Linda awoke to the sound of a rhythmic knocking on the thick metalline door of her quarters. She jumped upright and out of the corner of her eye saw something rectangular and black fall to the ground. For a moment, she worried her hand wasn’t going to reach it in time, but by some miracle, she managed to catch the machine just before it reached the floor. Apparently, she had once more fallen asleep with the alien laptop in her lap.
“Come on now, little one, pay the lad so he can go and get dressed - we’re goin’!” Wint’s ironic voice came from the other side of the door.
“Easy there or your bra will fall off from all this excitement!” Linda barked in response, surprising herself. “I’m coming.”
Her rude comeback came so naturally, it was as if she had always treated way taller and stronger people than her this way. Almost as if to compensate for it, she inserted the laptop in the bag with extra care, before jumping off the bed to straighten her sleep crumpled clothes. She remembered the wind storm had given her a hooded cloak and returned to the bed to pick it up. All set, with her hood pulled low over her face and the heavy bag hanging from her shoulder, she opened the heavy door with remarkable ease… only to see Wint on the other side, her typical mocking smile on her lips… and completely hoodless.
“What up - the costume party ‘bout to start, ye?” The woman laughed in her face.
“B-but, what about the cloaks?” Linda replied quickly.
“Well, the cloaks be all fine and good durin’ the day, but in the dark of night - not so much.” Wint smiled. “You’ve been sleepin’ again, haven’t ye?”
The wind storm took Linda’s disoriented silence as a yes and pulled her by the shoulder through the door.
“Let’s go so her Rulingness doesn’t get sour on us.”
The girl just nodded and let herself be dragged up towards the deck. Wotar was waiting for them at the top of the disembarking platform, together with another woman, almost as tall as herself, who bowed down in front of the Ruling, with a fist to her shoulder and walked away. “Cav’ral, cav’ral”, Linda repeated to herself quietly - that was what the military salute here was called - it was something between a bow and a salute. The knowledge she’d gathered from the alien website managed to alleviate the unpleasant feeling she had about being the party dumbass who never got the inside jokes and she was holding on to these bits of trivia like a lifeline.
“Greetings, Linda”, Wotar nodded her way, with a slight smile. “Apologies for confining you to your quarters - I realise it must’ve made the trip seem endless, however the favour captain Lor was so kind to do for us was too big and held too much of a risk for us to further impose on her hospitality.”
“No problem at all”, Linda nodded and inadvertently looked at Wint. “I kept myself busy.”
Wotar nodded again and let them descend to the shore before her. The dock was so dimly lit that Linda had to almost run after Wint to keep her in sight. After a while though, her eyes got used to the dark and she start to discern the vague silhouettes of the other anchored ships, as well as the row of trees which began roughly where the piers met the beach. Linda felt an uneasy feeling take over her as she saw Wotar stride towards the even darker forest ahead.
About ten minutes must’ve passed of them walking through the impenetrable darkness produced by the trees, before she mustered the courage to ask where they were going. On one hand, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer, especially if it was going to be expressed in kilometers, or hal’matries, as was the local unit of measure. Although judging by Wotar’s ever accelerating step and the already fading silhouette of Wint in front of her, if she didn’t speak up soon, perhaps the long walk might suddenly become the least of her worries. She’d just opened her mouth to ask how long until wherever it was they were headed to, when she suddenly saw the wind storm’s back directly in front of her face and it took quite the effort not to slam into it. Staggering slightly to one side, she managed to stand next to Wint, who, without sparing a glance her way, reached out and placed a stabilizing hand on her shoulder.
Linda squinted her eyes a bit to try and focus as much as she could the tiny amount of light which the trees around them barely let through. Wotar seemed to be rummaging through the bushes, as if looking for something. Unless the women of Alaiah also had night vision in their bag of unique abilities, the girl seriously doubted the Ruling could find anything at the moment. Still, the water lady was persistently feeling around the bushes and ground around them, until at one point they heard the sound of wood scraping against metalline. Wint, still holding on to Linda’s shoulder, took a step forward, dragging her along and the girl barely managed to stop her squeal of excitement when she saw the outlines of the object sticking out from the bushes.
Land-gliders! Two shiny, wonderful land-gliders - the luxury models of “Houn’dad” - the largest manufacturer of ground and semi-ground vehicles within the Alliance. Before she could stop herself, she had made a couple of steps towards the closest one and was just about to reach for the frame, when Wint appeared by her side like lightning and pushed her aside with a warning flicker in her glimmering green eyes. Linda threw her a bewildered look, but the wind storm was apparently not going to explain herself. Instead, she just hopped in the front and motioned for the girl to sit behind her and grab her waist.
