Chapter 5: Explinations

Chapter 5: Explanations

"So where have you been for the past twenty years?" he snorted. "Earth3. Better known as Terra Cotta. You know, the third Terra planet?"

She stared at him, open-mouthed.

He sighed. "There are for types of planets. Terra, Marina, Avia, and Pyra. The Terras are the most inhabited, though the Marinas are quite popular. Avias are very- odd. With the Pyras, you generally live in domes and such. Terra has a percentage of earth about the same as Terra Alpha, otherwise known as the Home Planet. Hydras are like eighty- percent water, Pyras consist of mostly volcanoes, and the Avias have like no atmosphere, and very little on the ground, as well as the highest mountains you've ever seen. My name is Carson, by the way." He returned to his food. "Never mind about it all. Anyway, for maybe the past what- eight hundred years? Ever since the Spacedawn. SD. It went from about 3000 AD, when they changed it to SD. They'd sent out experienced astronauts before then, and 'bots 'n' 'droids, but never colonizers. The year is, I think, 824 SD." Carson shook his head. "Not that I really care. But then there's the Prev-Planets. They say that humans once had amazing technology, and then they lost it. Now we're regaining it again. But before, they say that they colonized planets. Now we're coming back to those same planets, but the planets we come back to are- very odd."

Faeya tried to swallow all of this. "Odd?"

He looked over his shoulder, as if checking for people listening in. "Well- weird things start happening. Unexplainable things. Like people being healed by only touch, people exploding for no reason at all. Objects moving without being touched."

Fae just stared at him. "Why- that's just magic!"

"Shh!" he hissed. "Watch it! You never know who might be listening! Can you do- the sparkly stuff?"

Fae shook her head. "No, I don't have the Gift. But my father does."

"You actually believe in magic?" he sounded scornful.

She really stared at him this time. "I've seen it with my own eyes! Grandpa is the best healer in Tortall- I swear. And everyone knows Alanna the Lioness- or Numair Samalίn, the famous mage."

Carson was still rather skeptical. "Come on. It's just hocus-pocus."

"Don't tell me no-one here has the Gift! Not even a minor one?"

He shook his head. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"But how can you not have magic?" she pressed. "The metal monsters- the moving floors- that must take many powerful mages!"

He laughed so hard he cried. "You mean hovecars?" he said in the gasps. "And conveyor belts? God, I don't even want to know what you'd think of escalators! Or spacecraft!" he pounded the table, tears of mirth flowing freely. "Oh- he he hee- I've gotta tell everybody about that one."

Fae, however, was lost on the second sentence. "God? Now what kind of a religion would worship a single god?"

It seemed there was a lot of staring going on. "Christianity. I'm an atheist- really, but it's just habit. My folks were real churchies. But gods? That sounds so… ancient Greek. Like Zeus or something."

"Gods. Mithros, the god of the sun and warriors, The Great Mother Goddess, goddess of the moon and women, The Dark God, Ganiel, Master of Dream, Kidunka, the World Snake, The Lady of Beasts- you're an atheist?!?"

Carson shrugged. "So? Most people are. Religion was done away with early on- though superstition lives." He changed his tone to a mocking one. "A black cat crossing your path is bad luck. So is walking under a ladder. And the Ace of Spades. And breaking a mirror. And opening an umbrella indoors. Hell, what isn't bad luck?"

Fae was still rather stunned. "Everyone has to have something to believe in. a god to look up to, to ask for advice."

He clicked his tongue. "Poor gullible- by the way, what is your name?"

"Faeya of Queenscove. Not much status, really, because my father was a younger son. Though Queenscove is one of the more well-known fiefs…"

"A regular noble, eh?" he said. "Well, let me show you the ropes. Here, there's no such thing as magic. Only sleight-of-hand, foolery. We have science. Electricity. That's what makes all the machines her run. Here, life is what you make it. Blood means nothing, and believe me, Faeya, Warties are considered lower than rat shit."

She looked rather frustrated. "Why does everyone call us Warties? I don't have any warts."

Carson looked slightly amused. "I don't know who started it. It's this old story, from way back in the twentieth century. The legend of King Arthur- the Once and Future King. He pulled a sword from a stone, among other things… anyway, he was raised by this Knight, Sir something, and sir something had a son named Kay. Arthur was just adopted, and Kay was the typical asshole and called Arthur Wart, which sounds kind of like Art, which was short for his name. Anyway, The whole King Arthur story was riddled with magic and knights in shining armor, very medieval. So someone came up with the name Warties."

He finished his dinner. "Look- this doesn't even matter. We're at Juvie Hall, and the lowest of the low. No one gives a fuck about us, and we don't give a fuck about them. We're just trash that should be kept off the streets, out of the way of 'honest citizens'. Bastards." Muttering to himself, he picked up his tray and walked off.

Well, that was odd, she thought to herself. This place is freaky. I wish I was home…

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Waddaya think? I finally got around to doing this, I've been putting it off forever. Review!