Chapter 3: The Old Ones

Chapter 3: The Old Ones

Faeya woke to the cool feeling of a cloth on her forehead. Blinking slowly, she sat up and looked around her. It took a while for her surroundings to come into focus, but when they did, she nearly lay back down again, thinking she must be delirious.

It was the oddest room she had ever seen. Just- odd. On the ceiling there was an odd globe that glowed brightly, and there was the weirdest equipment around her. Sitting by her bed was a woman with a clipboard, who looked up when Fae let out a tiny moan.

The woman was dressed all in white, a long jacket and professional-looking. "You're up?" she said briskly. "Well, I daresay you'll be hungry. What do you think you're up to eating?"

Fae squinted harder. It all seemed to be real. "Well, I feel pretty okay. I'll eat whatever you have."

The woman smiled warmly. "Which isn't anything much, I know. Ever since the Colony came, you locals have been raiding and banditing- but the charter of basic rights and freedoms says something about colonizing planets, and aboriginal rights and junk…. Anyway, try not to take offense. Here." She handed Fae a bowl of something goopy and brown.

When Faeya didn't respond, the woman laughed. "I know it looks gross, but it's just nutro-pudding. Pretend it's chocolate."

On a leap of faith, Fae picked up a spoonful, jamming it in her mouth. It was actually pretty good! She ate the entire thing, though it was quite filling.

"My name is Karen." The woman said. "I'm the resident nurse. Doctor Corus will be with you in a moment."

Doctor Corus? As in, the capital? Whatever. Head spinning with all these newfound surroundings, Fae lay back down on the pillow as a man, also clothed in white, entered the room.

He looked at her and frowned slightly, but Fae couldn't be sure. "Hello," he said briskly. "I'm Doctor Sean Corus. What is your name, if I may ask?"

Fae blinked slightly. "Faeya of Queenscove."

The man scowled even deeper. "Queenscove? One of the 'fiefs' on the shield of the Warties? Just my luck to get saddled with a high noble." He sat down beside her with a malign expression on his face.

"Actually," she squeaked, "My father was a younger son…" she silenced under the man's glare.

"You will listen to me, girl, and listen well. You are lower-ranking than any citizen of N'Europe, and you will do well to remember that. No blood, however blue, is of any importance here. Once recovered, you will be the responsibility of the Department of Juvenile Delinquents."

Faeya cocked her head in confusion. "What about Myr-"

"She will accompany you, since you seem to know each other." He gave her a cursory examination, and left.

~*~

The next day Faeya left her white room and was escorted by some fearsome men down the hallway. She saw Myr being similarly pushed along, spitting and kicking the whole way. They were pushed into a funny box, where the men pushed some buttons, closing them in. Then the box went down, (This is an elevator, in case you hadn't noticed) and Fae clung to the side, scared out of her wits. The door opened again, and they were on a different level. She was then marched through some glass doors and pushed into a roaring metal monster waiting for them. Fae drew back, but she was pushed inside the door and her hands were cuffed behind her back. There was a grille separating her from the man in front. The thing revved and shot off, hovering a few inches above the ground. She shut her eyes in fear, and when she opened them again, she was at another building, dark an foreboding.

Some words in a foreign language were printed at the front of the building, and Fae, with Myranda not far behind, was 'escorted' into another box and thrown into a blank room with only two pallets on the floor. Myr was next, cursing and delivering a blow to her captor's eye. The door shut.

Fae sat on the floor, shivering. The walls were closing in on her, squeezing her tight. She couldn't breathe-

"Fae!" Myr growled. "Snap out of it!" she shook the other girl's shoulders roughly.

Faeya just sat there, shivering. Myr drew back her fist and gave her a hearty punch in the eye. Fae got up and walked to her pallet, not saying a word.

~*~

A loud bell reverberating in her eardrums woke Fae the next morning. The doors to her room slid open, and she gratefully took the escape, Myr following her. She got out of the room and realized that the floor was moving her. She nearly fell over, and then got her balance as the moving floor deposited her at the box again. There were only two buttons in this box, one said 'up' and the other said 'down'. Faeya wasn't sure what to do, but Myr pressed the 'down' button, and the doors closed as they lurched downward.

The doors opened and they emerged at a setting quite like the mess hall at the palace. Kids anywhere from five to twenty filled the room, pushing and shoving to be first in line for food. A funny contraption doled out their meager rations on trays, and when served they went to sit at long tables and benches. As soon as Fae and Myranda entered the room, all motion stopped. Everyone turned to stare at the newcomers.

"Go back where ya came from, Wartie!" one called out.

"Who are ya gonna sacrifice to your gods next?"

Fae drew back, but Myr stepped forward and rammed the second speaker in the stomach. "You." She whispered, and threw him to the floor. She punched him in the jaw, and swiftly broke his nose. She stood, and before he could get up, she kicked him in the groin.

"By the Goddess!" she yelled. "If you ever talk to me like that again, you'll be taking a forced vow of chastity!" She calmly butted to the front of the line, and grabbed her tray without a word. Fae meekly walked to the back of the line and endured the taunts silently.

She sat down as far as possible from everybody else with her food, and ate it in peace. She felt something wet hit her cheek, and wiped off a spitball, not even looking at her attacker. She felt someone it down beside her and stiffened. She looked up at a boy not much older than she, dressed in stiff blue pants with holes at the knees and ragged bottoms. He wore a shirt with an odd picture on the front and that same foreign writing.

"Hi," he said.

Fae looked back at her food. "What?" she said cynically. "Aren't you going to throw some food at me? Mock my clothes? Taunt my ancestors?"

He looked at her from beneath his scraggly hair, amused. "No. I'm really curious about natives, that's all. I've never met one."

She studied him skeptically. "I can't tell you. One minute I was camping in the Old One's ruins, the next I was waking up in one of those things that pass for beds here."

"Old Ones?"

She stared at him as if he was crazy. 'The Old Ones, you nitwit! The ones with the ageless tools and lived thousands of years ago! They have writing-" she paused, realizing what she was saying, "-writing exactly like yours."

He looked rather pale. "Oh, crap. I've heard about all those studies on time travel, but- you're not just making it up?"

Faeya was furious. 'I'm a Queenscove, you nitwit, I don't lie about things like that! My mother drilled it into me enough-"

"Your mother?"

She sighed patiently. "The Shang Snow Leopard. Keladry of Queenscove, formerly Mindelan. You haven't heard about her? Where have you been for the past twenty years?"

"Actually, I was transported here from Earth3 just five years ago." He admitted.

"Earth3?"

He snorted. "Now where have you been for the past twenty years?"

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