“Why are there only two?” Linda protested quietly, so only Wint could hear.
“Cuz the Rulingsome thinks ye have no idea what this is”, the wind storm hissed over her shoulder, once the girl was securely seated behind her. “And believe me, little one, it’s best for ye that she keeps doin’ just that.”
The tone of Wint’s voice seemed to imply she too was trying to present herself to Wotar as a complete idiot, which made a certain amount of sense, when you think about it. Linda didn’t feel offended by this treatment anymore and besides - not two days ago, she couldn’t tell the difference between the Fire moon and the Day star.
It might have been the late hour or the complete darkness around them, but her head suddenly felt quite heavy and she had to force herself not to lean too much on Wint’s back once the machine started moving with a quiet hum. To keep her mind busy, she started recounting all the things she had learnt about the Fringes from the alien laptop.
They were the largest archipelago on Alaiah, which started around a thousand hal’maters from the shores of the Water twin. Although technically the Fringes were AWA territory, officially, they were an autonomous province, which translated from the local legal lingo sounded more or less like “you’re free to do whatever the hell you want, so long as you keep paying them taxes without too much hassle”. This was apparently quite the popular practice throughout the planet - even the Old Continent - Magmalia was divided into 98 provinces, although theirs were not quite as liberally autonomous. In contrast to these, the Fringes had neither a Governing Lady, nor even an Administrative council. Linda was trying to remember why that was, however she might’ve stopped reading that particular article midway because the author had managed to bore her with all the criticism she’d heaped onto any form of political regulation and her endless praise of the Fringes for refusing to participate in these“fancy political shenanigans”.
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Thankfully, they were almost out of the forest and although Wotar and Wint were keeping to the shadows of the trees, the rays of the Wind and Water moons were now able to seep through the branches above. Even in this muted lighting, Linda could see enough of the island for her jaw to drop in awe. The landscape was a surprisingly gorgeous combination between tropical trees and lush green clearings, spotted here and there by the incredibly high blue-leaved trees that the locals called b’ruankh’ai. She breathed in the fresh air, carrying the fragrance of the alien flora and the humming of various local insects. This place seemed to energize and calm her all at the same time.
A rapidly growing part of her was hoping that they would stick around here a while for… orientation or whatever. Or even training. Linda would have absolutely nothing against lying beaten within an inch of her life on one of the heavenly meadows around, acompanied by local bird songs.
It took her a while to realize they had stopped and a little more than she would’ve liked until she figured out why. They were close to a not-too-high hill, which, compared to everything else around it was rather unremarkable, really. Wotar and Wint shared a sidelong glance before the Ruling gave an almost invisible nod before speeding off towards the heel of the mound… Linda felt her eyes fly wide open and considered jumping off the glider as soon as she felt theirs speed in the same direction, but instead she just tightened her grip around the wind storm’s waist. “Please be a dimensigram, please be a dimensigram”, Linda’s inner voice repeated in panic, as the hill grew rapidly larger in front of them.
And it was… a dimensigram, that is. Not that that helped much, seeing as the corridor they found themselves in suddenly and mercilessly swung downwards into a seemingly endless descent into darkness. The only thing stopping her scream from escaping her lips was the pressure she felt in her ears and stomach.
Then just as suddenly, the glider straightened and came to a halt, oblivious to its second passenger’s distress. Linda waited a bit for the corridor to stop spinning on its axis in front of her eyes before dragging one of her trembling feet to the floor and slumping without any grace whatsoever from the seat. She blinked a few times to focus her blurry vision and took a quick look around.
They seemed to be at least about fifty mat’ri underground, judging by the tiny glimmering dot which was the hole in the hillside they came through. The corridor they currently found themselves in grew larger in front of them so that its ceiling was lost in the shadows that the small fluorescent lights hanging from the walls couldn’t quite penetrate. She felt the world start to spin again as her panic rose with renewed strength - what in the bloody hell were these catacombs they’d gotten themselves in? This single thought was all it took for her burning brain to start bombarding her with extremely explicit images of people, buried alive, desperately pounding on the tops of their caskets.
“Op, op! Your Rulingness” Linda jumped about a meter or two in the air when somewhere from her left came a deep female voice with a heavy accent, much like Wint’s. “It be a pleasure to see ye! Did ye travel good?”
Linda turned on her heels to take a look at the newcomer. She was almost as tall as Wotar and her skin was the typical dark brown of the Water ladies. She was also a lot more muscular than the Ruling. Her clothing consisted of a bikini top and black surfing shorts. Wotar put on a small smile and made a few steps towards the woman:
“Lady Ariah, I am rejoiced to see you in good health!”
