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)
Only then will peace return to Tau City.
It’s a form of torture, I now realize, the ringing of these bells.
But it’s fine that I don’t sleep because the people have now been told that Aldo Scott is dead and there needs to be a funeral this morning because there is no time for one tonight.
Aside from the mysterious office in the center of the dome, the dome contains a long tufted velvet couch, a desk, and two bookshelves filled with books. Last night the couch was facing the desk, like my father used to sit behind that desk and give speeches to tiny groups of sitting people.
But I swung the couch around and pushed it closer to the window. If I wasn’t gonna sleep, I might as well stare at that clanging bell tower as I think up ways to ruin this god and bring his tower down.
I hate him. I have never met him, but I hate him. And I don’t care if he’s the one who keeps us warm at night and cool during the day. I don’t care that he’s the one who runs the irrigation to the fields and the heaters in the orchards. I don’t care that he takes care of us. I want nothing more than to find a way into that tower and take him out.
Which is… concerning, to say the least. I’ve never been a violent guy. Sure, I’ll play rough in sports. And if people fuck with me, I’ll fight. But I’ve never had the urge to kill before and now I do.
Something has changed and for some reason I associate this change inside me with the rumbling I felt yesterday afternoon just before Clara and I left my quarters. She didn’t feel it, but to me, it felt like the world shifted.
Maybe it was the death of my father? Maybe I felt it?
At any rate, I feel like a different person. Like the Finn who had a nice, sweet tryst with his soulmate yesterday afternoon is gone.
I get up off the couch and walk over to the window. It’s a nice sunny day, as are almost all days in Tau City. It rains every once in a while, but for the most part, it’s hot. The sweltering days are as predictable as the freezing nights.
So it’s fuckin’ sunny and it’s the morning of my father’s funeral.
Hundreds of small boats are lining up in the canals to take everyone from up-city to down-city, where my father’s body will be laid to rest on a small boat, set aflame, and pushed out onto the canal. And we will all watch until the little inferno that makes the air smell like death floats its way into the lake on the edge of nothing.
Typically, this happens at night and the flaming boat is all very dramatic, but again, there is no room on the city schedule tonight because we’re already booked for a fucking Extraction.
So this morning we’ll boat down, watch as the body is set aflame, then we’ll all go home and put it behind us. Because that’s what the good citizens of Tau City do. They endure.
People are already queueing up to get into the boats along the canal down below. Many of them have probably already left. Others gather in small groups. It’s a holiday. All city offices are closed because of the Extraction that will happen tonight and everyone in this part of town works in a city office of some kind, but they are still standing in line at the Magic Teacup for their morning dose of comfort. They are still grabbing a pastry from the Laughing Loaf. Still carrying on like this is all normal.
How did I not see it?
How could I have been so blind?
“Hello!” Mitch’s voice drifts in from downstairs.
Then Jeyk is calling. “You up there, Finn?”
I don’t answer them, but I hear footsteps, so they’re coming up no matter what.
I’ve got my back to Jeyk and Mitch when they get to the top and step away from the stairs. A few seconds later they flank me. And we stand there like that for a few moments, just looking down at the people and the boats.
When they don’t say anything, I snap. “What?”
Mitchell shrugs, his shoulder bumping mine. “We’re just here for support, Finn.”
“Yeah. We figured we’d keep you company on the Master boat.” Jeyk nudges me with his elbow.
I sigh, then drop the tension in my shoulders as I try my best to be polite and thankful. “How did you guys even get up here? How did you get past security?”
Mitchell huffs. “We have our ways.”
Jeyk scoffs. “Zander’s in charge today. We slipped him a few coins.”
Mitch side-eyes me. “What we did was promise that you’d keep him around as a regular. Give him a little promotion.” He turns back to the view, leaving Jeyk and me at the windows. “Hope that’s not a problem, because I don’t like to be a liar.”