An act against a fellow member of society in any form of physical harm will be considered an act against the Nation of Qui for each citizen of Qui is “the Nation."

-Qui Law 3

Any physical altercations will be reviewed by a select group of Law Officials. If the altercation is deemed Violent in nature, the perpetrator will be charged of breaking Qui Law 3 and shall be hence forth removed from Qui society.

-Amendment to Qui Law 3

My recovery danced to the tune of shuffling feet until my darkness was removed from me. Layer by layer the darkness faded until I was once again blinded by the harsh white light above me.

“Pupil dilation, normal.” A muffled voice sounded out. I turned towards the sound and caught a glimpse of a white mask. “Checking reflexes.”

Something cold hit me. It was hard. My body snapped upwards, and suddenly I could see everything around me. I don’t know what they did to me, but I was…better. My hands were still strapped to the table, but when I pulled, they came off. Along with the rail. I stumbled from the bed onto shaking legs, the White Masks were frantic now. Their chatter bouncing off the walls. Ringing through my head like a high pitch scream. Or was that me? Did it matter? The bed that had held me flew into one of them followed by a crunch. Much like when a dry leave is stepped on. Another tried to reach for my arm, but I swung and let the metal rail that was still attached to my wrist glide like a silver arc into the mask that covered everything. The White was no longer harsh. Now it was colored. Now it was red. And I smiled.

I stumbled around the room trying to find the door. Everything was too bright. Everything was too…

“Test complete.” A metal voice sounded. “Playground Endoskeleton Suit-Pawn class successfully integrated. Falcon 2, released.”

The room filled with smoke, and once again I found myself spinning. But this time, spinning in white. What was…

************

I woke to a room full of men ranging in ages. Five of them were Us. Wealths. One of them had dirty blond hair. They were standing in front of their beds staring straight as if there wasn’t a wall there. Each wore a black suit, so what Markings they had was impossible to determine. Only one I could recognize right away. He looked like me but wasn’t me, and he had dirty blond hair.

“Arc?” The word came out like a spit as I tried to sit up. No one moved. Not even me. I was once again motionless. “Arc..o?” I tried again. But my words seemed not to register.

Had I even spoken?

“Arco?” I said, stronger. Louder. I had to make sure I had spoken. But, again, nothin.

“Pawns, at the ready.” A metallic voice sounded, breaking into my concentration. A warmth spread through me, slowly it crawled up from deep inside of me. Then it got faster and hotter until I felt like someone was puring searing hot liquid inside of me.

I wanted to arch my back. I tried.

I wanted I clench my hands until they broke. I tried.

I wanted to…

A loud grinding noise. The wall was moving. Moving when I so badly wanted to. I needed to move. The pain…

”Pawns, released.”

Suddenly, my body snapped into action and I lunched forward. The wall had gone away. Upwards it went. Upwards, to reveal a garden. A bright, green garden with trees and flowers. There were no harsh white lights. No training red light. This was the pure colors that I remembered.

I don’t know what was more intoxicating, being able to move or the colors. Did it matter? I was running through the grass. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop. Nothing could make me stop.

But I quickly outran my little garden. Outran it and ran straight into mud of the Playground. The sticky, viscous earth grabbed at my legs. Slowing me to an awkward hoping motion as I had to extricate first one foot then the other and repeat the process. But I wanted that garden. There, across the room, for we were in a room, was another garden. It’s green was calling me. Its soft grass beckoning…But others were coming out of that garden now. Who were they? What were they doing in my garden? Treading it under their feet. Trampling the delicate stalks.

Something in that moment snapped within me. The searing pain in my limbs suddenly exploded, and I felt…I felt like I had never felt before. Something was clawing its way up from deep inside of me. Clawing, scraping, screaming. There were the Others. First before me. Then under me. Faces in the mud. Push them deeper into the mud until they stopped jerking. Find the next one. Find them all. And…

“Playground war 2044, Gavi Quintar versus Zuashi, completed. Successor: Gavi Quintar. All Players return to your bunks.”

