Rainer #2
Silence settles between us as he stares into the distance.
He blinks several times and turns his attention back to me, giving me a wry smile.
“Yeah, so...” He shrugs. “I’ve seen real horrors, and I know what pain is.
I know what it feels like to kill innocent people and the threat of failing.
You only refuse once, and that lesson is learned.
There’s nothing left in the world that scares me. ”
Chills break out all over my body. “That’s… awful.”
“Silence has only ever done awful things. When you think you’ve seen their worst, you open another door and find that you’re very, very wrong.”
“What happened when you were taken away from Silence?”
“We were allowed to be kids… for a while. The war with Silence was looming. We watched Silence send waves of plagues into the world, and finally, the good monsters were forced into action before there was nothing left to defend. The teko, we were never expected to fight again. We never had to kill or face consequences. Even in the epic war where it was the epitome of good or evil winning, the only expectation placed on us was that we stay within the walls where we’d be safe.
“But the teko were angry. We didn’t want the evil to survive.
We didn’t want to give them a chance of winning, so we joined the adults.
We fought alongside them to take down Silence and their hundreds of thousands of drones.
Their killer beasts. We fought alongside them, and we won.
The relatively few left alive in the world are still being hunted like the vermin they are. ”
“I can’t imagine,” I murmur.
Drystan gives me a smile. “It’s been a hundred years.
Mostly, I’m fine now. There are days that I’m less fine.
There are things that trigger aggressive memories that can pull me down into deep, dark rabbit holes, but Notto and Keary are always there to pull me out and remind me that I’m safe. That’s not my reality anymore.”
“The pods… They're Silence survivors.”
He nods. “Yep. We got the vast majority of them. We’re talking if there were a hundred-thousand agents—not drones or beasts or whatever, only agents—if there were a hundred thousand, we took out ninety-nine thousand.
We destroyed their facilities. Their technology.
Their projects. Their software. We destroyed it all.
That means if they want to rebuild, they start from the ground with nothing but their memories.
But this time, they’re being hunted. This time, there’s no hiding.
We’ve also cut them off from the monster world, so they’re left in the destroyed human world that they created.
It’s like cutting off their heads and their hands before sending them out into the world to try again. ”
Our conversation ends when Keary and Notto’s arguing voices meet our ears again. It’s indistinct at first, but then we catch words here and there.
I’m not sure what they’re fighting about, but I listen as they enter the space again and set the plates down on the table. I reach for one, as does Drystan. Notto and Keary are too busy arguing to eat.
I choose to regard them as entertainment as I eat, trying to determine what it is they’re arguing about exactly.
“Why do you insist on fighting this all the time?” Notto demands. “You’re fucking exhausting.”
“I didn’t ask you to come nor stay. Go away.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“I don’t want you here.”
“I didn’t ask what you wanted,” Notto snaps. “I’m so fucking tired of your lies. I know what you want, but you insist on being a dick.”
“No. You’re trying to force your wants on me. Yours. Not mine.”
“You’re so full of fucking shit,” Notto hisses as he gets in Keary’s face. “I can see that lie in the eyes of your monster.”
Keary shoves him away far more violently than necessary, but I’m still surprised when their fighting actually comes to blows.
“Should we do something?” I ask Drystan. My next question comes up short when there’s a shudder in the air. A low hum reverberates off my bones, and I shiver.
Then they’re flung through the large doors and out the window by some invisible force. The solid-pane window that somehow opens for them visibly seals back up right before my eyes. Holy fuck. I get to my feet, alarmed, but Drystan hasn’t moved.
“Nah,” he answers.
“What just happened?”
“The rules of the library are to be obeyed at all times. It’s a place of peace. Their hostility got them kicked out.”
I blink then look around the space as if seeing it for the first time. Libraries have always held magic, but to me, it was the magic of childhood. I thought that magic faded into something more realistic, like an idea.
Apparently, that magic always existed. I swear to fuck, the entire library winks. Like there’s a spirit here that watches over everyone to make sure they’re behaving. That spirit is amused by my shock and winks at me.
Holy fuck.
“Want to see a secret hidden in the library?” Drystan asks. There’s a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.
“Sure,” I say, digging my fingers into Kaida’s fur.
“They’re going to be busy for a while, so we have some time to explore.”
I look at Kaida. She meets my eyes, and I think she’s completely on board with this suggestion.