A Fine Black Sky
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Kid turned fourteen.
There was no magic in Unity, save the magic of the Makers, the Inventors and the Engineers, who manipulated cogs, wheels, gears and springs, coils, triggers and pins, to their will and tame the indomitable creature that was technology, such as it was in the City of Unity. Power came from a source below, once believed to be the blood of the Old Gods, given freely and abundantly, which was harnessed once and forever by very skilled people who knew, particularly through learned methods, passed from generation to generation, desired much of the future, fed by the young ones who came through the natural turn of the perpetual driving forward of life.
Not all of those Kid worked alongside were to be great Advisors to Lords. Most of them were Apprentices to a Family-long tradition of a specific skilled task, essential for the continuity in the running of Unity. Unity had many moving parts, and not all of them were mechanical. Most of them were people, fulfilling a task, a destiny laid down since the thought of them was delighted in passion - another duty fulfilled for the future of the City as a whole. It was just that people like Kid had to learn all - a veritable jack of all trades and principally a master of none.
Such it was, then, that Kid watched from a safe distance how the Growers harnessed the vegetation into giving food and resources through manipulation of the intensely bright power reserves - of the blood of Gods. There was also a by-product of such an act, that of unguents, lotions, reservoirs and tinctures of medicinal use. This was important, for that produce alone would help a person of Unity survive. In the wide City, similar places were being harvested also, known locally as Glowers, or Glow Spots - lighting the dark spaces with firebug-like spots of fairy light. It was a constant reminder to those who still cared, that the Old Gods gave while the MonoGod observed - thus a contentious religious issue that needed to be addressed, but never tended to. Religious fervour and revolt was for the proles, not the Nobles, and certainly not for the children of Lords.
And of the Designers, the Inventors and the Makers, Kid was content to watch from a distance here also, due to the proximity of Osseus Rivalis, despite the other Apprentices forming hands-on experience of objects, concepts and items that would be utilised endlessly through their tenure as the new Masters of that skill. Getting their hands dirty was a rite of passage, feeding the habitual muscle memory parts of their present and future in familiarity by continual sensory knowledge.
Kid’s solitary act wasn't completely lost on everyone. A woman of distinct rotundity fed from a stiff constitution bred from extensive experience of rough sleeping, long nights of more than study and a simple firmness of middle age, coming from a time lost to the young simply by the passage of time, perhaps even lost to many of the older people of Unity. Here, however, she slotted in like a comfortable slipper upon a well socked foot to the fare all about her. She had the rags of a Trader about her, something Kid had only recently become aware of. He had no reason before to assume where the objects he coveted once in a long ago had come from, not understanding or needing to understand bargaining, bartering and concocting a story or two, to lower the price or inflate it in recidivistic repetition, when needed.
“Not interested, I take it?” she asked quite conversationally. She didn't talk down to Kid, as he was beginning to experience by many in recent weeks. She also didn't talk to him on his own patronisable level either. It was a kind of benevolent, strong and rustic manner, dictated by her unerring knowledge that judging a book by its cover only made one knowledgable about book covers, and never their content, intent or actionability.
“Something like that.”
“Something like that? So not that? Hmm. So - you are interested, just not enough to join in, I take it?”
“I don’t know really -“
“Ah, I get it. Never had to think up an answer for it before? Yes, I know the feeling. Many was the time I - you now what? That’s a story for another time. Not quite your level yet. Don’t get me wrong, lad. You look intelligent enough, just - well, just not tall enough. Something like that, yes. Still, you are an Apprentice, and Apprent-ice - Apprenticicis - Apprentie - whatever, you lot really need to get to grips with the cut and thrust of -“ the Trader animated her words with a clenched fist here and a cold swipe there, before she kind of interrupted herself, “Well, you know what I mean. Look, lad, just get over there, for Pudding’s Sake. You only learn by doing, you know?”
“I’m fine where I am, thank you.” bowed Kid curtly from his seated position in the shadows.
“Hmm. Reminds me of that old story.”
“What old story?”
“Oh, I see? Interested now, are we? Fickle youth, I tell you.”
“What old story?” repeated Kid, ignoring the insult.
“You never heard of the Giant who came from the Forest? I thought everyone knew that one?”
“Giants are absurd -“
“Are they? Are they indeed? Been outside have you? Been outside when the sun shines so intensely you feel like your skin is burning, your eyes are about to shrivel and you get all that sticky, gooey -“
“So there are Giants?”
“There were Giants, lad. Were. Operative word. Oh, there’s much in them woods out there, the ones you can’t quite see, even if you stand on the furthest most tip of Unity? Nah, there’s so much there that’d freeze your soul, shudder your flesh and rattle your bones. And one day, this Giant just happened to stroll out of the line of trees, like it hadn't a care in the world. But trust me, lad, it carried a burden far heavier than its massively broad shoulders could handle. It even waited until darkness, in order to pass its burden on.”
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