My hand stopped in mid air. Everything stopped in mid air. I tried to claw at the face before me, but I was turning. I was turning without me in control. I was hop-skipping back. I was walking through the garden. I tried to bend over, to touch a single blade of grass. But my body wouldn’t obey me, it walked through the garden as if it weren’t there. Only my eyes were free to roam as the dark beds loomed ever closer. I took in everything I could.

Four steps.

The trees. How did they feel again?

Three steps.

The flowers. What was the color? Pu..pur..

Two steps. No, wait. Stop. Turn. TURN. Don’t make me go back to darkness or to the white light.

One step. Don’t take my garden away!

There was a grinding again as the wall closed behind us as we stood facing forward.

Not able to move or speak. Just staring into the semi-darkness.

Waiting for the wall to reopen.

*********

The searing pain came three more times that day before we were released to wash and eat. Three more times I ran through that garden, and three more times I had to walk back through it without stopping. After the third time, we were “released.” Given free reign over our bodies to wash and eat. As my own senses finally came back into my limbs, I turned and rushed to the wall. Pounding it. Willing it to open.

“A new one.” I heard a grunt.

“Another one.” Came another.

Two hands grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around. I lashed out, but was met with an arm slamming into my throat, pinning the gurgling me to the wall. Seventeen pairs of eyes stared at me. But the one before me had my face. “Which Wealth are you?” His face was older than mine. And more dirty. When I didn’t answer the arm pushed in further until I was struggling to breath. “Which Marking are you?”

“Leave him and undress. If we’re late for the lineup, we won’t eat. Remember?”

The face before me grimaced and reluctantly let go. I fell, choking.

“You, Twins. Help him undress.” A command was uttered, and obeyed. Who had uttered it, I can’t remember. All I felt were hands coming at me. Grabbing at me. The black fabric turned white as each section was removed, and as it gave way under the helping hands, it felt like a thousand needles were biting me.

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A pause in the hands as my right shoulder was exposed. Then a snort. “You’re the Falcon Wealth.” It was a statement, not a question. Then the hands resumed, but I could swear that the removal of clothes that first time turned from peeling off layer by layer to yanking each section off like an old bandage.

Just what Marking was He? My eyes never left His as I was de-dressed. I waited until he turned away to let the other Us’ finish my undressing. I waited until I could see His Marking.

Only when I saw it did I turn away to find who had stayed with me to take off my suit and help me into the wash area. Only one remained to help while his suit lay untouched on his body. And he had dirty blond hair. I didn’t have to see his Marking to know what it was.

The other one of Us? He had the Marking of a star.

***********

“One King. One Queen. Five Rooks. Ten Bishops. Four Castles. And 17 Pawns. Reporting for food, Sir.” It was that same commanding voice from before. I Strained my neck to see who he was for I had little concern for the words he was saying. They made no sense to me. I stood up as straight as I could and I went to the very tips of my toes, but I was still too short and too far in the back to see anything but a glimpse of his back.

His shirt was rumpled and had a large stain on the shoulder.

So was mine, I noticed as I looked down. Rumpled and too big. Arco had fished it out of a little cubby behind a metal door that stood row upon row just outside of the baths. “This was from Pawn 2289.” He gave a shrug as the shirt fell to my knees. “He didn’t come out after yesterday’s Board game. And they say that if someone doesn’t come back, you can take their stuff for your own. So now it’s yours.”

“Food rations for Players of Gavi Quintar Team 3 will be delivered to table 27. Do not stop or associate with any other teams, otherwise food rations will be withed for three days. Understood?” The replying voice was bored.

“Understood. Players, you heard the order. See to it that the New One understands. You have thirty seconds until we move…Start.”

