Page 21 of Sparktopia
Then these Chosen few—these sacrificial Spark Maidens—they spend the next decade getting paid to shut up about the fear they swallow every night with those fancy dinners. Bribes to make sure that the Little Sisters coming up after them don’t think about how they will be killed, or raped, orwhatever,should that god inside that tower ring a bell and make them walk through those doors.
I was there. I was there with Clara through this whole godforsaken ritual. I went with her to sign up when she turned twelve. I walked her to the classes every weekend. I was her partner for all the Choosings, I clapped when she was Chosen, I let out a breath when I learned she was number nine, and then I comforted her that night when Imogen Gibson walked through the tower doors lit up in bright blue spark.
But it was still just atradition.
Then I watched the creeping fear build inside her as, time after time, the insatiable god called for more, more, more. I watched the relief on her face each night after one of her friends disappeared into the tower. Because it was over now and the fear could be forgotten. It was something to be tucked away. Put into a little compartment in her head where she didn’t have to think too hard about what just actually happened.
And still, it was just ourcustom.
How did I not see it for what it was?
How did I fail Clara Birch so spectacularly?
I don’t sleep.
I don’t think anyone in the whole city sleeps because those fucking bells are ringing nonstop and they will continue to ring nonstop until the eighth Maiden—say her name, at least, Finn. Say her fucking name. Give her that much respect—they will ring until Haryet Chettle walks through those massive, black doors at midnight tonight, never to be seen again.
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 funeralthis morningbecause 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 facingthe 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 ontothe 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.
