CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE THRONE OF LIGHT

----------------------------------------

The building was a maze. Despite the large number of glass windows, the main hallways spiraled around, twisting and turning on themselves to the point where it was hard to focus. Fortunately there were maps of the first floor every now and then, and there were so many people here today for the activation that it was no surprise to find as many people wandering the halls looking at the sites as there were actually employees working. It seemed like there were as many people taking the opportunity to explore the business sector on the bottom floor as had decided to attend the activation.

The building’s interior was a series of massive inward spiraling hallways, made by the glass windows that showed the various businesses and warehouses within. This allowed large storage and warehouses to be near the outside, while more mundane offices and company headquarters that didn’t need as much space rented areas closer to the middle. The garage, as was custom with all new construction these days, was on in the basement levels. The stairs and elevators were all located in the middle of smaller paths that connected the wider spiral hallways together. There were four of them, though one of them was labeled Main Elevators. I assumed I’d have to use that one.

My mom’s keycard was burning a hole in my pocket. I didn’t really know how much trouble she might get in if I were caught sneaking in with it, but frankly, I was kind of mad at her. She surely knew April would be coming to Tellroan. So what the hell? Did Gale know too? Did Dad?

Getting her fired might be disproportionate revenge though, so I elected to be extra careful. I did not consider turning back though.

It took me about fifteen minutes to find the elevators, only for my heart to plummet as I saw the security guard standing nearby them. Well, I wasn’t going to just give up without even trying.

I approached the elevator, and the Security guard looked up at me. He was about mid-thirties, his hair just beginning to turn grey. He had an immaculate suit that was marred by a ketchup stain that he’d clearly spent quite a bit of time trying to rub out. Still he greeted me cheerfully.

“Good Morning. Court, or the DMV? Shame. You’re missing the Activation you know,” he asked in a heavily northern drawl. Well. Someone had certainly fallen in the world. Fortunately, that was the perfect excuse. He clearly assumed I meant to go to the second level.

I shrugged nonchalantly, rolling with his ready-made excuse. I just needed to get into the elevator. The card would get me higher. “Eh, it is what it is. I’m sure it’ll still be activated a few hours from now. Shame I’m missing Scarlatte though. Always wanted to see Sunsoul in action.”

“Good attitude, kid! Head on in, and I hope whatever you’re here for doesn’t take long, eh?” He asked with a wide smile.

“Thanks, uh, Henry!” I replied, noting the name on his badge before hitting the up button on the elevator. I stepped inside with a wave, and sure enough, found a keycard scanner on the panel listing the floors.

Wow that’s a lot of floors.

I waved Mom’s card under the scanner and the elevator lit up green.

“Welcome, Doctor Meadows. Please hold one moment. Commencing Sunsoul Scan. Error. Sunsoul not found. Intruder detected,” the delightful automated voice said, spelling out my doom. The lights turned red and singled loud claaack. Echoed.

“Hey… what you up to in there, kid?” Henry called from the front desk.

I panicked, as I hurriedly stuffed my Mom’s keycard back into my pocket. The damn elevators had Sunsoul scanners? I didn’t even know that was a thing!

“I… uh… was… I think I hit the wrong butt–!”

“Hey, Henry. He’s with me. He’s brand new, and Thelma was about to call him up soon,” came the second unexpectedly familiar voice of this infiltration.

“Clara! Welcome back! I’d heard you took a bad burn! Good to see you up and about!” The man said, absolutely delighted.

“It was pretty bad, but I’m as good as I can be now. Maybe better, actually!” The girl said, sounding much more bright and cheerful than she had while calling me a moron over and over again. My heart leapt into my throat as her words caught up with me. Thelma? Call me up? With her? What was she talking about? For that matter, why was she here?

“Now, would you let me and him on up? He’s a dunce, but I’ll keep my eye on him until he gets to Thelma, okay?” She asked. “Don’t report him. If you do, I’ll be stuck down here all day, and I want a shower like you wouldn’t believe.”

The man looked to me, then back to Clara, his eyes softening. The lights in the elevator flashed back to their regular green hue.

“Only for you, Clara. This better not come back to bite me though, y’hear?”

Clara stepped into the elevator with me, beaming at the security guard. “Thanks, so much Henry. You won’t regret it!”

Clara shouldered me out of the way and put her own key card against the scanner. It blipped a shining green. The automated voice chimed in again and confirmed that she and a guest would be allowed access. Finally, it gave an automated warning that I was to be escorted at all times while on the premises, before the doors finally closed the two of us inside.

She turned to look at me as we began to rise rapidly, and quirked an eyebrow.

I flushed, but met her gaze levelly.

“So. What are you doing here?” She asked softly.

“I could ask you the same question,” I replied sourly.

“I live here. You on the other hand, didn’t know that. So, you can’t be here for me,” she speculated casually, pretending to stroke a non-existent beard. “Thelma didn’t actually call you did she? No. So what does that leave? The activation’s today so… were you actually just breaking in to see it from the inside or something? Maybe someone from Sirahn payed you to find secrets? It better not be that one by the way. If it is, you’re just… so very screwed.”