There was a clock on the wall above our heads. Thirty seconds were ticking down. Those around me turned, each eying the other to see who would talk first. In the end, no one spoke. I looked at Arco, and he just held up a hand. One pat cheek. One pat nose. One finger tap ear. It was our language from before the Repayment. We, the Falcons, and the Arcs had made it, only the four of us knew what it meant.

The clock buzzed.

“Does he understand?” a voice barked.

“Yeh.” I replied, only slightly surprised at my own voice. It sounded older, deeper than what I remembered. “He understands.” The crowd moved slightly, like a ripple of water.

“Good.” The voice came from a man who had started that ripple. The one with the rumbled shirt and large stain. Up close, it wasn’t a stain at all, but an object. “A crown,” I was told later. This was the King of Player Team 3. And the rumpled clothing wasn’t rumpled at all, but were the result of his muscles pulling at his shirt. He had fair hair, golden hair that reminded me of the sun. What little I could remember of it, at least.

“Good.” Was all he said, his eyes taking me in head to toe. They were strikingly blue, and as cold as the walls around us. But, they were also thinking. “Let’s go.”

His name, I was told once we sat down, was Ekbur. He had been “sentenced” here.

“Sentenced?” I asked Arco. “He wasn’t Repaid?”

A laugh.

“You could call it a Repayment, I suppose…A Repayment of a debt. But “sentenced” is the proper term.”

“Proper term?”

“Yeh, according to Qui Law.”

I just stared at him. “What is Qui?”

“Man, is it just me, or do we keep getting the dumb ones?”

Several snorts.

“Twins,” came a sneer. “They’re always stupid.”

Some laughs.

“That’s enough.” A woman’s voice. I hadn’t noticed her before because she was sitting at the far end of the table, but now she stood. She wasn’t tall, but she wasn’t short either. Her skin was brown as if she had just spent the summer in the sun. Her hair was dark and her eyes even darker. They held something in them that I couldn’t place. Not then, and possibly not even now. And, she also wore a shirt with the “crown” on the shoulder. “They are children who have spent at least four years in the training grounds. What did you expect them to know?”

The group fell silent. There was a hiss and the center of the table moved. Circular sections slide away to reveal bowls filled with steaming contents. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I was staring at the food before me. I reached forward and—

“New boy.” A command. A warning. Only Ekbur’s could stop someone with just two words. My hand still caught in mid air, I looked over. “There is an order to things. I’ll say it only once, so learn it well or pay the price. Understood?”

I looked once at Arco who gave a curt nod. Then I also nodded.

“Food goes in this order: King, Queen, Bishop, Rook, Castle, Pawn.”

“What am I?” I asked.

“Look at your shoulder. On your shirt.”

I did. It had an ink blob too.

“The Marking?” I asked.

Ekbur nodded. “That’s the the mark of a Pawn.”

“Pawn.” I felt the word in my mouth.

“He…” Ekbur pointed to Star. “…has the mark of a Castle.” “She…”

Another girl? I craned my neck, half crawling onto the table to see who he was pointing to.

“…has the mark of a Rook.” And so one he went. Calling out the Markings on the different shirts. Arco and I were Pawns. We ate last.

“What’s Qui?” I asked as I watched the food disappear before my eyes.

“Does it matter?” Ekbur asked.

I just looked at him.

“Will knowing what it is help you to on the Board?” He asked.

“Board?”

“Where we just came from. And where we will be returning to after our alloted sleep time.”

“The gardens?” I perked up.

“Those will be gone. Each Board has a different terrain.”

“Gone…”I could feel something inside of me move. Something…that feet like I had when I saw the others trample through the garden. Something clawing up inside of me. “Gone.” A high pitched scream fills my ears. “Gone.” Metal on metal hisses. “Gon—”

Blackness once again closes in. And I am lost.

*****************

“Pawn 30001. Residual suit effects at 0716. Remedial action taken at 0718. Subject subdued at 0720. Current time: 0808. Subject is currently stable and ready for dismissal.” Voices in the blackness. Why are there always voices in the dark? Why—

I’m sitting up.

