Chapter 8 #2
The entrance to the underground chamber was hidden beneath an unassuming storage building near the village center.
I’d only been down there a handful of times in my tenure as lord.
The technology was too complex, too alien, for most current D’tran to understand.
The ancestors who built the structures that powered the village must have had outside knowledge, or they were true geniuses.
I only wished they’d recorded maintenance records so that future generations would know how to properly maintain it.
We did so through careful procedure and ritual more than true comprehension.
But Cleo might actually understand it. Might see patterns and connections that had been lost to us for generations.
The door required both my hands on the access panel and a specific sequence of touches to open.
Ancient security, designed to keep unauthorized people out.
When it finally slid open with a hiss of displaced air, cool darkness waited beyond.
Vax and the guard took stations on either side of the door.
“Stay close,” I told Cleo. “The tunnels are confusing if you don’t know the way.”
We descended stone steps that had been worn smooth by generations of feet. Bioluminescent panels set into the walls provided just enough light to see by, casting everything in shades of blue-green.
At the bottom, another door. Then, the central chamber sprawled before us.
Everything that ran power to the village, from the water purifiers to the grow facility to the dim lights in homes, came from this location.
Tubes ran along the ceiling and walls, some as thick as my arm, others thin as fingers, all pulsing with faint light.
Wires connected bulky devices that hummed with power, creating a low hum.
Control panels covered many surfaces, most dark and inactive, a few still glowing with symbols I couldn’t read.
I had no idea what any of it did. Just that it kept us alive. Kept the water flowing, the lights working, the essential systems functioning.
Cleo stopped at the entrance, her eyes going wide. “This is fascinating.” She moved forward slowly, her gaze darting from device to device, taking it all in with visible awe. “This is really old technology. Some of this might be thousands of cycles old.”
She walked through the chamber, occasionally reaching out to touch panels, to trace connections, muttering to herself in a mix of D’tran and her own language. I followed at a distance, watching her catalog and assess. She was efficient. It was clear she understood what she was seeing.
As Cleo moved deeper into the chamber, her movements slowed. She stopped in front of a particularly complex array of components and her expression shifted from wonder to concern.
“Cleo?” I moved closer. “What’s wrong?”
She turned to face me, and the look in her eyes made my blood run cold.
“Someone’s been in here,” she said quietly. “Recently. And they’ve been doing things to the system.”
The words hung in the air. “What?” I closed the distance between us, all thoughts of maintaining space forgotten. “What kind of things?”
“Look.” She pointed to a cluster of tubes that connected to a hub.
It looked identical to everything else, to my eyes.
“These should be aligned in a specific pattern for optimal power distribution. But they’ve been rearranged.
Thankfully, they didn’t know what they were doing and all it did was create inefficiencies.
But eventually, the strain on these connections would have caused cascading failures. ”
My marks blazed as I leaned closer, trying to see what she saw. “How can you tell it’s intentional?”
“Because there’s no way this grid could have operated for so long with such a chaotic setup.
This is an absolute mess. Also, you can see a layer of dust on everything, but not this array.
It was wiped clean.” Her voice was tight with barely controlled anger.
“Your water purification failure might not have been an accident. Someone might be messing with the power distribution to cause problems.”
The implications crashed over me like a physical blow. Sabotage. Someone in my village, someone with access to this chamber, deliberately destroying the systems that kept us alive.
“Who?” The word came out harsh, almost a growl. “Who would do this?”
Cleo met my eyes, and I saw the same fury I felt reflected in her gaze. “Someone who wants to make it look like the ‘sky people’ are here to destroy you.”
She was right. The timing was too perfect. They arrived, and immediately systems started failing. Making it look like the prophecy’s warning of ruin was coming true. Making it easier to argue for their exile or execution.
Making someone’s agenda look like divine will.
“Vax,” I spat. “Or someone close to him. Can you fix this?” I asked her, waving a hand at the array.
She nodded slowly. “I can, but in order to also see to the grow facility’s problems, I’ll need a lot more time down here. I doubt you can spare it supervising me.”
I ground out a curse. “I can’t. But there’s one person I do trust in all this.”
She let out a huffy sigh. “Oh, no. Don’t say it’s that woo-woo lady who’s all hot on the prophecy bullshit.”
“Zelana would never do anything to harm this village,” I said, keeping a twitch from my lips. I didn’t know what “woo-woo” or “bullshit” meant, exactly, but I got the idea of it. And she wasn’t wrong, but still. “I’ll send her down, along with Venith, who can assist you.”
“Fine.” She shook her head. “But if she goes off on some mystical tangent, I’m going to tell her to stuff it.”
“Fair enough.” I turned toward the exit. “I need to seal the village. No one enters or leaves until we figure out who’s been in this chamber.”
“Even though we know who it is?” She cocked a hip. “Aren’t only a few people even allowed down here?”
“Yes, but until I’m certain, I can’t rule anyone out.” I winced, disliking having to admit to the next part. “We have a high level of trust in this village. At least, we did. I’m afraid the locks aren’t as secure as they should be.”
“So anyone could get down here?” She looked aghast.
I shrugged. “If they were determined enough.”
Cleo shook her head and shoved a curl from her eye. “Okay. Fine. But it’s still probably Vax. He hates me. And he was very much against letting me down here.”
“True.” I gave her a small smile. It was all I could muster. “Stay here while I get Zelana and Venith. Don’t touch anything without someone else here. I don’t want anyone accusing you of anything.”
She held up her hands, brows raised. “Okay, boss.”
I swiped my thumb over her chin. “You’re cheeky, but I like it.”
I was rewarded with a flash of surprise, followed by a wide smile that lit up her eyes. Cleo was already pretty, but the smile stole my breath. I wanted to see more smiles on her face, and I wanted to be the one who put them there.
So that I wouldn’t do something unwise, like give in to the urge to kiss her, I left quickly.
There were bigger problems in my village than its leader’s obsession with an alien visitor.
The weight of what I’d just seen settled over me.
A traitor in my village. Someone willing to destroy everything we’d built just to…
What? Prove a prophecy? Eliminate the sky people? Seize power?
I didn’t know. But I would find out.
And when I did, they would face justice that had nothing to do with prophecies or sacred marks or the will of ancient seers. They would face me.