House of Vawn

Ding kicked the rock harder this time. “Stupid Stupid Stupid” he muttered to himself through gritted teeth. Not sure where that rock went, he kicked another one. He was quite annoyed with himself. He had forgotten to take his personal power crystal to work today to charge it in the recharge bank. Now he was lucky if he would have an hour worth of power tonight to make supper and have time to read or something. He really wanted to work on his latest project, but he needed power for testing and wouldn’t have it tonight. Continuing to feel sorry for himself he kicked a bigger stone, hard enough that it hurt his big toe a bit after impact. Watching the stone roll down the road, its trajectory led Ding’s eyes to a tall figure crossing his path, walking at a brisk pace.

“Hey Atticus, Wait up!”

Atticus swiveled his head toward and acknowledge Ding with a nod of his head, but kept marching along, not changing his pace or direction. Atticus was a proficient aethersmith, smart, and fun to work with. Ding had a worked a few jobs with him and they got along quite well.

“Hey, where you off to in such a hurry?” Ding asked.

“To a meeting” Atticus replied, not offering any more information.

He was acting sort of weird Ding thought “What kind of meeting? I forgot to charge my crystal today so I’m out of power tonight. Got nothing else to do really” He didn’t outright invite himself to the meeting, but it was close.

Atticus tensed up a bit as he walked, then after a moment relaxed, almost resigned “I suppose you can come along, but there are rules that you must follow.” They turned a corner off of the main street and down a side street. “First and most important. No talking, Jr. members are not allowed to speak, only observe.”

“What kind of…” Ding started, but Atticus cut him off

“Second, stay by my side at all times and do not wander off. And finally, do not speak of this meeting or location to anyone.”

Man, Ding thought, this guy is way overreacting, what kind of meeting can be that serious? None that he could think of. Even meetings between the top brass of the optimizers weren’t all hush hush. He decided to play along.

“Yeah sure, no problem”

“I’m not playing around. This is serious. You have to stick to the rules”

“OK” groaned Ding “I’m serious, not a word to anyone” They ducked between two buildings into an alley that dead ended at a brick wall. Seeing no one around Ding asked, “What kind of meeting is this anyway?”

“House of Vawn”

Atticus looked back up the alley to make sure no one was watching and pushed in a nondescript brick. A section of the brick wall opened revealing a dimly lit corridor. “Come on” Atticus whispered and ducked inside “Quietly” he added as Ding stepped though the door and Atticus closing it behind them. “This way” Atticus vaguely motioned and didn’t look back to see if Ding was following.

The House of Vawn was something that Ding had heard talk about in passing, conspiracy theories and such but didn’t really know what was real or fake. The rumor mill said The House of Vawn was a secret society that ran the world from the shadows. If that was the case Ding thought, they are doing a really bad job.

He continued to follow Atticus down the corridor sometimes turning right, sometimes left. They passed other corridors and closed doors, but Atticus didn’t pause or second guess, he just kept moving. Until they finally came to a plain wooden door. No window, no markings, no knob. Atticus took a long slender rod out of an inside pocket and inserted it into a tiny hole in the wall that Ding hadn’t seen and pressed. The door popped open a crack. Atticus gave it a push and walked in, waited for Ding to come in as well and closed the door behind them making sure that it latched.

Ding followed Atticus to the back of the room where there were no chairs and stood along the wall. Ding wasn’t really sure what he expected for a House of Vawn meeting, but it wasn’t this. The room was large and semi-circular with a slightly raised platform at the front. Chairs were arranged in rows with alley ways interrupting the rows periodically. Red curtains hung at regular intervals around the perimeter of the room, which hid other accesses into the room. Ding puzzled this last one out by watching people slip out from behind the curtain and others slip in behind. The curtains had a strange symbol that Ding committed to memory so he could puzzle it out later.

After several moments a tall slender figure with light colored hair stepped onto the platform to and raised his hand to quiet the conversations scattered about the room. The air grew still in an instant and a heaviness asserted itself.

“I Sterling, commence the meeting of the House of Vawn. I promise as leader to uphold the ideals and practices as established by the founding fa...”

“Enough with the pleasantries, lets get to the issue we are here for!” a loud boisterous man yelled from the front of the crowd.”

Sterling met the eyes of the man and replied in a steady voice “if we don’t follow the original formality, we risk committing the very same errors as those we stand against”

“Its formality and inaction that got us into this predicament in the first place! Yelled back the man.

