CHAPTER 01

CHAPTER 01

INDENTURE

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A

FINE DUST BLEW OUT

in a circle from the glossy, leather-bound

Tiered Tome of Symbols

as Crystalyn Creek closed the cover. The beautiful symbols of white on the front and back had drawn her attention the instant she’d seen the book on the podium. Now, they bothered her. More accurately, the

behavior

of the symbols bothered her. But only when she focused on them.

Crystalyn selected a symbol at random. Again, she tested for the unnerving conduct it displayed by focusing on its beautiful circle pattern, concentrating her will on it. The symbol churned, slowly at first, and then spun into a maelstrom, its looped circles spiraling down into a dark hole of rotating turbulence at the center.

When Crystalyn glanced quickly away and then back, the symbol rotated to a stop.

Such disturbing motion made her believe she was slipping, her brain misfiring again. At only twenty-two seasons, she was spiraling into madness. And then who would take care of her little sister, Jade? Not Dad. He was too weak, his heart failing. Even with all the high technology their world of Terra had to offer there was little help for a man dying from self neglect. Crystalyn couldn’t fault his grief after her Mom went missing. She missed her too.

For three bells Crystalyn had been unable to leave the book alone. Gathering knowledge of the symbols inside the old tome had overridden its unnerving peculiarity. The pattern she’d just tested was under the heading titled, “Defensive Symbols,” in chapter two of the book. How a symbol could help with defense was beyond her. Symbols conveyed a meaning or many denotations entwined into one. Perhaps whoever chronicled it had meant for it to signify a defensive warning or something similar.

Unfortunately, Crystalyn only knew one person who might have the answer, her Indenture Service Provider, Ruena Day, but she couldn’t ask her. Ruena would believe Crystalyn had slipped for certain, this time.

Sitting straighter, Crystalyn stretched, working the kinks from the small of her back, and looked around, feeling guilty. She’d sat at the plasicrete podium perusing the book for too long. The midmorning transport shipment still sat on the dock, along with many other end-of-shift duties she should’ve completed. Now she’d have to scramble to finish. Today, at least, there hadn’t been any new artifacts to scan—to

dot map

, as she called the process of converting a relic’s exact dimensions to a digital image.

A throaty voice spoke from behind. “There’s work to be done, and there you are lounging.”

Crystalyn jumped to her feet. The ragged, low-tech stool she’d been sitting on rolled across the floor and banged against a thrust motor crate. “Oh! I didn’t know you were here.”

Ruena regarded her. Surprisingly, no frown marred her features, though her full, dark-shaded lips had compressed to their usual thin line. Her generous black hair was pulled back and braided on the sides, with two thin locks left to arc outward above her eyes and down, ending on each side of her fine cheekbones. The dragon scythes, as Ruena called them, accented her rounded nose and sharp face, but failed to pull attention away from the woman’s vibrant almond eyes. “Don’t belabor the obvious, Crystalyn. Did you get the new arrival finished?”

“Yes. The artifact from Low Realm is complete. The collection was measured, dot mapped, and converted to a holo image early last night.”

“Good. Have you sent them to me?”

“No, the collection is too large. I had to write them to a protein gel drive. It’s secured with your genetic imprint and on your desk.”

Ruena smiled. “I’m going to be working with it soon.”

Again, Crystalyn was surprised. Her service provider

was

in a rare mood. Did she dare ask? “Will you let me take the book home tonight? I’ll dot map it and copy every symbol in it on my free time.”

Ruena’s smile vanished. “What do you mean?”

Crystalyn moved to the side.

Seizing the

Tiered Tome of Symbols

from the podium, Ruena gave it a quick glance. “How did you get this? I locked it in my desk some time ago.”

“I found it here. Honestly, I thought you left it for me to dot map and holo replicate.”

For the longest moment, Ruena’s eyes bored into hers. Finally, her dark gaze flicked to the dusty tome in her hand and she frowned.

Crystalyn quelled her rising anxiety with difficulty, though it shouldn’t have been so hard. She’d used the new way of activating her med cylinder at lunch, implanting it in her eye as Physician Ralston had directed, but how could she really know it was working?

