Hard Light (NaNoWriMo15)

Chapter 20 - Decisions

Pirra shook her head. "No. I'm sorry."

Leah glanced at the guard before stepping outside of the cell and mouthing me too.

"Any trouble?" asked the guard. "That was a quick one. Nice, easy start for you."

Leah just smiled, not trusting herself to speak as she moved into the next cell.

This Lightless--Maradu, his name was--was a little more resistant that Pirra had been. Leah's questions were met with sarcastic remarks that she noted down regardless. Slowly, with patience and soft words, Leah eased the answers out of him, but even then the words were short and clipped.

He envied her, and he made sure that she knew it.

Leah left that cell feeling like a complete and utter waste of space.

She couldn't help these people. She couldn't help Pirra or Maradu or Hilda or Tril or Reed or Kirana or Eudut despite their names being burned into her memory. Even if she had the courage to stage a jailbreak, she knew how it'd end. She didn't have the skills or the leadership to pull it off, and searching for Shade was nearly impossible. Even if he was here, what said he still wanted to talk to her?

She couldn't stop imagining him trapped inside one of these cells.

*+*+*+*

Leah handed over her journal, pen and list to the Radiant who was taking her position on the second shift and went to get a late lunch. Emrys insisted that everyone who had spent time with the Lightless spend at least two full hours in the sun, so with her food, Leah took her newly started reference journals and materials and took them outside.

She spent the next few hours sketching and scribbling and making notes in the back of her book as it crossed her mind. This parasite puzzle was much larger than she'd ever realised, and there were so many pieces missing, so many things that didn't make sense.

If the Lightless were truly infected by the parasite, she reasoned it wouldn't have the ability to empathise. That it wouldn't have desires aside from self-preservation, yet the Lightless's attempt to rescue their own proved that wrong. Either this parasite was evolved and devloped to a point where it had sentience, or it was never in control. They acted as a unit. They had leaders.

They could show mercy.

Then there was the Shattered problem. Leah had seen one first-hand, and they were what she'd believed the Lightless to be. Monsters that acted on instinct. They might be lightless, but they weren't Lightless. There was something in the process, something she was missing, and it was the key to the difference between a Radiant turning Lightless and Shattering.

As she was mulling it over, a thought struck Leah, and she scribbled it down on a page all of its own.

How does the parasite spread?

--> Avoids Light. Killed/controlled by sunlight?

--> Likes darkness. Lightless/Shattering occurs after a few days without sunlight. Parasite takes over in absence of Light in heart? Blocks Light afterwards to solidify its presence?

Leah frowned, continuing to note down anything that crossed her mind incase it triggered another thought later. She was missing something, like she was looking at this from the wrong angle, but for the Light of her she couldn't work out what it was.

Eventually, the dinner bell rang and she was forced to abandon her brainstorming and go inside. She found herself looking at others, burning to let someone in on her afternoon's work. It was an itch she didn't know if she dared to scratch. She didn't know the punishment if she were thought to be a Lightless sympathiser, let alone if she questioned their age-old teachings about the parasite. But at the same time, how could they expect to find a cure if they didn't know what they were supposed to be curing?