“I highly doubt that formality is to blame here! In fact, I doubt that blame can be placed.”

“Of course, blame CAN and WILL be placed”

“Please” Sterling held up his hand in semi-surrender. His voice was quiet but firm and even “If we must proceed, let us do so with peaceably and with honor. Arguing will get us no where”

The man in the front row restrained himself and although he couldn’t see from where he was standing Ding imagined he could hear the mans teeth grinding.

“As you may well know” Sterling continued “We have a security breach. We have tried our best through the years to stay hidden from streams of common living. But I knew that as our numbers grew that it would be only a matter of time before the Technomancers got wind of our existence. No longer are we a wisp of a dream, a fleeting shadow, a rumor, or conspiracy. Somehow the Techomancers have learned of our existence, and I fear we must disperse this House for the time being. “

Somebody from the right side of the room had lifted his hand and waited until Sterling made eye contact to speak “How are we going to know when we can convene again?”

“You will be notified via the usual channels, but do not expect that day to come soon.”

Several more people had their hands up and one by one Sterling addressed their questions.

“How can we make sure this breach doesn’t happen again?”

“What will happen to the Archives?”

“What if we are approached by the Techomancers?”

“What if the mole is in this room?”

Each question Sterling answered with patience, calmness and honor.

Ding had a few of his own questions and raised his hand. Atticus grabbed Ding’s arm and yanked it down hard, then put a finger to his lips to reiterate the ‘no speaking’ part of this meeting. Ding wanted to ask about the ‘usual channels’, what the Archives were and where they were, why was it bad that the Technomancers knew about the House of Vawn. The list went on. He was trying to make a mental list of all these questions to ask Atticus later when he heard a high-pitched bird call. The room went completely still. The call came again. Then the room erupted in quiet pandemonium. Apparently, the meeting was over as people exited the room as quickly and quietly as they could. Some exited doors at the front of the room, some disappeared behind the curtains, while others pushed out the door that Ding and Atticus came in. Atticus grabbed Ding firmly by the elbow and pulled him toward the door.

“Where are we going?” Ding wanted to ask but remembered the no talking rule.

They jostled along the hallway along with several other people all more or less heading the same way. Bumping into each other, but not really pushing and all the while, quiet as possible. There was no talking or murmuring, grumbling. The loudest noise was the movement of feet. Gradually the hallway group thinned out, some taking side passageways others exiting doors, still others climbing ladders along the wall that Ding hadn’t noticed before. Finally, it there were only two left in the hallway. Suddenly Atticus came to an abrupt stop. To the right Ding recognized the door that they came in.

“This is where we part ways” Atticus stated in hushed tones. “I will leave this way” Atticus pointed to the door. “You go that way” He pointed down the left-hand hallway.” When you get to the end turn left and exit the door straight ahead. Once you leave walk calmly to your house just like you were heading home after work and stay there till morning”

Ding was stunned by the instructions “What is this all about” he was going to ask but Atticus had already opened the door and stepped through. He stood there watching the opening close. Then he was alone. His head swam with questions all jumbling together. It would take him some time so process this evening’s events. He took a couple of steps in the direction that Atticus pointed him, but he had a sudden thought. He would never likely get into this part of the city again. The doors that accessed the under-city labyrinth were either hidden or locked, or both. What if he went back to the meeting room and poked around a bit? Everybody had run for home, there would be no one left to question him. He could probably find his way back to the meeting room. It was only a few minutes walk.

Ding abruptly turned on his heel and headed back the way he came. Retracing his steps was easier than he thought it would be. He recognized many of the doorways and side passages that he had passed earlier that evening and had no problem getting back to the room that the meeting was in. When he arrived at the door, he found that it was still open a fraction, so he didn’t have to use the rod to activate the release mechanism. He peeked through the opening between the door and the door frame looking in to see if anyone was inside. He couldn’t see anyone, nor could he hear anything.

It was as this point that Ding realized that there might very well be Technomancers around here somewhere. If this was a raid situation that everyone believed it to be, there was sure to be Technomancers searching the area for members of the House of Vawn. Ding listened for a moment longer and didn’t hear any signs of anyone else around, so he grabbed the edge of the door and swung it open wide enough to slip through. The door swung open silently. Taking a quick scan of the room before he entered Ding stepped through the doorway and entered the large room for the second time that evening. Everything looked the same, except there were no other people around. He went down the side of the room to where the curtains hung, curious as to what was behind them.