Ruena folded her arms at her chest, tucking the book under an arm while doing so. “Besides security, you’re the only one who knows the current code to my office, how did it get here?” Ruena Day repeated, raising a fine black eyebrow.

The book of symbols hung tantalizingly close. Crystalyn avoided a direct look at it though it tugged at her. Instead, she focused on her ISP. “True, but how would I get in your desk? I don’t have a key.”

Ruena regarded her, her eyes dark coals. Crystalyn stared back, refusing to look away, though her anxiety rose.

Abruptly, Ruena spun and marched to the neural scan door that led deeper within the warehouse. As she stabbed her black mane into the red beam, it switched to green, and the door whisked open. Ruena marched through. “Come with me,” she said over her shoulder, the words hanging in the air behind her.

Crystalyn scrambled to stay close. Beyond the threshold, the flooring changed from plasicrete to the spongy air-infused sealant of older times, which deadened the sharp sound of Ruena’s spiked heels and the thud of Crystalyn’s boots. They tramped between the hover crates Crystalyn had personally programmed for optimal space planning and ease of retrieval. Her eyes automatically noted the remaining empty spaces’ shapes and sizes for future arrivals. Few spaces remained bare even though the most valuable pieces were stored in a huge titanium vault that took up the entire north wall, a monster she’d dubbed the “mausoleum.” Even Ruena called it the mausoleum now.

Built for observation of the mausoleum and most of the storage area in the warehouse, Ruena’s one-way glassed office resided in the eastern interior of the warehouse. Circular in design, it brooded like a giant horror wheel of darkened glass, triggered by motion to light up and reveal different terrors trapped within to frighten the unwary.

Ruena’s lengthy strides soon brought them to a standstill in front of the office’s sole entrance. Touching an unobtrusive spot beside the door, Ruena swiped her hand to one side. A small keypad activated in the shadowed glass. Her slender fingers danced, entering the code for the week. The lock clicked its release, and the heavy glass door swung inward with a

whoosh

. Ruena paused at the threshold and glanced sharply over her shoulder, her eyes glinting in the sterile, overhead light.

Returning the woman’s penetrating gaze, Crystalyn kept her face smooth. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Well, perhaps she shouldn’t have spent a large part of the day reading, but Ruena could dock the day’s six credits if she must. It would hurt, but losing her indenture would hurt far worse.

“Wait here,” Ruena finally said. As the door closed slowly with a soft hiss, her purposeful steps carried her beyond the glass-topped desk facing the office interior.

Crystalyn stared at her distorted image reflected back from the dark glass. She’d disliked the horror wheel office from the first day of winning her indenture four and a half seasons ago, when, much to Crystalyn’s surprise, Ruena had picked her from a pool of more than ten million strong. The moment Crystalyn had first seen the office, she’d thought the same as she did now: the office was too big and so

ugly

. It certainly fit Ruena, though. The bigger and gaudier something was, the greater her ISP liked it. Sometimes, it seemed, Ruena considered her station in life to be higher than the king of High Realm. Though, in a way, perhaps she

was

above the king. Much of the royal treasures from the King’s coffers had ended up in Ruena’s office or sat displayed in the mausoleum.

Even so, it didn’t fully explain how the book had come to be where she’d found it. If the Mistress of Ancient Artifacts hadn’t left it on the dock, then who had? Ruena was right about access. Only Ruena, security, or Crystalyn could get into the Big Ugly. Yet no one had a key to the great desk except Ruena. Why would anyone remove something so valuable from inside the desk and then leave it lying around the most insecure area of the whole complex?

The office door’s barely audible hiss forewarned Ruena’s arrival. “You’re still here? Isn’t it past time for you to leave?” Ruena asked.

Ruena had left the book behind. Though Crystalyn had expected it, disappointment still left an acrid taste in her mouth. “You told me to wait.”

“Yes, so I did. Come, I’ll walk you out.”

Ruena set a brisk pace back the way they’d come. Crystalyn fell in beside her, the bitterness of frustration fueling a growing anger rising within her, which made little sense, but the afflicted part of her brain didn’t need much, if anything, to set her off. The book was a possession of her ISP; Ruena would do as she chose, no need to fret about it.

Ruena broke the stillness. “What did you want with the tome? Speak quickly and truthfully.”

