Bound by Glass

16| Sloppy Sock Shoes

Vace eyed the two orange dots a significant distance away from each other. With a sigh, he accepted his fate. He dropped the crossbow on the ground.

I winced slightly at the casual way he treated the weapon. If I had done that at home, I'd have some serious problems with Otanec. However, I'd do anything to see my father again, and I'd be happy with any scolding. At least that would mean that he was okay.

"Fine, you win," Vace said a bit sourly, "Let me hear it."

"Why?" I asked, before I could stop myself. It slipped out before I could even think of a useful question. My curiosity had taken over once again. Way to go, Tenna.

"Why, what?" He walked over to the back of the room where the targets stood. His flexible boots made no sound over the mats, and, carefully ducking behind the target, he grabbed the bolt from the ground.

I chewed my lip. "Why are you doing this? This rebellion of yours." I made a vague gesture, "I mean, you aren't a regg. I can tell. Why do you care?"

Vace rolled the arrow around in his hand, inspecting it from all sides for any damages. He walked back over the length of the shooting range, and pointed the bolt at me. "You're wrong," he said, "Yes, I'm no regg. However, I'm no upper either."

I frowned.

Vace slipped past me, pressing a hand on the panel embedded in the wall. The targets flickered several times, before shutting off. With a low creak, the targets started to move back into the high cabinet, which closed with a definite click.

He leaned against the bare wall, the crossbow bolt still resting in the palm of his hand. "What do you know about the War of Kin?" he asked, eyeing me, searching for a reaction.

I recalled the lessons I had had when I was younger. Pre-Globe history had been one of them. It was the subject that was the most vague, since all the world's knowledge died together with its people. All technology was wiped out in the beginning of the war by some bomb, so any digital documents they had back then were lost. They had to start from scratch. We've come far since then, though, even if we're not even close to how advanced we were prior to the war. I had heard stories of people which had travelled to the stars—I would love to see that one day.

"I know all the records from before that time were lost, and," I added, "that the Globes were introduced after the war ended."

"Those facts are common knowledge," Vace said, "What I meant was, do you know anything about what happened during the war?"

"During the war..." I mumbled, "You mean the war which bathed the earth in radiation, killing nearly all the vegetation and taking about two thirds of the population with it? The war from which we still haven't recovered: you mean that war?"

"Yes," he answered simply.

"Never heard of it," I said, adding a small smirk.

"Well," Vace explained sarcastically, "the War of Kin was the greatest global war of the history of mankind. It raged between the two Races, the uppers and the regg, from which the latter suffered most. Still, no one knows or remembers why this war happened in the first place; as you said, all records were lost."

Vace crossed his arms, "Ring a bell?"

When I didn't answer he continued. "Moving on," he said, "I have reason to believe that it was the regg who started the war. At least, that they were the spark that ignited the giant pile of injustice and inequality that heaped up over centuries." He made small gestures with his hands while he was speaking, his long fingers moving elegantly through the air. "I don't know how, or why exactly, but it had to be them."