Carmen paced back and forth, keenly aware of the three guards standing near the door. More importantly, she could feel the cameras pointed at her, and she knew the dangers they represented. After all, it had only been a day since she’d felt the bite of Seattle’s war machinery.

Upon reaching the city, she and her companions had been so relieved. At last, they’d reached civilization, and not a moment too soon. Their water reserves had run out the day before, and they’d exhausted the majority of the medicinal flesh of the cacti that Theresa had gathered. Without them, they would have long since succumbed to the bites from the huge lizards that seemed so common in the desert.

In short, they were on their last legs, and if they hadn’t spotted the enormous mesa in the distance, the weaker members of the group – including Miguel – would have fallen. So, they’d approached the city with no small degree of relief, only to be accosted by a group of hunters. The men and women had seen them as easy prey – not the battle-hardened survivors the refugees had become – and they’d quickly shown the hunters the error of their ways.

Even with their thirst-induced weakness, the survivors had managed to fight the bandits to a standstill that was only broken up by a swarm of weaponized drones swooping in and firing a barrage of stunning nets upon the combatants. Carmen had fought free, but that only brought more attention from the flying menaces. And eventually, she’d been captured, just like all the rest.

That should have been the end of it. If there was any justice in the world, at least. But as it turned out, it was her word against that of the attackers, and, on top of that, there were some sort of politics at play. So, it was far more complicated than it should have been, and even though they’d been the victims, Carmen and her companions had been detained.

That’s when Lucy had come into the picture.

She barely knew the woman, except from Alyssa’s stories of her childhood. However, Lucy somehow knew Carmen, and, after a brief meeting, she’d been working on the group’s behalf.

That was probably the only reason they hadn’t been executed.

Carmen knew that. It would have been much easier for the city’s leadership to simply rid themselves of the problem. And in a lot of ways, Carmen wished they would get on with it. She was tired. Exhausted, really. And she was fed up with living minute-to-minute, assailed by one horror after another, with no solace on the horizon. So, she preferred for something to happen, rather than waiting, stuck in limbo while the powers-that-be figured out what to do.

Of course, on the heels of that came guilt. She knew that desire was false. She would keep going through however many hardships she was forced to endure, so long as her son survived.

She’d already tried to talk her way free, but that hadn’t worked. So, she had no other option but to wait. And she’d never been great at that. So, when the door finally opened, Carmen’s mood had long since soured.

But it all disappeared the moment she saw the person in the doorway.

“Elijah?”

He looked different. The last time Carmen had seen her brother-in-law, he’d been knocking on death’s door as he battled terminal cancer. It was only a video call on Alyssa’s laptop, but even then, he’d been a shadow of his former self. Now, he looked like he was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. He wasn’t just healthy. He was strong, with an aura of vitality and ethera wafting off of him with every breath.

It was like standing in the presence of a natural treasure, and his mere presence took her breath away.

As Carmen took a deep breath, she catalogued his other features. He hadn’t shaved in months, and his blonde beard was both bushy and unkempt, like he’d spent all that time in the wilderness. His curly hair wasn’t all that better, though it looked like he’d at least run a comb through it sometime in the past week or two.

He wore oddly-cut clothing that reminded Carmen of a Renaissance faire, though her experience with crafting told her that they were at least Crude-Grade. Maybe even better. His other equipment – a red sash around his waist, a couple of rings on his fingers, an iron-shod staff, and even the purse at his waist – glowed with far more power. He was as well-geared as anyone she had ever seen.

But that was probably appropriate, given his placement on the power rankings. Being in the top three obviously came with many opportunities for loot.

Then there were the scars.

The most obvious were located on his hand, and those looked like the result of severe burns. They were a little faded, but still extremely obvious. Carmen only saw hints of other scars – like a pair that peeked out from beneath his tunic or a few that were visible below the mid-calf hem of his pants – but they all coalesced to suggest that her hardships were not unique. In fact, it was obvious that Elijah had endured plenty of his own.

“Camen,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. He stepped forward – notably, the guards didn’t even try to stop him – and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you.”

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For her part, Carmen couldn’t stop the tears from falling down her cheeks as she buried her face in his shoulder. Part of it was simple relief. She’d never fancied herself a damsel in distress, but Elijah’s sudden presence felt like a rescue, and in all the best ways.

After a long embrace, Elijah pulled away, and he asked the obvious question, “Where’s Alyssa? And Miguel?”

“It’s…it’s a long story,” Carmen said, noticing that Elijah had shed a few tears of his own. She glanced at the guards, then at the camera, saying, “And not one I’m going to tell here.”

“I understand,” he said. After that, he turned to the guards and stated, “I’m leaving. Don’t try to stop me.”

“And we’re taking the others with us,” Carmen said. She and the rest of the refugees had been separated and placed in different cells. Carmen didn’t even know where the others were being held. She then explained as much to Elijah.

He reacted predictably, telling the guards, “Get her friends. Now.”

“But –”

“Do it,” came a voice over an unseen intercom system. “Give him what he wants. Except the swordsman. He stays.”

