SashaMcallister
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2021
- Messages
- 41
Prologue
A Man Left to Burn
“You don’t understand. You can’t. I worshiped the Second Sun all my life. We all did, and it lit the world on fire anyway. I was there the day God killed us. I still recall the Second Sun’s soul-petrifying voice—not the deep, loving voice of a father as the clerics had taught, but a cold, inhuman, feminine voice. These are the exact words it spoke: ‘How oft would I have given everything to save you, but you would not be saved. You sanctified greed and vilified reason. When met with innocence, you did not so much as ask her name before tearing her from existence. I know you all with perfect clarity. On this day the Second Sun will set, and as you push one another’s heads under the poison to keep your own afloat, so will you nevertheless drown. I’ll pay the price of perfection.’”
Chapter 1
200 Years before the Fire — The Heist
“What do you mean you aren’t going to pay us?” Nova retrieved a carefully folded contract from her leather thigh pack and slammed it onto Mr. Clanton’s desk. “Don’t make this complicated. We had a deal. Lux and I did our part. We delivered the dreichod hatchlings to your museum in a safe and timely fashion. Now it’s high time you do your part.”
Mr. Clanton leaned back in his tufted leather chair and laughed. “Oh no, it’s in writing? What are you gonna do? Take that worthless piece of paper to the Law Makers? Assuming they don’t hang you, they’ll fine you for every last platinum piece you’ve scrounged up. You’ll roam the streets naked and alone.”
Nova stood silent and fidgeted with a lock of her deep auburn hair. She hated to admit it, but he did have her cornered. Dreichods were supposed to have been extinct since the dawn of civilization, and having anything to do with them was declared “playing god” and illegal. She had no idea how the creatures had been revived, nor did she care. She simply saw an opportunity for work and took it. There was only one hope left. “Fine, you’ve got me there. I can’t force you to uphold our deal by the so-called ‘law,’ but surely there’s an ounce of honor in you that wants to keep your word. Or am I mistaken?”
“Gravely mistaken, sweetheart.”
Nova cringed at his pet name for her, but in hopes of just getting her platinum and getting out, she ignored it. “Now why is that?”
The man approached a window overlooking the City of Eden with all its industrial steam-stack-strewn glory. “Get over yourself, Nova. You know bloody well the Law Makers put a bullet through my wallet, same as you. They’re dispatching enforcers to confiscate the hatchlings first thing tomorrow morning. I can’t pay you even if I wanted to!”
“Lies. You didn’t think I’d run a few checks on you? Your accountant was all too eager to impress a young woman actually giving him attention and told me everything I wanted to know. This is pocket change compared to what you’ve got in the museum’s coffers.”
Mr. Clanton rolled his eyes. “Look. This world is a sinking ship, and roaches on a sinking ship will bite and kill one another for a spot on dry wood. Now let me make one thing clear: There’s more roaches on this ship than just you, and this scrap of wood is getting damp!”
Nova stared down the overweight, suspender-clad low-life with her dark green eyes. “With all due respect, which is zero by the way, maybe we should stop fighting over the scraps and fix the ship?”
He took a step closer, the warm stench of coffee on his breath growing unbearable. “You ever see a roach fix a ship? No! It’s not in our nature, plain and simple. We take what we can, then we drown. You ain’t getting paid, and that’s final! Now get out of my office!”
Aggravated, but far from surrender, Nova stepped into the hallway and snapped the door shut. “Not all of us are roaches.”
Out in the lobby, Lux, a slender young woman with long platinum hair, was pacing. “Well? How’d it go?” she asked, bobbing with anticipation. “Actually, wait! Give me a one-word summary before diving into the story.”
Nova gave her a thumbs down.
“Um, that’s not a word.” Lux was never one to pass up an opportunity to be snarky. “That’s a gesture.”
“Fine, it went badly.”
“Um, that’s actually four words. No offense or anything, but we’re gonna have to work on either your listening or counting skills.”
Nova couldn’t help but smirk as she should have seen that coming. “Well, let’s just say we’ve got a long night of scheming ahead of us.”
Lux’s eyes brightened. “Nice! I can’t think of a more fitting way to celebrate your eighth anniversary, can you?”
“Has it been that long already?” Nova was surprised Lux was even keeping track. It had been eight years since an eleven-year-old Nova ran away from home to make her own way in the world—an easy decision considering her mother was dead and her scoundrel of a father was a pawn of the mob.
Lux swung open the museum’s front door and stepped out into the warm evening sunlight. “Eight years to the day! Crazy that we’re going to outdo years of your work with a single sale!” She paused in her tracks. “Er… At least we were, I guess.”
“We still will,” Nova assured her. “We have to.”