As he pulled the curtain aside and looked behind, he was surprised to see how little room there was. There was only a small space between the curtains and the wall. He made his way along the wall to find several doors, most of them ajar. Opening three other doors further to see what was beyond, Ding looked down hallways very similar to the one that he and Atticus had used. How big is this labyrinth Ding wondered to himself? Moving a little further along he came to another door that was closed. Ding tried the knob, but it was locked.

Ding’s keen sense of hearing picked up a scuffing sound. He froze. The sound continued and slowly developed into footsteps. “Oh no” Ding thought “The Technomancers!” He wanted to run back the way he came, but he didn’t want to get caught. He could try making his way to the next closest open door, but where would that lead? He would get lost for sure and quite possibly caught as well. He decided to stay put. He put his back flat against the door and stood as still as he could. Even though his back was flat against the door, his front was still touching the curtain, he hopped the curtain didn’t bulge enough to give him away.

The footsteps approached from behind the stage somewhere and up what sounded like 4 stairs then a figure emerged onto the stage. It was Sterling! Ding breathed a sigh of relief. If Sterling was here at least he could be sure that the Technomancers wouldn’t be about. And now Ding could have his questions answered by the guy who seemed to have all the answers. He was about to come out from behind the curtains when a second figure soundlessly appeared on the stage. Ding froze “Where did he come from?” he said to himself

The robe was a dead giveaway, this was a Technomancer, and Ding could see by the emblem on the robe that this was no regular Technomancer. This guy was on the ruling council. Ding no longer wanted to go up to the stage to ask his questions, he wanted to be as far away from here as possible. Fear started to rise deep in his belly. In the midst of this fear was when Ding made the realization that he could see though the curtain quite clearly. Several thoughts fired through his brain almost at once.

“Can they see me as easy as I can see them?”

“When I was in the meeting, could I see the people behind the curtain before they came out?”

“I don’t think so”

“I’m not sure, maybe”

“How do I get out of here”

“I just want to go home”

“How did this go so bad?”

“Why did I come back here?”

The thoughts were almost drowned out by the beating of his heart pounding in his ears. Ding closed his eyes for a second. “Breathe” he told himself. “Breathe”.

“It appears the ruse worked.” Said the Technomancer.

“Apparently so.” Answered Sterling

“Down to business then, before someone notices that the House of Vawn is not only compromised but done so by it’s leader.” Ding could hear the sneer in the Technomancers voice.

“Spare me the veiled threats Ellery, what do you want?”

“I…or rather we would like the archives” Ellery gestured toward the door that Ding was standing in front of but didn’t turn his head. Rather he kept his eyes locked on Sterling.

“I have been more than accommodating. I have given you access to the archives. And as we have discussed previously, I cannot simply give you the archives. Without them there would be no House of Vawn. There would be nothing to keep this society intact and without them the hardcore believers may outright revolt. Are you willing to go to war over some old documents?” Sterling’s voice was getting a little louder and a little more excited with each sentence.

“You forget yourself” Ellery said calmly “The council tells you what to do, not the other way around”

“What you forget” Sterling replied through gritted teeth “is that the whole area is being watched by my people to see if your people have in fact raided the tunnel system. They are watching to see if the archives are being taken. You won’t get very far if you take them tonight. They will stay where they are for now. You still have access to them as per our original agreement.”

Ellery said nothing. Instead, he slowly turned and looked straight at Ding. Ding held his breath. He was sure that the Technomancer saw him, how could he not? The technomancer took a step toward Ding and the door that held the archives.

“Think it through Ellery” Sterling said deliberately using his name and leaving out the title. Ellery narrowed his eyes, gritted his teeth and spun back to stand nose to nose with Sterling.

“Fine. Have it your way” gritting his teeth even more if that was possible. “But I…we will have the archives soon enough and there is nothing you can do about it.”

Ellery spun on a heel and went down the back steps without another word and exited the room behind the platform and disappeared into the labyrinth of hallways. Ding slowly let out his breath and started to breathe again, but as quietly as possible.  His eyes still riveted on the platform. Sterling, looking in the direction that the technomancer went, ran his fingers through his hair and let out a deflating breath.

“What am I going to do?” Sterling moaned quietly to himself. Then he also exited by way of the back of the platform and was gone as well. Once again, Ding was by himself in the meeting room, and for the second time this evening Ding was in a hurry to leave.