Chapter 7
Uninvited Power
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The Dame was tucked into a shaded nook between two of Red Market’s towering warehouses. Maia was thankful for the shelter—working under the midday sun would’ve been brutal. Sweat still trickled down her forehead as she tightened the cell inverter into the Dame’s old engine, her fingers greasy but sure. This part, at least, was easy. She knew the Dame like the back of her hand, a lifetime spent watching her father tinker with the old girl. She took pride in that he trusted her with this, trusted her to keep the Dame running. They could’ve brought the engine to Darn or one of the hundred other tinkerers littering the Market, but neither of them would ever let anyone else touch their home. The Dame’s too important.
“You reckon you’ll talk your Ba into going to Lindrao?” Nix asked, perched on a rusted beer keg in the shade, her pale skin glowing almost ghostly under the daylight. She was fiddling with a music box, an old pre-war relic she’d been trying to wire up to play tracks like Maia’s overlays.
“Maybe,” Maia replied, wiping her hands on a rag. “He didn’t seem too thrilled about the idea.”
Nix was pale white, she looked like a ghost in the midday light. She rarely left her room above the rootshop, unless Maia dragged her out. “How far’s there anyway?”
Nix glanced up from her project, looking thoughtful. “How far is it anyway?”
“Two weeks, if we get the Dame running,” Maia grinned. “Ba’ll avoid the main road as usual, so we’ll probably take the Dry Cliffs road along the wastes before cutting east.”
“Aren’t there a lot of scuttlers out along those cliffs?”
“Nothing we can’t handle” Maia shrugged. “Ba wants me to start training with my, eh,” she glanced around to see if there was anyone nearby. There wasn’t, “my abilities.” She said quietly anyway.
“Oh,” Nix’s fingers stilled on the wires, her dark eyes lifting to Maia. “And how do you feel about that?”
“Apprehensive.” Maia sighed and glanced down at the engine. “Damn, I’m going to need more copper wire. C’mon, let’s head into the Market.” She shut the Dame’s engine cover and motioned for Nix to follow.
The Dame was a pre-war beast of a cargo truck, now faded orange with rust creeping in like vines across its panels. Over a decade, she and Matthias had turned it into their home. With wheels nearly as tall as Maia herself, the truck was built for the harshest terrains, towering like a giant box of metal. The door to the living area was so high up that Maia had to leap just to haul herself inside.
When your whole life was in a tiny space, you had to be meticulously organised. Everything had its place—though to anyone else, the scattered bits of machinery, tangled wires, and makeshift comforts might seem like chaos. But to Maia, it was perfect. It’s home. She reached into a hidden compartment, fingers brushing the cool surface of some coins before pulling them out—bronze, circular, slightly domed. Shouldn’t need more than a few shells for some wire.
“Okay, let’s go,” she called over to Nix, hopping down, her boots landing with a thud on the dusty ground. “I’m hoping to get all this working before it gets dark.”
They made their way into the central warehouse, and as they rounded a corner, a sharp whistle pierced through the din. Maia turned, spotting Allico lounging against a rusted pipe, his trademark cocky grin plastered across his face. He wasn’t alone. A few of his new friends, boys she hadn’t seen before, flanked him, looking her up and down.
“Hey sis,” Allico grinned, “cuz,” nodding to Maia. They weren’t actually cousins but they might as well be considering how closely they’d been raised.
Nix raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be working?”
Allico shrugged, not even bothering with a defence. “I’m on break.”
One of the boys—a tall, scruffy one with a dirt-smudged face—stepped forward, a lazy smirk curling his lips. His eyes on Maia “What’s a girl like you doing hauling parts around when you could be hanging with us?”
“Lay off,” Allico said with a warning at the same time Maia said, “I’d rather hang with the dogs, thanks.”
The boy blinked, clearly not expecting such a quick dismissal. “Easy there, just trying to be friendly.”
“Your definition of friendly needs work,” Maia said, turning her back on him. “Nix, c’mon.”
