When Irene returned to Redfalls, the first thing she did was check the crystal. She was 99% certain it was smaller. She went into the inn and found Ellen.
“A room?” Ellen asked.
“I have a question,” Irene said. “Was the crystal bigger before?”
“What?” Ellen countered, sounding surprised. Ellen turned to look out the glass front of the common room to look at the crystal floating in the courtyard beyond. She frowned. She stepped out from behind the service counter and walked closer to the window. Her frown got larger. She pushed the door open and walked out into the square.
Irene followed behind, not liking Ellen’s reaction. Ellen reached out one hand and ran it across the surface of the crystal. The crystal was stained a very, very light red. The paleness of the color meant Ellen could not be more than tier one. Children were tier zero. The transition from tier zero to tier one was a little vague. Almost every settler was already tier one or tier two by the time the personal interface was widely known. Irene wondered if anyone was paying attention to tier and magic color development among the children. The oldest children were just reaching twelve. Greg’s son Bill would be that old now. Irene knew Bill could cast magic at ten. The children in the suburbs all seemed a lot older than their physical age. Irene thought it was the result of living in constant danger. Irene herself never felt completely safe in the structure. Not even sleeping next to Ian in an inn room. She really couldn’t imagine growing up in wildspace.
“It does look smaller,” Ellen commented. Irene pulled her drifting thoughts back into the moment. “I think it was about three inches taller when we first found it.” Irene held her thumb and forefinger up indicating a span she thought was roughly three inches.
“About that much?” she asked Ellen.
“Yeah,” Ellen responded. “I remember Kyle measured it off. We were comparing it to Londontown’s crystal.”
“It was smaller than that when I first visited,” Irene commented. “I’ve heard a rumor that violence in a square can cause the crystal to shrink. Has there been any fighting here?”
“You mean between people? No. I mean there is some sparring in the training grounds,” Ellen said.
“No, not training,” Irene said. “If training or hunting shrank a crystal, Londontown’s would have disappeared long ago.” Irene held her staff up to the crystal, getting a new more precise measure of it. “This worries me,” Irene commented. “Are they back from Chicago yet?”
“No,” Ellen replied, “I don’t expect them for at least a week yet.” Irene searched her memory trying to recall any other time she’d seen a crystal shrink. She couldn’t come up with anything.
Rest crystals disappeared after a while. The crystals were already so small in the rests the The Heights stayed in, Irene didn’t notice if they got smaller before they vanished. She saw rests with larger crystals in them, but she didn’t stay in them long.
“Does a rest crystal get smaller before it disappears?” Irene asked Ellen, “or does it just vanish?”
“I never noticed,” Ellen responded. “When we lived in wildspace, I was always too busy to be measuring the crystal every night. We’d get attacked in the middle of the night and realize the crystal was gone. We’d come back to the rest after a gathering run and there would be no sign of it. Once the entire area remodeled in our absence and we lost all our possessions.” That would hurt, Irene thought. She wondered how many times that happened to The Heights. She realized she hadn’t visited her friends in that suburb in a while.
“I’m going to go to Chicago,” Irene told Ellen. “Hopefully I’ll catch Ian still there.”
“Now?” Ellen said. “You should stay the night and go in the morning.” Irene agreed. She rented a room for just one night.
----------------------------------------
She traveled high, over the top of Chicago, heading to The Heights. She didn’t know why, but suddenly she felt like she really needed to see them. She traveled fast, south and east until she hit the ruined green. She found them on the second day of searching.
“Greg,” Irene said, giving the warrior a hug. “I am relieved to see you.” He was the first person Irene saw. It was late in the day and he was standing guard.
“What’s wrong?” Greg asked, obviously sensing her disquiet.
“I don’t know,” Irene admitted. “I realized I haven't seen you in a while and suddenly it was really important that I did.”
“You’re always welcome,” Greg replied. Irene swung her pack off her back and joined Greg on the watch.
“I’m surprised to find you in the suburb,” she said. “Isn’t this the time for the leadership meeting?” Now Greg frowned and looked troubled.
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“I left early,” he said. “Most of the small suburb leaders did. Anyone who doesn’t supply warriors for the war doesn’t have a say anymore.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” Irene responded. “I don’t understand this war. Isn’t the dangers of the structure enough?”
“It is for me,” Greg replied. “There have been multiple deaths and the hospital in Chicago is full.”
“There is a red healer in the north at Moscow,” Irene said. “I mentioned the red square as a place you might trade with. If you do end up there you need to be careful.”
“I’ll remember that,” Greg responded.
“I’ve learned a few things about smelting iron and making small items. Learn is not the right word,” Irene corrected. “I took notes on it. Maybe Mary or someone else can learn it.”
