= = = = = = = = =
Meredith scoffed. “You are certainly in a good mood.”
“Painkillers. My own recipe, actually. I hadn’t anticipated
this side effect, but I don’t see any damage in people who were once in pain
now being slightly giddy.”
Adina smiled. “I see they let you use your own quilt.”
Ivy smiled. “Earlier this morning, a donation coordinator
came around, asking people if they would be willing to donate their competition
submissions to help the injured. When I told him he could have everything of
mine, especially the medicinal tea, he came back later with my quilt. Said I
looked cold, and a nice lady had donated the quilt, and would I like it.” Ivy
smoothed her hand over the fabric. “Wasn’t that nice of him?”
Meredith patted her hand. “Yes it was.”
Ivy held her gaze. “I know you all are worried about me, and
want to be here for me, but don’t know what to do or say. It happens inside
infirmaries, I understand. Go. I will be fine.”
Elliot interrupted. “I actually had something I wanted to
talk about. Samuel and I both do.”
Samuel nodded. “We… we need to know, to understand how this
happened. Please.”
Ivy nodded, and gestured for Elliot to sit on the foot of
the bed. Adina stood and closed the curtain behind them, letting Samuel have
her chair, and she sat on Ivy’s left, at the head of the bed.
Meredith began. “Please understand, this is sensitive, not
just for you but for all of us. Please try to keep our voices from carrying too
far.”
Ivy nodded. “The only people in the room right now are us
and the other patients, and they are all in a sedated sleep, but should they
waken, or someone else enter, I will warn you.” He looked at Elliot, at the
pain in him. “Please ask whatever you need to. I will be as truthful as I am
able.”
“You intend to lie to us?”
“No, I am acknowledging that I do not know all the answers.”
“Meredith is a Far Seer. Did you see this coming?”
Meredith took a deep breath. “No, and yes.” Samuel stiffened
beside her. “Please, listen. I Saw that the tech would be here. I knew
logically that someone, probably several, would end up being tempted. I didn’t
know who. When Devon talked about the sideshow
after the first day, I realized he was one of them. We tried to dissuade him in
our conversation. It seemed to work, he didn’t bring it up again around us, and
I didn’t See him around it again. Something must have changed recently. I
didn’t See that Devon had made that decision
till it was too late.” Samuel eased, wrapping his arm around Meredith. She
hugged him back, fiercely. “I would never have let anything happen to anyone if
it could be avoided.”
Elliot seemed confused. “But if you knew, logically, that
someone would be tempted, why couldn’t this be stopped?”
“Usually the temptation is nothing more than a minor siphon.
A hand brushes a weapon, and it drains a small amount of their energy, maybe
enough to turn on, usually it’s just stored in the machine. It takes so many
siphons over a very long time to get enough energy to turn on at all, but to do
what Devon did…”
Ivy finished for Adina. “It had to have been siphoning off
of hundreds of people for generations. Once Meredith realized there was a whole
ship, and that it was that dangerous, we reported it. The Sisterhood had asked
the sideshow owner to close the attraction, hoping that would protect people
from it. They were going to buy the tech from him, so it could be disassembled
and melted down, but they didn’t get the chance.”
“Closing the booth obviously wasn’t enough.”
“Has something like this ever happened before?”
Adina shrugged. “There are tall tales among the sisterhood
of tech running amok in the decades after magic’s removal. The Sisterhood made
finding tech and melting it down a priority, not just to protect people, but
because high quality metal was hard to come by. I haven’t heard of a piece of
tech big enough to be an actual threat in living memory.”
Ivy nodded. “The beginning of A M was a dark age. We are
told that many people took their lives, rather than live without their magic. Those
that survived had to live without the machines. Imagine, a life where everyone
could drive around in one of those hovercrafts. No need for horses, or
carriages.”
“Yes, but that way led extinction. Think of everyone having
access to the destructive power of that thing. It was only on for, what? An
hour? Two? And in that time, it was never at full capacity. How many died in
that time? How many ended up in here?”
Ivy’s eyes glossed over. “137. One hundred and thirty seven
people died, not counting those who will probably not make it through the day
today. An additional approximate 500 were injured severely enough to need
medical attention, some from the device itself, but some from being trampled by
the crowd as people tried to escape.”
Samuel held Meredith tighter. “Dearest Goddess. That… that
is an awful lot.”
Meredith sighed. “It could have been much, much worse. There
are over a hundred THOUSAND people in attendance this year, not counting the
people working here. That’s more people than live in my home country. There
were… threads, possibilities… where everyone died.”
The group sat in silence for a while.
“Is there anything else?” Ivy looked at Elliot. “I want to
do everything I can to help you both through this.”
He looked at the blanket. The patchwork was of autumn
leaves, the stitch work all spirals and tiny stars. “No, not right now.”
Ivy smiled. “Well, if that changes, you know where to find
me.”
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