I quirked an eyebrow this time. “You live here?”

“So, not Sirahn. Gotcha. And either more brave or more stupid than I thought. You know that Scarlatte could and would totally erase you if she found out you’d snuck in right?’

“I… I don’t care. Not that it’s any of your business what I’m here for.”

“I’d say it is my business since I just stuck my neck out on the line for you. Again,” she disagreed, menacingly. “And if I don’t get an answer in the next few seconds then I’ll hit the alarms and you’ll be in a holding tank awaiting experimentation before you can blink.”

I grit my teeth, annoyed. She had gotten me into the elevator at least. Maybe I could give her the benefit of the doubt.

“It’s my best friend. Her name is April, and she got hired by Tellroan just yesterday. I wanted to see her one more time…”

“So… you risk your life for that? Hell, just call her on Skype or something,” Clara said, irritated.

“They won’t let her. Not for five years apparently. Though I have no idea why,” I said, softly.

Clara blinked at that, her eyes widening. “Oh… ohh. Your friend is ‘New Girl.’ Well. Don’t you just know people in high places? Infused by Ilro and friends with Roan. Maybe it is a good thing I brought you up here.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I blinked. “What? What are you talking about? Who’s Roan? My friend’s name is April.”

“Tel-Ilro and Tell-Roan. Dumbass. Me and New Girl. I haven’t actually met her yet, though we’ll be roommates soon enough. For a little while anyway. Hope she isn’t a bitch.”

I growled. “April is the kindest girl you’ll ever meet.”

“Whoa, touchy touchy. I thought you liked the cheerleader anyway?”

I grit my teeth, becoming more annoyed by this girl by the second. What was with her? I’d given up my relationship with Haley specifically because of her, and now I was being mocked for it?

“I dumped her after I saw what she was saying to you that day,” I hissed.

She blinked, struck with surprise. The elevator chose that moment to chime “Ninety!” and the door opened to a massive room.

My eyes widened in shock as I took in the ninetieth floor of Tellroan. The room it opened out into was huge. The absolute first thing I noticed upon walking out of the elevator was the complete lack of ceiling. The walls of the gigantic circular room went up. And up.

And up. I couldn’t see the top, due to how bright it became up there, and I had to look back down to the floor before being blinded. Spots danced in my vision.

The tower thinned out as it rose and the elevator that had been near the middle of the bottom floor was at the edge of the building this high up. Ahead was a tiled floor filled with intricate patterns that made my eyes water to look at them for long. Along the circular side of the room the path went left, right, and towards the middle. To left and right were various pods that looked sort of like huge tanning beds. They had no apparent purpose that I could see but each of them appeared to contain bubbling water and glowed a neon green.

Further down were a series of squat square buildings that looked like townhomes. It took me a moment to realize that they were townhomes, each about five stories high. They ran along the curved outside edge of the interior of the tower. Buildings within the building. Their entrances all faced toward the center. There were doors and numbers and mailboxes and even little potted plants and gardens on what had to be artificial lawns. Each level had its own balcony, almost exactly like roadside motels. The buildings seemed to continue all the way around the back wall of the buildings interior. Homes for a mountain of employees.

Sidewalks, made of some sort of futuristic metal panels ten feet by ten feet like the interior of a Home Depot, made up the empty ground between the homes, their artificial lawns and the center. Everything led to what could only be called a column of light. Glowing the same neon green that April’s Sunsoul had, the power seemed to flow downwards in a rushing torrent on the left before rushing back upwards on the right.

Between the two godlike currents of light that illuminated the entire interior of the massive space, a staircase extended outwards over open air to where a raised platform held what could only be called a throne. Ominous wires and tubes ran out the back, stretching down below the floors level to who knew where.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. The path and the throne were both surrounded by a metal banister, but it was easy to see that the ground simply fell away beyond it to allow those two pillars of light the room they needed. The chair was empty, but it made me shiver just looking at it. Mysterious dials and buttons glowed all over the armrests. It looked comfortable if not for the unpleasant similarities to childhood nightmares about what electric chairs might look like.

“Welcome! You’re technically the first boy I’ve ever brought home. Just wait till you meet my parents!” Clara exclaimed in an exaggerated voice that echoed in the vast chamber.

Her voice had a way of pulling me out of the majesty of this place.

“Are you always like this?” I asked, annoyed.

She pouted, looking put out.

“Take the fun out of it, why don’t you? Well, come on. Might as well introduce you to Thelma, and see if we can get you in to see New Girl before she sits in the big chair. It’s almost time, you know?”

“W-wait, April is going to sit…. there!?” I exclaimed, pointing at the wired throne with a trembling hand.