“Do your small items include vent pins?” Greg asked.
“Yes,” Irene said. “vent pins and door wedges. I was told they are the simplest things to make. That anyone who has handled examples can produce them. You just need an anvil, a blacksmith hammer and a smelter.”
“Being able to make our own would take some of the pressure off. I could drop out of being an official suburb in Chicago. We can afford to pay the higher tax rates for traders, if we don’t have to go as often,” Greg observed.
“Good,” Irene said. “I’ll make a copy of my notes tomorrow and go over them with whoever is interested.” Irene picked her pack back up. She was tired. “I’d like to finish the watch with you, but I suddenly feel exhausted. I’m going to go find a corner to curl up in.”
“Sharl and the kids are in the second room on the right past the rest,” Greg volunteered. “There should be a corner available for you there.”
“Thanks,” Irene said. She moved past Greg into the suburb proper. She cast muffle on herself so that she didn’t wake anyone that might already be sleeping. She found Sharl still awake. She was rocking a young child, trying to get it to sleep.
“Who is this?” Irene asked quietly as she paused to greet Sharl and the baby.
“The newest member of our family,” Sharl replied, “little Bethany.”
“She’s beautiful,” Irene said. She swung her pack to the ground and set her staff beside it. She sat on the hard cement floor, leaning against the wall. There were no spare pallets in the room. Irene didn’t expect one. She slept on the hard floor more times than she could count.
“Where are you heading?” Sharl asked.
“Here,” Irene said. “I’ll go back to Chicago after my visit,” she responded. Sharl stilled and looked worried.
“You’ve been in Chicago?” Sharl asked.
“No, actually a new red square north,” Irene responded. “They’ve been keeping its location quiet since its population is heavy on children. They don’t want to draw the conflict to themselves.” Irene shifted, trying to get comfortable. “I’m worried about it. Have you ever heard of a protection crystal shrinking?”
“In a square?” Sharl asked. At Irene’s nod she continued, “No. If you find a rest with a larger crystal, it will shrink until it vanishes. I think it has to do with how many animals are repelled. It’s hard to notice in the little chip crystals that dark rests have. A chip crystal won’t last a week where there are badgers in the halls, but here where there are only rats it can last for months.”
“The crystal in Londontown is shrinking,” Irene confided. “I was told there it is related to the fighting. I noticed the crystal in the red square I mentioned is also shrinking. The full-time residents are dependents of warriors and hunters that have been manning the tax stations and defending the border.”
“Greg heard in Chicago that the tax stations have been doing more than defending the border. Once the blues stopped scavenging beyond the tax stations, the income dropped. The guards started running patrols deep into blue territory to catch blue scavengers and rob them,” Sharl said. “Is there any truth in that?”
“I don’t know,” she responded with a sigh. “I avoid the border. I don’t doubt it. I know there have been direct attacks on Paris, Londontown and Chicago downtown.”
“Really? Paris? Londontown? Greg didn’t tell me about that,” Sharl responded.
“I was there when one raid happened. It was red warriors wearing hardened leather armor. At the time the only crafter who made it was in Chicago,” Irene reported.
“So it is even worse than I realized,” Sharl responded.
“I carried warnings in the beginning,” Irene admitted, “and it made me feel guilty about the deaths. I started trying hard to not know what was going on. Now I am feeling guilty about that. I really wish I could figure out a way to stop it.”
Sharl carefully laid her daughter down into a handmade crib. The baby slept on, oblivious to her mother’s love.
“Sometimes you just have to let the children fight it out. All you can do is pick them up afterwards and kiss away their hurts,” Sharl commented.
“People are dying,” Irene said.
“People die here all the time. You didn’t kill any of them. Don’t feel guilty about the life and death decisions people made for themselves,” Sharl said. Irene rubbed her face and lay down on the floor, using her pack as a pillow. The lights dimmed, as the night cycle started.
“You have to remember the good things, like little Bethany,” Sharl commented, sensing her friend’s continued sadness. Sharl realized Irene never mentioned any family. Sharl thought one of Irene’s brothers was in Londontown. Sharl could only have gotten that information from Irene. “Bill will be thrilled to see you,” Sharl said, mentioning her own son and his hero worship of the trader. Irene noticed that even Sharl, Billy’s mother, was calling the boy Bill now.
“Remind me in the morning to show you how to use your interface to decode inscriptions,” Irene said. At the moment it was the last accomplishment she remembered that was untainted by later events. That and meeting Ian. If she talked about him, she would have to face her fears that he might get killed.
Sharl was amused that discovering a method to solve the wall puzzles was Irene’s version of good things.
“I look forward to it,” Sharl responded.