Note: This short 500 words was a brain dump that has become a new standalone story in the same universe (The Machine Under the Hill) ... feel free to skip this bit if you like ... cheers, PG.
[twelve years earlier]
The only thing able to penetrate the night darkness of the Great Forest is imagination. Not even the powerful beams from flashlights cut far into the cool swirling mists, they reveal only moss-covered trunks of the closest oak and elm. A wolf cries in the distance and then another closer. One of my escorts lets out a start, and I chuckle only to receive a cuff to the back of the head. My hands bound behind my back so I can't keep balance and fall face first into the damp leafy ground.
"Hey!" grunts the sergeant as he pulls me up as if I were a twig, "Careful she's just a child. Hit her again, and I'll hit you. Understand?"
"Yes, Sir!" Snaps the thug. I think about inflicting my own kind of punishment on her, but decide to hold.
The word 'child' grates on me. It's true that physically I'm only twelve, but in reality I'm twenty-five years old -- the Ethnaa Aashar stunts your growth. "Sergeant, I'm older than I look, she can hit me if she wants."
"Shut up and walk." He nudges me forward so that I may continue the march.
I comply and decide to punish him instead, "Sergeant, may I make an observation?"
"Go on." He says gruffly, agitated.
"Your partner, she knows you're having intimate relations with that woman at Skye Port. She hates you for it."
"What!?" The senior soldier regains his composure only a microsecond away from smashing me back into the ground. As I continue the walk, I shoot a grin over my shoulder and lift my eyebrows at another of the soldiers who stifles a laugh.
I have power over people. That's why I'm a prisoner here, and not one of The Learned as should be my rightful place. They fear me.
But I knew that exile was a likely outcome of my discoveries, and so I prepared in advance as only one as gifted as me could given full access to the libraries of Qura Ammara.
When we find the simple hut that will be my home here -- when I'm left to fend for myself without the convenience of technology. The first thing I must do is find the machine in the hill.
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another note: This is included outside of the main story line with the aim of bringing a little background into the story for the character Senniella Atriplex (from Fragments iv) ... you will see more of Senniella soon. Thank you to reader feedback for making the place for this part gell.