Surprised the woman had bothered to inquire at all, Crystalyn hurried to reply before the woman changed her mind. “Symbols fascinate me, they always have. Did you know most could be redrawn and combined into one, which would then give them a meaning higher in complexity? Even those elaborate ones in the book could be made into something more. Let me work with the book for a while, say overnight, and I’ll map them onto a holoscreen, combine them, and redraw them. You’d have your measured images of the original symbols and my combined ones, all replicated in holo formula by tomorrow. Please, allow me to take it home.”

Silence pervaded the warehouse beyond their footsteps. Had she pushed too much? Crystalyn sensed the irritation radiating from the older woman, but she couldn’t ignore the matter of the symbols swirling on the cover of the book and within. Was it really a clear indication of her slipping, even though she combated her affliction with medication? Or was it something else entirely?

“Can I ask you something?”

Ruena glanced sidelong at her. “I suppose you must.”

“Why would someone create so many symbols in the first place? It must’ve taken an exorbitant amount of time, as well as artistic aptitude, to draw them all with ... ink. Is the book that old?”

Ruena’s lips thinned. Their pace quickened.

Once again, the neural door loomed close. Pausing only long enough for the scan, Ruena strode to the dock stairs where she halted, both hands going to rest on her firm hips. “I have decided. The book’s age makes it quite valuable. Extreme care is essential, so I shall map it for replication personally. Clear it from your thoughts.”

Ruena looked at the dock door, averting her eyes from a direct gaze, though Crystalyn sought to meet them with her own. “I shall set the security system and inform the guard of the early armament,” Ruena said. “Please be certain your exit is secured behind you as I buzz you out.”

So, there it was. Crystalyn would never see the book again. Ruena, the Dragon Lady, her ISP, wasn’t known for budging from a decision once made.

Crystalyn grabbed her daypack from the spot on the dock’s plasicrete flooring where she’d taken to storing it upon her arrival to the warehouse and slung it over a shoulder. Seven steps—she’d counted them so many times—brought her down to the exterior door, but it failed to move when she put her shoulder to it.

“There is a final item to mention before you depart.”

Crystalyn suppressed a sigh. What could the woman want now? Hadn’t she done enough? “Yes?”

“Be prompt at first light; I’m expecting a shipment. Replicate and record it in my holo database, then store it in the mausoleum.”

“But that’s my one free day!”

Ruena’s burnt almond eyes narrowed. “Is there a conflict? Perhaps I haven’t selected the right assistant, as I had believed. Another could easily be located. Training someone new to measure, replicate, and list the acquisitions will be annoying, yet it should not take—”

“No, no issue. I’ll be here.”

“See to it.”

The irritating buzz of the ancient door unlatching grated on Crystalyn’s ears as Ruena fingered the button hidden on the underside of the plasicrete pod. Again, she wondered why the infuriating woman insisted on its use. High Realm had higher technology to offer, such as the neural scan door. Ruena could easily afford it. In all probability, she was the richest person anywhere in the three realms, besides the king.

Shouldering the door before it relocked, Crystalyn stalked toward the manned security booth a full block south, another of Ruena’s egocentric security holdovers. With the overhead dome’s protection, the woman didn’t need the added cost of a live guard. Entrances and exits could be set up with a remote holofeed, coupled with a transparent trip beam.

Crystalyn should thank the One, the Great Father, that Ruena

had

chosen her above the rest for indenture. With Crystalyn’s mother vanishing from home seasons ago and her dad losing his servitude as head of the king’s security a season after, the three of them making up her little family relied heavily on her earned credits.

Still fuming as she walked, Crystalyn tried to make sense of Ruena using the excuse of the book’s value. Crystalyn had personally handled enough valuable items over the last season alone to buy a palace or two on High Realm, if anyone was willing to sell. Real estate had become scarce.

To keep her indenture, she had to give up her one free day with her family and receive yet another shipment. The one bright spot was she’d receive triple pay for the day according to the indenture contract, which in itself was unusual. Ruena had never paid triple credits for such a service before. What was so special about the new arrival?

It all made little sense, which was normal for Ruena. The woman never offered a single reason for her demands. It was all so...so infuriating.

Pausing, Crystalyn shifted her pack to her front and rummaged inside. Where had she put the blasted med cylinder?