Clara’s voice became uncharacteristically solemn. “April’s her name? Huh. Cute. If she’s really not allowed to see anyone for five years, then probably yeah. The only reason someone has to stay on lockdown for that long is if they’re going to be tied to the tower. That’s what the chair is for. The tower won’t work without her after that. Until she’s recovered and made at least three Gifted, she’ll have to be protected. She… she definitely can’t leave until then either.”

She was quiet for a while. Long enough to make me feel uncomfortable, but I didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s a brave thing she’s doing. Even more brave than what you thought you were doing for me. You should be proud of her,” she said somberly.

“I am! I just… she never told me any of this. I didn’t even know she could see Sunsoul until yesterday, let alone use it.”

“Wow. That’s impressive. It’s actually kinda hard to hide it. There’s a… desire to use it. To play with the light you know?”

Wait a minute.

“You can touch Sunsoul too!?”

“Yep!” She said, popping the P. Even as she spoke, she held up her own hand and a blue orb appeared above it.

I let out a screech of frustration that Clara delighted in. Was… was it my destiny to just be surrounded by people who had what I wanted? My Mom, John, April, and now Clara too!? What next, Monroe!? Gail!?

I sighed, and joined her in staring at the little ball of light.

“Why is it Blue?” I blurted after a few seconds passed.

“Huh? Oh. It’s because I’m tied to a tower. My Sunsoul is refined now. New Girl’s was probably green, right?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, after today hers will be blue too. The towers make it stronger. Thelma or Scarlatte could tell you why but it's all a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me.”

She let the light fade before she turned and continued walking towards a small building near the raised throne. Small patches of grass and plants decorating the sides of the paths seemed out of place in the neon green world I’d stepped into.

“Quite the sight, huh?” she asked, amused as I continued taking in Tellroan’s splendor.

“It’s incredible…” I breathed. Somehow terrible too, but I didn’t tell her that. I’d always known the tower was enormous but seeing it from within was like stepping into another world. The base levels were practically mundane by comparison. Basically no different from a big Hub. But this…

“Are you sure you’re not going to get in trouble for bringing me here?” I asked, suddenly feeling weirdly out of place. Like I forgot to take my shoes off at the front door.

Clara shrugged, running a hand through the thin white fuzz growing back in on her head. “As my sixth Gifted, you’ll probably be looped into what I did to you soon enough. Lucky for you, lover-boy. You might get to see New Girl more often. You can’t touch Sunsoul like her and me, but you’ve got the next best thing! Immortality and Sunlight immunity until the day Telilro falls!”

“Fucking hell, its like everyone I know can use it except me…” I pouted. I knew I was pouting but I didn’t care.

“Trust me. It isn’t something to envy. It’s a fucking curse. Beyond that it’s not even all that useful, you know? I mean. It’s cool. Pretty. But if you suddenly wake up one day and have the ability to make light with your hands, what are you really going to do with that? Find your phone in the dark. That’s about it.”

I blanched at her.

Not very useful!?

“How can you say that?” I shouted. “That power is allowing thousands of people to live here! Did you see the barriers they put up down there? That’s safety! That’s valuable! Without Sunsoul we’d probably have to dig underground and become cave people!”

“Yeah, but if not for finding it, we wouldn’t have to worry about the Sun at all,” she countered. “It used to be safe for everyone…”

“I don’t buy that. Someone would’ve found it sooner or later,” I rationalized. “If not Violette it would’ve been someone else. It was only a matter of time.”

“I don’t know. Something’s off about her. Even refined, it takes multiple people to put together a barrier as big as that one Scarlatte’s using out there, but Violette…?” She shuddered. “She’s kinda scary.”

“You saw?” I asked, remembering the way Violette made a shield that encompassed Scarlatte’s entirely.

“Yeah. I can’t even come close to manipulating that much Sunsoul,” she confessed. “Not that I’ve ever really tried.”

“Why not? If I could do that I’d never stop messing around with it,” I admitted.

She scowled at me, eyes flashing and I winced.

What did I say?

“I’m just saying… it’s pretty important,” I mumbled.

“Only because the fucking world is ending. Sunsoul users like me? We’re pretty lucky Scarlatte and Tellanex found a way to use the stuff for power and to generate barriers. If the Sun wasn’t steadily burning up the planet people like me would be… useless. Freaks of nature,” she said softly, putting a hand on my slumped shoulder.

It was the first time I’d ever heard the girl sound anything but sarcastic. I preferred the sarcasm.

“Isn’t that a little selfish?” I said. Still, hadn’t I been thinking that exact thing before when I’d seen my mom using Sunsoul? It wasn’t very useful.

“Maybe,” she replied softly. “We’re sacrifices though. Five years, remember? I think we deserve to be a little selfish. Well. The others anyway. I certainly don’t.”

Suddenly, the implications of what she’d said clicked. She was tied to a tower. Just like April was apparently about to be. Infused by Ilro, friends with Roan. If April, Roan, was my friend then that meant Clara was…

“You’ve… you’ve been to Telilro,” I gasped.

She gave a brittle smile. “Yeah…”

----------------------------------------