“Just wanted to give you guys a heads up,” Allico said as they turned to leave, his tone genuine despite the bravado he liked to put on in front of his loser friends. “Ex said that there were scravs in Red Market.”
“Really?” Maia asked. Scravs were a rare sight these days, so long after the war. So many of their Fatebonds had been tied to war itself that most had simply died the moment the Archons did. There were few stragglers still left, still going about trying to fulfil their oath to gods long dead.
“The guards are looking for ‘em,” another of the boys said—his name was Ex if Maia remembered right. “They’re not welcome in Red Market. When they catch ‘em they’ll put ‘em down for sure.”
“Why?” Nix asked, “what’d they do?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ex spat. “Don’t matter if the Verdant or Archon scravs, neither—they’re all dangerous. My Pa says they should all be wiped out before they cause more trouble.”
Nix stiffened beside Maia, but Maia kept her face neutral, though her heart hammered against her chest.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Doesn’t seem right to kill someone that’s done nothing wrong,” Maia said, her voice cool.
“Yeah?” Ex stepped closer, eyes narrowing. “And maybe you oughta listen when someone’s giving you good advice. Scravs aren’t human anymore. They’re freaks, ticking time bombs.”
Allico shifted uncomfortably, glancing between Ex and Maia. “Cool it, Ex.”
Only Nix and Allico knew what Maia really was. It was something her father had taken pains to hide over their years living here. Red Market was a place where people loved to gossip, and while most of it was harmless chatter, whispers about Matthias always lingered. People knew he’d fought in the war. They knew he was good—maybe too good—at handling scuttlers and whatever else wandered too close to town. It earned him a reputation, sure, but there was a fine line between being skilled and being unnervingly skilled.
“You know it’s true,” Ex’s voice rose, sharp with bravado. He looked at Allico, trying to bolster himself. “Scravs are dangerous, and they’re here.”
Maia could see it now—the tremor in his words, the false courage that boys used to cover the truth that they were simply scared. Scared of what they couldn’t understand. “I bet they’re already scheming something,” Ex grumbled.
Maia forced a smile, her jaw tight. “We’ll be careful, thanks for the tip guys.”
She grabbed Nix’s arm and walked away, her mind spinning. People like Ex didn’t know the truth. They didn’t know about Maia. To them, she was just another face in the market, just another girl. And for now, that’s exactly how it needed to stay.
“Don’t listen to Ex,” Nix said quietly, “he’s an idiot.”
“He is but he’s also not entirely wrong,” she admitted, her eyes scanning the crowds. “Scravs are dangerous, I wonder if Ba knows there’s some here in Red Market.”
“Maybe we should find him?” Nix offered.
Maia hesitated. Her father had a way of reacting—sometimes too strongly—when it came to scravs. He hated what they were, hated what it meant for them, for her.
“Maybe,” she said quietly, her mind wandering to the thought of the Verdant scravs. They were far more dangerous to her and Matthias than any gossip in Red Market. Who knew what old Fatebonds still pulled them across the wastelands? For all she knew, there could be Verdant scravs with Fatebonds tied to hunting down Archon scravs like her.
She shook her head, pushing the thought away. Now wasn’t the time.
“Let’s just get the parts and head back to the Dame,” Maia said.
They found a merchant, who initially tried to rip them off before realising they were Red Market locals, and Maia’s knowledge of the parts needed helped haggle the price to something reasonable. They swung by Lani’s for a quick lunch, wolfing down spicy root fries.
Lani greeted them with her usual smile, wiping her hands on her apron before setting down two plates in front of them with some kind of jerked meat.
"You girls have been busy this morning," she remarked, her eyes sparkling with warmth.
“I’m pretty i’m going to get the Dame running again by tonight,” Maia said proudly.
“And I’ve almost got this working,” Nix held up the small music box, putting a small needle in place and a fuzzy, crackling melody started playing, it sounded like guitar strumming but was hard to make out. “I’m close.”
“That’s my old Luska player, where’d you find it?”