A Man Left to Burn
“You don’t understand. You can’t. I worshiped the Second Sun all my life. We all did, and it lit the world on fire anyway. I was there the day God killed us. I still recall the Second Sun’s soul-petrifying voice—not the deep, loving voice of a father as the clerics had taught, but a cold, inhuman, feminine voice. These are the exact words it spoke: ‘How oft would I have given everything to save you, but you would not be saved. You sanctified greed and vilified reason. When met with innocence, you did not so much as ask her name before tearing her from existence. I know you all with perfect clarity. On this day the Second Sun will set, and as you push one another’s heads under the poison to keep your own afloat, so will you nevertheless drown. I’ll pay the price of perfection.’”
Chapter 1
200 Years before the Fire — The Heist
“What do you mean you aren’t going to pay us?” Nova retrieved a carefully folded contract from her leather thigh pack and slammed it onto Mr. Clanton’s desk. “Don’t make this complicated. We had a deal. Lux and I did our part. We delivered the dreichod hatchlings to your museum in a safe and timely fashion. Now it’s high time you do your part.”
Mr. Clanton leaned back in his tufted leather chair and laughed. “Oh no, it’s in writing? What are you gonna do? Take that worthless piece of paper to the Law Makers? Assuming they don’t hang you, they’ll fine you for every last platinum piece you’ve scrounged up. You’ll roam the streets naked and alone.”
Nova stood silent and fidgeted with a lock of her deep auburn hair. She hated to admit it, but he did have her cornered. Dreichods were supposed to have been extinct since the dawn of civilization, and having anything to do with them was declared “playing god” and illegal. She had no idea how the creatures had been revived, nor did she care. She simply saw an opportunity for work and took it. There was only one hope left. “Fine, you’ve got me there. I can’t force you to uphold our deal by the so-called ‘law,’ but surely there’s an ounce of honor in you that wants to keep your word. Or am I mistaken?”
“Gravely mistaken, sweetheart.”
Nova cringed at his pet name for her, but in hopes of just getting her platinum and getting out, she ignored it. “Now why is that?”
The man approached a window overlooking the City of Eden with all its industrial steam-stack-strewn glory. “Get over yourself, Nova. You know bloody well the Law Makers put a bullet through my wallet, same as you. They’re dispatching enforcers to confiscate the hatchlings first thing tomorrow morning. I can’t pay you even if I wanted to!”
“Lies. You didn’t think I’d run a few checks on you? Your accountant was all too eager to impress a young woman actually giving him attention and told me everything I wanted to know. This is pocket change compared to what you’ve got in the museum’s coffers.”
Mr. Clanton rolled his eyes. “Look. This world is a sinking ship, and roaches on a sinking ship will bite and kill one another for a spot on dry wood. Now let me make one thing clear: There’s more roaches on this ship than just you, and this scrap of wood is getting damp!”
Nova stared down the overweight, suspender-clad low-life with her dark green eyes. “With all due respect, which is zero by the way, maybe we should stop fighting over the scraps and fix the ship?”
He took a step closer, the warm stench of coffee on his breath growing unbearable. “You ever see a roach fix a ship? No! It’s not in our nature, plain and simple. We take what we can, then we drown. You ain’t getting paid, and that’s final! Now get out of my office!”
Aggravated, but far from surrender, Nova stepped into the hallway and snapped the door shut. “Not all of us are roaches.”
Out in the lobby, Lux, a slender young woman with long platinum hair, was pacing. “Well? How’d it go?” she asked, bobbing with anticipation. “Actually, wait! Give me a one-word summary before diving into the story.”
Nova gave her a thumbs down.
“Um, that’s not a word.” Lux was never one to pass up an opportunity to be snarky. “That’s a gesture.”
“Fine, it went badly.”
“Um, that’s actually four words. No offense or anything, but we’re gonna have to work on either your listening or counting skills.”
Nova couldn’t help but smirk as she should have seen that coming. “Well, let’s just say we’ve got a long night of scheming ahead of us.”
Lux’s eyes brightened. “Nice! I can’t think of a more fitting way to celebrate your eighth anniversary, can you?”
“Has it been that long already?” Nova was surprised Lux was even keeping track. It had been eight years since an eleven-year-old Nova ran away from home to make her own way in the world—an easy decision considering her mother was dead and her scoundrel of a father was a pawn of the mob.
Lux swung open the museum’s front door and stepped out into the warm evening sunlight. “Eight years to the day! Crazy that we’re going to outdo years of your work with a single sale!” She paused in her tracks. “Er… At least we were, I guess.”
“We still will,” Nova assured her. “We have to.”
My main concern is that we don't get much sense of Nova's internal drives or conflicts which should open questions in the reader's mind from the start of the story.
