Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
There is nothing visible to the naked eye outside our little valley rimmed in towering red rock formations except sand dunes and a faint, rippling outline of mountains in the distance. I’ve never seen a stranger come to the wall asking to be let in.
And while there have not been any exploratory expeditions across the sand in my lifetime, there were hundreds in the early days, just after the Great Sweep.
No one ever came back. So… maybe they found a better place out there? Or, more likely, they just died.
It’s just us. We’re the last.
Our spark, the power that runs our city, comes from the god in the tower now.
He keeps us safe.
He keeps us fed and watered.
He keeps us happy and healthy.
And that’s why, when the god in the tower demands Maidens come to him every ten years to keep us all alive, we send those Maidens right on in.
It’s just one girl. And she’s a volunteer, isn’t she?
One girl in exchange for safety and spark to power the greenhouses and field irrigation so we can all eat? One girl in exchange for hot water and forced-air heating during the frigid nights? One girl in exchange for peace of mind so that we, the people of Tau City, might live long lives enriched in comforts and culture?
Yes. We all agree it’s worth it. That’s why there are seventy-five Little Sisters living in the Maiden Tower dorm at this very moment.
Of course, all of us enter this little arrangement thinking we’ll be number two, don’t we? Or ten, as it stands right now. None of us ever come in thinking we’ll be number one.
Still, I have to take my hat off to Imogen Gibson. She didn’t even squeal. Didn’t even break her smile when her name was called as our number one. And that same night, as the bells were ringing, she stood in front of that massive black door that leads into the God’s Tower with her back straight and her chin up and her spark on full display. It was so bright, it could light up the world.
And while the ritual is terrifying in the moments leading up to midnight on Extraction Day, after Imogen walked through, and the bells stopped ringing, and all the power shortages in up-city ceased to exist, and all the coffee machines worked perfectly once more, and the lights stopped flickering, and the elevators stopped skipping, and the faucets had hot water once again—we, the good people of Tau City, forgot our fear and started, once again, to count our blessings.
Because the spark from just one girl was enough to set things right.
Or so we thought.
Then the bells rang again, two years later, eight years early, and it was a shock. But we did have warnings. Nothing massive, but there were small signs. Machines struggled to work, lights crackled and dimmed, and a few heaters in the orchard gave out, causing an apple shortage that fall.
Well, we all thought. Maybe the city has grown too much and we’ve been demanding more spark from the god than we thought?
Yes, surely that was the problem.
So in went Spark Maiden number two—Marlowe Hughes—and all spark to up-city was strictly metered so we could keep track of what we used.
Three (mostly uneventful) years later, when the bells rang again, people were thoroughly confused. The metering worked. People conserved spark. We were using less than ever. And there were no signs of shortages. Everything was working just fine as far as anyone could tell.
So why was the god in the tower demanding yet another Spark Maiden?
Of course, Maiden number three—Mabel Paice, not to be confused with Maiden number five, Mabel Shaw—went in. This time things got worse. And the bells rang again just two weeks later. So in went Lucy Fisher.
Lucy Fisher was the breaking point for the people of Tau City. Two Spark Maidens in one decade? Weird, but OK. It had happened before.
Four, though?
No. No, no, no. This was abnormal. Something was very wrong. People panicked.
But, as one does when over time strange things return to normal, they forgot about it. When there were no more requests from the tower, we moved on with our lives, content that whatever the problem was, it had been fixed. This is what people do when times are good. No one wants to think about the bad times when nothing is wrong. What is the point of that?
There was no rhyme or reason for the next three called in—Mabel Shaw, Piper Adley, and Brooke Bayford. It was two years, then seven months, then eight months.
Brooke was the last and it’s been over a year now. With just three months left of our service, Haryet, Gemna, and I can’t help but hold our breath. It’s been tense. But today feels… different. Like we’ve turned a corner.