Nix’s head shot up. “Wait, really?” A panicked look crossed her face. “I thought it was just some old junk. I thought—”
“It’s okay,” Lani chuckled, calming her daughter, knowing her tendency to overreact. “It was broken anyway. And no one makes those old tapes anymore. You rigged it up to play from data archives? That’s clever.” She smiled, her eyes distant as nostalgia crept in. “Oh, that Luska... it was everything back then. You know, your father gave it to me when we first started seeing each other.” A wistful smile tugged at her lips, and for a moment, Maia thought Lani was the most beautiful person she’d ever seen, her smile brighter than algae-neon.
“The nights we’d sit in the old alleys of the Undercity,” she continued, “listening to that, dreaming about... well, about everything. About getting out of Lindrao,” She chuckled, her gaze far away. “It’s funny, feels like a lifetime ago. I suppose the world was very different back then anyway.”
“You miss it?” Maia asked, curiosity tugging at her brow.
Lani sighed softly. “Sometimes. Lindrao was hard, but it was home. I’d like to go back one day, show you where I grew up.” She glanced at Nix, a knowing smile on her lips. “But I doubt you’d want to leave the Market, hmm?”
Nix shifted uncomfortably. Nix wasn’t exactly keen on travel. “Maia said she wants to go,” she blurted out, trying to deflect the attention. “She’ll go with you.”
Maia shot her a sharp look, why’d you bring that up?
“Oh really?” Lani’s eyes turned to Maia.
“Not really,” Maia backtracked quickly. “I just kinda mentioned it as a maybe to Ba. But nothing’s decided yet.” The last thing she needed was Lani bringing it up to her father and spooking him out of the idea. He was already hesitant about staying in Red Market, and getting him to actually go back to a city like Lindrao was going to take careful planning.
From across the market, a sudden commotion broke through the usual hum of Red Market life. Maia and Nix turned their heads towards the source, their curiosity piqued by the raised voices. A group of local town guards stood in a tense standoff with a pair of unusual looking people—and in a place like Red Market that was saying something. The crowd around them had begun to back away, whispering amongst themselves in hushed, fearful tones.
"Traitorous Verdant scum!" one of the guards shouted, his voice dripping with hatred as he brandished a blade. The threat was clear, scravs weren’t welcome here.
Maia’s breath caught in her throat. That must be them. The scravs Allico mentioned.
One of the scravs, a man with pale, almost translucent skin, narrowed his eyes, and before the guard could take another step, he flicked his wrist. In an instant, an isometric sphere of shimmering crystal materialised out of nowhere, enveloping the guard. The crystalline structure lifted him off the ground, suspending him in the air as he struggled helplessly inside.
The crowd gasped, stumbling back further, the fear palpable now. The scrav’s lips curled into a cruel smirk, his eyes dancing with amusement. "You think you can make us leave?" he laughed, a sharp, mocking sound that rang out over the market square.
The second scrav, seemingly more calm and collected, stepped forward, raising her hands as if to ease the situation. “We’re not here to cause trouble,” she said in a smooth, almost soothing voice. “We’ve got business in the Market. By nightfall, we’ll be out of your hair.” Her gaze was steady, lacking the malice of her companion.
The crystal prison holding the guard shimmered again, and the first scrav released his hold with a snap of his fingers. The sphere vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and the guard crumpled to the ground, gasping for air, his face pale with the realisation of how close he’d come to death.
Before Maia could process any more of the scene, her father appeared beside her, his face hard and grim. “We’re leaving,” he said, his voice low but urgent.
“Matthias,” Lani gasped, startled. “Where did you even come from?”
Maia blinked in surprise, still caught in the shock of what had just happened. “But—”
“Now,” Matthias insisted, his tone leaving no room for argument. His eyes flicked to the scravs, lingering a moment longer than necessary, his expression unreadable. “Come on.”
It wasn’t hard for them to slip away unnoticed. Half the people in the market were already making themselves scarce, pulling back into the shadows, while the rest remained frozen, watching the unfolding tension like moths to a flame. Watching to see if the guard was stupid enough to push further against the scravs. No one moved to get involved. Not against scravs.