“Ah beg of ye, Yer Highness, how many times must I tell ye - there be no ladies here, just good, honest women who live their life as the Goddess intended - with joy.” Her gaze drifted over Wotar’s shoulder, stopped for a moment at Wint’s face, before finally moving to Linda’s. “Op, I apologize for me bad manners - ‘tis so early in the mornin’ still - ah forgot to introduce meself. Marina Ariah - free citizen of the Fringes, it’s a pleasure to be meetin’ ye.
Linda took Ariah’s offered heavy hand and tried not to let the pain she felt from the crushing handshake she received. Through her pain-squinted eyes she thought she saw a shadow of something strange go through the local woman’s face like a storm. Wint, rude as she was, ignored the offered hand and just barked her name at the other woman, without so much as a sidelong glance her way.
“A-ah, Wint, that one…”
Ariah couldn’t quite finish, because Wotar made a sudden step forward and returned the local woman’s attention to the girl:
“And this is our gues, as I mentioned - Linda Pearce. Linda being her first name.”
“A-ah, yes, thank ye for mentioning, it be a darned strange name if I ever heard one”, the woman nodded and shifted her gaze back to the girl. “So this be the child, ye say. Interesting, quite interesting, indeed.”
Wotar replied something which Linda’s hearing couldn’t quite parse into coherent speech and suddenly they were walking somewhere again. Wint was walking by her side but for the first time since she’d met the wind storm, she was dragging her feet, as though purposely trying to stay behind the two water ladies in front of them.
“You don’t seem to like this Ariah very much, huh?” Linda whispered.
“Don’t ye worry yer little head about me and consider yerself instead - yer the one who constantly has trouble figuring stuff out.” The wind storm’s tone was even and solid as a rock and the girl felt that at this stage she probably won’t be able to get anything more out of her.
Ariah had led them up to the beginning of a wide marble staircase which spiraled upward and into the darkness. Wotar pulled a small metallic cylinder from her pocket, which proved to be a pretty powerful flashlight and under its light they made their way up.
Not that she was counting, for fear of getting the number right, but Linda was thinking that if the stairs didn’t soon lead them someplace where they could sit or lay comfortably, her feet might drop off. This place might be a hidden passageway to some luxurious villa the Ruling owned on the island. Linda was already imagining vast corridors with beautiful marble floors and paintings on the walls, leading to glamorous bedrooms with large beds.
There - the wooden lid was already in front of her eyes and Ariah was reaching for it. Feeling a last jolt of power to her tired legs, Linda jumped over the final few stairs and jumped above ground. Where the view was amongst the last things she expected to see at the moment. Directly in front of them was the vast ocean with its waves lazily caressing the beach. As far as her tired eyes could see, everything was covered in fine golden sands or green-blue waters. Apparently, confusion and despair were clearly visible on her face at the moment, because Ariah walked up to her and patted her shoulder empathetically, almost keeling her over in the process.
“What’s up, girly, were ye expecting somethin’ else up here?”
“Well… somehow…” Linda was forcing her exhausted brain to provide the words she was looking for. “I was thinking of a bed…”
“There ain’t no better bed than the sand, little one”, said Ariah and patted her shoulder again, with a wide grin on her face.
Linda felt her brows cross at her forehead. Not that she cared that much for a bed - at this stage she might as well fall asleep on sharp rocks. She looked at Wotar who was pulling out a few large towels from her backpack and was beginning to lay them carefully on the beach so that the fine sand wouldn’t get on top. Yeah, sure, Linda wouldn’t mind sleeping here, but the Day star was already rising over the horizon and pretty soon the remaining shadows around them would be pushed back by the light. Even if they did notice the same, the others didn’t show that they cared. Was it that Wotar and Wint were finally getting careless from the same fatigue which was tormenting her since they departed from AWA?
She thought she saw something glimmer on the very edge of her diminishing visual field and her neck cracked with the speed with which she turned her head towards it. In front of the lighter night sky, she thought she saw it again - a faint glow as if a lightning storm was approaching. She focused her eyes to try and figure out what she was seeing. Soon after, the same faint bluish glimmer appeared again. Linda reached a hand toward the sky and turned to Wint:
“What’s that glowey thing?”
“That’s an SW-115”, Ariah replied, uninvited.
“SW-115?” Linda repeated.
“A Sky Warden”, Wotar explained, without opening her eyes. “A security system which generates an electromagnetic field above the space it protects.”
“Uh-huh”, Linda nodded, feeling her head get heavier once she was laying down on one of the towels the Ruling had so meticulously laid down on the sand. “So, everything is alright?” Without thinking about it, she looked to Wint again.
“Always, little one”, whispered the wind storm soothingly.
And that’s all Linda needed to hear to fall asleep.