Chapter 2
Adge decided to pay a visit to the Resource Rooms, which were located in the back of the Unit, itself. These were the hours he would be able to get a hold of Emery. She would know who had priority access to the Archives. He continued to look around the network of rooms and passages, finally encountering a black-haired girl, intently working on the scrap in front of her. Suddenly, her head turned and snapped up, as if she was aware of him seeking her out. She got up from her station, grabbing her snack tin. She lured him into the darkest part of the room and quickly assumed her nightly persona, carrying her snack tin in her mouth. He followed suit and the two delved into the underground tunnels, farther and farther away from the rest of the light-walking world.
“I have been considering some questions,” Adge looked at Emery thoughtfully, changing from his wolf form once they had reached complete isolation, “and I have been wondering if there was ever anyone, before us, that tried to leave Metrivos. Would it be possible for us to access the Archives to find out?”
Emery gave him a half-hearted grin, “Yes and no.”
“Let me guess… We’ll have to break into the storage area like criminals just to be able to see the smudges all over the archive casing,” Adge sighed.
“Ha! More like we’re breaking in just to look through the vault window! I promise you, we won’t get anywhere near that casing unless we figure out how to get rid of the guards and recording devices on the other side,” Emery explained with a sarcastic chuckle.
“Ah,” Adge nodded musingly, “Well, this changes things. I mean, I knew it would be guarded but I had no idea that the Order was using recording devices.”
“You really…want to know, huh,” Emery responded with hesitation in her voice.
Adge nodded. “A past for a past. You share your story and I’ll share mine,” he offered.
“Alright,” Emery began, “Well…there used to be a coalition on Metrivos years ago…I know this because my parents were involved. The coalition was made up of darkmolders. I don’t know but there might have been some light-walkers…anyway…this coalition convened quite often until the Order started sending its members to the Cavity. After that, it continued to come together but very rarely and only to discuss one plan. A plan that entailed getting to Evura, high-jacking a ship and leaving the system for good. There was one known spaceport orbiting Evura, but the shuttle system was available exclusively to those of the Order on Metrivos. The coalition was aware of the risk of deportation to the Cavity, in order to gain access to the system, but they saw the opportunity to be well worth the risk. So my father and his brothers put someone on the inside to open the system, which is run by a computer. Their choice was an older man who resembled one of the Order. His name was Syver. He had the skill and he had the motivation. But…when the group set out to execute their plan, something went wrong…” Emery closed her eyes momentarily, searching within herself for some ounce of strength. When she seemed to find it, she continued, “Something went very wrong…The Order was ahead of them and had set them up from the beginning. Syver broke the code just to find out that my father’s younger brother was not on their side…He betrayed them all. In the end, my father was not deported to the Cavity, but “sentenced to solitary exile from Metrivos”. We all knew that meant he was dead. Everyone else that had gone with him, that had planned with him…they were all killed as well. The women were sent away to the Cavity, along with the rest of the young men of the coalition.” She took a deep breath and rested her gaze on Adge. “I was too young to work, too young to die. Or maybe they killed me…by isolating me from everyone I ever knew and loved. They took great satisfaction in that…but anyway, here I am. I am a darkmolder and they know as well as I that they cannot take that away from me.”
Adge was taken aback by her story. He wondered if maybe his own family had been connected with the coalition. But he had always thought that he was the only one…
“I do not know where I come from as you do. I only know what I am capable of and for how long it has been true of me. When I was a child, I played with shadow. It was a way that my brother taught me to entertain myself before he was deported. He taught me how to make shadow puppets on the wall. When he was gone, I discovered I could make them come to life. But later on, that ability developed into shifting my own shadow. Transforming it into another shape,” he told Emery, adding, “All I really do know about being a darkmolder is that my discovery would mean my death.”
“Well, there’s a lot more to being a darkmolder than that. Although, that is true,” Emery admitted. “I really believe that there are others like us, just not in the city. There must be a hidden enclave somewhere on Metrivos.”
Adge nodded, his lips stretching into an optimistic smile. The two faced each other, both thinking the same thing. For now, they would have to return to the present world, but only until they found that little bit of hope; the underground.