Still dark.

My feet hit the cold ground. I’m walking.

Still black.

My hands touch a door. A hiss as it opens. A shower of air. A sigh as another door opens. And I walk.

Still. No. Light.

Another hiss. Another door. Walking. This repeated three more times until I turned, or something turned me, and bent. I touched softness. I sat on the softness. I lay down on the softness. And then stillness.

“Pawn 30001 dismissal: completed.”

Something clicked inside of me, and I once again had control of my own body. I stood up. Took a step. And walked right into something hard and cold.

“New boy.”

I froze.

“Get back into your bed, if you don’t want to die.”

“What is this place?” I heard my own voice, but it sounded strange. Like a growl. “Why—”

“New Boy.” A woman’s voice, but equally as commanding. “What is your name?” The question caught me off guard.

“Wealths.” A wave rippled through the blackness. “So the last five have also claimed.” I heard as the wave crashed into me. It reminded me of how Our Falcon Marking Mother used to smile. Not with her face, but with her words. “You have a marking on your shoulder, do you not?”

“I do.”

“Geez, how many children did your father have?”

“Twenty-five pairs of Wealths.” I responded without thinking.

Silence.

“What is your marking?” The woman again.

“A falcon.”

“Then your name is Falcon. Understood?”

“No.”

A sigh.

“What don’t you understand.”

“How can I have a name?”

“I gave it to you.”

“Is it yours to give?” I asked. “I am Me. I am not anything else. My Marking Twin is Him, nothing else. We have markings so that the Mothers could get the right Repayment.”

“It is mine to give. I am your Queen and I can do with my Players as I see fit.”

“But I am a Pair. I can’t have a name. A name is for singularity.” I recited what We had been told time and time again.

“Are there two of you in your body?” That ripple again.

“…No.”

“Then you are singular, and you will have a singular name.”

“But—”

“Your Marking Twin had a name that was given to him. Do you want to know what it was?”

I didn’t answer. I suddenly felt very cold. The floor beneath my feet was cold, and I was very much aware that my shirt had been removed. I was only wearing leg coverings that reached my knees. Nothing more. But that wasn’t where the chill came from. The chill that ran through me, raising the hairs on my arms, came from within me for I suddenly realized why it was always dark in this place. It was to keep us from feeling anything but our singularity. If I couldn’t see, how was I to become attached to the person next to me. If I couldn’t see, did it matter if I lay my head on the bed next to Star one night, next to Ekbur the next, and Arco the day after that? Connection didn’t matter in the darkness. Only self-preservation did. And that made you focus on your singularity.

“What was His name?” My voice once again sounded strange. Small. Quiet.

“Talon. And yours is now Falcon.” A pause, “And if you’re smart enough, you will fly like a bird.”

“Yeh, BIG if.” Came a snort in the dark.

“Enough.” Ekbur. “All this talk is cutting into our Seep Time. New…Falcon, go back to your bed and don’t even think about getting up again until you feel your body move. Understood?”

“Why does it do that?” I turned and felt for the softness once more. “Why does my body move without me?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be here.” Came the snarling reply. “I’d be back up on the surface giving hell to the one who thought I’d take it like a weakling to be sentenced for someone else’s crime. Now shut up and sleep before I make it so that you never get up again!”

“Crime?” What in all this blackness was a “crime?” I wanted to ask Arco, or even Star since he had been here longer than the both of us it seemed, but Ekbur’s threat kept me on my bed. My thoughts raced around me as I tried to make sense of the first garden-food-sleep cycle in this place. But there was nothing tangible to hold on to. I couldn’t move my own body when I most wanted to. I couldn’t see when I most needed to. There were other pairs of Us, but these other people had new words and strange ways. They weren’t Us. And where was We? Where was my Marking Twin? Talon, they had called him. His singular name.

Falcon.

My singular name. And singular was what I felt as I lay there. Waiting.

Just like now.

I am always waiting.