After the sermon about Memoryfeed and walking the path of virtue, everyone in the congregation converted. Either that, or the unbelievers kept their blasphemy to themselves. Either way, all of the children took a copy of the Aulasy home. The Aulasy was a bible that had contents from the true version of the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, a version of the story Beyond the Wall of Sleep, excerpts from the Parable of the Sower, Snow Crash, and much more.
None of it was considered science fiction anymore.
Ruminations of the tree and the monolith persisted more than any memories of the sermon. All Joaquim could think about was what Prophet Ameen said before the sermon.
Bring your true self.
"Say," Gabe said. "Was that obelisk at the mosque an earthplexus server?"
Farouq halted. The three boys walked in a desolate street inside the abandoned city, and the pavement and crumbling blocks were cloaked in the night's darkness. With the state of the sky there was no bare moon to lend its luminescence. There was only the lapsed starlight the smog allowed to diffuse through. This time the drone Visard was not hidden away, and it was so Farouq could observe the brothers' reactions while he gossiped about some of the attendees. The velvet mask strapped to four propellers still swayed backwards even when Farouq stopped suddenly.
"The talking racoons or possums would have taken it and tried to sell it to Byza or to a corporation that is still down here," Farouq replied.
"It was broken at the top... and the pieces from it weren't anywhere on the floor," Joaquim said.
"Byza took it. Maybe," Gabe wondered.
"I also heard those rocks ain't worth much," Farouq added. "I haven't heard anyone be able to spawn or attract a leyline with it. I actually don't know of anyone that was able to sell those rocks either."
"Do you think r0cbytes can be made from that obelisk?" Gabe asked.
"Nah," Farouq replied immediately. He raised a thumb to point it at his chest. "I would be the first to know if that was possible."
"Gabe," Joaquim called. The seriousness in his voice attracted both the attention of Gabe and Farouq, only the buzzing from Visard could be heard. "You know what I'm thinking don't you?"
Gabe smiled. They both turned their heads in Farouq's direction. "Yea I do."
Farouq tried to keep the same monotone expression, but he eventually caved. He laughed, throwing both of his palms behind his head, causing his beige kameez to pull up slightly. "Alright fine. I'll stop playing stupid. I did try to use the earthplexus in the mosque. Right by that weird ass rock too."
"You weren't scared at all?" Joaquim asked. "Prophet Ameen really told us about the evils of Memoryfeed—"
"Of course I wasn't," Farouq interrupted. "Who the fuck do you think I am?"
"I think you're an asshole," Gabe declared.
The longest silence yet fell upon the cracked street.
"Look who's finally saying shit to my face."
It was always difficult to tell whether Farouq wanted to seriously fight or playfight, but Joaquim jumped in between them either way. Farouq managed to shove Gabe before Joaquim grabbed his wrist.
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"You're just trying to change the subject!" Joaquim yelled. That got Gabe to immediately let his guard down rather than continue.
"Yea! You better tell us what you were watching!" Gabe added.
"It was porn again wasn't it?" Joaquim asked.
Gabe and Joaquim chuckled, getting Farouq to try and grab Gabe again. "That's haram!"
"And you really like watching holographic haram!"
Smacks across the head were thrown until Joaquim yelled again. "Seriously!" Stop! What the hell did you do on the earthplexus?"
Farouq stepped back, panting slightly. "I was barely able to spawn an image with my imagination. I was able to get an earthplexus site up."
"See it was porn!" Gabe yelled, getting Joaquim to burst out laughing.
"I'll kick your ass again bug freak!" Farouq yelled.
"What's going on?"
The unknown voice asking the question got the playfighting to cease. Caught wrists were in the air while the boys tried to scan for the somewhat familiar voice. There were auric tugs between their newfound fear and the lighthearted mood established.
"Stop touching me."
"You're the one that likes watching girls touch each other."
Camilo came out of the shadows. "What are you talking about?"
"Uh..." Farouq mumbled. "A chiro girl was cracking another girl in a video?"
"Sure," Camilo replied nonchalantly. Gabe and Joaquim let out a synchronized laugh.
"You boys are looking for an earthplexus leyline. You three already know we're supposed to wake up early... well today."
Earlier when Prophet Ameen called the three boys to the front after the sermon was over, he got Farouq and Camilo to tell the brothers their purpose. To tell them why fate brought them to the messiah.
"No we're not," Farouq lied.
"Have I ever believed any of your lies?" Camilo asked him, placing both of his pants on the waist of his cargo pants. The tension from the inquisitor's sudden appearance dissipated, and the brothers chuckled at the blind boy.
"Say Camilo," Farouq said. "You never told me what your flux power was."
"I can simply show you," Camilo said.
Camilo's flesh distorted, at first as if colonies of ants were crawling under his skin, and then like boiling plastic. His skin and flesh split apart without a drop of blood leaking out. His clothes split apart into strings of fabric, changed colors and materials, and sewed itself back together into Ember City's supersoldier uniform.
The uniform had a camouflage design using white, black, and gray squares, and his shoulder hub manifested and projected a hologram of two chevrons with a star. Then Camilo's skin settled, and he morphed into a female-presenting human that appeared to be a few years older than Gabe. His chin got thinner and pointed outwards, and his eye lashes grew into the length of kitten whiskers. He had black wool-like hair in a bun, a custom for anyone in the Ember City army with long hair.
Joaquim remembered to breathe.
"So you're the one sneaking us into Ember city? The city in the sky?" Gabe asked.
Camilo nodded, and with a much higher voice he said, "and you will call me Dalia while I am in the city so we stay undercover."
"Why would they let people from down here join their ranks?" Joaquim asked.
The Aulasy foretold the downfall of the flying cities that housed descendants of Babylon. It was easy to resent the humans up there. Joaquim and Gabe would head down south from the abandoned city to scavenge through falling garbage from Fornia. Thinking about it, Joaquim just remembered most of their army was not white at all except for 1 platoon. Many were not even arak or human, while 1 platoon was always a homogenous platoon.
"I think I answered my own question in my h—"
"Wait," Gabe interrupted. "Who's jaunting us up there?"
"Another inquisitor we are meeting in a few hours... hopefully you'll sleep in those remaining hours," Camilo answered. "Now come back to the mos—"
"There's a leyline here!" Farouq yelled, already turned away from the conversation. "Camilo, you wouldn't mind if I spawned this right?"
Farouq turned around to reveal that he conjured with his imagination...
A hologram book. The Aulasy.
"We already gave you a physical copy."
Gabe pulled the hologram away from Farouq, presumably using his mind.
"You know I allowed you to take it right Gabe?"
Joaquim followed the book to find his brother's expression changing as much as Camilo's did. His brother's bloodlust flooded the street and Joaquim's nervous system.
"You have no idea how long I have been waiting for the prophecies in these pages to pass."
As he held the neon bible he read once upon a time as a house of leaves, the way he expressed his desire to hurt the ones above on the trip back to the mosque... he eventually yelled like Prophet Ameen did during the sermon. After spotting a masticated corpse and the mystical antelope with bloody antlers gaiting within the vicinity of the mosque, Joaquim pulled the hologram book away from Gabe using his own mind.
The neon bible vanished.