat…at….om…”

Nathan drifted away from the other man’s talk. He stood there unsure of what to do. He could simply go his way and leave the city. He’d surely run out of social credit if he went after her. Then he wouldn’t be able to come back for one more visit some time in the distant future.

“I don’t want to die. I’d be risking my life. I’ve already almost died twice in the last moonshift.” He started walking toward the park where the man had pointed. He didn’t want to look hurried if he bumped into the girl and her kidnapper. They wouldn’t be in the park for long anyway. Where would he take her?

____________

In a militant room at the same time:

Two men sat with plasma rods on their laps and wrote on a piece of paper. They laughed. Their tallies matched. Seven each.

“Thettan, how did you match me? I was on the campus the whole time. There’re not that many people in the parks.” 

“Okay, look, my brother went off on the stilts and followed the night crowd to the street.”

“Whoa he actually did it?” 

“Yeah and I shot anyone I saw under the searchlights. Two in the park and five in the street.”

“What happened to Shawn?” 

“He’s in custody now.” 

“Ooh, so… I told him not to try someone else’s invention. Wasn’t even tested yet.”

“The previous versions were. I saw the guy working on them at the workshops. Doesn’t matter now. We got him on the way out so Shawn won’t be able to try that again. Stupid. He thought he could take out more people on those. He did off some lady with one by stepping on her though. After missing her vitals and hitting her kid too.”

They shared a laugh. “We said no kids.” 

“Ugh, Doan. I know I think she's still alive.” 

“Well they’ll never know we tested on people.” 

“These plasma rods are the best runeweapons so far.”

“Man I’m so glad the Shivs went over the edge and started their killings. Maybe now they'll let us hunt them all down.” 

“Well desh, Thettan. You’re a little too bloodthirsty. But I agree. I’m glad we can put it on the Shivs.”

“Let’s get this report written. Then we can go see my brother.”

—--------

Seventeen slivers later, on the university campus, in the workshops:

Alyz shook the cottonhoppers off the tarp that enclosed the open side of the workshop they’d escaped to. “So annoying. Go find the dorms. So much more cotton there. It’s like heaven for you.”

The girl was staring at her. “You like to stare. You didn’t even scream, or cry for help” Alyz shifted her shoulders. “Well you did try to get away. That’s something.”

“She’s in shock, still Alyz.”

“Oh shocking! I didn’t know that, Barn. I’m only the one that was leading the spy on when all those insane rod-wielders fell on us.”  

“Hey stop it!” A third voice shouted weakly.

“Hey is for -” Alyz began. A foot slamming into her knee stopped her short.
It was the girl. “Drath deel! That was rude.”

“I…can’t … help you. Mama’s gone.”

Alyz was silent. 

“We know. At least Alyz knows. She found you and your mother. She also found a device next to you and…your mother.”

“I thought you were both gone,” Alyz mumbled.

Lilly still couldn’t see the third person. There was only one dim light, but a hand emerged from the shadows and in it was an orb.