That was just as predictable as Elijah’s reaction. Colt had killed three men, and in full view of the drones. Clearly, that came with consequences. Carmen didn’t intend to abandon her friend, but she could read the room well enough to recognize that arguing would do nothing to help Colt. Instead, she wanted to get Miguel to safety before she worried about Colt’s situation.

He would do the same thing if their situations were reversed.

So, over the next few minutes, Carmen and Elijah waited as one of the guards went to fetch the others. When the remaining refugees – including Miguel – arrived, Camen was happy to see that they were in decent condition, but she couldn’t stop herself from ensuring that Miguel was unhurt. They’d been fed and watered, at least. That was as good of treatment as she could have expected.

Upon seeing Miguel, Elijah smiled wryly and said, “Last time I saw you, you were only this tall.” To accentuate his point, he held his hand at about waist height. “Are you okay?”

Miguel gave him a firm nod, but refrained from speaking. It wasn’t the time for a family reunion, after all, and Miguel was aware enough to recognize that.

After that, the guards escorted them out of the building, which turned out to be some sort of law enforcement hub. Along the way, she saw plenty of black-clad guards, each one looking overworked and more than a little fed up with their situations. Keeping the peace in a city populated by people with superhuman powers had to be a thankless proposition.

Regardless, no one stopped them as they were shown to the door and freed. Elijah told the guard, “Inform your boss that we’re not done. I appreciate him accommodating me, but I intend to see the other one freed as well. So, after I get these people settled, Isaiah and I are going to have a long conversation.”

“I understand,” came a male voice from overhead. Carmen looked up to see a drone hovering silently above them.

Other than a simple nod, Elijah didn’t acknowledge the statement. Instead, he turned and led Carmen and the others through the city. Her first trip into the city had been short – the building where they’d been housed was right next to the wall – so Carmen hadn’t had the chance to see much of Seattle. Because of that, she was more than a little surprised at the state of the city. It looked nothing like Easton. Roman’s city was clean, with mostly new buildings that were laid out in a perfectly organized grid. Seattle, on the other hand, was haphazard, and many of the buildings had clearly been constructed from the remnants of the old city. Some of the landmarks remained, but for the most part, it looked as if the city was in the midst of a post-war rebuild.

The people were an odd collection of old and new, with various ethera-fueled electronics right alongside swords, staves, and axes. Most of the people wore modern clothing in various states of degradation, but there were plenty of residents wearing armor and robes. It made for a unique atmosphere that wasn’t present somewhere like Easton, where people had fully embraced the differences that had come with Earth’s transformation.

Carmen wasn’t certain which way was better. On the one hand, Easton was clearly more advanced in terms of quality of life. However, Seattle’s use of electronics seemed like a worthy route to integrating Earth’s past into its future.

Regardless, that wasn’t really what occupied most of Carmen’s thoughts. Instead, she was almost entirely focused on how she was going to tell Elijah that his sister was gone. It wasn’t an easy conversation, made even more difficult by the circumstances surrounding Alyssa’s death. And Carmen knew that if she told Elijah everything at once, he would tear off across the world and kill Roman.

Because that’s what she wanted to do. If it was just her, she’d have done as much the moment she’d discovered the truth. Certainly, she would have failed. She couldn’t stand up to Roman and the institutions of power with which he’d surrounded himself. She would have thrown her life away, and, at the time, she would have been fine with that.

However, she’d reined herself in because she didn’t only have her own life to protect. Miguel depended on her. So did Colt. And the other refugees. Due to that, she couldn’t afford to act selfishly.

And Elijah was in the same situation.

Perhaps he had a better chance of success. Carmen had no idea how much power he held. Yet, she needed him. So did Miguel. He obviously held sway with the Seattle government, and more, he knew how to survive. If her exile had taught her anything, it was that that was the most important thing in the new world. She and the others wouldn’t make it much longer on their own.

Finally, with those thoughts dancing in her mind, Carmen and the others followed Elijah to a huge, glass building. They didn’t go inside, though. Instead, they found their way to a nearby structure that had once been a small apartment building. There were men in leather armor standing outside, but Elijah paid them no mind as he entered.

That’s when Carmen saw Lucy. The leggy and bespectacled blonde welcomed them to her home, and another woman escorted the others further inside, presumably so they could get cleaned up, fed, and settled in to sleep. Meanwhile, Lucy herself led Elijah, Carmen, and Miguel to the second floor, which had been set up as an enormous suite that was clearly Lucy’s private residence.

“Nice place,” Carmen said, impressed as she looked around. Like the rest of the city, it was a mix of old and new, though the place had all the amenities of a stylish modern apartment.

Lucy thanked her for the compliment, then offered them food and drink. Elijah accepted the offer, so Carmen and Miguel did the same. Soon enough, they each had plates of fresh fruit and vegetables along with huge bottles of water.

Finally, once they were settled and Lucy had left them alone “to get reacquainted”, Elijah said, “I think it’s time for that long story.”

Carmen shook her head. “It’s not a good one,” she warned.

“I figured that out. Where’s my sister?”

“She’s…she’s gone,” Carmen said. “She died more than two years ago.”