“Where are you planning on seeing?” Dan asked, his footsteps matching pace with my chair. “You have to have some sort of plan other than just ‘seeing the city’.”
I hadn’t really had a plan. It was more that nothing felt quite real. It felt as if I was looking out on the ruins I had created, and I had to see all of the ruins or I wouldn’t be released from this dream. This dream where Dan was alive, but a cyberperson. I was alive, but rolling along in a creation of the Wall. It was too weird to be a dream, but I still felt detached. Adrift. I hadn’t really thought about it. I’d gone along with everything as it rolled me along without protesting too much, but now I had control. I could break free from this feeling that I wasn’t here. But that begged the question, where did I want to go?
I needed to see Daniel. To hear exactly what happened after I died, or almost died. I wanted to see Henry’s wife and kids. I wanted to see where our troops held out, and Dan almost died.
I looked at him, walking calmly next to my chair, his eyes straight ahead looking at the path in front. “I want to see where you almost died.” He visibly flinched at my words.
“No,” His voice was flat in its quick denial.
“I want to see what you were fighting to hold.” I wanted to see it. To see where I sent him off to.
He stopped, and I had to stop and turn my chair slightly to look at him. “No.” His words were flat, but his eyes were wide in a way I hadn’t seen before, and his metal arms trembled slightly. And then the moment was gone; his eyes narrowed back to their normal openness, and the tremors ceased.
“I will have the Wall bring Daniel to meet us, and he can lead us to Henry’s family,” His words were calm; he showed no sign of his previous fear. I wanted to ask him what just happened, but I was afraid to know.
He started walking again, not addressing anything that just happened, and passing my chair. I followed him, letting him lead me along and show me more of this surreal existence that felt like nothing had ever happened.
We drifted down the path toward the brown trimmed rows of tall buildings that marked the outer ring’s main housing area where Normals lived. Not without Honor, nor with Honor. Just regular old people who ran the stacks, made clothing, cooked food, and were the wheels of this society. My village role as a weaver would probably have fit in well in this area.
While most of the figures I could see were running around, one was waiting against a building watching us approach. As we got closer, the build looked like Daniel, and I remembered Dan’s statement that he would have him meet us. It seemed just wandering the city was not acceptable.
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“Liv! Dan,” Daniel waved at us and walked toward us. “Didn’t expect to see either of you alive again.”
Dan stopped, and I sent my chair to move up next to him, shrugged, and pointed at Dan next to me, “He wouldn’t let me die.”
Daniel looked at Dan, and then back at me, “I guess love does many strange things. Well, I didn’t get to blow up the whole city either, so I guess both our plans were foiled by Wall antics.”
That’s right, he had wanted to use extra explosives to blow up more of the City after I blew up the castle. Why hadn’t he finished off his plans? “What happened after the castle? I kind of blacked out and don’t remember anything.”
Daniel waved his hand forward, “Come, let’s walk and talk. You wanted to meet Henry’s family, right? I’m staying with them right now.”
I moved my chair slightly forward, and he turned and started walking into the road between the buildings.
“Right after the castle went boom, I thought it was my turn, and commanded the people I had sent out with extra explosives light them up. Nothing happened. Turns out, the Wall thought your calculations were a little high, and they had a separate controller on all of them. Those sneaky repair people had the explosives set to deactivate the moment the first batch went off.”
“And what about after that? It seems as if the city was expecting me.” I looked around at the street filled with market stalls and people. They were glancing at me, but none approached. In fact, as we walked they seemed to be parting and making space for us to pass. Among them I noticed a large number of uniform guards, but the guards didn’t seem to be pushing them or directing them. As my eyes met the eyes of one older man, he bowed slightly as if in deference to a King.
“After? Well, the City guards fell on their chain of command, and that man told him men to stand down. They stood in the streets, and called out to us to come out and talk. I came out since I’m the leader with Henry dead, and we agreed to a truce since there wasn’t a King to fight for or against. While we were talking, a representative of the Wall came riding out covered in one of their cloaks, and told us that the great Exile was alive, and that she would be determining the government. We were told to wait, clean up the city, and prepare all the people for you.” He finished his story and shrugged, “You were the play maker all along, and since you lived, if you want to fix up this city, go ahead.”
“Do you not want a say in the new city?” I asked.
He shrugged again and angled toward a door. “This is Henry’s place.”
It was a simple home smashed up against all the homes in the row alongside it. The door was a solid brown rectangle set in the wall.
“And no, I don’t particularly want more to do with the city. I’ve had enough fun just trying to keep the ever most sacred Honored from snatching up the King’s throne in your absence.” Daniel answered my earlier question. “It's all on you now. Have fun.”